March - 2 April 1994

VENICE PRESERVED

by Thomas Otway

Priuli DAVID GANT
Jaffeir JONATHAN CULLEN
Pierre GEORGE ANTON
Belvidera HELEN McCRORY
Aquilina DIANA KENT
Renault SYLVESTER MORAND
Spinosa MICHAEL HEALY
Eliot CHARLES FOSTER
Brainveil IAN PECK
Durand, Officer, Secretary to the Council STEPHEN MACKENNA
Brabe, Priuli's Man KEN BRADSHAW
Bedamore, Duke of Venice, Priest DAVID FLEESHMAN
Aquilina's Maid, Belvidera's Nurse SUE McCORMICK
Antonio DAVID RYALL

Director GREGORY HERSOV
Designer DAVID SHORT
Lighting KEVIN SLEEP
Sound JOHN LEONARD
Fight Director NICHOLAS HALL
Composer MIA SOTERIOU

'Full marks for courage, conviction and clarity...Gregory Hersov's production is dark and vigorous. The great florid speeches ring with astonishing conviction; even the most flowery passages sound as if they were really spoken by human beings. There is a grimly hilarious performance from David Ryall as the wily old senator...'
The Sunday Times

'...the passionate sincerity with which wonderful young Helen McCrory plays the heroine Belvidera...And the sheer spontaneity with which she ascends the high climaxes of delusion in her final speeches is astonishing.'
Alastair Macaulay Financial Times '

'...the play is a grand one, operatic rather than Shakespearian, intensely gripping and resonant, in a taut, articulate and fully convincing production.'
Grevel Lindop The Times Literary Supplement