21 December 2016
Newsdesk
Originally a smash Off-Broadway hit, the UK premiere of Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck’s The Understudy, directed by Russell Lucas, now comes to Canal Café Theatre. For the first time, the theatre will be transformed to the round.
Staged as part of Canal Café’s American Season, The Understudy is a dazzling and humanistic look at people trying to do what they love in the face of never-ending obstacles.
Full of laugh-out-loud comedy and vivacious satire, The Understudy dissects the backstage friction of a frenzied understudy rehearsal of a long lost Kafka play about to be staged on Broadway. Charged with running the rehearsal, Roxanne finds her professional and personal lives colliding when Harry, a jobbing actor, is cast as understudy to Jake, a mid-level action star yearning for legitimacy. As Harry and Jake find their common ground, Roxanne tries to navigate the rehearsal with a stoned lighting board operator, an omnipresent intercom system, the producers threatening to close the show and her own mixed feelings about both actors and her past. Will the show go on?
Director Russell Lucas, comments I am very excited for our second play in The American Season. This is not only an incredible scoop for Canal Cafe Theatre, but for the London theatre scene. This comedic love letter to the theatre is all set in an understudy rehearsal of a Broadway production. Two actors duel; the stage manager referees.
Rebeck captures the wistful nature of the understudy's role, waiting in the wings for a shot that will likely never come (The Mercury News).
…deliver[s] a clever indictment of contemporary theatre while making the characters' personal circumstances ever more Kafkaesque: They are no more in control of the forces of celebrity, art, money, and Broadway than they are of their own fates (The New Yorker).
The Understudy is part of Canal Café’s America: Past, Present and Future season which opened with Driving Miss Daisy in autumn 2016. The season will conclude with a brand new commissioned play inspired by Americana.
The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck
Performance Dates Tuesday 21st February – Saturday 11th March 2017
Tuesday to Saturday, 7pm
Running time 90 minutes
Twitter @canalcafe, @CanalAmericans, #AmericanSeason
Writer Theresa Rebeck
Director Russell Lucas
LX/SFX Designer Stuart Glover
How to get there The nearest underground stations are Warwick Avenue (on the Bakerloo line), Royal Oak (on the Hammersmith and City line) and Paddington (on the District, City and Bakerloo lines). The nearest rail station is Paddington. The number 6, 46 and 187 buses all stop outside Warwick Avenue tube station. The number 18 bus also stops nearby.
Box Office Tickets are available priced £13.50/£12 concession, booking and membership fees may apply.
Available online from www.canalcafetheatre.com and on 020 7289 6054.
Canal Café Theatre
The award-winning Canal Café Theatre has been perched on the edge of the Regent’s Canal since 1979. It is a renowned comedy and theatre venue and over the years has helped launch some of the biggest names in comedy ranging from John Oliver to Miranda Hart to The League of Gentlemen. It also has a history of sourcing and producing little known revivals to critical acclaim. (Lucky Stiff, The
Shawl, The Fat Man’s Wife). It is home to Guinness World Record-Breaking NewsRevue which plays 4 nights a week, 50 weeks of the year.
Russell Lucas
Russell Lucas trained as an actor at Colchester Mercury Youth Theatre then in Birmingham at The Russian School of Acting and Sandwell College. His directing practice has included collaborations with Sh!t Theatre, Heather Uprichard (Shunt Collective), Sam Wills (The Boy with Tape on his Face), Martin Malcolm (Warped) & Linda Marlowe (Night Bus). He works in many mediums including performance art, film, photography and theatre production. He also delivers workshops for The Donmar Warehouse, Hackney Arts and The Directors Guild of Great Britain. He is co-creator and director of smash-hit Julie Madly Deeply by Sarah Louise-Young (London/Australia/Canada).
Theresa Rebeck
Theresa Rebeck, currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, has been named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek, and The New York Times has referred to her as one of her generation’s major talents.
She is best known for her plays Seminar and Mauritius, which both premiered on Broadway, and her earlier works Spike Heels, Bad Dates and Omnium Gatherum, (Pulitzer Finalist) and her hit TV show Smash. In addition to Smash, Rebeck has numerous writing and producing credits for television including Dream On, L.A. Law, Law and Order: Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue. She is currently under commission by Roundabout Theater Company, La Jolla Playhouse and South Coast Rep. Rebeck and composer Josh Schmidt are adapting the RKO film Dance, Girl, Dance, as a stage musical, and she has created a stage adaptation of the fable Stone Soup with John Weidman.
She has received some of the top honours in her field, including the National Theatre Conference Award, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, and the Peabody. She has written for American Theatre Magazine and has had excerpts of her plays published in the Harvard Review.
