Finborough Theatre Presents of DR. ANGELUS

By: Nov. 01, 2016
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In a production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, and rediscovering one of the West End's most popular dramatists of the 1930s and 1940s, Dr Angelus by James Bridie starring David Rintoul and Malcolm Rennie plays at the acclaimed Finborough Theatre on Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees from Sunday, 27 November 2016 (Press Night: Monday, 28 November 2016 at 7.30pm).

Glasgow, 1920. Earnest young doctor George Johnson has just been made partner in the medical practice of his eccentric senior colleague Dr Angelus. It seems like the perfect start to his career. When Dr Angelus' treatment of his own mother-in-law results in her death, George remains fiercely loyal to his mentor. But as suspicions of murder multiply and the true nature of his partner is revealed, he finds himself caught in a web of deceit...

A classic psychological thriller, Dr Angelus draws on James Bridie's own background as a doctor and the true life case of Dr Edward Pritchard, the last person to be hanged in Glasgow. Laced with gallows humour, Bridie's surreal and sinister play asks what price the individual will pay if they speak out, and what is at stake if they do not.

Playwright, author, screenwriter and doctor, James Bridie was one of the founding fathers of modern Scottish theatre, and one of the West End's most acclaimed dramatists of the 1930s and 1940s. His work has been unseen outside Scotland for many years, and has now been rediscovered by the Finborough Theatre. This marks the first production in England since its 1947 London premiere, starring Alastair Sim and George Cole.

Playwright James Bridie (the pseudonym of Dr Osborne Henry Mavor) was born in Glasgow in 1888. He studied medicine at Glasgow University. His best known works include Tobias and the Angel (1930); The Anatomist (1931), Tyrone Guthrie's first London production; A Sleeping Clergyman (1933), featuring a tour de force performance by Robert Donat; The King of Nowhere(1938), starring Laurence Olivier; Mr Bolfry (1943); Daphne Laureola (1949), a huge hit for Edith Evans and Peter Finch which ran for a year at the Wyndham's Theatre; and Mr Gillie (1950) featuring his regular collaborator Alastair Sim. He also wrote memoirs, adapted Ibsen, Molière and Chekhov and collaborated on three screenplays for Alfred Hitchcock: The Paradine Case (1947),Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950). His commitment to Scottish theatre included co-founding both the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, and the first school of drama in Scotland (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). He was also instrumental in the creation of the Edinburgh Festival, and a tireless campaigner for a National Theatre for Scotland. He died in Edinburgh in 1951.

Director Jenny Ogilvie returns to the Finborough Theatre where she made her professional stage debut as an actor in Brad Fraser's Wolfboy. Movement Direction in Theatre and Opera includesP'Yongyang, Somersaults and The Soft of Her Palm (Finborough Theatre), Lucia di Lammermoor(Buxton Opera House), The Seven Deadly Sins (Welsh National Opera and Cardiff University),Three Sisters (Southwark Playhouse) and assisting Imogen Knight on Little Revolution (Almeida Theatre). As an actor, Jenny has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Birmingham Rep, and in the West End; and on television and in film in The Crown, Grantchester, Silent Witness, Poirot and A c*ckand Bull Story. She was nominated for the TMA Award for Best Performance in a Play in J.M. Barrie's What Every Woman Knows at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Alex Bhat | Dr George Johnson
Trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Theatre includes Henry V (Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park), French Without Tears (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) and Young Bloods (RADA Festival).
Film includes Halo: Nightfall.
Television includes War and Peace, Chewing Gum and Fungus the Bogeyman.

Lesley Harcourt | Mrs Irene Corcoran
Theatre includes Roaring Trade (Park Theatre), The Collector (Edinburgh Festival and Arcola Theatre), Foreplay, nominated for Best Female Performance nomination in the OffWestEnd Awards (King's Head Theatre), White Rose (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, and Tron Theatre, Glasgow), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Nottingham Playhouse and National Tour), This is Ceilidh! (Edinburgh Festival), The Mercy Seat (Theatre Royal York), Being Norwegian and Her Big Chance (Wynd Theatre, Melrose), Blithe Spirit (English Theatre, Vienna) and Joking Apart(Northcott Theatre, Exeter).
Film includes Ghost Stories and William and Catherine: A Royal Romance.
Television includes Coronation Street, EastEnders, No Code, Castles in the Sky and Casualty and regular roles in Taggart and Doctors.

Vivien Heilbron | Mrs Margaret Angelus
Theatre includes A Streetcar Named Desire and Gaslight (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), The Aspern Papers (Wyndham's Theatre), The Beggars Opera, Engaged, Cerceau and Cat with the Green Violin (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) and Bedfellows (Scottish National Tour).
Film includes Kidnapped and The Sea Change.
Television includes Rachel in the BBC serialisation The Moonstone for which she received an Emmy nomination, Grandpa In My Pocket, Sunset Song, Midsomer Murders, The Key, Poirot, Hetty Wainthrop Investigates, House of Elliott and Taggart.
Radio includes Complete Works of Robert Burns, Black Wednesday, Bunn and Co, The Gypsy, A Meeting in Seville, Something Understood and The Lifted Veil.
Audiobooks include Viral and Secrets of a Family Album.
Direction includes the opera La Serva Padrona (Gabrieli Consort and Players).

Rosalind McAndrew | Miss Janet McAdam
Trained at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
Theatre includes Wasting my Womb (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), Better Together (Brockley Jack Studio Theatre), Debutantes (Edinburgh Festival and Stockholm Festival) and We Are Not Good People (Stockholm Festival). Theatre whilst training includes An Ideal Husband, An Absolute Turkey, Harvest, Two and Richard III.

Malcolm Rennie | Sir Gregory Butt / Inspector McIvor
Born and brought up in Aberdeen, Malcolm trained at Central School of Speech and Drama where he won the John Gielgud Scholarship and the Associated Redifussion Scholarship.
Malcolm has performed in over twenTy West End productions including Catch My Soul, She Stoops to Conquer, The Good Companions, Salad Days, The Price, The Cabinet Minister, Lady Windermere's Fan, Hard Times and The Chiltern Hundreds. Theatre elsewhere includes seasons at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, Birmingham Rep, Bristol Old Vic, West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Young Vic, The Old Vic, Chichester Festival Theatre and Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Extensive national and international touring includes a year playing Phillip Schofield's father Jacob in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (The Really Useful Company), and a further year in the world tour of Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company). Recent theatre includes Sir Anthony Absolute in The Rivals (Salisbury Playhouse), Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (Theatre Royal York), Bartolo in The Barber of Seville (Bristol Old Vic) Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady (International Tour), Willy Clarke in The Sunshine Boys (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Arthur Conan Doyle inNostalgia (Theatre Royal Plymouth), Harry in Come Blow Your Horn, Jaggers in Great Expectationsfor which he was nominated for a Manchester Evening News Best Supporting Actor Award, Spettigue in Charley's Aunt (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Svietlovidoff in Swan Song (The Print Room), and most recently, on tour and in London, playing Harry McNish in the one man playShackleton's Carpenter by Gail Louw (New Vic Productions).
Film includes Ransom, The Accountant, Now Retired, and, most recently, Hysteria.
Television includes four series of Mr Selfridge, Sherlock, Coronation Street, Midsomer Murders,Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Highlander, Jewels, Taggart, Pride and Prejudice, King's Royal,Cloud Howe, Strathblair, The Lenny Henry Show, Sunny Stories, Monarch of the Glen, Doctors, The Bill, Losing It, Never Better, Monday Monday and The Death Penalty On Trial.
Radio includes the Sony Best Radio Actor award for Nicola Jonson (Capital Radio).

David Rintoul | Dr Cyril Angelus
Theatre includes Nell Gwynn (Shakespeare's Globe and Apollo Theatre), Remembrance of Things Past, The World Turned Upside Down, The Trojan War Will Not Take Place, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Rivals (National Theatre), Edward III, The Roaring Girl, The White Devil, The Witch of Edmonton, The Taming of the Shrew, Breakfast with Mugabe, The American Pilot, Keepers of the Flame, The Island Princess and the National Tour of Henry IV: Parts I and II (Royal Shakespeare Company), Oberon and Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company and Garsington Opera), The Speculator (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), Richard II and Richard III(Phoenix Theatre), As You Like It and Map of the Heart (Shakespeare's Globe), The Big Fella (Out of Joint), Anderson's English (Out of Joint and Hampstead Theatre), Gaslight and Phaedra for which David received a TMA Best Actor Nomination (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), Dirty Dancing(Aldwych Theatre), Putting It Together (Chichester Festival Theatre), The White Devil, Infidelities(Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), An Ideal Husband (The Old Vic), Macbeth (The Old Vic National Tour), Etta Jenks and Sergeant Ola and his Followers (Royal Court Theatre), John Bull (Bristol Old Vic), As You Like It (Birmingham Rep), The Conspirators, Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America, Little Eyolf and Absolute Hell (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), Funny Girl (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) and extensive work Joint Stock appearing in the original productions of Fanshen, Speakers, Epsom Downs and Yesterday's News.
Film includes The Iron Lady, My Week with Marilyn, Unrelated (International Critic Award at the London Film Festival), The Ghost Writer, Ironclad II, Anybody There? and Agent Hamilton.
Television includes Game of Thrones, Muncie, Silk, The Bible, Injustice, Private Practice, Midsomer Murders, Pride and Prejudice, Taggart, The Cherry Orchard, Hornblower, Poirot: Mysterious Affair,Sweet Medicine and Doctor Finlay in STV series Doctor Finlay.
David has worked extensively in radio, cartoons and video games and has recorded over 200 audio books.

Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652 Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, 27, 28, 29 November, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20 December 2016
Sunday and Monday evenings at 7.30pm. Tuesday matinees at 2.00pm.
Tickets £18, £16 concessions. (Group Bookings - 1 free ticket for every 10 tickets booked.)
Performance Length: Two hours with one interval of fifteen minutes.



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