Jubilee: London Live: Tuesday 7th November: 10pm Jubilee: London Live: Saturday 11th November: 1.20am
Queen Elizabeth I travels through time from 1578 to 1978, where she sees what has become of her once glorious kingdom: law and order have broken down and punks roam the streets. Director: Derek Jarman. Starring: Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Hermine Demoriane, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson. (Click here or below to browse our comprehensive Jubilee news archive) NB: London Live available on: Freeview 8, Sky 117, Virgin 159, YouView 8.
40 Years On Derek Jarman’s Cult Punk Film Is Remixed For The Social And Political Turmoil Of 2017
A free-spirited, gloriously rude, take-no-prisoners blast of a show with a soundtrack to die for. Marking the 40th anniversary of Derek Jarman’s iconic film, the Royal Exchange’s world premiere of Chris Goode’s stage adaptation of Jubilee is sure to appeal to young punks, old punks, and anyone who’s ever wanted to set the world on fire.
A marauding girl gang are on a killing spree and a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth I, played by original film cast member and legendary punk warrior Toyah Willcox, observes it all. An electrifying ensemble cast, including Lucy Ellinson as Ariel and Travis Alabanza as Amyl reimagine JUBILEE for a 2017 audience. A co-production with Chris Goode & Company this riot of a show will run from 2 – 18 November.
In director Derek Jarman’s cult punk film Jubilee (1978), three characters stand on a London rooftop considering some high-rise housing. “Never lived beneath the 14th floor till I was old enough to run away,” says Sphinx, a young man who lives in a squat, played by Welsh actor Karl Johnson. “Everything was regulated in that tower block . . . didn’t know I was dead until I was 15 . . . my generation’s the blank generation.”
• Opening Night: There’s less than a week until Jubilee opens at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Click here to book tickets.
• QEI: Toyah will play Queen Elizabeth I in the production.
• BBC Breakfast: Toyah guested on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday to discuss the production.
• Toyah @ Twitter: Yesterday Toyah tweeted: “Less than a week to opening. So excited. We are now in the space & learning our routes around this extraordinary theatre.”
• Royal Exchange Theatre: Inside Rehearsals… Week 3 of Jubilee – Alex Hurst – Observer Mondays Director – gives us an insight into the third week of rehearsals for Jubilee, directed by Chris Goode – Continue reading…
The Lyric Hammersmith in London has announced its 2018 season, which will include Chris Goode’s stage adaptation of Jubilee, starring Toyah Willcox.
Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars will also feature in the upcoming season, in a co-production with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Philip Venables’ opera adaptation of 4:48 Psychosis, Sarah Kane’s play, will return to the Lyric as part of the season, produced by the Royal Opera.
Jubilee, based on the 1977 film of the same name, plays at the Lyric in February following its premiere at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, as previously announced. It will be co-produced by the two theatres, with Chris Goode and Company.The Lyric’s auditorium will be reconfigured to recreate the Royal Exchange’s in-the-round space
Toyah Willcox to star in new season at Lyric Hammersmith
The actress and singer will star in a new stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee
The Lyric Hammersmith has announced its 2018 season with highlights including a new stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s punk film Jubilee. The new season will kick off with Frantic Assembly’s Thing I Know To Be True, which returns to the venue following an acclaimed run last year.
Then from 20 February to 10 March, Toyah Willcox will star in a new staging of Derek Jarman’s seminal film, Jubilee, adapted and directed by Chris Goode. Wilcox starred in the original film about the height of punk, forty years later the piece has been remixed for the social and political turmoil of 2017. The Royal Exchange, Lyric Hammersmith and Chris Goode & Company co-production will see the Lyric’s main house reconfigured to recreate the Royal Exchange’s theatre-in-the-round.
Jubilee: London Live: Tuesday 7th November: 10pm
Queen Elizabeth I travels through time from 1578 to 1978, where she sees what has become of her once glorious kingdom: law and order have broken down and punks roam the streets. Director: Derek Jarman. Starring: Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Hermine Demoriane, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson. (Click here or below to browse our comprehensive Jubilee news archive)
NB: London Live is available on: Freeview 8, Sky 117, Virgin 159, YouView 8.
Aaaaaaaah! receives its UK television premiere this weekend on Film 4.
Check out our huuuuge Aaaaaaaah! news archive here or by clicking on the poster below. (Thanks to Darren)
Aaaaaaaah!: Film 4: Sunday 29th October: 00.30am
Writer-director-star Steve Oram’s experimental satire is set in a parallel present in which, despite wearing clothing and developing advanced technology, mankind never attained the power of speech. Instead, people communicate in gestures and non-verbal vocalisms, ranging from grunts to whistles and growls. And this isn’t the only similarity to our great ape cousins, as social and sexual behaviour is closer to that of gorillas or bonobos and is completely shorn of social niceties. The film opens with a grieving alpha male and his companion ritually urinating on a photo of the dominant male’s wife to mark her loss. They then move through woodland and into London’s sprawling suburbs, intent on staking out new territory for themselves…
How Toyah Willcox lost her punk virginity: the making of Derek Jarman’s Jubilee
There were two Englands in 1977. There was the Establishment England, ready to wave flags and hold street parties as Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her silver jubilee. And then there was the alternative England, embodied by the rise of the punk movement and, in particular, the Sex Pistols whose single God Save the Queen equated the monarchy with fascism. The song was rumoured to have been kept from the number one spot by the British Market Research Bureau on account of its seditious intent.
The film-maker Derek Jarman represented the dichotomy of England at that time. A middle-class, ex-public schoolboy, he was starting to get noticed as a film-maker at the forefront of the avant-garde.
• Continue reading at The Telegraph(subscription required).
At the World Premiere of Lies We Tell it was all about the truth as Premiere Scene interviews actors Emily Atack, Toyah Willcox, Jan Uddin, Sibylla Deen, Reece Ritchie, Danica Johnson, Hamish Rush, director Mitu Misra, producer Andy McDermott and composer Zbigniew Preisner.
Alex is a man with everything – the well-paid executive job, the impressive house in the country and the beautiful wife and child. When he inexplicably decides to leave work early one Friday nothing will ever be the same again.
Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Tuesday 25th July: 9.55am
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone.
Jubilee: London Live: Monday 3rd July: 10pm
Queen Elizabeth I travels through time from 1578 to 1978, where she sees what has become of her once glorious kingdom: law and order have broken down and punks roam the streets. Director: Derek Jarman. Starring: Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Hermine Demoriane, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson.
Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Friday 30th June: 3.20am Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Sunday 2nd July: 7.05am Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Wednesday 5th July: 2.20pm Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Thursday 6th July: 1.30am Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Friday 7th July: 2.05pm
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone.
Jubilee: London Live: Monday 26th June: 1.05am
Queen Elizabeth I travels through time from 1578 to 1978, where she sees what has become of her once glorious kingdom: law and order have broken down and punks roam the streets. Director: Derek Jarman. Starring: Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Hermine Demoriane, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson.
NB: London Live is available on: Freeview 8, Sky 117, Virgin 159, YouView 8.
Derek Jarman’s punk classic Jubilee to be reignited on stage
Toyah Willcox plays the time-travelling Elizabeth I in the Royal Exchange’s version of the film that caused outrage after 1977’s silver jubilee
Derek Jarman’s anarchic punk film Jubilee is to be adapted for the stage with a cast including Toyah Willcox who made her screen debut in the original version 40 years ago. Willcox played the cackling pyromaniac Mad, a member of a girl gang whose fights, orgies and random acts of cruelty are witnessed by Queen Elizabeth I when she is magically transported to the 1970s. The new stage version, which will open at Manchester’s Royal Exchange theatre this November, casts Willcox in the role of the time-travelling queen.
“At the time it was made, it was utterly outrageous,” says Willcox of the film, which she describes as the tale of “women who are trying to kind of kill everything that controls them or that has exploited them. It’s a very resonant story today. Nothing’s changed except the technology.” The stage version will be firmly set in the modern day, with the script updated throughout the show’s run to acknowledge current events.
“If there’s something noteworthy in the news at 1pm, hopefully you’ll be hearing a reference to it in the show in the evening,” says Chris Goode, the show’s director. Goode, who first saw Jarman’s film as a teenager and has been influenced by the DIY punk ethos throughout his theatre career, added: “We didn’t want our version to be an exercise in nostalgia. Part of the impulse was thinking about where punk is at now.”
Toyah Willcox in Jubilee and the return of Julie Hesmondhalgh among highlights of Royal Exchange Theatre’s new season of shows
Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre reveals an exciting mix of plays for its Autumn/Winter season
80s pop icon Toyah Willcox will play Queen Elizabeth I as she makes her Royal Exchange Theatre debut in Jubilee, part of the striking new programme of shows for the Autumn/Winter season announced by the Manchester venue.
Toyah will star in the theatre adaptation of Derek Jarman’s punk cult classic movie Jubilee, a film she originally starred in as the character Mad in 1978.
She will now take on the role of Queen Elizabeth I, who is transported into a shattered modern Britain in the story adapted by Chris Goode who makes his exchange debut as new associate artist.
Chris Goode is to adapt Derek Jarman’s cult film Jubilee for the stage at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.
The production will take place as the film marks its 40th anniversary, and will star original film cast member Toyah Willcox. Goode, who joins the Royal Exchange as an associate artist, will adapt and direct Jubilee. It premieres from November 2 to 18, with press night on November 7.
Goode described the project as “brilliantly daunting and irresistible”, adding: “Derek Jarman has been a hero to me for 25 years and the opportunity to stage a brand new adaptation of one of his most iconic films with one of the country’s most iconic theatres is mind-blowing and heart racing in equal measure.”
“Under Sarah Frankcom’s visionary leadership the Royal Exchange continues to consolidate its position as a boldly risk-taking and boundary-exploding venue where we get to come together and talk about the biggest questions of our age in the most exciting ways we can imagine. At a time when dialogue and dissidence feel more precious than ever, I want Jubilee to be a celebration of the energy of our anger and our hope.”
Manchester Royal Exchange announces autumn 2017 season
The season includes an adaptation of the film Jubilee and two plays by Bruntwood Prize winners
From 2 to 18 November, the theatre will stage the world premiere of Jubilee, Chris Goode’s stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s 1978 film. Original cast member from the film Toyah Willcox will front the production, which is updated for the political and social scene of 2017.
