News: Matthew Kelly, Adrian Scarborough and more to appear in online monologues

Original Theatre Company are set to bring another online production to screens across homes. Jon Culshaw, Matthew Kelly, Jemma Redgrave and Adrian Scarborough are set to star in Barnes’ People – four monologues by Peter Barnes.

The production will be available to stream from 18 February to 31 July.

Original Theatre Company recently produced critically acclaimed lockdown productions of Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong Online, Louise Coulthard’s Watching Rosie, Torben Betts’s Apollo 13: The Dark Side of The Moon and Philip Franks’s The Haunting of Alice Bowles.

Perfectly Normal Productions present the first revival of Barnes’ (The Ruling Class) Barnes’ People, a series of four theatrical monologues directed by Philip Franks and Charlotte Peters, and filmed on stage at the Theatre Royal Windsor.

Monologues include Billy & Me starring Culshaw and directed by Peters, Losing Myself starring Kelly and directed by Franks, Rosa starring Redgrave and directed by Franks, and the world premiere of True Born Englishman starring Scarborough and directed by Franks.

Billy & Me sees Michael Jennings fighting the voices in his head by bringing them to life. In fact, he’s made a career from it. Now, seemingly alone on an empty stage, Billy, his stage partner of 25 years, keeps interrupting him, which would be fine except that Billy is a puppet.

Losing Myself follows Adam, who used to have everything. On a solitary bench in one of London’s forgotten churchyards, he sits on a bench for his final conversation with an old friend.  With poignancy and profundity he must come to terms with who he has become and where he is going.

Rosa is a poignant piece that sees Dr Rosa Hamilton after twenty years of battling the system. She’s tired, angry and really wants a drink. Especially as she’s about to dictate the most important letter of her life.

The world premiere of True Born Englishman hones in on a footman who has served Buckingham Palace for thirty years. Originally banned from broadcast by the BBC and never seen before, this world premiere takes you behind the scenes of the most famous of royal palaces for an unforgettable audience with a true born Englishman.

Barnes’ People features film direction and editing by Tristan Shepherd, sound design by Max Pappenheim, digital production design by David Woodhead, costume supervision by Siobhan Boyd and production management by Felix Dunning.

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