Maurice at Above the Stag, London, 12 Sep–21 Oct 2018: Maurice Hall (Tom Joyner) and Alec Scudder (Leo Turner) thrash things out at the British Museum. And if you think this is a manip, you’d be right. :-)

I won’t ever forget this production or get over it, and I suspect it’s the same for the cast (can someone give them a transfer pleassse). To assuage the agony, last month Tom Joyner kindly shared ‘a self-centred selection of PBG Studios’ wonderful production shots of Maurice’ on his Instagram. There’s precisely one new shot of Alec/Leo (at the museum, entreating Maurice into bed), so I played around to see if I could pair him with my favourite shot of Maurice/Tom… <333

Nominations are open for the UK’s 19th annual What’s On Stage Awards (ending 30 Nov 2018)! Everyone who loved and supports Maurice at Above the Stag and its wonderful cast, please help by voting Maurice. <333

KEY INFO:

• The URL/link for nominations/votes is HERE.

• Nominations close on 30 Nov 2018. Members of the public can nominate our favourite production or person in each award category. The shortlist is then put to public vote from 5 Dec to 31 Jan 2019.

• You can submit a nomination – or your set of nominations across the various award categories – ONCE ONLY. (i.e. No multiple votes for the same person/production!) Full FAQs HERE.

STRATEGY:

The WoS awards shortlist AND winners are both decided entirely by public vote. This is a great opportunity to nominate and support the productions that matter to us – and, as everyone who was stunned by Maurice at ATS already knows, ALSO an important way for us to support the astonishing cast and deliver a message that this production needs a transfer. However, the WoS nominations and winners tend to be dominated by big West End shows and big names – and (no surprise) every show mobilises its fans for these awards.

In short, to get anywhere, Maurice and its cast need nominations from as many people as humanly possible, and please think strategically when making your nominations.

Thank you!

Reblogging for morning people/timezones…

‘You called and I came, sir. Everything’s going to be all right.’

E. M. Forster’s Maurice, adapted by Roger Parsley & Andy Graham, at Above the Stag Theatre, Vauxhall, London, 12 Sep – 21 Oct 2018. Leo Turner as Alec Scudder, Tom Joyner as Maurice Hall.

Source image/production stills by Gaz at PBG Studios

Thoughts on Maurice (Above the Stag production)

Now that (very sadly) the stage production is over, and there is no threat of spoiling it for those of you beautiful people planning to see it, I wanted to share some of my thoughts:

*Tom Joyner was FANTASTIC! Hands down! After I adjusted to dark-haired!Maurice, I came to appreciate Tom’s ability to convey Maurice’s constant state of “being in a muddle”. I mean it was beautiful! In fact, I think my favorite line from this script is when Maurice tells Alec “you’ll have to learn that I’m always in a muddle” - I was like, YES that’s my boy!

*Leo Turner’s Scudder was also superb! When I first saw those promo photos posted by @expo63 [X], I immediately thought that the more muscular and “burly” Scudder fits well with what I picture when I read the book (except with Rupert Graves’s face). :-)  Leo also gives this presence as Scudder that is irresistible – as if you can’t look at anyone else in the scene but him. His looks are just so striking - I’m sure that was intentional on James Wilby’s choice.

*I LOVED RISLEY!!!! Oh my goodness, I cannot express how much I enjoyed Tom Elliot Reade’s Risley! I really liked how Risley sort of appears as Maurice’s first exposure to another gay man (one who is confident in himself and doesn’t give a shit about what other people think) and who plants the seed in Maurice’s head to, in essence “talk, talk, talk” – to always discuss/experience things, rather than suppress or remain silent.

*Max Keeble’s version of Clive made me dislike the character even more than I thought possible. I mean, Hugh Grant’s version has a very slight hint where you feel a little sorry for him - though that could be Merchant Ivory’s twist with Risley’s disgrace. So, Clive is even more frustrating to see and Max’s bluntness and arrogance just made me want to punch him. Which works just fine for me, as I know from Forster’s Terminal Note that we’re not supposed to like Clive.

*Please do not, however, assume that this means I found Max’s performance unconvincing! If anything, his effect on me further supports how amazing Max was at conveying Clive’s nature. I thoroughly enjoyed Max’s performance and would suggest that Forster would likely give two thumbs up for this version of Clive. :-)

*I absolutely adored Lily Knight, who played Ada/Anne - she was lovely and had fantastic expressions! She gave Anne the extra layer of cluelessness that you picture in the novel and fits so well with Clive’s new state of being in the second part.

*I literally laughed out loud when Kathryn Worth’s Mrs. Durham just emerges, stomps her cane, and says “I had to ring twice! TWICE!”. By the way, that is the only moment we got to see Mrs. Durham, which was enough for my tastes as she is truly an unpleasant woman.

*Also, I loved the props - you could tell who in the audience had seen the film before because they laughed clearly at the very film-like scenes - i.e. the crawling through the window; the rug rolling; etc.

*Crispin Redman’s Rev. Borenius felt like a combination of himself and Simcox, if you compared this performance to the film. I actually did not like him! In the film and the book, I feel like Mr. Borenius is very similar to Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice - he’s just ridiculous and all you can do is laugh at him. But in the play, he kind of has this menacing side that Simcox (from the film) exhibits.

*James Wilby did SUCH a wonderful job directing this stage production!! As one of the gentlemen I sat next to in the audience suggested to me, James faithfully married the film and the book in a very stylistic way. He chose an excellent cast that delivered Forster’s story perfectly! And James delivered on adding more nudity to the story – showing how aesthetically beautiful it can be when attempting to show intimacy between two characters.

*Finally…OMG OMG OMG my favorite lines from the book were in the play!!! I wanted to cheer like hell when I heard it: “I was yours once until death…” Best part EVER! <3  Am I right, @queerclivedurham? ;-) 

You are VERY right!  Hearing those words gave me goosebumps.  I may have told all three boys individually how glad I was that they kept those lines in haha!  <3 I must say, my feelings about the play are basically identical to yours.  The Mr. Collins comparison is spot on!  I felt so knocked about by Max’s performance that I actually felt bad meeting him in person and thinking “Oh well…he’s actually really sweet and intellectual.” because he came across so very differently on stage.  I still didn’t hate Clive at all, as some people very much do, but the combination of Max’s forceful Clive coupled with Tom and Leo’s perfect chemistry didn’t leave me with the bittersweet longing that the film did, like, at all.  Also, I think because they were all quite tired by the final weekend, Max was actually toning it down a little (he was much quieter in certain scenes), whereas Tom actually seemed a little edgier in the same scenes, which struck a balance that I personally quite liked (get it Maurice!!).  They all did such a good job, I just can’t imagine doing all those shows on the daily!

*enthusiastically agrees with your comments*

Continuar a ler

Tom / Maurice is officially a gold-star nerd

[source photo here]

“The afternoon had broken into glory. White clouds sailed over the golden waters and woods. In the midst of the pageant Fred Scudder was raving because his unreliable brother had missed the last train, and the women were protesting while they were hustled up the gangways, and Mr Borenius and old Scudder were lamenting to the officials. How negligible they had all become, beside the beautiful weather and fresh air… “Mr. Borenius do look at the sky — it’s gone all on fire,”… a gorgeous horizon still glowed, and inflamed cloudlets which flared when the main glory faded, and there was even enough light for him to walk up from the station at Penge through quiet fields.”

—  E.M. Forster, Maurice

Image: Tom Joyner as Maurice Hall, Above The Stag Theatre, 2018 (x)

#such a good moment #one of my favourite pieces of sympathetic fallacy and so glad they kept it for this production

Maurice at Above The Stage: Scudder’s Letters

In Maurice, Alec writes two letters to Maurice after their night in the Russet Room. These letters drive the plot forward and function as our clearest glimpse into Alec’s thoughts and feelings. Given that he suffers from being rather lightly sketched on the page*, these letters are vital sense to Alec’s character development. In the ATS production of Maurice, the letters are staged to maximise Alec’s voice and experience.

Continuar a ler

I am way too emotional to comment this... 😭😭😭

Maurice at Above The Stag: Sets and Stagehands

Having just seen the stage production of Maurice at Above the Stag in Vauxhall, I naturally many FEELINGS. Anyone who has had the (mis)fortune to nerd out with me will know that I scribble a lot of notes and never shut up. I am, however unrepentant in subjecting you nerds to my thoughts. I suspect there will be a few rambling posts, so if you follow me for unrelated things like The Expanse, I apologise. But, onwards to the rambling! One of the things this production excelled at was the staging, making imaginative use of stagehands and moveable pieces to reinforce the play’s themes.

This production uses eight actors and all but one - Tom Joyner as Maurice - act as stagehands. During stagehand duties, the actors remain in costume and to a certain extent, in character. This was most noticeable with Tom Elliot Reade as Risley.* Risley’s role is rather brief but he makes an impression. Reade is delightful in the role, but his masterstroke is how reacts to Maurice while employed as stagehand. He looks at Maurice with undisguised longing and gazes directly at him instead of at the set pieces he is charged with moving. There is a lovely moment where he brings Maurice a book for use in the next scene. Rather than place the book down, Reade holds the book out and fixes Maurice with an unmistakably Risley-esque look. When Maurice reaches for the book, it is jerked out of reach. When Reade does relinquish the book is with an arch, knowing expression at seems full of judgement at the way Clive and Maurice will continue to dance around each other in the following scene.

Overall, Reade’s continued performance adds to the sense of unrequited longing suffusing the entire play. This in turn adds poignancy to the soft but acquisitive way that Maurice behaves towards Clive. Maurice is constantly trying to touch Clive, but always brushed off. He continues to reach out, daring to ask for contact and continually chastened for it. This highlights Maurice’s need and capacity for love, how much he yearns for more than Clive is willing to give. Using Reade’s lingering performance to highlight this is both highly effective and efficient use of actors.

The second stagehand especially well utilised is Leo Turner as Alec Scudder.  As an overly nerdy person going to see this play (of whom I refuse to believe I am the only one!), one is naturally aware of Maurice as a novel and film. And before going to see a play like this (niche interest production at a small LGBT theatre) I think it’s a fair assumption that a good portion of your audience will have pored over the program, well aware of the tall bearded actor in the flat cap. By having Turner pass through various strategic light sources, the eye is drawn to him among the other stagehands. By the time Alec actually appears as a character, he is already part of our awareness. Part of the fabric of the world. As Forster wrote in his Terminal Note to Maurice,** Alec must be inserted gradually into the narrative until he becomes an overwhelming focus. The producers are similarly able to slip him into the consciousness of the audience before we face him as a character.*** This mirrors Maurice’s growing awareness of him. It gives him a gradually increasing magnetism until, as for Maurice, Alec Scudder becomes impossible to ignore.

The use of costumed stagehands adds depth to the world through which Maurice walks, to the texture of the performance. Many scenes end with Maurice lost in thought, alone in the centre of the stage. In these moments he was surrounded by shadows, by people striding past without acknowledging his presence. It gave a wonderful sense of his isolation, confusion and doubt as to his place in the world. Just as Maurice’s homosexuality cuts him off from the humanity around him, his emotional isolation is made physical through use of the stagehands. Maurice is alone and what’s worse, he is alone among the very humanity with whom he wishes to form those essential connections.

*Reade was also one of the only actors not to feature in a double role, perhaps this was the producers’ way of making full use of his talent. 

**included in most editions of the novel.

***more on Alec’s onstage introduction in another post - as yet unwritten! I told you, I never shut up.

NEVER apologise for nerding out copiously, OMG no! ESPECIALLY not about this glorious production and its astonishing cast. <3333 And ESPECIALLY not when your notes and observations are SO GOOD. Looking forward to more.

Please ramble about like there's no tomorrow! All of us, poor souls, who never got a chance to see the real thing need it badly!

So, it was perfect in every possible way, right?

@allez-argeiphontes your last paragraph is enough to break my heart into tiny, tiny bits... Maurice's loneliness throughout a good part of the story is - at least I believe it is - one of the most important things in the novel, and it is beautifully shown in the film as well. So, it was absurdly perfect, I can see...

Thanks for sharing this. I'm going to get up and go to work now, my soul bawling it's eyes out like a baby.

So, how was Maurice at The Stag?

Brilliant.  Wildly captivating, and so intimate!  I also can’t believe how well they worked with the set.  I feel so, so lucky to have been able to see it.  You know also makes me feel happy?  Well for one, meeting @tigris88 who was so lovely and adorable! (and I hope you got your signature!)  Aaand CHATTING WITH MAURICE AFTER THE SHOW!

So having finished a last J&T and being on our way out, we thanked a few cast members in passing, including Tom Joyner (Mauri).  He actually stopped me when he noticed my Clive getup.  He said “Wait a minute…someone told me that you were coming!  Uh…Professor so-and-so?”  (I’m guessing this is one of you guys from tumblr!) ;P He then proceeded to chat with me about why I liked Maurice, and he mentioned that he felt very lucky to have done something that meant so much to the dedicated fans- and right after graduating!  I told him that he did an absolutely stunning job of it, then eventually that I was a little bummed not to have seen James around but that I hoped he was well too.  That’s when Tom got out his phone…

Asked for my name and email, then said feel free to message him on FB/Twitter and told me he would get James Wilby to sign something for me that he would then send to me!?  We chatted a bit more and I praised him again before heading off, where I was stunned for a few moments and then actually teared up because I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to a bad day.  Tom was LOVELY, he was so charming and kind.  What an evening.  He also called after me, “Careful going out dressed like that, you’re boxin’ for a fight!”

So yes, in short, Maurice asked for Clive’s contact details and Clive PROMPTLY gave them.

#guys he was so nice asfbkdsfbfsngfsbdfngn

HE IS AWESOME AS WELL AS BEING SUCH AN INTELLIGENT MAURICE AND SO TALENTED

I have SUCH a big secondhand smile on your behalf right now. :-))))) Also for @tigris88. :))))

So this is basically me, disappearing until only a huge smile is left. Am I allowed to be second hand glad, proud, elated, and deeply moved? Thank you so much!

Psst … Maurician friends, and especially friends of Maurice on stage: for those of you who are on Twitter, the astonishing, wonderful, talented Maurice at ATS cast have Tweeted a thing today which richly deserves y/our support. Please take a look and give them some love, congratulations and appreciation if you feel you can.

@fermencja @etal-later @allez-argeiphontes @green-violin-bow @queerclivedurham​ … tagging you for starters

Retweeted!

Tom Joyner is SO GOOD in Maurice, he’s absolutely the Maurice of my imagination. I couldn’t believe it was his first role since leaving drama school.

^^^ SO, SO GOOD, and such a committed, lucid, intelligent performance.

But really all the leads are fucking stellar, utterly excellent, and making this text theirs. (I’m extremely impressed by Max Keeble’s Clive, too: an incredibly mature interpretation, and he’s only 23.) I’m full of all three performances, with no ghost of the film, which must be the highest praise. Two beautiful, brilliant Maurices; so different, both great. And this one has reached its audience, but has no press…

I'm insanely jealous of you, but above all I am absurdly glad that the play has reached out and is actually sold out even with no press. ❤️

Psst … Maurician friends, and especially friends of Maurice on stage: for those of you who are on Twitter, the astonishing, wonderful, talented Maurice at ATS cast have Tweeted a thing today which richly deserves y/our support. Please take a look and give them some love, congratulations and appreciation if you feel you can.

@fermencja @etal-later @allez-argeiphontes @green-violin-bow @queerclivedurham​ … tagging you for starters

Retweeted!

Tom Joyner is SO GOOD in Maurice, he’s absolutely the Maurice of my imagination. I couldn’t believe it was his first role since leaving drama school.

Psst … Maurician friends, and especially friends of Maurice on stage: for those of you who are on Twitter, the astonishing, wonderful, talented Maurice at ATS cast have Tweeted a thing today which richly deserves y/our support. Please take a look and give them some love, congratulations and appreciation if you feel you can.

@fermencja @etal-later @allez-argeiphontes @green-violin-bow @queerclivedurham​ … tagging you for starters

Retweeted!

I REALLY shouldn’t grumble, I know – but I’m suffering agonising Maurice-at-Above-the-Stag withdrawal symptoms that I can’t see this glorious production again every week/end.

Bless the theatre’s website for compensating – or rather, fanning the flames of obsession – by providing us with a further still of Alec writing his letter to complement the existing still of Maurice reading either it or (possibly: different paper size) his own ‘confession’ for Lasker Jones.

Did I mention that the writing and reading of Alec’s letters is wonderfully staged, with both actors onstage simultaneously in different spaces, Alec writing and Maurice reading? I have now. <33

Yes this was very clever and wonderful :-)

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

‘Inventive and animated direction from James Wilby – who played Maurice in the 1987 film – ensures that this classic tale never feels dusty or staid. … Forster himself would be justifiably proud to witness this delicately playful interpretation of his work. … Refined, reflective, and ultimately triumphant – Maurice is a superbly accomplished telling of a classic tale, and is not to be missed.’

Wow! Another great, well-deserved review! I am so so happy about this. :-)

@expo63 , thank you for posting it :-) !

Yet more Maurice-directed-by-Maurice goodness! Above the Stag has kindly shared some more photos from last Friday’s press night on their Twitter. <333

All photographs by Gaz  PBG Studios (Twitter: PBGSTUDIOS_gaz) for Above the Stag Theatre. 

Above: Double Maurice with double Alec. :))) Tom Joyner (2018’s Maurice in the current production), James Wilby (1987 Maurice, and director of 2018 Maurice at Above the Stag), Rupert Graves (1987 Alec) and Leo Turner (2018 Alec). Below: A further helping of double Alec.

Oh my heart…

Oh my heart indeed! Double helpings! Weeeeeeee!

‘The passing of time may have blinded Forster to the merits of his own novel, but its message of social and self-acceptance resonates today. … Wilby’s direction comes with an intuitive understanding not only of the novel, but also of the society in which Maurice lived and worked. … [he] draws out superlative performances that capture the elegance and inscrutability of the age.’

Double Scudder indeed. ;-))

Rupert Graves and Leo Turner at tonight’s press night of Maurice, directed for the theatre by James Wilby at Above the Stag, Vauxhall, London. All hail Leo, this production’s new Alec. <33

Source: Peter Bramah’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterbramah/status/1040724701318983680

From new!Alec LeoTurner01 on his Twitter. He sounds as excited as we all are!!