The Power Behind The Crone

Sunday 23 April 2017
15:00 18:00

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A celebration of Shakespeare's older women . It's often said that there are no good parts in Shakespeare for older women. Alison Skilbeck, an old friend and colleague of Phil's (they played brother and sister in Time and the Conways in Greenwich many years ago and husband and wife in Soldier, Soldier more recently) sets out to disprove it. This is a brilliant one woman show we saw in London last November and are delighted to be able to bring to the Willow for our opening show of the season.

The Power Behind The Crone

Written & performed by Alison Skilbeck

Alison Skilbeck (Writer & performer)

Alison Skilbeck’s long and busy career includes London’s West End and Fringe, theatre all over the UK, and many tours abroad. Theatre highlights include five years with Alan Ayckbourn in Scarborough, where she created roles in six of his plays, and also directed Chris Godwin's one-man play 'The Guv'nor', touring Shakespeare all over the USA with Actors From the London Stage, playing Pinter in Morocco, Vaclav Havel in Hong Kong, and Dryden in Spain. For the Greenwich Theatre, she was in the British premieres of A.R. Gurney Jr’s ‘The Dining Room’, and ‘The Perfect Party’. For the Godot Company she has performed Beckett’s ‘Play’ and ‘Enough’. She was Enid Blyton in Frayn’s ‘Balmoral’ for the Peter Hall Company. Her first one-woman show, ‘Are There More Of you?’ received five stars at Edinburgh and toured the UK and Ireland. For her performance in Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London, she received a Best Female Performance Nomination for the Off West End (Offie) Awards, and at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe was described by The Guardian as an “always a moving and bravura performance”, as well as being rated an Outstanding Show by Fringe Review. The Power Behind The Crone', celebrating Shakespeare's older women, premiered at the 2016 RADA Festival, and was also seen at the Bloomsbury festival last October.
Television includes: Sherlock Holmes, The Beiderbecke Affair, Miss Marple, Head Over Heels, Soldier Soldier, New Tricks, Doctor Who, Lovejoy, and Midsomer Murders. She was Polly Perks in ‘The Archers’, until the character was killed off! Two recent projects have been Wimpole Street, an award winning web series, and the pod cast sitcom series Wooden Overcoats.

Alison is an Associate Teacher at RADA, specialising in directing Shakespeare, and serving on the Admissions Panel. She also trains non-actors in Communications Skills for RADA in Business.

Tim Hardy (director)

Tim Hardy trained at RADA, where he has been an Associate Teacher for 20 years, directing Shakespeare on summer courses and on courses for American actors, and serving on the audition panel. He has directed extensively for the English Theatres in Vienna and Frankfurt, and at many American universities, notably Notre Dame and Illinois Wesleyan. His long and varied acting career includes seasons at the RSC, including Peter Brook's 'Marat/Sade' in London and New York, Simon Gray's 'Melon' at the Haymarket Theatre, and Peter Hall's 'Lysistrata' in the West End and Athens, as well as many tours of the US in Shakespeare with Actors From The London Stage. His two one-man shows, 'The Trials of Galileo' by Nic Young, and 'At the Mountains of Madness' by H.P Lovecraft tour extensively throughout the UK, Eire, and America. He also sang all the bass roles in small-scale opera for Music Theatre London throughout the ‘90s. His TV work includes Jesus in 'The Son of Man' for American television, Galileo in 'Days that Shook The World', Eastenders, Midsomer Murders, and Casualty 1909. Films include 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin'.