Lulu by Frank Wedekind, in a new adaptation by Nicholas Wright, designed by Rob Howell, directed by Jonathan Kent. Lighting by Mark Henderson, music by Joanthan Dove and sound by John A. Leonard.
Cast: Samia Akudo, James Faulkner, Anna Friel (Lulu), Tom Georgeson, James Hillier, Alan Howard (Schoning), Leon Lissek, Anna Maguire, Oliver Milburn, Sid Mitchell, Francesca Murray-Fuentes, Marella Oppenheim, Jason Pitt, Imogen Slaughter, Johanna ter Steege, Peter Sullivan, Roger Swaine and Andrew Ufondu.
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Picture of 'Lulu' from The Independent newspaper, 5.9.01. |
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From The London Evening Standard 20.3.01 |
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Picture from Act 3 of 'Lulu' from The Anna Friel Homage page. Pictures and information on Anna Friel also available on the website run by Dolphine. |
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Artistic shot of Alan and Anna.The Times, 13.3.01. |
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Production picture from the Sunday Telegraph Review. 11.3.01. |
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Pictures from The Independent Magazine, 24.2.2001.Alan Howard and Anna Friel in 'Lulu' mode! |
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Previews moved to 8th March onwards due to Anna Friel tripping in rehearsal and breaking a bone in her foot.
The decline and fall of a young woman possessed of the fatal combination of sexuality and innocence as she passes from Berlin and Parisian high society to the streets of Jack the Ripper's London - destroying and ultimately destroyed by, her lovers.
8th March - 12th May 2001. Press Night 19.3.01
The production will visit the Kennedy Centre, Washington from16th June-15th July 2001.
Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Wedekind (1864-1918) German playwright, who began his career working in business and in a circus. He became an actor and singer, and a playwright. The plays, Erdgeist (Earth Spirit), 1893 and Die Busche der Pandora (Pandora's Box), 1904 depict a society riven by the demands of lust and greed reinforcing his main thesis that the repression of sexuality results in perversion and tragedy. The two plays were later staged together as the Lulu plays.
"All Wedekind's plays, with their sex-ridden men, women and children, their gentlemen crooks, and their grotesque yet vivid cranks, typify the feverish spirit of the years before 1914. Perhaps less shocking now to our society they remain valid statements of repressed and thwarted sexuality."
Information from The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre and The Oxford Companion to the Theatre.
Excellent Reviews in:
The Independent, The Times, The London Evening Standard, The Scotsman, The Guardian, The Jewish Chronicle, Time Out, What's On London, The Financial Times
OK, but reservations:
Daily Mail, The Sunday Telegraph, London's Metro News, The Mail on Sunday
Really did not like it for various reasons:
The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Express, The Observer, The Sunday Express
Alan Howard makes a strong impression as Lulu's most
lordly, confident protector.
Benedict Nightingale.
Alan Howard as the sardonic editor, James
Hillier......and Johanne ter Steege......lend impeccable support.
Michael Billington.
Friel is supported by a crack cast, in particular
Alan Howard's fabulously droll libertine, Schoning.
Oliver
Jones
Alan Howard seems to be sleepwalking through his role
as her first lover, hooting melodiously as always, but conveying all the sexual
ardour, and decadent darkness, of a slab of mouldy old ham.
Charles
Spencer. 
(No need to be quite so offensive,
Charlie, we understand that you did not like it, then!)
Alan Howard is wonderful as Dr Schoning, the wise,
world-weary newspaper editor, who, despite understanding Lulu better than
anyone, nevertheless succumbs to, and is destroyed by, her charms.
John
Nathan.
Alan Howard as Schoning has more of the epic touch,
but sails unfortunately close to self parody.
Peter Hepple
There are less than smouldering performances from
most of the men, too. Alan Howard as Schoning, the newspaper editor who becomes
Lulu's third husband, is a notable exception; his world-weary mannerisms suit
the part well.
John Gross
......Jonathan Kent's production, with a languid,
Higgins-like Alan Howard lending first-act support, looks magnificent.
Michael Coveney
Amid the large cast, Alan Howard's burnt-out persona
and too-prominent technique work oddly well for Dr Schoning.
Alistair
Macauley
Alan Howard, playing the sugar daddy Schoning,
intones so hammily one fears he is going to break into song.
Kate
Bassett
...Alan Howard's worldly, cynical newspaper editor,
Schoning...
Georgina Brown
Alan Howard plays him [Schoning] as stately and
lugubrious, but putty-like. There is next to no sense that this is a man of
great power, only that he wears an expensive coat...
John Peter.
Alan Howard's louche and powerful Dr Schoning....
Jane Edwardes
All the male actors are stolid, apart from Alan
Howard, who twirls his cane and warbles.
Susannah Clapp
Alan Howard is a Shere Khan of a second [sic]
husband..
Kate Copstick
The support, too, from the likes of the great Alan
Howard (as a dangerously smitten junkie newspaper editor) is likewise
uninspiring.
Robert Gore Langton
Alan Howard's nonchalantly amoral newspaper editor,
caught up in sex and drugs rather than deadlines............. Howard's
beautifully suave editor.......
Nicholas de Jong
Anna Friel's Lulu is 'handsomely complemented by a
strong ensemble that includes Alan Howard as the wearily knowing Dr Schoning
who talks like a burnt-out editorial writer.....'
Kevin Jackson