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Drama at the Hackney Empire
Added: (Tue Aug 09 2005)
MEN SHOULD WEEP
By Ena Lamont Stewart
Directed by Charlotte Gwinner
HACKNEY EMPIRE, Tuesday 27 September – 1 October 2005,
Oxford Stage Company is producing an autumn tour of Men Should Weep by Ena Lamont Stewart, which opens at the Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre on 2 September, then tours until 5 November to Exeter, Stirling, Eastbourne, Chelmsford, Dundee and Oldham, with a run at the Hackney Empire from 27 September to 1 October.
Heart-breaking, yet rich in humour, Men Should Weep is a tough, raw and intimate portrait of a family’s struggle for survival during The Depression of the 1930s. Deeply moving and wickedly funny, it is a defiant and compassionate celebration of the human spirit’s triumph over poverty.
The East End of Glasgow. 1930s. Maggie Morrison, mother of seven, battles to hold her extended family together in their damp, squalid tenement home. Her unemployed husband John spends his days in the local library, looking for work and latching on to political causes. Together they cope with tuberculosis, errant children, prying neighbours and daily hardship. When their teenage daughter leaves home in search of a better life, the family will never be the same again.
Men Should Weep is directed for OSC by Charlotte Gwinner who has directed at The Gate, the Royal Court, the Arcola, Southwark Playhouse and the Manchester Royal Exchange. Design is by Michael Taylor (Shadow of a Gunman at the Tricycle, Easter for OSC). An outstanding cast includes Pauline Turner (Bread and Butter, Tricycle), Jennifer Piercey (TV’s Uncle Silas), Anne Lacey (TV’s Hamish Macbeth and the film This Year’s Love), Paul Hamilton (Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol at the National), Joanne Howarth (Present Laughter, Theatre Royal Bath tour), Lynne McCallum (Still Game for BBC TV), Ruth Connell (Caucasian Chalk Circle, Watford Palace), Natasha Broomfield (Holby City and professional theatre debut), Mark Wood (One Day All This Will Come to Nothing, Traverse Theatre), Susan Harrison (The Fence directed by Howard Barker) and Ross Finbow (TV’s Taggart).
Men Should Weep was one of the greatest plays produced by the Scottish Popular Theatre movement of the 1920s-1940s and this will be the first national production in over twenty years. Ena Lamont Stewart was Scotland’s first major female playwright, who rebelled against the conventional drama of the time to produce a new kind of working-class drama. Written in just over two days, Men Should Weep won great popularity when it was first performed by Glasgow’s Unity Theatre in 1947. Giles Havergals’ 7:84 Theatre Company production in 1982 aroused enormous enthusiasm among critics and audiences in both Scotland and at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. Oxford Stage Company is delighted to present a powerful modern classic which has become an icon of Scottish theatre.
For more information, please contact Julia Hallawell 020 7438 9942 julia@oxfordstage.co.uk at Oxford Stage Company.
Images are available digitally via EPO Online www.epo-online.com on 020 7968 1560 or e-mail to info@epo-online.com. Registered publications can download high resolution scans directly. Search for Oxford Stage or Men Should Weep.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Oxford Stage Company presents
MEN SHOULD WEEP
By Ena Lamont Stewart
Directed by Charlotte Gwinner
Designed by Michael Taylor
Lighting by Chris Davey
HACKNEY EMPIRE, Tuesday 27 September – 1 October 2005, Box Office 020 8985 2424
Tues – Sat eves 7.45pm, Sat mat 1 Oct 2.30pm
Signed Performance Thurs 29
Tickets Tues eve and Sat mat: all seats £10. Wed – Sat eves: £18, £15, £12, £10
Discounts on all performances. Friends - £3 off top price seats. Concessions - £2 off all seats.
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Submitted by:
Allan Watson