Patricia Routledge Makes Adelaide Stage Debut in ADMISSION: ONE SHILLING This Weekend

Patricia Routledge, award-winning star of theatre and television, will make her Adelaide stage debut tonight 23 May and Saturday 24 May for three performances in the Festival Theatre with international concert pianist Piers Lane in an inspiring musical and theatrical experience entitled Admission: One Shilling.

Admission: One Shilling tells remarkable real-life story of piano virtuoso Myra Hess who in the darkest hours of World War II, believing in the power of music to lift the human spirit, produced a series of lunchtime concerts at London's National Gallery.

Myra Hess's dream was to provide music every day for whoever wanted to hear it. By the end of the war three quarters of a million people (including a number of Australian servicemen and women) had attended one of the 1,698 concerts.

Devised by Nigel Hess, her great-nephew, Admission: One Shilling takes the audience through those wartime years by way of Myra Hess's recollections and the music that she performed, along with a number of powerful images. The show vividly brings to life wartime London from glass strewn streets to falling doodlebugs.

As well, Piers Lane's grand piano accompaniment delivers the flavour of those vital wartime concerts, culminating in a moving rendition of Bach's Jesu, Joy of man's Desiring.

Patricia Routledge is a firm favourite with television audiences for her never-to-be forgotten role as Hyacinth Bucket (Bouquet) in Keeping Up Appearances. (In real life she is a delight and nothing like Hyacinth). She has also toured Australia in The Importance of Being Ernest to great critical acclaim. London based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a flourishing international career. He is in great demand as a collaborative artist as well as presenting more than 100 programs for the BCC Radio 3 including the series 'The Piano'. In addition, he is the Artistic Director of Dame Myra Hess Day at the National Gallery in London.

Admission: One Shilling is presented by Andrew McKinnon and Phil Bathols. The production will tour Australia during May 2014.

For more about the tour and booking details, visit http://admissiononeshilling.com/theshow/.