The Original Theatre Compnay & Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds present Adrian Lukis in Being Mr Wickham
Live streaming on Friday 30 April & Saturday 1 May 2021
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Original Theatre Company – the production company behind the critically acclaimed lockdown online productions of Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong Online, Louise Coulthard’s Watching Rosie, Torben Betts’s Apollo 13: The Dark Side of The Moon, Philip Franks’s The Haunting of Alice Bowles and Peter Barnes’s Barnes’ People – and Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds are delighted to present Adrian Lukis in Being Mr Wickham. Written by Adrian Lukis and Catherine Curzon, this one-man play about one of Jane Austen’s most charmingly roguish characters, will be directed by Guy Unsworth, designed by Libby Watson and filmed by Matt Hargraves and his team from North South Culture, who recently worked on the acclaimed streaming of Hymn at The Almeida.
Artistic Director of Original Theatre Company, Alastair Whatley said, “After months spent making work from home, I am delighted to be returning to the beautiful Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds with Being Mr Wickham; an apt venue in every way for our first ever live streaming. This stunning regency theatre is the theatre we call home and it could not be better suited to host an evening with Adrian Lukis reprising his acclaimed performance as Mr Wickham.”
Owen Calvert Lyons, Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, said, “Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds is delighted to be supporting Original Theatre to create Being Mr Wickham. George Wickham is one of literature’s most loved/hated figures and it feels fitting that he should make his return on the stage of the country’s last remaining Regency theatre. That audiences will experience this reinvention of Jane Austen’s story through online streaming is a beautiful fusion of the past and the future.”
"Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends - whether he may be equally capable of retaining them is less certain."
Pride and Prejudice’s George Wickham is on the eve of his sixtieth birthday and wants to lift the sheets on exactly what happened thirty years on from where Jane Austen left him.
Adrian Lukis said of the production, "I’m thrilled to be reunited with my old friend, George Wickham. Having spent years defending his dubious reputation, I look forward to finally setting the record straight, with the assistance of the immensely talented Original Theatre Company."
Adrian Lukis starred in the renowned Andrew Davies adaptation for the BBC of Pride and Prejudice. Rarely off the small screen, his most recent TV credits include Channel 4’s Feel Good, the 2019 mini-series A Christmas Carol starring Guy Pearce, Vera, Poldark, Bulletproof, Collateral, The Crown, Red Dwarf, Grantchester, Black Mirror, Blair Toast in Toast of London, Downton Abbey, New Tricks and Death in Paradise. He also stars in the new Netflix series Anatomy of a Scandal, due to be streamed this year. Films include Judy, Dolittle, City Slacker and Bertie & Dickie. Recent theatre credits include The Price (Theatre Royal Bath), The Seagull (Chichester Festival Theatre/ National Theatre), and Versailles (Donmar Warehouse).
Live from the stage of the magnificent Regency Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, the live performances will be followed by a Q&A with Adrian Lukis.