Player-Playwrights And Old Red Lion Theatre Present COUNTRY LIFE

Player-Playwrights in association with the Old Red Lion Theatre presents COUNTRY LIFE- A new play by Peter Briffa from 18 October - 05 November, 2011.

Old-timers transfer Country Life to the Old Red Lion

After spending four years as Jack Duckworth's bit on the side in Coronation Street, another four as Jessie Shadwick in Brookside, and a merry Christmas dying on Pat Butcher's sofa in Eastenders, where can you go next? The London fringe. That's where Marji Campi, probably best remembered as Joyce Watson in the 1990s ITV sitcom Surgical Spirit can be found this October, when she reprises her role as Barbara in Peter Briffa's darkly comic drama Country Life, when it transfers to the Old Red Lion Theatre after a successful run as part of this year's Camden Fringe.

Unusual in the fact that it offers leading roles to three older actors, Country Life opens in the serene garden of a Devonshire cottage, where next door neighbours Kenneth and Barbara are whiling away their twilight years amid cups of tea, bonfires and a nice slice of Madeira cake. One such occasion being the funeral of their friend Judith, which is disrupted by the arrival of fellow mourner Jim who opens up a hornets' nest of secrets that leads to blackmail, robbery and possibly even murder.

Vying for the affection of Marji Campi's Barbara is Jim, played by Chris Bearne, who most recently played the professor in J.B. Priestley's The Linden Tree at the Pentameter's Theatre in Hampstead. Completing the third side of this geriatric triangle is veteran character actor David Forest, as Kenneth, who was last seen on stage in Ray Cooney's Run for Your Wife at the Sheringham Little Theatre directed by Nicky Henson. As Marji Campi explains: "It's a joy to find a good, well-written play for three older actors which is unusual, fun and meaty".

Last year writer and former Times commentator Peter Briffa's one-act urban psychodrama Siren played to sell out houses at the Etcetera Arms. With Country Life he once again teams up with director Paul Blinkhorn, who earlier this year staged the UK premiere of 74 Georgia Avenue by Tony and Academy Award nominated writer Murray Schisgal at the New End Theatre in Hampstead. Country Life is also the first play ever to be produced by Player Playwrights, London's oldest writing and acting co-operative which launched the careers of Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, creators of Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and The New Statesman.

Country Life
A new play by Peter Briffa
Directed by Paul Blinkhorn
18 October - 05 November 2011
Tuesday - Saturday at 7.30pm
Saturday matinee at 3.00pm
Tickets: £14 (£12 conc)
Box Office: 0844 412 4307
www.redliontheatres.co.uk
Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, London, EC1V 4NJ

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