Newcastle's Live Theatre has announced the casting for its readings of new screenplays by Lee Hall.
On Thursday 23 January, Hall will present the first reading of his screenplay about cricketer Harold Larwood. Larwood, who was born in Nottinghamshire in 1904, was considered to be the finest bowler of his generation. The ex-miner became the world’s fastest bowler only to fall foul of the British Establishment during the Bodyline Test series eighty-one years ago.
Lee Hall will join Live Theatre’s Artistic Director Max Roberts to introduce the event and share the story of the screenplay’s development. This screenplay has been written in partnership with Simon Beaufoy who also wrote the screenplay for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and 127 Hours. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for The Full Monty and in 2009 won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire as well as winning a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award.
On Friday 24 January, Hall will present his screen adaptation of George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. Published in 1933, this was the English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic's first full-length work. The screenplay charts Orwell’s emergence as a writer during a time when the Eton scholar roughed it as Europe suffered the ‘Crash’.
These two readings will be performed by some of Live's most familiar faces. Joe Caffrey and Riley Jones, who both recently took to the stage as part of Live Theatre’s 40th birthday celebrations in Wet House by Paddy Campbell and Cooking with Elvis by Lee Hall, will be joined by Hywel Morgan (A Walk on Part by Michael Chaplin), Nicholas Lumley, who will be joining the cast of Tyne by Michael Chaplin at Customs House and Theatre Royal Newcastle in 2014, and Phillippa Wilson, one of the original cast members of The Pitmen Painters.
They will be joined by Matt Jamie (Heart, Zendeh), Nicholas Khan (The Kite Runner, Nottingham Playhouse / Liverpool Playhouse) and Jamie Ballard (Scenes From An Execution, National Theatre) who will all be making their Live Theatre debuts.
These are the first of five Live Screenplays that will be performed by actors during Live Theatre’s January to June 2014 season. On Thursday 13 March, audiences will be treated to a reading of Rocket Man which chronicles the life of Elton John from birth to rehab told in an outrageous musical extravaganza. Then, on Friday 14 March, theatregoers will be able to hear the story of Queen Victoria’s controversial relationship with her Indian manservant Abdul Karim in Victoria & Abdul.
Finally, on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 June, music lovers will be able to hear the true story of the great French composer Messiaen who, in 1941, created one of the masterpieces of the twentieth century music in a German prisoner-of-war camp in For The End of Time. This evening about art, spirituality, war and resistance will be accompanied by a performance of Messiaen’s Quartet For The End of Time which will be performed by musicians from Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Live's artistic director Max Roberts, who will be directing the readings, said, “In 1998 we shared a selection of Lee Hall’s work for film, television and radio exclusively with our audiences while Lee was our writer-in-residence. They included Dancer which went on to become the Oscar nominated film Billy Elliot.
“This season we are delighted to welcome Lee back to Live Theatre to share his take on the astonishing true stories of these five eclectic characters. This is a unique opportunity for audiences to hear five new projects as they are shared for the very first time.”