Holding the Man - Trafalgar Studios
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THE Australian hit, Holding the Man, will receive its UK premiere at Trafalgar Studios, where it runs from May 4 (previews from April 23) to July 3, 2010.
Tommy Murphy’s stage adaptation of Tim Conigrave’s award-winning book is described as an hilariously funny, tender and moving play that follows the remarkable true life love story of Tim Conigrave and John Caleo.
The course of teenage love rarely runs smooth, but it is a white-water adventure if you are a gay boy in an all-male school in 1970s Melbourne with a crush on the captain of the football team.
Nevertheless, despite the odds, Tim and John become close and for fifteen years their relationship survives everything life throws at it – the separations, the discriminations, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses – until the only problem that love can’t solve turns up to part them.
Making their West End debuts and reprising their roles as Conigrave and Caleo are Australian actors Guy Edmonds and Matt Zeremes. They are joined by Simon Burke (The Sound of Music, La Cage Aux Folles) and Jane Turner (Kath and Kim).
Holding the Man is recreated for its UK premiere by the original Australian director David Berthold and Tony Award winning designer Brian Thomson.
Holding the Man has become one of the most successful Australian stage productions in recent years, breaking box office records, achieving a total of four sell out seasons in Sydney, and collecting numerous awards.