- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: WEST END FIRST NIGHT OF PLAY "IN FLAME" STARRING KERRY FOX
- Date: 1st September 2000
- Summary: SCENE FROM IN FLAME
- Embargoed: 16th September 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA4D3H1ETXAIRDA43QMTTS1OA8R
- Story Text: London's theatreland may seem to be dominated by big-budget musical extravaganzas and celebrity packed renditions of established plays, but there is another side to the scene - venues such as the New Ambassadors give up and coming writers and directors a shot at West End success.
In Flame is the only second play written by Charlotte Jones, directed by Anna Mackmin (as was her first, Airswimming) the production was an enormous hit at the Bush Theatre last year, and now it is coming to the New Ambassadors Theatre in the heart of London's West End.
It has already received critical acclaim, scooping Jones the Critic's Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, and has tugged the heartstrings and tickled the funnybones of it's audiences.
Starring Kerry Fox, who's film credits include Shallow Grave, and Jason Hughes, best known to television audiences as Warren in the cult series This Life, In Flame is set in two places and two decades, almost a century apart.
In present day London, Kerry Fox plays Alex, a thirty-somthing woman who has it all on the surface: " Alex is a very contemporary woman who, in In Flame, I think has a very limited emotional life but to all appearances she has every thing; she has a great lover, everything's in control,she's got a really good job, she's really on top of her life but through the processes that attack her she realises that she's actually quite empty inside.
"
The other part of the play is set in Yorkshire in 1908, and tells the story of Alex's family history. All the cast, apart from Fox, take on dual roles, appearing as characters in both settings.
Jason Hughes plays the roles of James and Arthur.
James is the nurse taking care of Alex's mother, who falls in love with Alex. Arthur is the hapless suitor of Clara, one of Alex's ancestors.
In Flame has moments of high comedy and is also deeply poignant, something that attracted Hughes to the play: " It sort of challenges you on an emotional level, that you are not kind of aware of but you know it's doing something to you, it's affecting you in some way, so that was definitely a reason why I did it, on the surface you can see a play that's structured very well and it's beautifully written and it's very, very funny, very, very touching and short.. but on another level it's playing with you emotionally and you can't quite put your finger on it and I think it's up to the audience and up to people to sort of receive it and see how it affects them and I think that is a real beauty of the play. "
Monday night saw the play's first night at the New Ambassadors - and judging but the audience's reaction, it looks set to be a big hit. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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