helenistic, Author at Helen McCrory

Macbeth at Tricycle Theatre – Review

On October 31, 1995May 9, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

A Round Up of Reviews

by BBAShakespeare.co.uk | 1995

PRINCIPAL CAST: Tom Chadbon (Duncan); Ewen Cummins (Banquo); Lennie James (Macbeth); John Keegan (Macduff); Helen McCrory (Lady Macbeth).

This production ran from 20 October – 18 November 1995.

“Nicholas Kent’s production of a play that could hardly be better suited to the Tricycle’s intimate auditorium is pacy and racy but patchily acted….Christine Marfleet’s set of curved, beaten metal panels that gleam in the firelight suggest both the distant path but also some future state, and a canny use of percussion adds to the atmosphere….But too many of the actors are ill at ease with the verse. Not so Helen McCrory’s Lady Macbeth, whose performance is in a different league to the rest – passionate, focused and artfully spoken. A great classical career beckons.” ~ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 1 November 1995

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Streetlife Video

VIDEO: Streetlife 1995

On September 15, 1995May 18, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen’s first big film role

by Karl Francis | Vimeo | September 15, 1995

Bob Flynn, writing for the Irish Times about the 49th Edinburgh Film Festival in 1995, thought Streetlife was the discovery of the festival fortnight, and marked “the triumphant renaissance” of Francis as a “devastating writer and director.” The film received a special runner-up from the Michael Powell Jury.

It also won the Silver Nymph Award at the 1995 Monte Carlo TV Festival, and two BAFTA Cymru Awards in 1997. One for best director and the other for Helen McCrory for Best Actress.

Print Media Reviews Streetlife

Streetlife – Review

On September 4, 1995May 18, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Superbly nuanced performance from National Theatre actress Helen McCrory

by Derek Elley | September 4, 1995 | Variety

Tough, funny, moving and totally truthful, “Streetlife” is a sock slice-of-life low-budgeter from the Ken Loach school of working-class drama. Motored by superbly nuanced playing from National Theatre actress Helen McCrory, as a gutsy single mom forced to deal with an inconvenient pregnancy, this BBC Wales telepic deserves wide exposure at Brit-friendly festivals in addition to its small-screen airings. It’s among the best work Welsh-born Karl Francis has done.

Setting is the town of Pontypridd, in the no-nonsense Rhondda Valley region of southern Wales, where Jo (McCrory) works in an all-femme sweatshop ironing clothes. Her life is raw but good: She has a perpetually horny married lover, Kevin (Rhys Ifans), and a young daughter; is studying to improve herself; and has managed to move away from her slobby father (John Pierce Jones) into her own place on a state housing estate.

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Dirty Old Town Video

VIDEO: Dirty Old Town

On February 5, 1995May 18, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Rik Mayall presents…

by RikMayallScrapbook | You Tube | February 10, 1995

Rik Mayall is a tramp called Raymond who finds his life changes radically when he gets his hands on a sought-after script. First broadcast on ITV on the 5th February 1995. Cast also include, Helen McCrory, Brian McCardie, Frances Barber and Michael Kitchen.

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Devil's Disciple Print Media Reviews

The Devil’s Disciple at the National Theatre – Review

On September 12, 1994May 8, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

A Roisterous production of Bernard Shaw’s 1899 Melodrama

by Matt Wolf | September 12, 1994 | Variety

The National marks time pleasantly with a roisterous production of Shaw’s 1899 melodrama and at least restores to the Olivier stage some of the energy missing from it of late. If the play hardly seems worth such a fuss, it’s only because Shaw is relatively rarely done at this address; one yearns to see the same theater take on, say, “Man and Superman.”

Still, as directed with brio by Christopher Morahan against John Gunter’s scenic backdrop of a map of Revolutionary War New England, “Devil’s Disciple” will be a crowd pleaser. There’s no harm in that, particularly with as winning a central trio of performers as Richard Bonneville (Dick Dudgeon), Paul Jesson (Anthony Anderson) and Helen McCrory (his wife, Judith), all of whom barnstorm their way through a play that has not an ounce of depth or subtlety to it. The “devil’s disciple” of the title, Dudgeon is the family black sheep led mistakenly to the gallows in 1777 New Hampshire in place of the town pastor, Anderson.

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