Newbury's Watermill Theatre is to host the stage première of A Bunch Of Amateurs.
Originally a British comedy film of the same name starring Burt Reynolds, Samantha Bond, Derek Jacobi and Imelda Staunton, the original story by Jonathan Gershfield and John Ross has been revisited by writers Ian Hislop and Nick Newman for this stage adaptation.
A Bunch Of Amateurs concerns fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele's arrival in England to play King Lear in Stratford only to find that this is not the birthplace of the Bard but a sleepy Suffolk village and the cast are a bunch of amateurs.
Journalist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of Private Eye Ian Hislop is a long–time collaborator of Nick Newman, the satirical cartoonist of (amongst others) The Sunday Times, Punch and The Spectator. Their co-writing credits include Spitting Image, Murder Most Horrid, My Dad's The Prime Minister and the BBC Radio 4 series Gush.
A Bunch Of Amateurs is presented The Watermill in association with Trademark Films; it runs from 22 May to 28 June.