DAME Sian Phillips comes to Bath Theatre Royal to star in one of Terence Rattigan’s one-act masterpieces, Table Number Seven, from Thursday 24th October to Saturday 2nd November. The 91 year old actress will also take part in an on-stage conversation with director Richard Digby-Day, at Bath’s Ustinov Studio, on Sunday 27th.
Her co-star in the first of the two plays that make up Summer, 1954, is Nathaniel Parker, who also stars in The Browning Version. It is the first time these two Rattigan plays have been staged together, and is a rare opportunity to enjoy both the work of one of Britain’s finest playwrights and the performances of two of our great stage actors.
Sian Phillips, one of a small group of actresses who can genuinely be described as legendary, has a career that dates back to her professional debut at the age of 11 with the BBC’s then Home Service in Wales. Her memorable early screen credits range from a very brief but scene-stealing moment with her then husband Peter O’Toole as King Henry II and Richard Burton as Becket (in the 1964 film of Jean Anouilh’s play) to a devastating performance as Livia, wife and mother of Roman Emperors in I Claudius on the BBC in 1976; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 1979; David Lynch’s Dune in 1984; The Borrowers in 1992 and The Return of The Borrowers in 1993. She has played guest roles in Doctor Who, Good Omens, New Tricks, Under Milk Wood, Casualty, Lewis, and the detective series, Strike. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for Pal Joey in 1980/1981, A Little Night Music in 1996, Cabaret in 2013, and the title role in Marlene in 1999, a production which toured to the Theatre Royal in 1997. In 2007, she provided spoken-word backing for a track on Rufus Wainwright’s album Release the Stars, also appearing live with him at London’s Old Vic Theatre. In 2010 she played Juliet in Bristol Old Vic’s Juliet and her Romeo, a radical reworking of the play with the lovers played by 80-year olds.
Summer 1954 is her 11th production at the Theatre Royal Bath since 1990. She was made a Dame in the 2016 New Year Honours, for services to drama. In Table Number Seven, she plays Mrs Railton-Bell.
The two plays that make up Summer, 1954, are seen as Rattigan’s most personal short works. They are directed by Olivier Award winner James Dacre and are being staged at Bath before a UK tour. Together they capture one quietly momentous evening 70 years ago, and present Rattigan as one of the great 20th century chroniclers of the paradoxes of the human heart.
Summer, 1954. Britain is changing. Nothing will ever be the same again.
The atmosphere at The Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth, is marked by a blend of repressed emotions and post-war gentility. Each of the staff and guests has their own reason for seeking the solace of quiet anonymity, but trying to hide from the social and cultural change sweeping over the country is proving impossible.
Meanwhile, in the heart of the Midlands, the end of the school term brings to a climax the intrigues, deceptions and lies in the lives of its teachers. The ensuing implosion of classicist Andrew Crocker Harris’s career triggers the collapse of his marriage.
Olivier Award winner Nathaniel Parker stars as Major Pollock in Table Number Seven and Andrew Crocker-Harris in The Browning Version. Well loved by television audiences for playing the title role in the long running hit BBC series, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, his numerous screen credits also include playing Agravaine in Merlin, Harold Skimpole in Bleak House and Albert Speer in Nuremburg. His film roles include Wilfred Owen in War Requiem, which also starred Laurence Olivier. On stage, his roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company have included King Henry VIII in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. He appeared in Peter Hall’s 1989 production of The Merchant of Venice with Dustin Hoffman in London and on Broadway. His West End stage credits also include This House, The Audience, Speed the Plow and An Ideal Husband, which toured to the Theatre Royal Bath in 2018.
Award-winning actress and playwright Lolita Chakrabarti stars as Miss Cooper in Table Number Seven and Millie Crocker-Harris in The Browning Version. Her adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi won the Olivier Award for Best Play. Her stage credits include playing Gertrude opposite Tom Hiddleston in Hamlet and John Gabriel Borkman at the Donmar Warehouse and Free Outgoing at London’s Royal Court. Her many television appearances include Vigil and Showtrial for the BBC, Beowulf and Jekyll and Hyde for ITV, Born to Kill for Channel Four, The Casual Vacancy for BBC and HBO.