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Nihilism, nudity, no future: Derek Jarman’s bleak Britain comes pungently to the stage – Jubilee, Royal Exchange, Manchester, review

How do you take a defining film from the punk era and reconceive it for the stage, 40 years on, when the V-flicking message of punk was “no future”?

Derek Jarman’s 1978 vision of Britannia sinking below the waves during the flag-waving year of the Silver Jubilee revelled in images of dystopian collapse: post-industrial wastelands, dismal interiors that no yet-to-be-conceived TV makeover programme could spruce up, random acts of senseless violence. It was Beckett’s Endgame meets A Clockwork Orange, with melancholy traces of Shakespeare – and it was designed to look like the end of the world was nigh.

Yet here we now are, and many of the gobbing youths of yesteryear turned out fine, some of them doing very nicely indeed thanks to the Thatcher revolution (Malcolm McLaren, “godfather” of punk, at least had the grace and courage to acknowledge that, recalling a “failed, miserable country” before her arrival).

• Continue reading at The Telegraph.

Buried secrets have a way of coming back to bite people – even if the secrets they’re trying to protect are not their own. That’s the idea behind Mitu Misra’s new thriller, Lies We Tell, which stars Gabriel Byrne and Harvey Keitel. We have an exclusive look at the first trailer for the film, along with its UK quad poster.

When his billionaire boss Demi (Keitel) dies, chauffeur Donald (Byrne) is given one final job – to wipe out any evidence of Demi’s relationship with his mistress, the enigmatic and beautiful Amber (Sibylla Deen). Donald’s task soon unravels when Amber’s life is threatened, and he finds himself her reluctant protector. Unwittingly drawn into a dangerous urban underworld, he encounters dark, harrowing practices, and a sinister underworld figure who will test him to his very limits…

Positioning itself in the tradition of the original Get Carter and Mike Figgis’ Stormy Monday, the film is based on a story by Misra, with the script coming from Ewen Glass and Andy McDermott. With Mark Addy, Gina McKee and Toyah Willcox also in the film, Lies We Tell will be in UK and US cinemas on 2 February.

• Continue reading at Empire. Browse our Lies We Tell news.

This week’s best theatre shows: Our critics’ picks (November 7)

Jubilee – Royal Exchange, Manchester

Chris Goode’s new stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s iconic chronicle of the 1970s punk scene opens in Manchester on November 7. Promising to be a remix for a new generation it stars Toyah Willcox, who also appeared in the original.

• Continue reading at The Stage.

15.11.2017. In Conversation: Toyah Willcox with Dave Haslam at Royal Exchange.

The Royal Exchange is currently running a stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s film, Jubilee (read our preview). And later this month, fans can spend an evening with Toyah Willcox, one of the stars of the play (and indeed the original film). She will be talking to the journalist and author Dave Haslam. They won’t be short of things to discuss, as Toyah has had a long, storied career not only as an actor, but also as a musician and writer. She first broke through in the late seventies as a punk pioneer. Around the same time, she starred in both Quadrophenia and another Jarman film, The Tempest. Over the years, she has appeared many more movies, TV shows AND released 24 albums. Recently, she wrote a book detailing her experiences with plastic surgery. Despite all this, she’s still best known to some as the narrator of Teletubbies.

• Continue reading at Manchester Wire.

• West End Theatre: Toyah Willcox to star in stage adaptation of punk film Jubilee: Legendary punk warrior and actress Toyah Willcox will star in a stage adaption of Derek Jarman’s seminal punk film Jubilee. Forty years after Jarman’s film captured punk at its giddy height, the new stage adaption remixes it for the social and political turmoil of 2017 – Continue reading…

• Creative Tourist: Unmissable things to do in Manchester and the North: Jubilee at the Royal Exchange – It’s 40 years since the heyday of the punk movement. An anarchic expression of contempt for society’s stagnation, it produced some of the most interesting (and angriest) music of the ‘70s, much of which has stood the test of time. Now the Royal Exchange is turning one of the iconic films of the era – Jubilee – into a theatre piece, complete with spikey punk soundtrack – Continue reading…

• The Telegraph: Cast of play rebels over reference to Myra Hindley as a ‘hero’, forcing director to delete lines: Toyah Willcox, who was in the film and is now in the play, said that using the lines in the city where Hindley and Ian Brady operated would have “undermined the whole play” – Continue reading…

• BBC News: Manchester theatre cuts Myra Hindley hero-worship lines: A new play in Manchester has cut lines about Moors Murderer Myra Hindley being “a true artist” and a “hero” for fear of offending the audience. The 1978 punk film Jubilee has been adapted for the Royal Exchange theatre – Continue reading…

• The Guardian: Don’t condemn sound judgment as PC behaviour: A stage production of Derek Jarman’s 1978 film, Jubilee, has had lines removed where a character expresses admiration for Myra Hindley… Toyah Willcox, who was in the film, and now appears in the play, was against retaining the lines and made the point that Jarman would have originally included them for shock value – Continue reading…

Toyah Willcox: ‘I’d rather have been a 70s punk than be young today’

After playing a member of the anarchic and murderous girl gang in the 1978 punk film Jubilee, actress and singer Toyah Willcox is revisiting the story in its first stage version. Is she still punk, 40 years on?

“I can’t live in a world of dullards,” Toyah says. “So I think on that level, I’m definitely punk.”

Toyah, who forged an acting career while also making her name as a pop star, is still rebelling against the expectations of society – in her own way. “For me, it’s non-conformist,” she says. “I’m just not interested in the norm. The only example I can give you is I can’t go to a hairdresser and talk about holidays. I just don’t live in that world. It’s not me.”

Being punk means something different in 2017 compared with 1977. But the world’s a different place now, and Toyah is almost 60.

• Continue reading at BBC News.

A well-known local singer performed in front of a capacity crowd at the Music at Stow Festival.

Toyah Willcox, who has amassed thirteen top 40 singles, acted in fifteen feature films and presented such diverse television programmes as The Good Sex Guide and Songs Of Praise song at St Edward’s Church.

The star, who lives in Pershore, with her rock-star husband Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame, presented the evening in the form of a trip down memory lane, illustrated with songs, film clips, photos and some very entertaining name-dropping from her wide-ranging career.

• Continue reading at the Cotswold Journal.

Dreaming With Open Eyes – The Films of Derek Jarman

In many ways, it is surprising that Chris Goode’s realisation of Jubilee, Derek Jarman’s 1977 state-of-the-nation punk film fantasia, is the first adaptation for the theatre of an original work by the late, great artist, director, writer, designer, activist and gardener.

There are many lenses through which one can consider this hugely influential maker and his prolific, fecund and diverse oeuvre, but the ‘theatrical’ is certainly absolutely central to Jarman’s vision of creative possibility, regardless of the medium in question.

Even before one encounters his work – and this is most resonant for those who actually met him – the ‘staging’ of his persona, his declared ‘self’, a dynamically creative gay man in a generally hostile culture, suggested how importantly he viewed the productive tensions implicit within the very idea of theatre: I am, and am not, the person I present. This extended to his choice of living space, at once private and public, from the pioneering loft on London’s Bankside to his final years at Prospect Cottage on the windswept shingle of Dungeness.

• Continue reading at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

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.

• Continue reading at About Manchester.

The spirit of punk — and ‘Jubilee’ — lives on

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.”

• Continue reading at the Financial Times.

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.

• Continue reading at What’s on Stage.

Rock legend and actress Toyah on the road to Stow

Rock legend Toyah Willcox will be performing at St Edward’s Church, Stow-on-the-Wold, on Saturday, October 28, at 8pm as part of the Music at Stow concert series.

From punk princess to high priestess of TV, Toyah is a uniquely gifted performer. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s iconic household names – an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved actress and music composer. Toyah is one of our most versatile and popular personalities whose vibrance and energy has won over many audiences in a career spanning some 40 years.

• Continue reading at Loving The Cotswolds.

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).

This November, our friends at The Royal Exchange Theatre are staging a free-spirited and gloriously rude reimagining of Derek Jarman’s classic punk movie Jubilee.

The Royal Exchange Theatre are looking for a group of participants to take part in the show, specifically to perform in a key scene set in an outrageous underground club venue.

They are seeking a diverse range of people – from club kids to fetish fans; queer teens to drag queens; New Romantic throwbacks to old-school riot grrrls; and old punks and young punks alike. The Royal Exchange Theatre are looking to represent a real variety of cultural backgrounds, body types, ages and styles.

• Continue reading at Superbia.

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 here.

This is set 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. Her Majesty is played by original film cast member and legendary punk warrior Toyah Willcox.

This has an electrifying ensemble cast, including Lucy Ellinson as Ariel and Travis Alabanza as Amyl. They are re-imagining Jubilee for a 2017 audience. A co-production with Chris Goode & Company, this riot of a show will run from 2 – 18 November.

Chris Goode is a writer, director, performer and musician. Since 2011 Chris has been lead artist of Chris Goode & Company. His work with CGC has included two (of his four) Fringe First award-winning shows.

Toyah Willcox has avoided categorisation for 41 years. She is an award-winning singer/ songwriter/ actress with multiple silver/gold/platinum albums under her belt. Toyah’s career started at the National Theatre when she was 18. It was there where she formed her first band named TOYAH and took the punk scene by storm. It even managed to avoid categorisation within the movement, and successfully pushed out the boundaries for women in music.

Derek Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.

• Continue reading at The Nubian Times.

1980s music icons Lloyd Cole and Toyah Willcox confirm gigs for Teesside venue

Toyah and Lloyd Cole to play Yarm’s Princess Alexandra Auditorium within a week of each other in February wo huge music names from the 1980s and 1990s have confirmed gigs at a Teesside venue.

Lloyd Cole, who wrote some of the classic hits of his generation, has announced a date at Yarm’s Princess Alexandra Auditorium on Saturday, February 24 next year. … The Lloyd Cole gig comes the week after a show by another iconic 1980s musician – Toyah Willcox. The “It’s A Mystery” singer – who is becoming a regular visitor to Teesside and even dropped in for a pie at Guisborough’s Pie in the Sky cafe last year before playing Middlesbrough’s Longlands Club – plays the Yarm venue on Saturday, February 17.

• Continue reading at Gazette Live.

Derek Jarman and Aeschylus: the theatre to book now for November

The best new plays in London and Manchester

Jubilee, Royal Exchange, Manchester: 2nd to 18th Nov

Another film adapdation this time of  Jubliee, Derek Jarman’s 1978 punk movie. It was as wild and outrageous as it was imaginative, with Elizabeth I time-travelling to hear Anarchy in the UK and a murderous girl gang listening to New Wave music. One of the girls was Toyah Willcox, now returning to the scene of the crime as Gloriana in Chris Goode’s stage adaptation celebrating the film’s rebellious spirit.

• Continue reading at Prospect Magazine.

Jubilee – Derek Jarman’s chaotic and giddily incendiary punk classic is reimagined and updated for the stage by Chris Goode, 40 years after it first appeared in cinemas. One of the original cast members, Toyah Willcox, returns, this time taking on the role of a time-travelling Elizabeth I who finds herself in a contemporary London where girl gangs rampage across the streets and order has given way to violence.

Royal Exchange, Manchester (box office: 0161-833 9833), 2-18 November.

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

Punk princess, pop icon, acclaimed actor and all round nice girl, well nice with a saucy edge, that’s what you get from this remarkable survivor of an industry that is notoriously destructive. Toyah steps out onto the stage with just two excellent acoustic guitar players to accompany her on a musically illustrated romp through here career. A romp that she has finely honed to create a good balance of story and song, an evening spangled with hits and lightened by incisive comments and witty anecdotes. But above all Toyah can still deliver those hits, her own and some she chooses to cover with not only conviction but with artistry. The voice is better than ever, the accompanying slides remind us of her brilliant visuals and her pithy commentary rattles along creating a compact evening of fun and great music, at times nostalgic but overall there is a sense that this is a woman who is still a valid and relevant musical force.

• Continue reading at Latest Brighton.

‘A couple tried to kidnap my sister… was it Brady and Hindley?’ Inside the head of… Toyah Willcox

Eighties punk singer and actress Toyah Willcox, 59, has eight top 40 singles to her name. She is married to King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, 71.

What is your earliest memory?

My mother putting a thick nappy on me. I used to deliberately hold everything in until she had done it, then would let loose. I was very naughty, even as a baby.

What sort of child were you?

I was completely unconventional in everything, which my mother found very difficult. I was a huge tomboy.

What has been your biggest achievement?

In 2010 I had to learn to walk again when I had my legs made the same length, after living with one leg two inches longer than the other until the age of 51.

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Toyah played a mind-boggling FOUR gigs over the weekend – Wellowfest 2017, Let’s Rock London, Party in the Park Dunstable and Party in the Park Cookley – Below is a press report on Wellowfest and check out Toyah’s Twitter for direct updates from the incredibly busy lady herself!

Wellowfest: Big names and local acts mix for village festival

More than 40 bands and singers will perform over three days at the annual Wellowfest music festival this weekend. They include headliners Hazel O’Connor, Toyah Willcox and The Blockheads.

It takes place at Chapel Farm, Wellow, from tomorrow (Friday) until Sunday. The festival, launched in 2014, covers a wide range of genres, including pop, punk, country and 1980s classics.

The organisers said: “In its fourth year of running, Wellowfest maintains its roots as a family-friendly festival with a chilled out and relaxing vibe. Kick back and enjoy the best of the English countryside while listening to an eclectic mix of sounds.”

• Continue reading at the Newark Advertiser.