“We did a week of shows there after two weeks of rehearsals,” she says. Still, Jessica was no stranger to a short burst of performances after the Gala Theatre production in 2017. When Educating Rita resumed, it stopped again after only a week at Kingston as lockdown returned. Jessica adds to the memories: “It was so cold, I was wearing every piece of costume I had for one scene!” “They’re a very hardy audience down there! We performed through two storms and the tech crew couldn’t see us at all at one point!” “It was the most incredible place for the set of a teacher’s office in a northern university, against the amazing backdrop of double rainbows and dolphins in the sea.
“It stopped at the Grand Theatre at Blackpool, but we were lucky that the next place we could do was outdoors at the Minack Theatre on the Cornish cliffs last summer,” says Stephen. The partnership was duly formed and the stop-start progress began as Covid spread its claw. “I’ve been on an incredible journey with Rita,” says Jessica Johnson “But I didn’t get a long run at it and when I said I’d love to do it for longer, I suggested Stephen would make a really good Frank,” she recalls. Jessica already had played Rita in a 2017 production of Educating Rita at the Gala Theatre, Durham. “I saw Jess in Goth Weekend at the Live Theatre and was blown away by her,” says Stockton-on-Tees actor Tompkinson. Tompkinson, star of DCI Banks, Wild At Heart, Drop The Dead Donkey and Ballykissangel, plays grizzled university tutor Frank, opposite Johnson’s lippy hairdresser Rita in Willy Russell’s comedy two-hander, in a Theatre by the Lake production now being toured by producer David Pugh under the direction of Newcastle Live Theatre director emeritus Max Roberts. “It’s closer to the 42nd anniversary now!” “We started doing this play about three years ago, and it’s since had various outings trying to complete the 40th anniversary production,” says Stephen, as they head to York Theatre Royal on Tuesday. STEPHEN Tompkinson and Jessica Johnson have an association with Educating Rita as long as Rita’s degree course. Stephen Tompkinson’s Frank and Jessica Johnson’s Rita in Educating Rita at York Theatre Royal from Tuesday next week.
0 kommentar(er)
