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My Night With Reg
By Kevin Elyot
Directed by Helen Chadney
Performances:
Tuesday 29th November to Saturday 3rd December 2005, Bell Theatre
(please note these are a week EARLIER than our usual Bell dates)
Kevin Elyot’s Olivier Award-winning comic drama is the story of a group of gay friends living in London whose lives revolve one way or another around the unseen title character, the lover of one of them who seems to have had more than one night with more than just one person. It is a poignant, beautifully written play constructed around three ensemble scenes which take place over the course of about four years in a single apartment. It is warm and funny, but also completely believable, with characters who are more than just stereotypes and emotional themes which are more than just skin-deep.
At a flatwarming party for Guy, an eternal single, he says that it is not a case of him having given up on a sex life, it’s more a case of a sex life having given up on him. In the face of the mounting AIDS crisis, Guy has more or less sworn off casual sex, but as the play opens he is renewing his acquaintance with John, a friend since college but never a lover. Guy holds an obvious torch for John who remains completely oblivious. John has in fact just fallen in love for the first time, setting off a chain reaction of deception and betrayal, involving mutual college friend Daniel, which bubbles under the surface of the narrative right to the touching finale.
Later thrown into the mix are Benny and Bernie, a couple with some startling revelations of their own to make, and handyman Eric, a young man who seems to appreciate Guy’s warmth and sensitivity, but doesn’t wish to take things any further.
Cast
Guy – Simon Gleisner
John – Jason Lord
Daniel – Jack King
Benny – Matthew Lyne
Bernie – Richard Watkins
Eric – Chris Learmonth
Creative Team
Director - Helen Chadney
Production Assistant - Kat Boyce
Set Designer - Alan Buckman
Lighting Designer - Mike Elliott
Stage Manager - Jess Osorio
Sound Designer - Christopher Vian-Smith
Lighting Operator - Mark Davies
Sound Operator - Robert Cole
Assistant Stage Manager - Anton Krause
Front of House - Malcolm Woodman
KEVIN ELYOT was commissioned to write 'My Night With Reg' by the Hampstead Theatre in 1991. It was produced by the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1994 and later that year ran in the West End at the Criterion Theatre and then the Playhouse Theatre. The play won Kevin Elyot the 1994 Writers' Guild Award for Best Fringe Play, the 1994 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, the 1995 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the 1995 Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Newcomer.
Helen Chadney Director
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