A Day In The Death of Joe Egg

A Rose Theatre Kingston and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Production

By Peter Nichols
Directed by Stephen Unwin

Tue 30 Apr to Sat 18 May

'an abundance of laugh-aloud funny lines' The Observer

★★★★ The Guardian
★★★★ The Daily Telegraph
★★★★ The Independent
★★★★ The Evening Standard
★★★★ The Mail on Sunday
★★★★★ The Public Reviews

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About

A fast paced black comedy with Ralf Little as Bri and Rebecca Johnson as Sheila.

Bri is a school teacher. His wife, Sheila, loves amateur dramatics. But their daughter Josephine is more than they bargained for and life is getting difficult...

This fast-paced black comedy blazes with the love and pain, the anger and strain of a young couple raising a disabled child. Highly theatrical, frequently heart wrenching and often very funny, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1967) is one of the great plays of the modern British theatre.

2013 is a bumper year for Peter Nichols, with West End revivals of Privates on Parade (1977) and Passion Play (1981).

Director Stephen Unwin wrote a piece for the Independent on how his son's disability is helping him to direct Joe Egg

★★★★ The Guardian 'a very good Egg!'
★★★★ The Mail on Sunday 'Brace yourself, but see it'
★★★★ The Independent 'propelled by the brilliance of the writing and the cast’s extraordinary performance.'
★★★★ Whatsonstage.com 'thanks to playwrights like Peter Nichols… for giving us memorable performances like this.'
★★★★ The Daily Telegraph 'startlingly funny as well as deeply moving.'
★★★★★ The Public Reviews 'it never becomes too much, the seriousness is levied with humour, its anguish with compassion'
★★★★ Evening Standard 'still packs a punch.'
★★★★ Liverpool Post 'excellent cast pulls off the changing moods with ease'
★★★★ Click Liverpool 'an emotional roller coaster, laughing one minute and crying the next.'
★★★★ The Daily Express 'the impact is extraordinary.'

Presented by Rose Theatre Kingston and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse

Photo: Simon Annand

Post-Show Discussion

There will be a Q&A after the performance of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg on Friday 17th May. Join Director Stephen Unwin and a panel for a Q&A about this production of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and the issues surrounding parenting disabled children. Immediately after the performance in the auditorium, free to ticket holders.

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Road Works

There may be road works in progress on Eden Street during the run of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. We'd recommend giving your self a little extra time if you plan to drive to the Rose, and checking your route prior to leaving.

Reviews

a moving revival which strikes just the right tonal balance

The Stage

Ralf Little is superb

The Liverpool Daily Post

a blazingly original cocktail of styles

The Guardian

stunning performances

What’s On Stage (4 stars)

an abundance of laugh-aloud funny lines

The Observer

propelled by the brilliance of the writing and the cast’s extraordinary performance.

The Independent

startlingly funny as well as deeply moving

The Daily Telegraph

Cast & creatives

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

	Joe - Jessica Bastick-Vines Jessica trained at the Guildford School of Acting and The BRIT School. Theatre credits include: Billy Elliot the Musical (Victoria Palace); Parade (Southwark Playhouse); High Society (Upstairs at the Gatehouse); Turandot (Royal Albert Hall); Amy’s Wedding (YMT:UK) and Mother Goose (Hackney Empire). Film credits include: Jessica created the role of Helen in the short film Leapfrog (TeePee Films) directed by Laura Steel.
	Sheila - Rebecca Johnson Theatre credits include: The Vortex (Rose Theatre, Kingston); The Way of the World (Chichester Festival Theatre); This Happy Breed (Theatre Royal, Bath); Coram Boy, Mourning Becomes Electra, Edmond and Peter Pan (National Theatre), The Dog in the Manger, Tamar’s Revenge, House of Desires and Pedro the Great Pretender (RSC); A Comedy of Errors, Macbeth and What the Butler Saw (Sheffield Theatres); Barbarians (Salisbury Playhouse); As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labours Lost and Troilus and Cressida (Regents Park); Mrs Warren’s Profession (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Importance of Being Earnest (Chichester Festival Theatre & West End); The Front Page (Donmar Warehouse); Lady Windermere’s Fan (Manchester Royal Exchange & West End) ; The Rose Tattoo, Double Indemnity and The Long Mirror (Clwyd Theatr Cymru); Jane Eyre (West End); Othello (Theatre Unlimited); My Cousin Rachel (Theatre Royal, Windsor) and A Christmas Carol (Liverpool Playhouse). Television credits include: Dark Matters, Five Daughters, Beau Brummel, London Hospital, Midsomer Murders, Foyles War; The Royal, Spooks, Holby City, Gentlemen’s Relish, Poirot, Jonathan Creek, Just William and Frank Stubbs Promotes. Radio credits include: Marriage à la Mode, The Voyage Out, The Maids, Daughter of the Air, Smiles of a Summer Night and Neri. Film credits include: The Trip, Shackleton and Two Seconds to Midnight.
	Bri - Ralf Little Theatre credits include: 66 Books –A Lost Expression, Aliens and 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (Bush Theatre); Stacy (Trafalgar Studios); On The Ceiling (Ripley-Duggan); Billy Liar (ATG) and Notes On Falling Leaves and Presence [Oliver Nomination 2002 Most Promising Performer] (Royal Court). Television credits include: The Café; The Royle Family; Married Single Other; Massive; Miss Marple – A Pocket Full Of Rye; Robin Hood; Brief Encounters; Two Pints Of Lager & A Packet Of Crisps; The Eustace Bros; Up Late With Ralf Little; Paradise Heights; Always & Everyone; Flint Street Nativity; Bostock’s Cup; The Ward; Heartbeat and Sloggers. Film credits include: Telstar, The Waiting Room, Frozen, 24 Hour Party People, and Al’s Lads. Writing credits include: The Café (2 series).
	Freddie - Owen Oakeshott Theatre credits include: Tiger Tail and Antony and Cleopatra (Nuffield Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Ludlow Festival); Kalashnikov: In the Woods by the Lake (Pursued By A Bear); Desire Under the Elms (New Vic Theatre, Newcastle); Slaves (Theatre 503); Copenhagen (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh); Roots (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Oxford Passion (Creation Theatre Company); The Royal Hunt of the Sun (National Theatre); Market Boy (National Theatre); On the Waterfront (Wimbledon Studio/Tour); Shady Business (The Mill at Sonning); Bites (The Bush Theatre); Free from Sorrow (Tristram Bates); Destiny and The House of Desires (BAC); Way Upstream (Derby Playhouse); An Inspector Calls (West End); Richard III, Henry VI, Pts I, II & III, Antony & Cleopatra, Timon Of Athens and The General From America (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Iceman Cometh (Almeida) and Of Blessed Memory (Kings Head). Television credits include: Trial & Retribution, Spooks, Dream Team, She’s Gone Bad Girls, Armadillo, Family Affairs, The Bill, The Professionals and Birds of a Feather. Film credits include: Upside of Anger and Meat & Electricity.
	Pam - Sally Tatum Theatre credits include: The Second Mrs Tanqueray (Rose Theatre); Red Light Winter (Theatre Royal Bath); This Happy Breed (Peter Hall Company); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Gaslight (Old Vic); To Kill A Mocking Bird (West Yorkshire Playhouse & Birmingham Rep); As You Like It, Twelfth Night and Solstice (Royal Shakespeare Company). Television credits include: Episodes, Holby City, Consuming Passion, Doctors, The Bill, Trial and Retribution, Miss Austen Regrets, Mary Whitehouse, Doctors, Bad Girls, Dream Team and Holy Smoke. Sally is a member of comedy duo ‘General Advice Bureau’ Finalists in the 2012 Funny Woman Awards. Follow Sally on Twitter @GABpeople
	Grace - Marjorie Yates Theatre credits include: Orpheus Descending (Manchester Royal Exchange); This Happy Breed (Bath); Twelfth Night, Plantagenets and Master Builder (Royal Shakespeare Company); Origin Of The Species (Arcola); Another Door Closed (Bath); Three Tall Women (Oxford Playhouse); Honeymoon Suite (Royal Court Theatre); Star Quality (Apollo Theatre); The Price, All My Sons and The Daughter-In-Law (Young Vic); An Inspector Calls (Garrick Theatre); Stages and Death of a Salesman (National Theatre); Glass Menagerie (Bristol Old Vic) Television credits include: Doctors, Above Suspicion, Heartbeat, Casualty, Shameless (regular), Dalziel and Pascoe, Sons and Lovers, The Bill, Heartbeat, Annie’s Bar, Guardians, The Governor, Fighting for Gemma, Kisses at Fifty, All Day on Sands and Marks (Alan Bennet) Film credits include: Edge, The Long Day Closes, Wetherby, Priests of Love and The Optimists.

Peter Nichols - Playwright

Peter Nichols was born in Bristol in 1927 and educated there at The Grammar School and Old Vic Theatre School. After National Service in India, Malaya and Hong Kong, he was an actor in repertory theatre and television for five years and then a teacher in London schools. His many original scripts and adaptations have appeared on television, film and radio.

His plays for theatre are: A Day in the Death Of Joe Egg, The National Health, Forget-Me-Not Lane, The Freeway, Chez Nous, Privates On Parade, Born In The Gardens, Passion Play, Poppy, Blue Murder (later Fig-Leaves), So Long Life, A Piece Of My Mind and Lingua Franca. These have won four Evening Standard Awards, a Society of West End Theatres Award for Best Comedy and two Ivor Novello Best Musical Awards. Details of their first and later productions are in his Plays One and Two which are published by Methuen. Five novels and another ten or so stage plays remain unpublished.

Privates On Parade was revived by The Michael Grandage Company at the Noel Coward Theatre in December 2012 and starred Simon Russell Beale.

Peter was resident playwright at the Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis where he co-directed The National Health. He also directed revivals Of A Day in the Death Of Joe Egg and Forget-Me-Not Lane at Greenwich and the first productions of Born In The Gardens and Blue Murder at Bristol. In 2000 he wrote and directed Nicholodeon, a miscellany of his scenes and songs for Show of Strength.

His original plays for television include an Inspector Morse. Small and big-screen versions of some of his stage plays, adapted by Peter, include A Day in the Death Of Joe Egg, The National Health and Privates On Parade.

Recent work for radio includes: Something in the Air and Jam Yesterday, both about the Nazi Swing Band. Feeling You're Behind (a memoir published by Weidenfeld) appeared in 1984 and in 2000 Peter edited a selection from the diary he's kept on-and-off since he first left England aged eighteen (published by Nick Hern Books).

Peter's 'papers' from 1945 to 2000 are now held in the British Library, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He and his wife, to whom he has been married since 1960 now live in Oxford, previously in Devon, Bristol, Shropshire and (mostly) London. At the last count they have three surviving children and seven grandchildren.

Stephen Unwin - Director

Simon Higlett - Designer

Paul Anderson - Lighting Designer

John Leonard - Sound Designer

Corin Buckeridge - Composer

Ginny Schiller CDG - Casting Director

Jacquie Davies - Costume Supervisor

Alice Hamilton - Assistant Director

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