Life and death plot in Coventry comedy thriller

Published: 28 November 2014
Reporter: Steve Orme

Katy Stephens will reprise the role of Jack

Festive comedy thriller Oh No It Isn’t! will be staged at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre for the second successive Christmas.

Written and directed by Coventry writer Nick Walker, Oh No It Isn’t! follows four actors performing a pantomime. It is a fun treat for the audience but for those on stage it is a matter of life and death. The cast are embroiled in a plot to kill one another. A prop gun is swapped for the real thing and a poisoned apple is on the menu.

Walker said, “ever since I moved to Coventry more than 20 years ago, I’ve felt like I’ve seen the whole city walk through the Belgrade’s doors at Christmas. It’s a truly social place where the city meets itself, has a drink and gets the chance to enjoy a good story together.

“The main house panto is a big part of this great tradition but alongside it is the naughty, scruffy, schoolboy of the Christmas show world. It makes a few more storytelling demands on its audience and engages with the spikier aspect of human nature to get its comic effect.

“This is what I’ve tried to capture with Oh No It Isn’t! I’ve always loved the backstage drama in theatre and so I wanted to write a story which allows us to get an unwholesome kick out of witnessing the personal tragedy of the actors putting on Jack and the Beanstalk”.

Coventry-based actress Katy Stephens will reprise the role of Jack. She is a regular at the Royal Shakespeare Company, her most recent performances being in Candide and Titus Andronicus.

Also returning to play Tony and the Vicar is Richard Kidd. He has worked with Nick Walker on many productions including We Love You City for the Belgrade Theatre and We’re Only Here Today by Talking Birds Theatre Company.

Tom Shepherd plays Sam. He will be appearing at the Belgrade for the first time. His credits include Tracy Letts’s Superior Donuts at Southwark Playhouse earlier in 2014, Finer Noble Gases at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Oedipus Retold at London’s Tristan Bates Theatre.

Completing the line-up is Emily May Smith as the Giant and Sal. She has performed in many productions for Bristol Old Vic.

Oh No It Isn’t! runs in the B2 auditorium at the Belgrade Theatre from Saturday (6 December) until Saturday 27 December.

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