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Jubilee review – rude and raucous return for Jarman’s punk pageant

Chris Goode directs Toyah Willcox in a wild reimagining of Derek Jarman’s film about a time-travelling queen and a generation with no future

‘Welcome to Jubilee,” says Amyl Nitrate near the start of Chris Goode’s reimagining of Derek Jarman’s 1978 punk movie. The straight-talking Amyl, played on stage by the mesmerising transgender performer Travis Alabanza, tells us what to expect: “An iconic film most of you have never heard of, adapted by an Oxbridge twat for a dying medium, spoiled by millennials, ruined by diversity, and constantly threatening to go interactive.”   That just about sums it up, and if you go with the flow you will be taken on a wild theatrical experience that knows exactly what it is doing, even at its most cracked, rude and raucous. This is smart work, spikily and lovingly performed.

Toyah Willcox, who starred in Jarman’s original film, sounds cheekily like Judi Dench in the role of Queen Elizabeth I, presiding over a day trip to the future conjured by court astrologer Dr Dee (Harold Finley).

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

On 4 June 1976 at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall, the Sex Pistols played a gig voted (along with Woodstock and Live Aid) as one of the most influential of all time; thousands claim to have been in the 150-capacity venue, which was less than a third full, but some of those who were went on to form massively influential bands such as Buzzcocks, The Smiths, The Fall and Joy Division / New Order, not to mention Factory Records and The Haçienda.

A year later, the Queen had her Silver Jubilee in the year Never Mind The Bollocks was released (“God save the Queen / The fascist regime”), then in 1978 punk had its own Jubilee in the form of Derek Jarman’s film of that name, starring some major punk and alternative music figures including Toyah, Adam Ant, Siouxsie Sioux, Richard O’Brien, Little Nell, Jordan and Lindsay Kemp.

Toyah Willcox returns to the world of Jubilee but this time as Queen Elizabeth I, whose magician John Dee (Harold Finley) conjures up the spirit Ariel (Lucy Ellinson) – it gets quite Shakespearean in a few places – to transport her forwards in time, not to the broken, depressed streets of the 1970s but straight to the squat of Amyl Nitrate and her fellow residents, now translated into the 21st century.

• Continue reading at British Theatre Guide.

Toyah Willcox stars in Chris Goode’s 40th anniversary production

There is an innate theatricality to Derek Jarman’s cult film. A punk classic celebrating its 40th anniversary next year, Jubilee zaps Queen Elizabeth I into a destitute contemporary Britain. Buckingham Palace has been sold off to a music label and turned into recording studios. The rest of the country has been left to rot and, in the wastelands, anarchic girl gangs and queer artists run riot, shagging and killing anything in sight. They could be the sisters of Anthony Burgess’ droogs – just better dressed.

Designer Chloe Lamford turns the whole Royal Exchange into their squat. Union Jacks are strewn from the balconies. Graffiti is scrawled all over the walls so that political slogans and swearwords fight for space.

• Continue reading at What’s On Stage.

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.

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.

The final preview of Jubilee took place at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester last night. View production shots of Toyah as Queen Elizabeth I at Twitter and Instagram. Click below to book tickets. (Photo © Johan Persson)

• 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…

Chris Goode: Everything I know about theatre, I learned first from Derek Jarman

Almost everything I think I know about theatre, I learned from someplace else. Sometimes it’s just easier to spot the clues about theatre that are encoded in some other kind of event or relationship. You glancingly recognise something and immediately know you want to take it into your next rehearsal room.

Something about the obliqueness of the angle matches the radical hospitality of theatre. The understanding that the wholly new and unexpected is ready to rush in and surround us, if only we can remember that we come to theatre not to make things, but to make spaces for things to happen in.

Several years ago, I wrote a blog post ridiculously entitled “The young anarchosyndicalist’s guide to theatre space”…

• Continue reading at The Stage.

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.

Two great pics of Toyah in character/preparation as Queen Elizabeth I for Jubilee onstage, and Dr. Bennett in the forthcoming film SwipeRight. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)

• 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

• Continue reading at The Stage.

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.

Alex Hurst – Observer Mondays Director – gives us an insight into the first week of rehearsals for Jubilee, directed by Chris Goode. Click below to read.

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.

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.

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.”

• Continue reading at The Stage.