Gods and Monsters - Southwark Playhouse
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
PRODUCED by Danielle Tarento in association with Jason Haig-Ellery, and directed by Russell Labey, Gods and Monsters will receive its world premiere at Southwark Playhouse, where it runs for a five-week season – from Thursday, February 5 to Saturday, March 7, 2015.
Frankenstein director James Whale, long forgotten by the studios and in reclusive Hollywood retirement has fallen victim to a series of strokes. The only demons he fights now are in his head. Handsome new gardner, Clayton Boone, becomes an unlikely friend and unwitting player in Whale’s grand finale.
Based on the novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram – the same source material as for the 1998 Oscar-winning movie of the same name – Gods And Monsters is not so much a Hollywood history as a glorious imagining, exploring the sometimes divine, sometimes monstrous landscape of obsession and desire.
English film director, theatre director and actor, James Whale was openly gay throughout his career, something that was very unusual in the 1920s and 1930s. He is best remembered for four classic horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Russell Labey is a playwright and director. He was Script Editor for the motion picture, Milk, which won two Oscars – Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor (Sean Penn). He wrote and directed the original stage adaptation of Whistle Down The Wind (TMA Award for Best Musical). In the West End, his play New Boy at Trafalgar Studios starred Nicholas Hoult (Whatsonstage Award nominee, Best New Comedy) and he directed the UK tour as well as a season Off-Broadway and in Cape Town.
His other London credits include Third Floor and Wolfboy (Trafalgar Studios); Caroline O’Connor: The Showgirl Within (Garrick Theatre); Bugsy Malone (Queens Theatre); the première productions of two musicals by Charles Hart and Howard Goodall, The Kissing Dance and The Dreaming (Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House) and Days of Hope (King’s Head Theatre). He also directed the tour of Sunset Boulevard for the Really Useful Group and was the Resident Director of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at The London Palladium.
Labey also directs and devises the annual Whatsonstage Awards and spent the first 15 years of his career as a presenter for the BBC and Channel 4.
Danielle Tarento was named Best Producer at the 2012 Off West End Awards and recently won Best Off West End Production at the 2014 Whatsonstage Awards and Best Musical Production at the 2014 Off West End Awards for Titanic at Southwark Playhouse.
She has also produced Dogfight (shortlisted for the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical), Victor/Victoria, Mack & Mabel, Parade, Company and Three Sisters at Southwark Playhouse; Taboo (Brixton Clubhouse); The Pitchfork Disney (Arcola Theatre); Burlesque and Drowning on Dry Land (Jermyn Street Theatre); and Noël and Gertie (Cockpit Theatre). Her production of Jerry Herman’s 1979 Broadway musical, The Grand Tour opens at the Finborough Theatre on January 1.
Tarento is co-founder of the Menier Chocolate Factory and co-produced all in-house shows from 2004 to 2006, including Sunday In The Park With George, which received a West End transfer and five Olivier Awards.
Casting for Gods and Monsters has yet to be announced.
Tickets: £18, £16 concessions, all previews £10 (February 5 – 9). To book, call the box office on 020 7407 0234 or visit www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/.
Times: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, Saturday matinee at 3pm.
Also at Southwark Playhouse: Bat Boy (January 9 to January 31, 2015).