THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Venue Music Hall, Assembly Rooms, George Street
Dates: 2-25 August (not 12)
Time: 16:50
Prices: £16 / £12
Preview: 1 August 2013, £15 / £11
Box Office: www.arfringe.com/0844 693 3008
CAST INCLUDES OMID DJALILI, KYLE SECOR, IAN LAVENDER AND TERRY ALDERTON
A PLAY WRITTEN BY OWEN O’NEILL AND DAVE JOHNS BASED ON STEPHEN KING NOVEL
Set to be one of the hottest tickets at this year’s Fringe, The Shawshank Redemption, will bring together a sizzling fusion of both seasoned stage actors and well known stand up comedians, directed by the acclaimed Lucy Pitman Wallace (ex RSC). Undoubtedly the most ambitious theatrical project since The Assembly Rooms re-opened, this production with its six figure budget will make full use of the Music Hall stage with stunning sets recreating the prison environment.
This witty and poignant new adaptation of the Stephen King classic story follows in the tradition of major fringe theatrical productions of Hollywood favourites like “12 Angry Men” and “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.
Top stand-up Omid Djalili, who has also appeared in Hollywood films such as The Mummy and Sex In the City 2, will perform the role of ‘Red’, and ‘Andy’ is being played by US actor Kyle Secor, best known for playing Tim Bayliss in Homicide:Life On The Street, First Gentleman Rod Calloway with Geena Davis in Commander in Chief and more recently in The Mentalist and Private Practice. Ian Lavender will be making his first ever Fringe outing as ‘Brooksie’. The rest of the cast comprises Owen O’Neill, Steve McNicholl, Vincenzo Nicoli, Terry Alderton, Dave Johns, Joe Rooney and Jack Monaghan.
King’s novella, Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption, was published as part of an anthology in 1982. The film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman was released in 1995 and was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture. It regularly appears in favourite film polls.
When Andy Dufresne was thirty years old he was given two life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover; a crime of which he was innocent. How could this quietly spoken bespectacled middle class banker hope to endure the Shawshank Penitentiary? Gregory Stammas is the most corrupt Warden in the American prison system, his cruel regime carried out by Bryan Hadley, a psychopathic violent prison guard who turns a blind eye when Andy is repeatedly beaten and sexually abused by the ’Sisters’? Andy manages not only to survive all of this, but in a subtle clever way coupled with steely determination, exacts his revenge on those who have tried to destroy him and gives hope to those who believed in him. The Shawshank Redemption is the powerful uplifting story of one man’s incredible self belief, indomitable spirit and long struggle for freedom. As Andy says, “you have two options – get busy living or get busy dying”.
The Shawshank Redemption, scripted by O’Neill and Dave Johns will run throughout the Fringe at The Assembly Rooms. The play will be directed by award winning Lucy Pitman Wallace, with stage and costume design by Gary McCann and lighting design by Kevin Treacy. The play is produced by Assembly Rooms Fringe.
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