Samuel West - The Iliad, Suffragette, An Oak Tree

On Friday, Sam and several other actors such as Bertie Carvel, Rory Kinnear, Tobias Menzies, Hattie Morahan, Simon Russell Beale, John Simm and Ben Whishaw, performed in a reading of The Iliad at the British Museum and at the Almeida. The performance was live streamed. A series of podcasts and a making-of film are forthcoming.

Suffragette will open this year's London Film Festival (Prolific North). Sam has described his role in the film as "small and cross" (his Twitter, @exitthelemming). Click below for screencaps of him in the trailer.

He will feature in series 3 of Great Canal Journeys (his Twitter, @exitthelemming). Meanwhile, series 1 is being repeated on Channel 4 from 15 August (Radio Times).

Sam narrates a series of videos on The Road to Agincourt website. He plays the chronicler who wrote Gesta Henrici Quinti, a work about the deeds of Henry V (via the Daily Echo).

In July, he played the Father in An Oak Tree at the National Theatre. The play is a two-hander by Tim Crouch, who plays the Hypnotist. The Father is played by a different guest actor at each performance; at the National, guest actors included John Heffernan, Samuel Barnett and Trystan Gravelle.
Sam tweeted that the play was "Beautiful, useful and never to be forgotten" and Tim tweeted that the performance was "a very special evening." Here is a selection of tweets about the performance:

@exitthelemming Saw you perform in An Oak Tree tonight, absolutely amazing! Undoubtedly one of the best shows I've seen in London congrats!

— Lydia-Rachel (@Lydia_Actor) July 15, 2015

Great work tonight @exitthelemming & @timcrouch1964 with #AnOakTree Imagine it & you are it. Even we as the audience. Nod if you understand.

— Jack Tarlton (@jacktarlton) July 15, 2015

Congrats to @timcrouch1964 & @exitthelemming for a glorious #AnOakTree.....Friar Lawrence was v v proud of his Romeo #howtimeflies xx

— Hugh Sachs (@HughSachs) July 15, 2015

In May, Sam narrated Morning Heroes by Bliss with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Here is a review round up of the performance.

Music OMH
"Samuel West brought just the right level of philosophical pathos to the words..."

The Guardian

"The speaker (here, the excellent Samuel West) delivers the long opening passage from Homer over quietly unfolding orchestral themes, and Owen’s Spring Offensive, accompanied only by timpani and drums, to begin the finale."

Seen and Heard
"Samuel West struck just the right balance of eloquence and dignity of delivery..."

The Arts Desk
"Most personal and affecting were the work’s prologue and epilogue, calling upon Sam West with subtly scored orations of Hector’s Farewell to Andromache and Owen’s Spring Offensive."

**********

A few days ago, We Love Hackney tweeted a picture of Sam at a campaign launch - the local council is planning to restrict opening hours of clubs and music venues.

In July, Sam received an honorary degree from the University of East Anglia (BBC). The audio from his speech is here. He also tweeted a picture of himself from the ceremony.
Voices for the Library shared a piece by Sam about why he values his local library (via their Twitter @VftL_UK).
The Southbank Centre tweeted a picture of Sam reading at a Make Apartheid History event. Excerpts from the readings have been posted on Youtube (via Artists for Palestine).


Sam participated in a march against austerity in London 20 June (@fugueur). Participants opposed public sector cuts in areas such as welfare, health and education (ABC).

Romola Garai, Ruth Wilson, BBC Radio

Romola Garai and Nicholas Burns will star in The Village Bike at the Royal Court from 24 June to 30 July.

A quote from Ruth in the Telegraph about Michael Grandage, outgoing artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse:

"'He is an agent’s worst nightmare!’ Ruth Wilson laughs. Not only does he cut them entirely out of the process by contacting their clients directly, but he also expects his actors, however famous they are, to work for a company wage."

Ruth previously performed at the Donmar in A Streetcar Named Desire, and will star in the theatre's upcoming production of Anna Christie.

BBC Radio

• Hattie Morahan, Bertie Carvel and Tobias Menzies star in the Drama on 3 Serious Money by Caryl Churchill (available on iPlayer for 4 more days)
• Alex Jennings reads Twenty Minutes "A Warning to the Curious" (available on iPlayer for 5 more days)
• Andrew Scott voices James Joyce in the Book of the Week James Joyce - A Biography. Jim Norton narrates.   
• Jason Isaacs was interviewed on Loose Ends 

Samuel West. Radio. Narration - The Soldier's Tale.

The cast for Sam's radio directorial debut includes Ian McDiarmid, Celia Imrie, Roger Allam, Bertie Carvel, Blake Ritson and Tom Goodman-Hill (via Sam's Twitter, @exitthelemming). Previous tweets from Sam about the play have hinted at recording on location and research.

He will narrate The Soldier's Tale by Stravinsky at the Kew Music Festival on 26 June (via sheengate.co.uk).

Reminders:

• Sam, Janet Suzman and Timothy West will read from Shakespeare's First Folio at a Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass at the V&A, this Friday, 25 March at 7pm.
• He will open the Berry Theatre at a gala on 7 April.

Theatre - Enron, The Misanthrope and Rope. Dan Stevens - Wolf Hall.

[updated 2 August 2015]

Enron

• Tom Goodman-Hill interview from Angel magazine [link]
• Jeremy Paxman's "Discovery of the year" from the Telegraph:
  

  "I loved Lucy Prebble's Enron, which began at Chichester and then transferred to the Royal Court in London. This was a production buzzing with energy and ideas, a weird mixture of satire and vaudeville, which somehow managed to illuminate a prevailing madness. The most telling thing about the whole production, of course, was that by the time it was staged, we were all suffering the consequences of another episode of greed and stupidity, which made the Enron scandal look like a vicarage tea party."

Wolf Hall review from the Daily Express:

"Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief adviser, was a man so skilled at manipulation and survival he’d make Peter Mandelson blush. His story is told in the Man Booker-winning novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and superbly read by Dan Stevens..."

The Misanthrope

• Damian-Lewis.com has scans from a Sunday Times theatre feature featuring some of The Misanthrope cast (Tara Fitzgerald, Damian Lewis, Keira Knightley), Jessica Hynes, John Simm, Rupert Penry-Jones, Marc Warren and Dominic West (registration is required) [link]
• Stephen Mangan attended The Misanthrope press night [link]

Rope

• Guests at the after party included Hattie Morahan, Ben Miles and Lisa Dillon [link]
• A tweet from Sam West:
  

  "To the Almeida for Rope last night - a properly thrilling thriller. Bertie Carvel and Blake Ritson both remarkable; go! http://bit.ly/YC1wr"

Dan Stevens - Radio - Dickens Confidential

Dickens Confidential Series 2
by Mike Walker and Rob Kinsman

Broadcast June-July 2008 on BBC Radio 4

Charles Dickens was a working journalist and, for a time, editor of The Daily News. This BBC Radio 4 series returns to take another imaginative look at how Dickens would have tackled bringing news to the masses.

It is the mid-19th-century and Charles Dickens is editor of The Herald, a newspaper part-owned by Joseph Paxton, railway magnate and self-made man. This is a paper not like any other. Its mission is to celebrate the world of industry and expose the seamy underside of British life...

Dan Stevens plays Dickens in a cast including Freddy White, Gerard Murphy, Bertie Carvel and John Dougall.

Producers. David Hunter and Tracey Neale

The Times

Last year Dickens Confidential imagined what might have happened during the days when Charles Dickens was a working journalist and, indeed, the Editor of The Daily News. Cunningly, Dickens's editorship was switched from the political Daily News to the tabloid Herald, which meant that he was at the sharp end of anything going - horrible murder, steamy scandal, ladies of the night, blackmailed bluebloods ... Now he's back - played this time by Dan Stevens - in another six tales of derring-do. In the first episode, Joseph Paxton, the newspaper's part-owner, is badly beaten. Could this have anything to do with the emergence of a new bank headed by the bombastic Iron Billy? Gangster bankers. Love it.

Links
BBC Programmes [link]
BBC Press Office [link]

Tags: Dan Stevens, Dickens Confidential, Charles Dickens, BBC radio, BBC radio 4

Hayley Atwell - Theatre - The Man of Mode

* updated 2 December

Production: The Man of Mode
Theatre: Olivier - National Theatre

Sunday Telegraph
"...Hayley Atwell, as Belinda, captures both the cool assurance and fragile ego of the glittering schoolgirl who is used to getting her own way..."

The Mail on Sunday
"...As the gorgeous girls variously raked over by the rakish Dorimant, Nancy Carroll is a hilarious neurotic drunk, Hayley Atwell a touching besotted Belinda and Amber Agar an impressively self possessed Harriet. Highly recommended."

Observer
"... [Tom] Hardy is one of an exceptional young cast which includes Hayley Atwell, Nancy Carroll and Bertie Carvel..."

What's On Stage
"...The world of the play is sustained architecturally, too, in the bleak monumentalism of the hotel foyer where Bellair and Harriet pretend to be in love in order to protract the plot, and in Dorimant’s lascivious lair, where he beds and deludes the vacillating Belinda (her dilemmas are beautifully wrought by Ms Atwell)..."

Culture Wars
"...Hayley Atwell convinces as the next brittle, posh floosie in his [Dorimant's] sights..."

John Morrison
"...Nancy Carroll (a favourite of mine) shines as Mrs Loveit, and so does Hayley Atwell as her rival Belinda..."

Chicago Critic
"...Hayley Atwell’s Belinda and Amber Agar, as Harriet, were especially entertaining..."

Pictures
Telegraph [link]
National Theatre 1|2|3
Lebrecht. search for "00086160", "00086158" and "00086157"
Rex features. search for "639471a" and "639471e"
Polfoto 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24

Links
E-trailer [link]

Tags: Hayley Atwell, The Man of Mode, theatre, theater, Belinda, National Theatre, London