Visionary Revolutionaries - Landor Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
LANDOR Theatre is presenting a Visionary Revolutionaries double bill – Waxing Lyrical and A Grain of Sand in Lambeth – from April 13 to April 24, 2010.
Celebrating post revolutionary visionaries at the turn of the nineteenth century, this double bill begins with the extraordinary life story of the business woman who single handedly created the world famous business empire Madame Tussauds.
Written and performed by Judith Paris, Waxing Lyrical follows Marie Tussaud, nee Grosholtz, on the 160th anniversary of her death on April 15, 1850 as she becomes one of the greatest showmen ever, personifying persistence, fortitude, dedication and belief as one of the earliest adopters of the modern phenomenon of celebrity culture.
Taking early casts from the beheaded victims of the guillotine when Curtius’s Wax Exhibition became the official face of the Revolution, Tussaud toured Britain and Ireland for thirty three gruelling years with her travelling wax cabinet, bringing up her son and fighting off competition against a background of fire, riot, shipwreck and betrayal.
Judith Paris is a one-time member of both the National Theatre and the RSC, playing roles as diverse as Dottie in Jumpers with Michael Hordern, Valeria in Coriolanus with Ian Mackellen, Celia in As You Like It with Charles Dance, and Serving Woman in Hecuba with Vanessa Redgrave. Her West End credits include Annie (as Grace Farrell) and Lust (as Lady Fidget).
Michael Loughnan brings William Blake to life with almost every line of A Grain of Sand in Lambeth taken directly from his writings. Here we see profound changes in the life of the artisan engraver, visionary, poet, political radical and religious dissenter – from the sojourn at Felpham to his growing frustration with his patron Hayley, the infamous encounter with the soldier Skofield in the cottage garden and the consequent trial of Blake on trumped up charges of sedition which haunted him for many years.
Michael Loughnan’s numerous productions at the RSC include The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Dr Faustus, Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline, The Churchill Play, Macbeth and, more recently, A Month In The Country and Troilus and Cressida. He previously played William Blake in Elliott Hayes’ Blake at various venues in London.
His television work includes The Bill, My Brother Jonathan, Jimmy McGovern’s Sunday and The South Bank Show (as William Blake).
Tickets: £15, £12 concessions – available on 020 7737 7276 or at www.landortheatre.co.uk
Times: Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm, Sunday at at 3pm.
Running Time: Waxing Lyrical (1 hour 15 minutes), A Grain of Sand in Lambeth (1 hour).