The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh Presents Charlie Sonata

The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh presents
Charlie Sonata

By Douglas Maxwell
Directed by Matthew Lenton
Composition and sound designed by Mark Melville
Dates: 29 April – 13 May
Press night: 2 May 2017, 7:30pm

• Starring Sandy Grierson, Robbie Jack, Kevin Lennon, Kirsten McLean, Lauren Grace, Meg Fraser, Robbie Gordon, Nicola Jo Cully, and Barnaby Power.
  
• This will be the professional World Premiere of Charlie Sonata.

• Douglas Maxwell is an acclaimed Scottish playwright whose work includes Yer Granny (a version of Roberto Cossa’sLa Nona), National Theatre of Scotland; Fever Dream: Southside, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow; and Scotsman Fringe First Award-winningDecky Does a Bronco, Grid Iron. His plays have been performed in translation all over the world.
  
• Matthew Lenton is the Artistic Director of the multi award-winning Vanishing Point theatre company. Recent productions include Bluebeard’s Castle & the 8th Door(co-produced with Scottish Opera), Tomorrow, The Merchant of Venice, The Destroyed Room, and Interiors.

The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh are delighted to present Charlie Sonata, written by Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell, and directed by Matthew Lenton, Artistic Director of Vanishing Point.

In its first professional production, Charlie Sonata stars Sandy Grierson (Anything That Gives Off Light, T.E.A.M/National Theatre of Scotland; Dr Faustus, Royal Shakespeare Company; Lanark, Citizens Theatre/Edinburgh International Festival; The Nutcracker, Unicorn; Grit, Pachamama; The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler, Vanishing Point; Dunsinane, National Theatre of Scotland) as the tender-hearted, booze-soaked Chick who, when faced with tragedy, sets out on an unlikely path of salvation.

What do you have to do to hold on?

Charlie ‘Chick’ Sonata arrives back in Scotland for a boozy reunion with his old mates Gary and Jackson only to find Gary’s daughter has been the victim of a life-changing car accident. The antiseptic smell of the wards, the relentless beep of the life support, and the sterile hospital bed contrast sharply in Chick’s eye with the young wild-haired girl lying there unconscious, like something from a fairytale - inspiring this downtrodden man to embark on a quest to save her life.

With redemptive purpose Chick wades out into the city nightand, amidst the dancing streetlights and the screams of sirens, he searches for an answer – a gutter-bound dreamer looking at the stars.

Playing Chick’s childhood friends, Gary and Jackson, are Kevin Lennon (Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, The Lyceum; Dusty Won’t Play, Oran Mor; The Broons, Sell A Door; Before the Hudson and the Liffey, Edinburgh International Festival; Hector, Eden Court, Comar, Ed Littlewoods Productions) and Robert Jack (The Crucible, Pressure, The Lyceum; A Steady Rain, Theatre Jezebel; Much Ado About Nothing, Dundee Rep; Ringroad, Moby Dick Oran Mor; Striptease & Out at Sea, Citizens Theatre; All My Sons; Blackwatch, National Theatre of Scotland), respectively.

Lauren Grace (Simon’s Magical Christmas Socks, Citizens Theatre; Dream On!, BBC Arts Online; Missed Call, Rendezvous at Two; The House of Bernarda Alba, August: Osage County, Life Despite Love, The Tempest; The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) plays Gary’s tragic daughter, Audrey, and Kirstin McLean (Telling the Truth Beautifully, Orkney Festival; To Hell and Back, Between the Thinks Bubble and the Speech Ballon, It’s Only Words, Oran Mor; Tin Forest South West, National Theatre of Scotland; Anna Weiss, Rekindle Theatre at The Tron; Limmy’s Show, Comedy Unit/BBC Scotland; River City, BBC Scotland) is her mother, Kate.

Barnaby Power (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Trumpets and Raspberries, Laurel and Hardy, The Lyceum; Removal Men, The Yard Theatre; Interiors: The Destroyed Room, Vanishing Point and Edinburgh International Festival; Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut; The Gilded Balloon; Narrative; Royal Court; Somersaults, National Theatre of Scotland; The Big Lie, The Comedy of Errors, Royal Shakespeare Company; The Wonderful World of Dissocia; Plymouth Theatre Royal and Edinburgh International Festival) plays the consultant Mr Ingram, with Meg Fraser (The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, All My Sons, for which she won Best Supporting Actress at the TMA Awards, Julius Ceasar, The Playboy of the Western World, all The Lyceum; Fat Alice,Oran Mor; The Breakfast Plays Pandas, Fall, Nova Scotia, Traverse Theatre; Cockroach, National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse Theatre; Woman in Mind, Dundee Rep; Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Hamlet, Macbeth, all Royal Shakespeare Company)playing his troubled sister, Meredith.

Completing the cast are Nicola Jo Cully (Too Many Penguins?, Frozen Charlotte Productions; White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Aurora Nova; The View from Castle Rock, Stellar Quines; Walter, Control Z, The Dark Things, Traverse Theatre; Nests, Summerhall Edinburgh; Thread, Allotment, Nutshell; The Last Great Dictator, Oran Mor) and Robbie Gordon (Terrible Tales of the Netherwold, Noisemaker and Quixotic Productions; The Coolidge Effect, Scots of the Spanish Civil War, Wonder Fools; Calvinball, Ipdip Theatre; South Cumburgh Green, The Arches; Dunsinane, National Theatre of Scotland and Royal Shakespeare Company) as Mo and the narrator, respectively.

Speaking of the production, playwright Douglas Maxwell said: “Charlie Sonata is an alcohol-poisoned version of Sleeping Beauty. And it’s also true.Kind of. It’s a very special play for me.

It was written with a director and an actor in mind (Matt and Sandy) but not a theatre. The fact it’s going on The Lyceum’s stage is a thrill and an honour. I’ve never had a show on here and I’m hoping it will be magical and intimate and grand and funny and moving and all those things that plays in The Lyceum can be.”
Director Matthew Lentonsaid:“Charlie Sonata is, in my opinion, the most beautiful play Douglas Maxwell has written. That it’s being performed at The Lyceum as part of David’s first season is brilliant for me, but also for Lyceum audiences, who will get to see a funny, soulful and moving new play.”

Artistic Director David Greig said: “Douglas Maxwell is the Scottish writer who has influenced me the most; he has the heart, comedy, and storytelling brio that can’t fail to lift the spirits. Watching one of his plays is like being lifted off your feet and swept along on a crazy night out with your best friend.
I first read this play on a plane journey. The story of charming hopeless Charlie on a mission to save a life had me hooked right away. When I found myself in tears at the end, with my hand grabbing the knee of the passenger beside me, having to explain to the stewardess that I was all right, “it’s just a play I was reading”, I knew I had to bring it to the stage. With Matthew Lenton, a great stylist of Scottish theatre in the director’s seat, it is sure to make for a compelling evening. Just make sure you’re sitting next to someone whose knee you feel comfortable grabbing!”

Ends

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Full Listings information

Charlie Sonata

By Douglas Maxwell
Directed by Matthew Lenton
Set and costume designed by Ana InésJabares-Pita
Lighting designed by Kai Fischer
Composition and sound designed by Mark Melville
Address: Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Grindlay Street, EH3 9AX
Box Office: 0131 248 4848
Website: lyceum.org.uk

Performance Dates: 29 April – 13 May 2017
Opening performance: Tuesday 2 May 2017
Times: evenings,7:30pm, matinees,2pm
Prices:£30.50 - £10.00

Audio Described: Thursday 11 May, 7:30pm (touch tour – 6:15pm), Saturday 13 May, 2pm (touch tour – 12:45pm)
BSL Interpreted:Wednesday 10 May, 7:30pm
Captioned: Saturday 13 May, 2pm

Notes to Editor

Having recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company is a crucible of Scottish talent, developing Scotland’s considerable indigenous artists and presenting the best of international drama from its home in a magnificent, intimate Victorian building in Edinburgh’s West End.
Internationally celebrated playwright David Greig became the 8th Artistic Director of The Lyceum in 2016, following Mark Thomson’s superb 13 year reign. As part of his premiere 2016/17 season, the company is producing ten full productions, making it one of the biggest producing companies in the United Kingdom.

In recent years, The Lyceum has staged co-productions with Theatre Royal, Bath; The Bush Theatre, London; Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company; National Theatre of Scotland; Citizens Theatre; Dundee Rep; Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse; Chichester Festival Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith.
In addition, The Lyceum also runs an award-winning, ambitious and acclaimed Creative Learning programme which engages with over 16,000 young people across Scotland annually.

For more information, please visit lyceum.org.uk

The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh is a registered charity. Our charity number is SC010509.

Douglas Maxwell has been one of Scotland’s top playwrights since his debut in 2000. His recent work includes Yer Granny (a version of Roberto Cossa’sLa Nona) for the National Theatre of Scotland and Fever Dream: Southside for The Citizens, Glasgow.

His many other plays include Decky Does a Bronco, Mancub, Promises Promises (staged in New York as The Promise) and A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity.

His plays have been performed in translation in Germany, Norway, Hong Kong, New York, Chicago, Holland, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Wales, Japan, France, Belgium and South Korea, where his debut play Our Bad Magnet has run for over ten years.

His plays are published by Oberon books. His first collection of work focuses on his writing for younger audiences. As well as Decky Does a Bronco and Mancub that volume also contains Too Fast, The Mother Ship and Helmet.

Douglas lives in the Southside of Glasgow with his wife and two daughters.

Matthew Lentonfounded Vanishing Point in 1999 and has directed all of the Company’s productions.

His recent credits elsewhere includeSpectretown by Elspeth Turner for StoirmOg;Home for National Theatre of Scotland; Mister Holgado at the Unicorn Theatre, London;A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh andCharlie Sonataby Douglas Maxwell at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, performed by BA Acting students. His work has been performed in 20countries, and in 2010 he was the first British director of the École des Maîtres, a European theatre laboratory led by leading European artists and directors. In 2010 he directed his first film,Boy, for Touchpaper Television and Channel 4.