Two Ghost Stories / Nico Icon Play
Ghost stories and glamorous singer ends The Lowry’s Studio season…
Ultraviolet Productions
Nico Icon Play, Wed 12 – Sat 22 November 2008
Press Night: Wed 12 November, 7.45pm
Nunkie Theatre Company
Oh Whistle…Two Ghost Stories, Sun 16 November 2008
A Pleasing Terror: Two Ghost Stories, Tue 25 November 2008
· Interviews are available with Salford’s Stella Grundy and Southport's Robert Lloyd Parry
The Lowry’s studio season has gone down a storm with audiences and critics alike, but it isn’t over yet! Nico Icon Play, an exploration into the life and times of Christa Paffgen, opens in The Studio for an extended run from Wed 12 – Sat 22 November. Two Ghost Stories, by the master of English supernatural fiction M. R. James, proved so popular that they sold out the 200 seat Studio Theatre so they have been moved to the larger Quays Theatre, Oh Whistle… on Sun 16 November and A Pleasing Terror on Tue 25 November.
Nico Icon Play by Stella Grundy
Ultraviolet Productions’ Nico Icon Play presents three decades of model, actress and singer Christa Paffgen’s (Nico) life, from the glamour and hedonism of her time with Velvet Underground, to the drug addiction and squalor of the 1980s. Written by Salford-born Stella Grundy, front-woman of 1990s band Intastella, who also stars as the iconic singer in this multimedia event using live music, film and theatre. The legendary God-of-Hellfire, Arthur Brown, performing exclusively in The Lowry’s shows, appears as a mythical creature to Nico in her dreams.
Drawing on her own experiences of the music industry, Stella has received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Nico. Her many theatre credits include the Manchester Evening News Award winning production of Divas and Double Glazing; Homeward Bound with M6 Theatre Company and Innit The Musical at The Lowry. BBC’s Inside Out programme produced a documentary about the making of Nico Icon Play for The Lowry, which was broadcast in September.
“Grundy… has crafted an ingenious narrative… (she) is utterly engaging and convincing as the iconic singer…” Manchester Evening News
Ghost Stories by M. R. James
Over a century after they were first published, the ghost stories of M. R. James retain their power to terrify and amuse. In Oh Whistle…Two Ghost Stories, the first of two visits by Nunkie Theatre Company, actor Robert Lloyd Parry brings to life two of James’ classic spine-chillers. Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, considered by many to be the author’s masterpiece, is a tale of nocturnal horror on the Suffolk coast. It is beautifully complemented here by The Ash Tree, a story of witchcraft and vengeance down the generations.
The second visit, A Pleasing Terror: Two Ghost Stories, sees a critically acclaimed, atmospheric retelling of two of the earliest and greatest tales by the master of the English ghost story. In Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book, a young Cambridge antiquary discovers the devil in the details of an old book in a medieval town in the French Pyrenees. In The Mezzotint a ghoulish revenge is enacted within a work of art, before the helpless eyes of a museum curator in Oxford.
Robert Lloyd Parry is an actor and art historian originally from Southport, who has performed the one man shows based on the stories of M. R. James since December 2005. His uncanny resemblance to the author has been noted with a shudder by more than one enthusiastic audience member and his performance offers the opportunity to experience these eerie masterpieces in the manner in which they were originally enjoyed – as ghostly confections, told to a rapt audience.
Posted on Wednesday, 22 October 2008 under Press Theatre Press