Josie Lawrence back in Birmingham in Ionesco play

Published: 18 February 2017
Reporter: Steve Orme

Josie Lawrence (Madeleine) and Trevor Fox (Amédée)

Black Country actress Josie Lawrence is to return to Birmingham REP in Eugène Ionesco’s “brilliant, absurdist” play, Amédée.

She will appear alongside Trevor Fox in the story of a frustrated playwright, his wife, their very big secret and what happens when they try to get rid of it. Sean Foley’s adaptation of Amédée is the first in 40 years.

The REP’s artistic director Roxana Silbert who directs Amédée said, “I’m thrilled to be giving life to Ionesco’s little-known but brilliant play. Josie Lawrence and Trevor Fox capture the despair and absurdity of Ionesco's loveable, frustrating characters with an endless supply of wit, warmth and depth.

“The play is about the skeleton in the closet. It’s about the things that you don’t talk about but really should confront, the things that stop you living, loving, creating.

“Written just after World War II, it captures the struggle of two ordinary people trying to survive personal chaos surrounded by political upheaval, contained by a military presence, and where suspicion of your neighbours is rife.

“In 2017, absurdism seems to make a great more sense than real life, and Sean's adaptation hones in on the comedy and pain of trying to make sense of a senseless world.”

Old Hill-born Josie Lawrence plays Madeleine. She has appeared at the REP before as Ranevskaya in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in 2010, the title role in Hapgood by Tom Stoppard in 2008 and Dr Agnetha Gottmundsdottir in Bryony Lavery’s Frozen in 1998.

She was presented with the Dame Peggy Ashcroft award for best actress for her role as Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew for the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1994-6.

Trevor Fox plays Amédée. His major roles include Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2014, Trinculo in The Tempest, also at Shakespeare’s Globe, in 2013, Fool in King Lear at the Almeida in 2012 and Oliver Kilbourn in Lee Hall’s The Pitmen Painters at the National Theatre, in the West End and New York in 2011.

The cast also includes Jamie Samuel, Leah Walker and Duane Hannibal. Design is by Ti Green, lighting design by Chahine Yavroyan and sound design by Dyfan Jones.

Amédée runs at Birmingham REP from Friday 24 February until Saturday 11 March.

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