Amanda Muggleton's The Book Club premieres at the King's Head Theatre
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
PRISONER Cell Block H‘s Amanda Muggleton stars in the award-winning one-woman show The Book Club, which runs at the King’s Head Theatre from October 13 (previews from October 11) to November 5, 2016.
Deb can’t quite shake the feeling there’s something missing in her life. Her kids have left home. Her husband is sport-obsessed. Meanwhile, she dreams of getting love letters in the post from Martin Amis. When her friend Trish pushes her to join the eccentric local book club, self-confessed bookaholic Deb decides there’s nothing to lose. Little does she know her fantasies will start to become reality….
Amanda Muggleton was born in London’s Stepney and emigrated to Australia in 1974. She is a two-time Helpmann Award-winner for her portrayal of Maria Callas in Master Class and another for the musical, Eureka. She has won other awards for The Book Club, Shirley Valentine, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and Annie.
The Book Club is written by Roger Hall, who was born in England in 1939 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1958. He is New Zealand’s best known dramatist with more than 40 plays to his credit. His early scripts were for TV, but in 1976 he wrote his first stage play Glide Time. Many successful play productions followed, together with musicals, pantomimes, radio dramas, books and plays for children and comedy series for television.
Hall’s plays have been performed in many other countries, and he had Conjugal Rites produced as a sitcom in the UK starring Gwen Taylor and Michael Williams.
The Book Club is directed by Nadia Tass, whose 1986 debut film, Malcolm starring Colin Friels and John Hargreaves, was a worldwide hit. It went on to win an unprecedented eight Australian Film Institute Awards (including Best Film, Best Director) and 23 international awards. The film is considered today an enduring Australian comedy classic, an Aussie ode to Ealing Comedies.
In the theatre, she has directed productions of The Merchant Of Venice, Macbeth, numerous plays by Euripides, including Medea, plays by Aristophanes including Lysistrata and The Byrds, Three Sisters by Chekhov and Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca.
The Book Club has set and costume design by Shaun Gurton.
To book tickets, call the box office on 0207 226 8561 or visit www.kingsheadtheatre.com/.