NEWS: Original Theatre Company will present Watching Rosie, starring Miriam Margolyes, Amit Shah and Louise Coulthard

Original Theatre Company will present Watching Rosie, a specially commissioned short play by Louise Coulthard based on her debut play, Cockamamy, which won the Lustrum Award for Outstanding New Play at The Edinburgh Fringe 2017. The production will star BAFTA-winning actress Miriam Margolyes, Amit Shah and Louise Coulthard and will be directed by Michael Fentiman.

This follows the huge success of the company’s innovative online production of Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s best-selling novel Birdsong.

Watching Rosie is a tender portrayal of experiencing dementia in lockdown and the power of love to overcome it. This heartbreaking and hilarious film highlights the incredible bond between Alice (Miriam Margolyes) and her granddaughter Rosie (Louise Coulthard) as they face change, confusion and an unexpected arrival from Tesco.

Watching Rosie will be released free-of-charge at 7pm on Thursday 6 August at OriginalTheatreOnline.com and will be available until 30 September. Donations are encouraged in support of Dementia UK. 

Original Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Alastair Whatley, said, “We are thrilled to be announcing Watching Rosie today. I greatly admired the play on stage and have really enjoyed working with Louise and Mike [Fentiman] to develop it for online audiences. I am very proud of the Original Theatre team, who have kept working throughout lockdown, adapting and diversifying our work and, in so doing, reaching a brand new online audience which is extending all over the world.”

Miriam Margolyes said, “I wanted to be in this film for two reasons. I loved the script and liked the character I’m playing. And it’s a challenge to try a new way of doing things – Zoom is a challenge – and it’s good to be professionally challenged at 79.”

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