Galleon Theatre Company's A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE Opens 12/14

At the close of its twentieth year of presenting internationally acclaimed theatre, Galleon Theatre Company is delighted to announce that it will next stage Oscar Wilde's comedy drama - A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE. The show will run December 14-January 16.

In A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, Wilde attacks the hypocrisy of a society which scorns and punishes women for their sexual misdemeanours but applauds men for theirs. The play centres on the publically damning revelation of Mrs. Arbuthnot's long-concealed secret (she conceived a child out of wedlock) and on her struggle to survive in a social order which values image above integrity. Wilde's piercing satire exposes the duplicity of a culture which ostracises a woman for the consequences of an ill-advised sexual relationship but grants honours to the man in question.

Galleon's production of A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE is set at the end of the 1950's and at Christmas - a time when situations often, unpredictably unravel. The 1950's was a decade largely characterised by America's muscular assertion of its political, cultural, economic, and militarily Super Power status. As the West assimilated US political and economic ideological thinking and as the consumer age became a social reality, a youth culture began to emerge and to express itself through distinctive views, fashion and music.

By setting the production in late 1950's, Galleon positions Wilde's plot and its characters within a
specific national socio-historical context. As men went away to fight, women stepped into male jobs and relished in their newly found powers and freedoms. At that time, a single mother like Mrs. Arbuthnot would not have been a social oddity. Once men returned from War to traditional roles in society and in the family, women reverted to domesticity, and Victorian morality and gender expectations were once again re-affirmed as the desired norm. Suddenly, a woman with a past like Mrs. Arbuthnot would have found herself socially ostracised.

Britain in the late 50's was still a heavily class structured society where the new US driven youth
culture struggled to take hold. Consequently, Hester, the young idealistic, American woman of
Wilde's play, would have been regarded as unusual. For our purposes, she also symbolises the
impending infiltration of American culture and the imminent socio-cultural revolution of the 1960's
which changed the world and our thinking forever.

 

By transposing Wilde's brilliantly sharp and pertinent comedy drama to a Christmas party at the end of the 1950's Galleon Theatre Company carefully pushes Wilde's fantastic play into an age and time closer to our own. Further, Bruce Jamieson's thoughtful and intelligent realignment of Wilde's
problematic Act Four, with its crushing Victorian morality and religiosity (a source of frequent critical criticism in more recent productions), heightens our empathy with the character's predicaments and ensures for a compelling conclusion to Wilde's wonderful play.

A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE is creatively spearheaded by a very experienced and acclaimed director - Bruce Jamieson, and by Alice de Sousa, a multi-award winningproducer.

Jamieson is a co-founding member of the Greenwich Playhouse, Galleon Theatre Company and Galleon Films. He has directed nearly thirty previous Galleon productions and played leading roles in some sixty stage plays. As an actor, his television and film credits include 'The Oxford Murders; Murphy's Law' (Tiger Aspect); 'Monarch of the Glen' (Ecosse); 'Ali G-Inda House' (Universal); 'Roughnecks' (BBC); 'In Suspicious Circumstances' (Granada); 'Crime Solver' (BBC); and 'Spongebob' (BBC).

Sousa is multi-award winning writer, producer and actress. She has created over seventy stage productions; played leading roles in some thirty theatre plays; written many highly acclaimed stage and screen scripts; won in 2009 two awards including the Portuguese government's ‘Premio de Talento' in recognition of her 25 year career. In 2005 the American Biographical Institute awarded her with ‘Great Women of the 21st Century' and ‘Woman of the Year 2005'. (These awards exclusively recognise the impact on society of the work of 1000 prolific women worldwide).

Galleon Theatre Company has been staging critically acclaimed theatre for two

decades. Recent productions of the classics include: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by Oscar Wilde, THE CHERRY ORCHARD by Anton Chekhov, A DOLL'S HOUSE by Henrik Ibsen, and ABSENT FRIENDS by Alan Ayckbourn.

The show will perform Tuesdays-Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 4:00. There will be no Performances on: December 24th, 25th, 26th, or 31st, or January 1st & 2nd.

Tickets are £10-£12. For tickets, call 020 8858 9256. The Greenwhich Playhouse is located at 189 Greenwich High Road, London.

For further information, visit www.galleontheatre.co.uk