Ruth Wilson - Theatre - A Streetcar Named Desire

[updated 19 March 2011]


Reviews

Guardian
"...[there is] impeccable support from Ruth Wilson as Stella, torn between her lust for Stanley and compassion for her deluded sister..."

Independent
"...Stella, beautifully played here by Ruth Wilson..."

Telegraph
"...Ruth Wilson is outstanding as Stella..."

The London Paper
"...Stella (a moving Ruth Wilson)..."

whatsonstage.com
"...Stella, watchfully and touchingly played by Ruth Wilson..."

Financial Times
"...Ruth Wilson is a warm and touching Stella..."


Pictures

After party:
wooller.com [link]
Evening Standard/Dave Benett [link]
Getty [link]

Production:
The London Paper/various [link]
Playbill/Johan Persson [link]
Rex Features [link]

Samuel West - Theatre - A Family Affair

[updated 19 March: picture removed]

Some recaps of A Family Affair, an Oxford Playhouse fundraiser starring Sam and his parents, Timothy West and Prunella Scales:
Stuck in a Book [link]
Oxford reader [link]
m4sure [link]
Oxford Times [link]

Dan Stevens - Audio - The Angel's Game. Hattie Morahan - Theatre - Three More Sleepless Nights.

[updated 24 April 2010 - links for The Angel's Game]

• A review of the abridged (CD, download) and unabridged (CD, download) versions of The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón from the Times:
  
  

  "'Every book has a soul - the soul of the person who wrote it, and the soul of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it,' Carlos Ruiz Zafón says in his latest book. The soul of Dan Stevens, the audiobook's narrator, richly deserves to be added to that of Zafón's latest bestseller, The Angel's Game. Stevens reads this magical realist prequel to Shadow of the Wind in its unabridged (13 CDs, £29.35 £26.42) and its abridged version (6 CDs, £16.63 £14.97) with extraordinary versatility, holding the listener's attention in a vice-like grip, and is as adept at being the Copperfield-like hero, David Martin, and the elusive, wounded heroine as at playing the Faustian Corelli or the saintly Sempere, the wise but doomed guardian of the Cemetery of Lost Books. I chopped and changed between the two, interested as I was in how well a book can work despite being halved in length. Indeed, since many reviewers of the text edition complain of too many subplots and Grand Guignol meanderings, it may even be that the abridgement is an improvement..."

• The official website for Three More Sleepless Nights is up [link]

Hayley Atwell, Ruth Wilson - Television - The Prisoner

A nine minute preview was shown at Comic-Con.

Screencaps
click thumbnails for full size

Ruth Wilson, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson. Theatre - A Streetcar Named Desire. Television - The Prisoner.

Ruth's Official London Theatre Guide interview is mainly about A Streetcar Named Desire, but there are also mentions of the film festival she's working on with Hayley Atwell and Emma Thompson, and The Prisoner:

"...It was while working on The Prisoner, alongside a cast full of British talent including Ian McKellen, Hayley Atwell and Lennie James, that Wilson took the quad bike trip around the Namibian sand dunes, went on safari and, along with Atwell, took an unnaturally close look at a shark's teeth, separated from their flesh-ripping points by a cage. 'It was quite frightening, very funny, but brilliant.'
While the Namibian pastimes sound enthralling, the shoot itself, Wilson says, was 'difficult; I can't lie.' Changes in directors and unfinished scripts made the process fraught and Wilson is still unsure how the series will end. She says that she thinks the photography 'will look amazing' and that, though she is unsure entirely how the plot will play out, she should still be in the final cut as she recently recorded additional dialogue...

...her next project, scheduled for any time she has off in the coming year. She is the driving force behind a film festival that will bring together six or seven short films written and directed by women. Though she can't quite pin down the role she is playing – 'I'm Executive Producer… I suppose' – she has already enlisted the help of her role model Emma Thompson as mentor for the writers. 'I've got no idea really what I'm doing,' she smiles, 'I'm just pushing the idea forward. I want other people to do the nitty gritty, I'll just push the idea. But through it I'll learn how to do the nitty gritty as well. For me, it’s learning new skills and learning to be adept at loads of different things...'"

Andrea Riseborough, Dan Stevens, Gemma Arterton, Sally Hawkins, Carey Mulligan, Rebecca Hall, Rosamund Pike. Film - Dagenham Girls.

• Interviews with Andrea Riseborough and Dan Stevens andrea|dan
• Andrea Riseborough, Gemma Arterton, Sally Hawkins, Carey Mulligan and Rebecca Hall are mentioned in an article from the Independent about the next generation of British actresses [link]
  
• There is a Sally Hawkins interview about Dagenham Girls in Baz Bamigboye's Daily Mail column [link]
  

Entertainment news

• Hilarious Cemetery Junction teaser featuring Ralph Fiennes, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais [link]
  
• Old films need a new marketing makeover [link]
  
• BBC4 will have tribute nights for Harold Pinter and Simon Gray this weekend [link]
  
• Rich Sommer, Audrey Tautou, Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Bill Nighy interviews rich|audrey|ang|quentin|bill
  
• Matt Smith has started filming his episodes of Doctor Who [link]
  
• Season 6 of Entourage
• A couple of videos 1|2
• Matt Damon will have a cameo [link]
• Bright Star trailer [link]
• Article about the upcoming Star Trek DVD release [link]
• Emmy nominations [link]

Samuel West - Theatre - Enron

[updated 19 March 2011: pictures removed]

A tweet from Sam:

"ENRON Press Night just down. A few hiccups but nothing terminal. Many cheers at curtain. Onward!"

Reviews

Telegraph
"...The whole show is driven by Samuel West, giving the performance of his career as Skilling. As the CEO’s power grows and his strategies become ever more outrageous, West’s very appearance seems to change, from geeky overweight nerd to a lean, mean master of the universe for whom, like Richard III, no action is too outrageous. Charismatic, scary, and finally cracking up spectacularly, this is high-definition acting of a very high order indeed..."

whatsonstage.com
"...At the heart of Prebble's tale is a superb performance by Samuel West as Jeffrey Skilling, the architect of the fraud. First glimpsed as a plump, gauche but ambitious executive, we see him gradually take control of Enron and enact his own fantasy of selling everything, including the weather. West captures every twitch of a man wholly driven by the need to make money, not so much for its own sake but by the need to create something innovative. Driven eventually into mental disintegration, West gives us a vision of a man driven by his obsession with Enron stock price, because, as he tells his daughter, that’s how he knows how much he’s worth..."

Evening Standard
"...Prebble’s great skill lies in her ability to take us through complex concepts with ease, without bemusing or, worse, patronising us...West superbly suggests a monomaniacal man powered by something far more interesting than mere greed, namely a brilliance with theoretical concepts that eventually disconnects him entirely from reality..."

Times
"...Prebble and the director, Rupert Goold, not only address and explain previously bamboozling financial terms, in constantly stimulating, ingenious ways, they also keep an adroit balance between the epic and the intimate...West makes Skilling sympathetic without ever making him likeable. He’s not just trying to get rich; he’s trying to stay out of Hell. Tim Pigott-Smith gives strong support as chairman Ken Lay. The entire cast of 16 is superb..."

The Stage
"...The world premiere of Lucy Prebble’s new play about the development of sharp practices which eventually brought about the demise of the ENRON Corporation is a piece of very tight writing which has been remarkably staged by director Rupert Goold...Samuel West gave an sensitive yet spirited performance as the ideas man Jeffrey Skilling..."

Independent
"...It's both a sharp, satirical diagnosis of the state we're in, as well as a new Brechtian epic of the rise and fall of a gangster produced and legitimised by the environment of the day. West builds an appropriately resonant performance, stuck on the simply devastating questions of his own daughter and the vanity of his own campaign. And he also pulls off the not inconsiderable feat of allowing us to like him..."

[another review] "...Samuel West excels himself in his portrayal of Jeffrey Skilling, the Ivy League ideas man who takes control as CEO. We see West transform from a nerdy visionary – initially advocating clean energy – into a money-obsessed, desperately unethical exec..."

Guardian
"...Lucy Prebble's hugely ambitious play, covering the rise and fall of the Texan energy company, Enron, is an exhilarating mix of political satire, modern morality and multimedia spectacle...The power of Samuel West's fine performance as Skilling lies in its very lack of demonism. In West's assured hands, Skilling becomes a man who combines brilliance and stupidity and grows from a nerdy ordinariness into a tycoon through the idea that future income can be written down as earnings the moment a deal is signed..."

[another review] "...Rupert Goold's tremendous production of Lucy Prebble's first-rate new play...Samuel West is powerfully intelligent as Jeff Skilling..."

The Public Reviews
"...there are some fine performances here; Samuel West brings depth and pathos to Jeffrey Skilling as we see his decline into desperation. The work Tom Goodman-Hill is at times hugely comic and twisted as he seeks to impress his worth to West’s Skilling. There is an excellent ensemble at work here with weight added by Tim Piggott-Smith and Amanda Drew. The cast as whole are stunning in their efforts... Lucy Prebble’s economic, weighted and crisp text..."

Portsmouth Today
"...Samuel West, as Jeffrey Skilling, runs the gamut from arrogant, self-assured, hugely-successful businessman to equally arrogant but broken pariah and never puts a foot wrong.
Skilling is unsympathetic and while never actually liking the character, West's strength is that he does make you care. His scenes with the equally-watchable Tom Goodman-Hill are skilful and slick..."

Daily Express
"...There are also some stunning performances – in particular, Samuel West as the cunning Jeff Skilling. There is more than a hint of Robert Maxwell about his interpretation of the role.
He combines an arrogant determination with a callous lack of care about his fellow workers.
West will suddenly give his face a little twist – a dark signal that he is about to become even more unscrupulous in his business dealings. His anger at not always getting what he wants immediately is scary..."

Remote Goat
"...Jeffrey Skilling was brilliantly played by Samuel West, moving rapidly through intense emotions of exceptional drive, frustration, despair and arrogance..."

Sussex Expresss
"...the show belongs to Samuel West who plays chief executive Jeffrey Skilling. He captures all the intense self-deluded passion of a man who believed he was transforming the way in which a world does business – while in reality turning himself into a common crook, ruining thousands of investors and employees in the process..."

Bognor Regis Observer
"...Samuel West gives a bravura performance as Jeffrey Skilling..."

Bloomberg
"...Samuel West is superb as Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling. He plays him as a tubby, socially awkward geek who transforms first into a lean, mean deceiving machine and then into a broken wreck..."

Wall Street Journal
"...Sam West isn't at first recognizable as Jeff, for he's nerdy, heavyset and awkward. Mr. West's transformation is itself breathtaking, as he sheds weight before our eyes, gains confidence and sets about proving that 'all wealth is debt...'"

Pictures

Geraint Lewis
Alastair Muir/Evening Standard
Manuel Harlan/Wall Street Journal
Tristram Kenton/Daily Mail, The Guardian

Theatre - Enron

[updated 19 March 2011]

Interviews

Lucy Prebble 1|2
Rupert Goold, The Times [link]

Pictures

Production:

Rex Features [link]
Isifa/Richard Cheesman. IS_23307294-IS_23307302, IS_23307321, IS_23307322

Samuel West - Theatre - Enron

Thanks to Monika (FilmographySam) for telling me about the Enron trailer that's on the Chichester and Royal Court Youtube channels.

Screencaps
click thumbnails for full size

Samuel West - Narration - Lines of Flight

Some links to posts in Sal Brown's blog about the production:
A short trailer with stills and some narration [link]
Picture of Sam in the recording studio, and a filming update [link]
Some pictures 1|2
Pre-production [link]

Theatre - The Browning Version

[updated 17 March 2011]

Reviews

The Telegraph
"...With excellent supporting performances from Laurenson as the smarmy headmaster, Charles Edwards as the science teacher, and James Musgrave as the schoolboy, this strikes me as a near perfect production of a short but emotionally overwhelming masterpiece."

The Guardian
"...Candida Gubbins rightly plays Crocker-Harris's wife as a snob, equally doomed to disappointment, and Charles Edwards lends her sometime lover a quixotic compassion..."

This is Wiltshire
"...Charles Edwards is engaging as Frank Hunter..."

Picture

Nobby Clark/telegraph.co.uk

Film - An Education

The film's official website has a press pack available for download [link]
Rope of Silicon has a montage of clips from the film [link]
An excerpt from Lynn Barber's memoir, which the film is based on [link]

Screencaps from the trailer (click thumbnails for full size):

Simon Russell Beale, Dan Stevens, Ruth Wilson, Rosamund Pike.

A nice Simon mention from Baz Bamigboye's Daily Mail column:

Who will be Smiley?
Working Title's big-screen version of John Le Carre's classic Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy now has a director - Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In), who will shoot the film next year.
But who will play George Smiley, doyen of the intelligence service known as the 'Circus'?
I hear Jim Broadbent's name is one of several on a list, but what about Simon Russell Beale, who is playing Smiley superbly on Radio 4 in a dramatisation of Le Carre's Smiley stories.
Alec Guinness was a sublime Smiley in the famous TV series. It's vital the producers use a Brit and don't reel in a Yank.

Dan is featured in a slideshow on the Cosmopolitan UK website [link]


Ruth interviews about holidays and travelling

• The Times [link]
• The Independent (via burstsofenthusiasm) [link]
  

Rosamund attended the launch of the Jaguar XJ 1|2|3|4
and was guest speaker at Corby Business Academy's prize-giving ceremony [link]
She will star with Minnie Driver, Rachelle Lefevre and Paul Giamatti in Barney's Version [link]

Tags: Simon Russell Beale, Dan Stevens, Ruth Wilson, Rosamund Pike, John Le Carre, George Smiley, Radio 4, BBC Radio 4, Jaguar XJ, Minnie Driver, Rachelle Lefevre, Paul Giamatti, film

Television - Freefall

[updated 19 March 2011]

Freefall is on BBC2 tonight at 9pm. Its page on the BBC site is here.

• A preview from the Guardian [link]
• An article from the Telegraph [link]

Theatre - Enron

• A tweet from Sam about the play (it started previewing last Saturday):
  

  "Lucy Prebble's bouncing baby ENRON safely delivered to a delighted Chichester yesterday. On time; weight TBA; author and company doing well."

• Lucy Prebble will be on Front Row this Thursday [link]

Tags: Enron, Lucy Prebble, Samuel West, Sam West, theatre

Samuel West - Television - New Tricks. Ruth Wilson. Television - Small Island. Theatre - A Streetcar Named Desire. Hayley Atwell.

• Sam guest stars in "Fresh Starts," episode 3 of series 6 of New Tricks. It will be broadcast Thursday 30 July on BBC1 at 9pm [link]
  
• The BBC press office has released some clips for BBC1 Autumn 2009. Here are screencaps of Ruth from the Small Island teaser (click thumbnails for full size):
  
• A Ruth interview from the Spectator is here. It's mostly about A Streetcar Named Desire but there is a mention of the film festival she's working on with Hayley Atwell and Emma Thompson:
  
  

  "'...We started talking about it last year and formulated the idea of commissioning a series of short films written by women and directed by women. It's not that we want to ostracise men — we love them — but we want to celebrate women and what they can achieve. There still aren't enough good roles for women, especially when you get beyond a certain age, and there certainly aren't enough women writers and directors. It's the writing we're really keen on, concentrating on that, making sure they're good scripts. We're looking for people through the Script Factory and the Royal Court, and the plan is to have six shorts, each about 15 to 20 minutes long, that are connected by a single theme and can be distributed as one film.'
  Does she intend to take part in any of these films herself? 'Devising and producing is already a huge undertaking but I wouldn’t mind performing in one...'"

Tags: Samuel West, TV, Ruth Wilson, Hayley Atwell, theatre, film, television, Sam West, New Tricks, BBC1, Small Island, Benedict Cumberbatch, A Streetcar Named Desire, Emma Thompson, Script Factory, Royal Court

Entertainment news

• Entourage season 6 trailer and promo (via ONTD) trailer|promo
• Lajos Koltai will direct Spider Dance, a drama set in 19th century Australia [link]
• Article about the current lack of American auteurs [link]
• The inspiration for Goldfinger, the arch-villain created by Ian Fleming to rival James Bond, could have been a German spymaster who plotted to blow up gold reserves at the Bank of England [link]
• Article by screenwriter James Moran about Torchwood [link]
• Daniel Radcliffe, Johnny Depp and James Moran interviews daniel|johnny|james
• Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousins are planning a mobile film festival that will take place in August [link]
  
• How do terrible Hollywood blockbusters get made? [link]

Tags: Entourage, Lajos Koltai, Spider Dance, director, auteur, Goldfinger, Ian Fleming, James Bond, James Moran, Torchwood, Daniel Radcliffe, Johnny Depp, Tilda Swinton, Mark Cousins, Hollywood, film, television

Theatre - The Apple Cart

[updated 17 March 2011]

Reviews

Daily Mail
"...In addition to the gripping topicality of it all, Sir Peter Hall's production draws first-class performances not only from Messrs Edwards and Laurenson (whose PM has a glinting desperation) but also, for instance, from Richard Dixon as a dark, faintly vindictive foreign secretary..."

The Guardian
"...Peter Hall's rare and excellent revival...Charles Edwards invests King Magnus with just the right mix of comic buoyancy and specific gravity..."

The Stage
"...Peter Hall has made a habit of including a Shaw offering in his company’s summer season at Bath, but never with such percipience as this articulate production that must surely be bound for the West End...Charles Edwards mixes charm and cunning in equal quantity as a charismatic King Magnus..."

This is Dorset
"...Peter Hall's production is beautifully staged, subverting expectations and hitting home the timelessly topical aspects of this sometimes very funny play...Charles Edwards is an irresistible king, a man who has dispensed with the effete reliance on protocol, and thus manages his ministers of state with charm and precision..."

This is Wiltshire
"...Best of all is Charles Edwards as King Magnus, charismatic, charming, clever, and more than a match in deviousness for his whole cabinet...directed by Peter Hall it has a directness and a lightness of touch..."

This is Bath
"...Highly amusing and intelligent, it's rather boring to relate that this is another piece of Peter Hall perfection, but it simply is."

Crackerjack
"...you couldn't wish for a more polished, intelligent production or a better cast..."

Financial Times
"...Charles Edwards is at once amiable and wily (he brought a similar combination to the West End’s four-handed adaptation of The 39 Steps) as King Magnus...Perhaps the highlight of the play is the verbal fencing between Edwards and Janie Dee as his mistress, a typical Shavian intellectual duel but invested by the actors with playfulness and affection..."

Telegraph
"...Hall's sharp and entertaining production...Charles Edwards brings dash, style, cunning and a hint of melancholy to the King...Highly recommended."

New York Times
"...Nimbly directed by Mr. Hall, this Apple Cart is a deft piece of prognostication, with its portraits of craven special-interest-ruled politicians and of England as a super money laundry for other nations..."

Pictures

Geraint Lewis/independent.co.uk
unknown/timesonline.co.uk, thisiswiltshire.co.uk
Tristram Kenton/dailymail.co.uk
Rex Features
Robbie Jack/Corbis

Theatre - Enron

[updated 21 July]

• Sam interview from the Independent [link]
• Rehearsal photos by Manuel Harlan 1|2
• Interview with playwright Lucy Prebble from the Guardian [link]
• Article from Director Magazine [link]
  

Tags: Enron, Lucy Prebble, Samuel West, Sam West, theatre

Television - Freefall

[updated 19 March 2011]

The Freefall press pack has been updated with director and cast (Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike) interviews.

Dan Stevens - Narration - Carte Noire

[updated 19 March 2011]

Dan is one of the readers on the Carte Noire UK website, which has clips of him reading passages from books such as Great Expectations and The Rotters' Club.

According to this article from Media Guardian, more videos will be uploaded in the coming weeks, and the site "will be backed by an online and press ad campaign launching on the 13 July."

Samuel West

• Sam was on Broadcasting House, taking part in a panel discussion about the day's papers. The episode will be available on iPlayer up to a week after broadcast [link]
  
• Excerpt from an article about Scene & Heard:
  

  "'...Scene & Heard is the most fun I've ever had in a theatre,' insists West, who reckons he has seen 25 of their shows. 'I'm not kidding. It's simply joyous...'"

Tags: Samuel West, Sam West, Broadcasting House, iPlayer, Scene & Heard, Scene and Heard

Television - Freefall. Television - Desperate Romantics. Theatre - Enron. Theatre - A Streetcar Named Desire.

[updated 19 March 2011]

• Mentions of Freefall, Desperate Romantics, Enron and A Streetcar Named Desire in articles from the Independent 1|2
• Freefall will be broadcast on BBC2 in the week 11-17 July [link]
  
• Desperate Romantics press pack [link]