Matthew Duggan

Posts Tagged ‘London Theatre’

The following clips have been up on YouTube for a little while but I didn’t post them here at the request of the director. However, it’s now been long enough and with the play itself preparing to re-launch for Edinburgh 2010, I wanted to give you a taste of what it was like for those who made it to the Union Theatre as we transported them back to July 2005…

This clip features Susanna Fiore and myself in my favourite scene from the play (mainly because I get to act like the office jackass):

This is a great scene between two fantastic actors: Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Flintham and Benjamin Peters. Lottie’s character (George) is the office new girl, trying to get on in journalism. Ben’s character (James) is the editor of the newspaper and wants the new girl to ‘keep an eye’ on her colleagues for him…

Everyone’s lost something. A pair of glasses. That pencil you got free at a festival a couple of weeks back and quite wanted to hang onto. The love of your life.

On Saturday 19th September, Upstart Theatre are returning to the Tristan Bates Theatre as part of Midnight Matinee with a labyrinthine installation piece devised by Tom Mansfield, Laura Casey, Kate McGregor and Dan Usztan. Come along and get lost in the maze…

They’d love to find out things you’ve lost – let them know here.

Doors open at 11.55 pm on Saturday 19th September; tickets £5 on the door.

This was a great night that I was a part of last time around. Go along and see it! Plus, it’s always interesting to go to the theatre at midnight!

Here’s what happened last time:

And here’s a fun clip from Trafalgar Square very late (or very early) after the last Midnight Matinee:

And later still…

I’ve just come across another review for Oh Well Never Mind Bye by Steven Lally and Upstart Theatre.

It’s produced by Marion Drew for an online publication called Extra Extra, hence the title of this post. I mention it as Marion very kindly mentions the cast by name including me.

You can read the full review here.

No, that isn’t a euphemism for drinking alcoholic beverages. Well, it is, but that’s not the reason I’ve put it as the title.

The Sauce is a very good blog by journalist Brendan Montague who was kind enough to watch the show twice and take part in the two post-show discussions that we held to expand on the issues of the play Oh Well Never Mind Bye by Steven Lally.

Brendan is a former employee of a couple of Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers so he is one of the best placed people we spoke to for comment on the veracity of the play and the situations the journalists find themselves in. Brendan was very complimentary about the show and even said to me at one point:

‘I can introduce you to the guy you’re playing if you like!’

From my point of view (and that of the writer Steven Lally) this was a great compliment as it shows just how real and well-researched Steve’s writing is. The fact that my character (Fin Ashmore) exists out there in the world of journalism is both great from a creative point of view and sad from the point of view of right thinking journalists who are not content to spew out quotes and information taken directly from the news wire without questioning its authority.

In any case, you can read the review that Brendan wrote for The Sauce by clicking here.

With Oh Well Never Mind Bye now closed (pending a second run at a larger theatre), I’ve had more time to scan and upload the lovely things that various reviewers had to say about the production.

The image on the left is taken from Time Out London (June 25th – July 1st 2009) and features a photo of yours truly along with a glowing recommendation from their reviewer Andrew. To view the image full size and to zoom in on it, simply click the image.

Andrew also wrote a lovely review of the show which you can read by clicking here.