#oxford playhouse

[littlequeenies]

70 YEARS AND COUNTING: We talk to Jane Asher about family, longevity and returning to Oxford Playhouse in ‘The Circle’ after her debut aged 12!

By Ox In A Box - 16th January 2024

Jane Asher first stepped foot onto the Oxford Playhouse stage aged 12 as the lead in Alice – a stage adaption of Lewis Carroll‘s two most revered books.

“I remember that even though I was quite young it was really exhausting because of course Alice is on stage the whole time. And while these amazing creatures come and go, I was always there, so it was fun but relentless.

“And yet when I appeared at the Oxford Playhouse‘s 80th celebrations to perform Lewis Carroll‘s Jabberwocky, I remembered it word-for-word from all those years ago. Very strange,” she says.

65 years later, she’s not only back, but has never really gone away, having worked constantly. Remarkably non-plussed about her seven decades in show business, having emerged as a child star aged five in the film 1952’s Mandy, she went from strength to strength, steering her career through films, TV, stage and radio and even a stint as Paul McCartney’s girlfriend.

“I’m just lucky to still have a job”

From cinematic classics such as Alfie with Michael Caine, to The Prince and The Pauper, dramas such as Brideshead Revisited and soaps including Holby City and Waterloo Road, her CV runs on and on, especially her theatrical credits. Oh and she has written three novels.

In fact the only time Jane Asher seems to have reined it in is when she had three children with her husband of 30 years the illustrator Gerald Scarfe, instead finding herself at the forefront of a burgeoning cake empire, of all things.

The fact that she couldn’t be nicer is an extra bonus, as she waxes lyrical about Somerset Maugham’s sparky comedy of manners The Circle, coming to Oxford Playhouse next month (we already have our tickets!). In it she plays Lady Kitty, a society beauty who ran away with her lover 30 years before, finally returning to England to face her family. Cue drama.

“coming from a state school helped keep my feet on the ground because I was ribbed if I ever talked about my acting at school”

It premiered at The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond last year and did so well that the cast were then asked to tour: “We were all very keen because the audience clearly enjoyed it – it is terribly funny – and we all get on so well. So I thought why not?

“I’ve always been a Somerset Maugham fan and this is a wonderful part to play,” she adds. So does Jane Asher actually like Lady Kitty? “I certainly warmed to her, and felt great sympathy for her predicament, having been totally ostracised for so long. But she is certainly not a frail old lady wearing black and lace, and so the story unravels with quite a twist!

“But then Somerset Maugham was always sympathetic to the plight of women, being terribly unhappily married and a gay man, so The Circle has huge depth. It’s very clever, funny and simple at the same time.”

“my children were always my number one priority”

Now 77, Jane Asher’s energy shows no sign of abating, although she sympathises with Lady Kitty’s struggle with ageing. “We all know how that feels,” she chuckles. “But yes as an actress you sit around and hope people will ask you to do something you like. And now that the children have grown up, I am freer to go on tour or location, so I like a mix of both, but I know I have been extremely lucky.”

“Of course notoriety dips and wanes, and you get older there are less parts, so I just try to enjoy my work. I think coming from a state school helped keep my feet on the ground because I was ribbed if I ever talked about my acting at school, and my parents were very down-to-earth. So there was no pressure. It was all because I wanted to do it,” she says.

“And then when I had the children I fitted things around them, taking them to the studio with me as long as I was back in time to get their tea ready, because they were always my number one priority.”

So does she ever have time to look back over her career? “Oh no, that would be terribly nostalgic but it’s nice when people come up to me and say we saw you in this or that, and I think ‘oh yes I remember’. I’m just lucky to still have a job.”

Jane Asher stars in The Circle at Oxford Playhouse from Tue 6 – Sat 10 Feb. Book here https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/the-circle

[laliz9]

[introvertedpedant]

Vintage theatre programmes from 1955.

[whocareswhoseeswhat]

Weekends too fast man…. Friday night in Oxford was ace. Nic bailed out as she was ill whole week. In oxford went to few nice pubs for pre drinks before play started. Just to get ourselves in the mood. Once arrived to Oxford Playhouse we got on our seats. All nicely dressed and ready for play to start. Me and Dave realised that while ppl were getting ready play actually has started. That’s why I like theatre. You just never know what is act and what is not( well for most of a time you get the idea whats what, but you know what I mean). For all you know you might be part of act. Really atmospheric, the lights, the radio sound, actors, the steam. Really spot on. Definiatelly recommend. Immersion keeps you at the edge of your seat. Reasonable duration(1h30 min with 15-20 min intermission).

[lavitaliz]

[vintagestagehotties]

Hot Vintage Stage Actress Round 3

Dame Julie Andrews: Polly Brown in The Boy Friend (1954 Broadway); Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1956 Broadway); Queen Guinevere in Camelot (1960 Broadway)

Dame Maggie Smith: Viola in Twelfth Night (1952 Oxford Playhouse); New Faces of 1956 (1956 Broadway); Doreen in The Private Ear (1962 West End); Belinda in The Public Eye (1962 Oxford); Mary McKellaway in Mary, Mary (1963 West End)

Propaganda under the cut.

Julie Andrews:

Maggie Smith:

[thealogie]

Talking about Tennant mentions in the wild, was reading a reddit thread about Ray Winston, and ofc someone is sharing their experience of working with David Tennant as well as Ray. "My first day on a professional movie set as an actor, the director kept getting my name wrong and I was too nervous to say anything. David (who I'd met for the first time a few minutes earlier) corrected him for me. Several years later (not having worked together in between), we were both in the Oxford Playhouse's 80th anniversary fundraising gala night. He was doing a bit from Richard II, and I cheekily asked him if he'd walk on as Hamlet in my Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead skit. He agreed. Later in the sketch we needed some piratical yelling from offstage, and in our rushed tech rehearsal I just asked anyone who was around – mostly stage crew – if they'd mind pitching in. Come the actual performance, what we got was some vague and barely audible mumbling from crew and a stunning one-man nautical soundscape from David, who could easily have simply gone back to his dressing room or indeed for a pint by that point." https://www.reddit.com/r/BritishTV/s/ypYTmyNRQN

Why is he like this? I’m beginning to think he’s killed someone and is doing the best job covering it up of all time

[citizenscreen]

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in costume as 'Dr Faustus' and Helen of Troy in an Oxford University Dramatic Society production of the play by Christopher Marlowe at the Oxford Playhouse in 1966.

[emeraldskulblaka]

The Hobbit

at Oxford Playhouse, June-July 2023 x

Written and directed by Alex Thomas with music by John Mann, performed by students of Magdalen College School, Oxford

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Scottish actress Sandra Voe born on Shetland on 6th 1936.

Other than the fact she was born on Shetland, where her father owned a fishing factory, there is little I can tell you about Sandra’s early life. However she has been a very busy lady, appearing in many TV shows over the past 50 odd years Voe began her on screen career in 1966, appearing in an episode of Dr. Finlay’s Casebook.

Her shows in the 70’s include Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm, Within These Walls and Sounding Brass, during the 80’s on TV and film, Bread or Blood, The Practice, Open all Hours and Local Hero, the 90’s saw her in the brilliant Takin’ Over the Asylum, which seems to crop up in a few of our anniversaries and another regular show on my posts Taggart, over into the 21st century and oor Sandra was still working hard, the pick of 15 different shows and films were Playing the Field, Midsomer Murders, Foyles War, and of course Monarch of the Glen .In 1993 she was also in the gritty film Naked, which also starred Ewan Bremner, Spud in the Trainspotting films.In the past 8 years Sandra Voe, now in her 70’s shows no sign of slowing down, Holby City, Howards end, in 2013, inevitably she turned up in her home Islands on the superb Shetland. Just this year Sandra has chalked up a couple of appearances on the hit series, Vikings as a witch

As well as the many, many TV and film roles she has also been a regular treading the boards at some of the top Theatres, including Sheffield Crucible, Leicester Phoenix, Leicester Haymarket, Oxford Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, Manchester Royal Exchange, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, Bloomsbury, Hampstead, Lyric Hammersmith, Almeida, Bush, Shared Experience, RNT, Royal Court and Ambassadors.

Her daughter, Candida Doyle, was keyboard player with the '90s British pop band Pulp, her son, Magnus Doyle, was Pulp's drummer. Sandra was last on our screens in the very good mini-series Trigonometry.

Recently Sandra has been reliving her Local Hero experience when she makes a return trip to the north-east for the 40th anniversary of the film. She has teamed up with fellow actors Jimmy Yuill, Jonathan Watson and Tam Dean Burn and met school children from Banff Academy and Fraserburgh Academy.

Sandra said: “It’s wonderful to be coming back. The place and the community is conjured up so well by Bill Forsyth that you really believe it.”

[mybleedingboy]

free recordings of shakespeare plays

in alphabetical order for convenience (but pls use CTRL+F) disclaimer: i have not watched all of these.

all's well that ends well to julius caesar (part 1, here)

king john to the winter's tale (part 2, coming tomorrow maybe idk)

*login with public library card or university, italicized are audio recordings, ! means I don't want the video to get taken down so I didn't add it but search it up and you'll find a good production on a specific website...

All's Well That Ends Well

Shakespeare by the Sea (2013)

UC Davis Playing Shakespeare (2010)

BBC Television Shakespeare* or (1981)

Plainfield Little Theatre (2016)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Antony and Cleopatra !

Royal Shakespeare Company (1974)

Unbound Theatre (2019)

Shakespeare & Company (2018)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Greatest Audio Books (2013)

As You Like It

movie adapted by JM Barrie and Robert Cullen (1936)

The Public Theater of MN (2013)

Rice University (2019)

Oxford Theatre Guild (2020)

Shakespeare & Company (2014)

Battle Ground High School Drama Club (2017)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Greatest Audio Books (2015)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1978)

Comedy of Errors

Steam-Punk Performance (2014)

Shakespeare by the Sea (2019)

Shakespeare in the Park NZ (2007)

Coronado Playhouse (2021)

Highland Arts Theatre (2021)

Theatre Company of Saugus, pt. 2 (2023)

Shakespeare Network (2020)

Greatest Audio Books (2013)

BBC Movie* (1984)

Coriolanus !

Brussels Shakespeare Society (2017)

Movie (1964)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Cymbeline

Shakespeare by the Sea (2016)

Shakespeare & Company (2012)

Movie* (1984)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Hamlet ! (hint: Moriarty)

adapted and dir. Laurence Olivier (1948)

Abrahamse & Meyer Production (2015)

Bob Jones University (2020)

Broadway Production (1964)

starr. Maxine Peake (2015)

BLC Theatre (2013)

Hamlet as a Rock Opera (2007)

Radio Drama (2018?)

Studio Album star. 1964 Broadway cast (1964)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1980)

Royal Shakespeare Company* (2013)

Wooster Group Re-making* (?) (2012)

Henry IV, Part I

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

Brussels Shakespeare Society (adapted I and II, 2017)

TVO (1990)

Shakespeare & Company (2017)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1950)

Oakshot Press (2017)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

H4* (Henry IV parts I and II in futuristic Los Angeles, 2012)

Henry IV, Part II

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oakshot Press (2017)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Henry V

Laurence Olivier (1944)

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

Barn Theatre (2020?)

St. Louis Shakespeare,pt. 2 (2011)

ASC Theatre Company (2022)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

AudioBookBuzz (2018)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1979)

Henry VI, Part I

Royal Shakespeare Company (parts I, II, and III, 1956)

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

Shakespeare by the Sea (2021)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Henry VI, Part II

English Shakespeare Company (1990)

ASC Theatre Camp (2020)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1954)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Henry VI, Part III

English Shakespeare Company (1990?)

Whitman College (1992)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1955)

(BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Henry VIII

Shakespeare Happy Hours (online, 2020)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1957)

BBC Shakespeare Plays* (1984)

Julius Caesar !

starr. Gielgud, dir. Stuart Burge (1970)

Festival Series (1960)

Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival (2016)

Shakespeare at Winedale (2018)

Acting for a Cause (2022)

Shakespeare Network (1998)

Greatest AudioBooks (2013)

dir. Gregory Doran* (2012)

[phoenixflames12]

I was tagged by the lovely @gohoubi- thank you, friend!

Last song: Schubert: String Quartet in C Major: D.956 II. Adagio

Favourite colour: Dark, sludgy green

Currently watching: doing a rewatch of Endeavour- going to sart s5 this weekend!

Sweet/savoury/spicy food: Savoury

Relationship status: the librarian maiden aunt who hopes to move to a small house in Oxford that has enough space for all of my books and has a spare room one day

Current obsession: 1960s/70s detectives who just can't seem to tell each other how much they mean to each other

Last thing I googled: Cable Street at the Southwalk Playhouse

Currently reading: Doing my annual reread of Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Brain is mush at the moment (it's been an exhausting week) so if you see this then yes! You! You are now tagged in this!

[coruscatingdust]

Went to see a play at Oxford at the Oxford playhouse. Emma Watson was right behind me for 3 hours. She was right by me for coffee during the intermission. We were washing hands next to each other too. I obviously didn’t have the courage to say anything to her but as a Harry Potter fan growing up, I am quite happy to say I saw a play with Hermione Granger.

[littlequeenies]

JANE ASHER'S PRODUCTION THE CIRCLE IS TOURING IN THE UK!

Theatre Royal, Bath (10th – 20th January 2024) Cambridge Arts Theatre (23rd – 27th January 2024) Chichester Festival Theatre (30th January – 3rd February 2024) Oxford Playhouse (6th – 10th February 2024) Festival Theatre, Malvern (13th – 17th February 2024) Richmond Theatre (20th – 24th February 2024).

Cast Lady Catherine Champion-Cheney - Jane Asher Arnold Champion-Cheney - Pete Ashmore Clive Champion-Cheney - Clive Francis Lord Porteous - Nicholas Le Prevost Teddie Luton - Chirag Benedict Lobo Elizabeth Champion-Cheney - Olivia Vinall George Murray - Robert Maskell

Director - Tom Littler Designer - Louie Whitemore Lighting Designer - Chris McDonnell Sound Designer - Max Pappenheim Assistant Director - Sam Woof Costume Supervisor - Evelien Van Camp Production LX - Amy Hill Deputy Stage Manger - Vicky Zenetzi Assistant Stage Manager - Lily Collins

Somerset Maugham's THE CIRCLE, directed by Tom Littler💍 Jane Asher (Alfie) plays Lady Kitty, a society beauty who notoriously abandoned her stuffy husband Clive (Clive Francis, The Crown), and eloped with the handsome Lord Porteous (Nicholas Le Prevost, Shakespeare in Love). Thirty years later, love’s young dream has descended into non-stop squabbling…Meanwhile, Clive and Lady Kitty’s son Arnold (Pete Ashmore, The Lovely Bones) faces the same marital fate, as his wife Elizabeth (Olivia Vinall, The Woman in White) threatens to elope with the dashing Teddie Luton (Chirag Benedict Lobo, Life of Pi). Will history come full circle? Or can one generation learn from their parents’ disastrous mistakes?

📷: Ellie Kurttz

[vintagestagehotties]

Hot Vintage Stage Actress Round 2

Dame Maggie Smith: Viola in Twelfth Night (1952 Oxford Playhouse); New Faces of 1956 (1956 Broadway); Doreen in The Private Ear (1962 West End); Belinda in The Public Eye (1962 Oxford); Mary McKellaway in Mary, Mary (1963 West End)

Dolores Hart: Jessica Poole in The Pleasure of His Company (1958 Broadway)

Propaganda under the cut

Maggie Smith:

Dolores Hart:

[centrestagereviews]

Actor of the Week: Naomi Alade

Naomi trained at the London College of Music. Her theatre credits include: Onstage Swing in Eugenius! (Turbine Theatre), Lucille/Shirelle/Dance Captain in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Curve Leicester/UK Tour), Maid Marian in Robin Hood and His Merry Band (Oxford Playhouse) for which she won the UK Pantomime Association Award for Best Leading Lady and Once on this Island (Southwark…