Here’s an enticing premise: 10 famous actors who worked together years ago reunite and, one by one, are bumped off.
Is it an Agatha Christie mystery? An Anthony Shaffer (“Sleuth”) thriller? Neither.
The play, “Evening at the Talk House,” is by Wallace Shawn, which means it’s not a conventional thriller. It is, I’m told, more along the lines of a creepy short story by Shirley Jackson (“The Lottery”) laced with the brutality of “The Visit” by Friedrich Durrenmatt and the sadism of a Patricia Highsmith novel.
Sounds like fun to me!
“Evening at the Talk House” is on the roster of new plays to be produced in the fall at London’s National Theatre under Rufus Norris’ new regime. (Norris takes over from Nicholas Hytner in March.)
It will be directed by Ian Rickson, who staged “The River,” with Hugh Jackman, which ends its run on Broadway next week.
The National held a well-received reading of “Evening at the Talk House” last fall featuring Alex Jennings and Stephen Dillane.
Dillane won a Tony for the revival of Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” in 2000, but may be better known lately for playing Stannis Baratheon on “Game of Thrones.”
Jennings isn’t as well-known over here, but he’s one of England’s top stage actors. I vividly recall his performance as Gloumov in Ostrovsky’s “Too Clever by Half” at the Old Vic in (gulp!) 1988. (“Too Clever by Half” is a wicked satire of social climbing that hasn’t been performed on Broadway since 1956. One of our nonprofits — hello, Roundabout! — should revive it with larger-than-life actors like Nathan Lane, Frank Langella and Elizabeth Ashley.)
Dillane and Jennings are likely to join the cast of “Evening at the Talk House” at the National in the fall.
Producer Scott Rudin has the rights, so expect a transfer to Broadway in spring 2016.
Congratulations to Russell Janzen and Alex Sharp, this year’s winners of the Clive Barnes Awards. Janzen, of the New York City Ballet, won for dance; Sharp, star of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” won for theater. Both awards come with a check for $5,000.
In a sea of awards ceremonies, the Clive Barnes Awards always stands out, and not because I’m the emcee (though that helps). The finalists are all newcomers, and it’s astonishing to see such breadth of talent in dance and theater year after year.
Clive, this paper’s drama and dance critic for more than 20 years, would have singled out every one of them for praise.