Richards zweite Rolle am Birmingham Rep war des als
Young Richie Baker in 'The Four Alice Bakers':
Zitat:
The Four Alice Bakers
Richard Armitage's second appearance at the Birmingham Rep was in The Four Alice Bakers, in spring 1999.
‘The Four Alice Bakers’ explores the issue of human cloning and individuality, a current issue in the 1990s when the cloning of Dolly the sheep, whose birth was announced in 1997, generated discussion of its implications for other species.
Fay Weldon developed the play from her novel ‘The Cloning of Joanna May’ (1989), which had been adapted for television in 1992. She frames the narrative using the device of a television talk programme, the ‘Harry Harper Ethical Show’, in which a bio-geneticist, who, it is revealed, has cloned his three daughters from his wife’s mammary tissue, is interrogated by its host. The Guardian's theatre critic Michael Billington wrote: "Bill Alexander’s high energy production and Ruari Murchison’s design accurately reproduce the garish glitter of the TV talk show". [1]
Following previews, the play opened at Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 23rd February 1999 for a three-week run, with a cast including Michael Cashman as Harry Harper, David Hargreaves as Richie Baker and the eighteen-year old Sophia Myles making her theatre debut. It was directed by Bill Alexander. While the play itself gained few critical plaudits, its audiences were appreciative.
The story is told partly in flashback, and Richard Armitage played the role of Young Richie Baker, the younger incarnation (mid-twenties in one scene, thirties in a second) of Richie Baker, the bio-geneticist at the centre of the drama. Richard had to be ‘aged’ to play the slightly older role. In his first scene with Sophia Myles as the young Alice Baker, set in 1952, the couple dance a foxtrot to ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, he so badly that they give up and, in the course of three pages of dialogue, become engaged instead.
http://www.richardarmitageonline.com/alice-bakers/alice-bakers.htmlMehr Infos zur Spielzeit etc. hat die Fanseite 'Simply Sophia Myles' zusammengetragen:
Zitat:
The Four Alice Bakers
Sophia Myles is playing Alice Baker
‘The Four Alice Bakers’ explores the issue of human cloning and individuality. The narrative is framed using the device of a television talk programme, the ‘Harry Harper Ethical Show’, in which a bio-geneticist, who, it is revealed, has cloned his three daughters from his wife’s mammary tissue, is interrogated by its host.
Main Details
Director: Bill Alexander
Script: Fay Weldon
Previews: 02/19/1999 12:00am
Opening Day: 02/23/1999 12:00am
Last Show: 03/13/1999 12:00am
Venue: Birmingham Repertory
Based Upon: Novel ‘The Cloning of Joanna May’ by Fay Weldon
Main Cast
Michael Cashman, David Hargreaves, Richard Armitage, Sophia Myles
Links
Extensive Story Description
Several decades ago a geneticist’s blunder succeeded in cloning three daughters from his infertile wife. The truth is revealed during the course of a grotesque television talk show, Harry Harper’s Ethical Show, on to which the scientist and his family have been unwittingly lured. Harper, the smarmy TV host, puts Baker in the “hot seat” with demonic glee.
Baker, the rumpled scientist, worked with Francis Crick on DNA structures at Cambridge. That was when he fell in love with Alice, an ‘English Rose’. Of the three daughters, one may or may not have been abused by their father, one may or may not be a lesbian and one may or may not really be a man.
Ruari Murchison’s designs split the Birmingham Rep stage into three areas: the snazzy TV studio; the hospitality suite that’s suspended in the air like a capacious lift; and a circular tower that revolves to let us travel back in time to catch glimpses of the Baker’s family life. Centre stage, we have a high-backed leather swivel chair, where first Professor Baker, then his wife, then his eldest daughter, then his middle daughter, and then his youngest daughter, face Cashman’s questions.
Sophia's Role
Sophia played the young Alice Baker. In her first scene with the young Richie Barker, set in 1952, the couple dance a foxtrot to ‘Some Enchanted Evening’. Richie is so bad that they give up and soon after become engaged instead.
http://sophiamyles.org/tag/the-four-alice-bakers/