Theatre

Time Of My Life
Time Of My Life
Time Of My Life
Time Of My Life
Time Of My Life
Time Of My Life

1 - 23 April 2011

A Watford Palace Theatre Production

Time Of My Life

By Alan Ayckbourn

‘That was probably one of the best, the happiest moments of our lives. Only the trouble with those sorts of moments is that you seldom ever realise what they are – until they’ve gone...’

It is Laura Stratton’s fifty-fourth birthday and a small family celebration has been organised by her husband Gerry at their favourite restaurant. All seems well on the surface, but scratch a little deeper and the cracks begin to show…

With finely observed characters and truly authentic dialogue, Time of My Life paints a deftly comic picture of the excruciating tensions that can underlie family get-togethers, and the fragility of both success and true happiness. You can be sure that disaster lies no farther than a brandy glass away.

The Palace’s Artistic Director, Brigid Larmour, directs this modern classic by one of the greatest British playwrights of our time. Brigid’s recent productions include the sell-out Von Ribbentrop’s Watch, Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian (nominated for 2010 TMA Best New Play award), My Mother Said I Never Should and Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends.


"a well deserved and extremely well staged new production by Brigid Larmour"

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

What's On Stage

Read the full What's On Stage review

"Brigid Larmour directs a witty and engaging production"

The Stage

"The cast is strong, with standout performances from Bailey as the brittle Laura and Dickens as the charming, vulnerable Maureen"

The Stage

"the results are both painful and wryly amusing"

The Stage

Read The Stage review

'Well worth an evening of anyone’s life'

Reviewsgate



Image of Craig

Craig Fletcher - Adam

Craig returns to Watford Palace, having played Aladdin in our 2010 pantomime, his debut performance at the Palace after graduating from RADA last summer.

Previous roles include: Mike in A Lie of the Mind, directed by Tim Luscombe, Claudio in Jonathan Miller’s Measure for Measure, Hamlet in Battlement (a Hamlet adaptation), Oswald in Ghosts and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, directed by William Gaskill. He has also worked with such directors as Jonathan Moore and Ed Dick.

Image of Gregory

Gregory Gudgeon - Calvinu, Tuto, Aggi, Dinka, Bengie

Theatre includes: The Merry Wives of Windsor (US and UK tour); As You Like It, A New World (Shakespeare’s Globe); Treasure Island (Derby Playhouse); Imagine This (Plymouth Theatre Royal); Cyrano de Bergerac, Dreaming (Manchester Royal Exchange); Metamorphosis, produced by Brigid Larmour (Manchester Contact, Manchester Evening News Award nomination); Kind Hearts and Coronets, Treasure
Island (Pitlochry Festival Theatre); Philip Pullman’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter (Sheffield Crucible/Told by an Idiot); 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Walk the Plank); The Lion King (West End); Hamlet, Fiddler on the Roof, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Street of Crocodiles (Complicite, US/Japan tour); Crimes and Crimes (Leicester Haymarket); The Blue
Macushla (Druid); Salome and The Trial (Steven Berkoff Company); The Servant of Two Masters (Coventry Belgrade); Alan Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business, A
Madhouse in Goa (Oldham Coliseum); Le Morte d’Arthur (Hammersmith Lyric); Orsino in Twelfth Night (Cambridge Theatre Company); Slave Island (Young Vic); A Flea in Her Ear, Too Clever by Half, The Tutor (The Old Vic); and Gala/Dali (Old Red Lion).

Television: Midsomer Murders (ITV); The Bill (Thames TV); Bergerac (BBC); The Ring (YTV).

Film: Finding Rin Tin Tin (NU Image); Esther Kahn (Magic Lantern); A Pin for the Butterfly (Channel 4 Films).

Writing: Gregory translated Hisashi Inoue’s Greasepaint for the Lyric Hammersmith and Chijinkai, Tokyo.

Image of Paul

Paul Bentall - Gerry

Previous theatre includes: My Dad’s a Birdman (Young Vic); Love the Sinner (National Theatre); Slaves (Theatre503); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Burial at Thebes (USA); Burial at Thebes (Nottingham and Barbican); Habeas Corpus, Measure for Measure (Theatre Royal Bath and tour); You Never Can Tell (Garrick); Theatre of Blood (National Theatre); The Mikado (Orange Tree); Brighton Rock (Almeida Theatre); The Coffee House (Chichester Festival Theatre); Eastward Ho!, Edward III, Love in a Wood, Jubilee, A Servant of Two Masters, Cymbeline, Spanish Tragedy, Henry VIII, Richard III, Faust, Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, Wildest Dreams, Show Boat (RSC); Salome and The Trial (world tour); Uncle Vanya (Sheffield Crucible); The Trial, A Month in the Country, Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, Danton’s Death, Much Ado About Nothing, Caritas Christi, The Prince of Homburg, Don Juan, Lorrenzaccio, You Can’t Take It With You, Strider - Story of a Horse, Animal Farm, The Ancient Mariner, Jacobowski and the Colonel, The Spanish Tragedy, She Stoops to Conquer, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Rivals (National Theatre); The Man Who Had All the Luck (Young
Vic); Darwin’s Flood (the Bush).

Television: Doctors, Wolfenden, Silent Witness (BBC); Midsomer Murders (ITV); Why We Went to War (Liberty Bell); The Governor, A Dark Adapted Eye, Pie in the
Sky, Between the Lines, The New Statesman, Spender, The Bill, Casualty, French Fields, As You Like It.

Film: Marigold Hotel (Henry), Vanity Fair, Blackball, First Knight.

Image of Chris

Chris Kelham - Glyn

Chris trained at the Guildford School of Acting and was a recipient of the Carleton Hobbs BBC Radio Drama Award. Since then, he has appeared in numerous radio plays for the BBC, including six series as Howard in Ladies of Letters for BBC Radio 4; Toby in Amy’s View (original West End cast); Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (National Audio Drama Award); Wuthering Heights and several Woman’s Hour readings.
Audiobooks include: Shatter, David Mitchell’s Number 9 Dream and Ghostwritten.

Theatre includes: Brecht - Poetry and Song (King’s Place, London); Another Country (Arts Theatre, London); Paresis (Bristol Old Vic); Scenes From an Execution (Hackney Empire); The Ignatius Trail (Lyric Hammersmith/Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Dresser (Watford Palace Theatre); A Christmas Carol (national reading tour).

Television includes: Hustle, Trial & Retribution, Last Voices of a Generation for the BBC.

Film includes: The Cost of Love, Over the Edge, What’s Your Name 41?.

Christopher has also appeared in numerous readings with Actors for Human Rights.

Image of Marion

Marion Bailey - Laura

Marion is originally from Watford and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Youth Theatre.

Theatre includes: Death of a Salesman (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Empty Bed Blues (Nottingham Lakeside); Mine/War & Peace/Kindertransport (Shared Experience, Hampstead); The Arab-Israeli Cookbook/Dance of Death (Tricycle); Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness/Panic/Beside Herself/Blessed Be the Tie/Hush (Royal Court); Holes in the Skin (Chichester); Normal/All of You Mine (Bush); Cloud Nine (Old Vic); Black Snow/Man Beast & Virtue (National Theatre).

Films: I’ll Be There, Vera Drake, All or Nothing, Offending Angels, Nasty Neighbours, Pyschotherapy, Meantime, Sakharov, Way Upstream, Coppers.

Television: Case Histories, Being Human, Him and Her, Monday Monday, New Tricks, Persuasion, Midsomer Murders, De-Railed, Holby City, Cherished, Micawber, Shades, The Thing About Vince, Under the Sun, Dalziel and Pascoe,
Shine on Harvey Moon, V, Casualty, Dangerfield, The Bill, A Touch of Frost, Boon, The Bretts, To Have and to Hold, Flights, Reservations, Charlie, Miracles, Just Desserts, Raspberry, Woyzeck, Jury, Inspector Morse, No More Dying
Then, Reflections of Evil, Big Deal, Casualty, Stay Lucky, Poirot.

Image of Jessica

Jessica Dickens - Maureen

Jessica trained at the Oxford School of Drama in 2009.

Theatre includes: Low Dat (Lyric Hammersmith); Von Ribbentrop’s Watch (Watford Palace Theatre).

Productions at the Oxford School of Drama: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, All My Sons, Bleak House, Blood Wedding, Jack, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Man of Mode, Pack of Lies, Three Sisters.

Television credits include: The Cut, Chopratown, Richfield (BBC).

Image of Anna

Anna O'Grady - Stephanie

Anna graduated from LAMDA in the summer of 2009.

Recent theatre includes: Birthday Letters (RSC workshop).
Whilst at LAMDA performances included: Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, Elizabeth in Absolute Hell, the Duchess in The Duchess of Malfi, Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Nina in The Seagull.

Film and TV credits include: Holby City (BBC) and film Black Pond.


PALACE PREVIEWS: £10

WEEKDAY EVENINGS AND MATINEES:  £20, £17.50, £11.50
Concessions: £4 off
Senior Citizens: half price on matinees

SAT EVE: £22.50, £19.50, £15, £12
Concessions: £2 off (excludes Premium)

PREMIUM SEATS: £30 (Sat eve only)
Enjoy the best seats in the house, a complimentary programme and a drink in our Premium guest area

April 2011

Date

Times

Tue 12 7.45pm
Wed 13 7.45pm
Thu 14 2.30pm / 7.45pm
Fri 15 7.45pm
Sat 16 2.30pm / 7.45pm
Mon 18 7.45pm
Tue 19 7.45pm
Wed 20 2.30pm / 7.45pm
Thu 21 7.45pm
Sat 23 2.30pm / 7.45pm

Brigid Larmour

Director

Brigid Larmour is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Watford Palace Theatre. She has directed for the Palace: Gary Owen’s We That Are Left and Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Alan Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends, Charlotte Keatley’s My Mother Said I Never Should and Von Ribbentrop’s Watch by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran.

Brigid is a producer, director, dramaturg and teacher with experience in the subsidised and commercial theatre and television. From 1998 to 2006 she was Artistic Director of West End company Act Productions, and adviser to BBC4 Plays. From 1993 to 98 she directed a series of promenade Shakespeares, Shakespeare Unplugged, for RNT Education. From 1989 to 1994 she was Artistic Director of Contact Theatre, Manchester, commissioning the first British plays responding to the rave scene (Excess/XS), and the implications of virtual reality (Strange Attractors, a multimedia promenade production, by Manchester poet Kevin Fegan). She trained at the RSC, and as a studio director at Granada TV.

Ruari Murchison

Designer

Ruari has designed productions in Helsinki (Finland), Washington DC, the Stratford Festival (Canada), Stuttgart (Germany), Luzern (Switzerland), Haarlem (Holland), Elisnore (Denmark) and many regional theatres in the United Kingdom.

Recent design credits include: Mappa Mundi, Frozen, The Waiting Room, The Red Balloon (National Theatre); Titus Andronicus (Royal Shakespeare Company); Othello (Trafalgar Studios); The Solid Gold Cadillac (Garrick); A Busy Day (Lyric Theatre); Peggy Sue Got Married (Shaftesbury Theatre); The Snowman (Peacock Theatre); Toyer (Arts); The Three Sisters on Hope Street, The Glass Room, Gone to LA (Hampstead Theatre); Henry IV parts I and II (Washington Shakespeare Company, USA); West Side Story, The Sound of Music (Stratford Festival, Canada); Hamlet (Elisnore, Denmark); Pravda, The Critic, The Real Inspector Hound (Chichester); The Good Soldier, Master Class (Theatre Royal Bath Productions tour); Macbeth, Medea, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Secret Garden, As You Like It (West Yorkshire Playhouse); An Enemy of the People (Theatr Clwyd); Arthur and George, Cling to Me Like Ivy, Uncle Vanya, A Doll's House, the David Hare trilogy - Racing Demon, Absence of War, Murmuring Judges (TMA Best Design nomination 2003); The Tempest, Macbeth, Hamlet, His Dark Materials, Arthur and George (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Intemperance, Tartuffe (Everyman and Playhouse Theatres, Liverpool); Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, Copenhagen, Alfie (Palace Theatre, Watford).

Opera credits include: Der Freischütz (Finnish National Opera); Peter Grimes, Così fan tutte (Luzerner Opera);
La Cenerentola, Il barbiere di Siviglia (Garsington); L'Italiana in Algeri (Buxton); Les Pèlerins de la Mecque, Zazà (Wexford).

Ballet credits include: Bruise Blood (Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company); Landschaft und Erinnerung (Stuttgart Ballet, Germany); The Protecting Veil (Birmingham Royal Ballet); The Snowman (Seoul, London, Birmingham Rep, touring).

Matthew Eagland

Lighting Designer

Matthew trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before working in the lighting departments of both the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre (Guildford) and Cambridge Arts Theatre, and has subsequently designed the lighting for more than 100 productions throughout the UK and around the world.

Recent productions include: Derren Brown’s Svengali tour; Broken Glass (Tricycle Theatre); House of Ghosts (UK tour); The Secret of Sherlock Holmes (Duchess Theatre); Women, Power, Politics (Tricycle); The Talented Mr Ripley (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch); Greta Garbo Came to Donegal (Tricycle Theatre); Our Man in Havana (Nottingham Playhouse and tour); and Carrie’s War (Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue).

Other highlights: plays: Terre Haute (Trafalgar Studios and 59E59 Theaters, New York); Darwin in Malibu (Birmingham Rep); Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (Nottingham Playhouse); My Boy Jack (national tour); An Hour and a Half Late (Theatre Royal Bath Productions); Little Women (Duchess Theatre); and Copenhagen (Watford Palace). Musicals: Camp Horror (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch); Assassins, A Little Night Music, Company, Grand Hotel (Royal Academy of
Music); Alfie (Watford Palace); and Murderous Instincts (Savoy Theatre).

Opera: La traviata, L’Elisir d’amore, La finta semplice, Jacko’s Hour, The Long Christmas Dinner and The Dinner Engagement (double bill), L’Heure Espagnole and Gianni Schicchi (double bill).


Rich Walsh

Sound Designer

Previous sound designs include: Welcome to Thebes, The Observer, Baby Girl, DNA, The Miracle, The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder, Landscape With Weapon, The Reporter,The Alchemist, Exiles, Southwark Fair, The Mandate, Primo, The False Servant, Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads, Scenes From the Big Picture, Dinner, Closing Time, The Associate, Sanctuary, The Mentalists, The Shadow of a Boy, Free, The Walls (National Theatre); Exposure, Under the Blue Sky, On Raftery’s Hill, Sacred Heart, Trust, Choice (Royal Court); Primo (Music Box Theater, Broadway); Vernon God Little (Young Vic); Dinner (Wyndham’s); What the Night Is For (Comedy); 50 Revolutions (Whitehall); Von Ribbentrop’s Watch, Rock, Fimbles Live!, The Lady in the Van, The Deep Blue Sea, The Unexpected Man, The Nation’s Favourite - the True Adventures of Radio One (national tours); The Price (Tricycle Theatre); Julie Burchill is Away… (Soho Theatre); How to Be an Other Woman (Gate Theatre); Eigengrau, Kingfisher Blue (Bush Theatre); Cue Deadly, Yllana’s 666 (Riverside Studios); Strike Gently Away From Body (Young Vic Studio); The Difficult Unicorn (Southwark Playhouse); Small Craft Warnings (Pleasance, London); Dirk (Oxford Playhouse). Associate Sound Designer on: Beauty and the Beast, The Cat in the Hat (National Theatre).


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