What's On
Hit Me! The Life & Rhymes of Ian Dury
25th November 2008 to 14th December 2008 - 7.30 (Tues-Sun) and 7.30 and 10.00 on Fridays and Saturdays
Price: £15 (£12 conc)
Venue: Main House
Company: Playback Theatre
Writer: Jeff Merrifield
Director: Jeff Merrifield
Producer: Irving Rappaport
Cast: Jud Charlton, Josh Darcy, Jeff Merrifield
'HIT ME! The Life & Rhymes of Ian Dury' is a warts-and-all portrait of the man who put the phrase "sex and drugs and rock and roll" into the national psyche. Publicly, Ian Dury was a cheeky chappie and purveyor of saucy lyrics. Privately, he was a flawed maestro wrestling with demons. The show focuses on three key moments - at the peak of success, on the cusp of a comeback, and just after his death - and features seven of his most famous songs performed LIVE, including Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick and Reasons to be Cheerful.
[Warning: Explicit language]
REVIEWS:
BRITISH THEATRE WEB
I have just returned from The Edinburgh Festival where I took in 18 shows in 4 days. Saw some great stuff and some absolute rubbish, but one show stands out by a mile.
ABFCAP - The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury, is BRILLIANT.
It's like being in the room with Ian and "Spider". It gives you insight into both men, and tells a fascinating story with both humour and brutal reality.
The musical interludes are fantastic, but dont go just for the music. Go to get to know Ian and Spider. It's a roller coaster ride through one of Rock and Rolls great stories. Pithily told by two amazing actors Jud Charlton and Josh Darcy.
Its on at The Zoo in Edinburgh for the rest of August
Just go!
Ray Jones
Brand Development Director
Superbreak
Fred Spider Rowe came to the opening performance - after seeing the show:
"This was such a nostalgic experience for me. It took me right back to those times. Jeff has written a fantastic script and the two actors get it just right. Jud as Ian has the right sort of temperament, loveable one minute and hostile the next. I cannot believe how well Josh plays me. Apart from being much more handsome, he has got the mannerisms off to a tea. The stories come across just as they happened. This is a really great production and I am so proud of it."
ABFCAP: The Life and Times of Ian Dury
Playback Theatre
The Zoo until Monday August 25, 2008
Openly a celebration of and love letter to the singer-songwriter who produced some of the wittiest lyrics of the punk rock era, Jeff Merrifield's play catches Ian Dury at three points from his peak in the 1980s to his death in 2000.
While the dramaturgy is rudimentary, generally consisting of Dury and his friend/minder/roadie Fred ‘Spider' Rowe either telling each other things they already know or taking turns addressing the audience directly with memories and anecdotes, the details and performances do accumulate to build a living portrait of the man with all his flaws and contradictions.
It would have been easy to make him just a generic bad boy of rock'n'roll, but Merrifield makes believable connections between Dury's childhood polio, which left him crippled, and both his creative energy and his dissipation of it. The guy who could be loved and hated by those around him in almost equal measure was paradoxically as happy with a cup of tea as with a bottle of brandy, content to alternate cutting-edge rock with TV ad voiceovers.
Supported by Josh Darcy's exasperated and loving Spider, Jud Charlton not only does a spot-on impersonation of Dury, both speaking and singing, but creates a rounded, sympathetic character you don't need to know the original to respond to.
Review by Gerry Berkowitz - The STAGE.
Published online at 12:58 on Monday 11 August 2008
JUD CHARLTON NOMINATED "BEST ACTOR" IN THE STAGE AWARDS
ABFCAP: the Life & Rhymes of Ian Dury...
Go and see this fantastic show!
Bill Bailey
as recommended to
his own audience at the
Edinburgh Festival Theatre
on 13 Aug 2008
