stage

Katherine Parkinson: ‘Felicity Kendal’s wellies are big ones to fill’

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The IT Crowd actor on losing things, the lure of Shakespeare, and starring in a stage version of 70s sitcom The Good Life

London-born Katherine Parkinson, 41, studied classics at Oxford University and acting at Lamda in London. She played Jen in the sitcom The IT Crowd, for which role she won a Bafta. Other TV credits include Doc Martin, The Honourable Woman, Humans and Defending the Guilty. She now stars in EV Crowe’s new play Shoe Lady at the Royal Court in London and will soon appear as Barbara Good in the stage revival of sitcom The Good Life in Bristol.

What’s Shoe Lady, about?
It’s a brilliant piece of writing by Emma Crowe that’s impressionistic and poetic – which probably makes it sound incredibly worthy but it’s really funny. Essentially, it’s about an estate agent who loses her shoe on the way to work and everything escalates from there because she can’t seem to fit into the world any more. It’s about how close we all are to the edge and the surprising fragility of things the middle classes take for granted.

Are you close to the edge yourself?
Oh my God, I’m over the edge. No, it did resonate. I’ve done lots of theatre lately and wasn’t especially looking to do more but I couldn’t resist this because it was so unique. Sometimes theatre can be poverty porn – plays about the working class being watched by the middle class, which feels uncomfortable and touristy – whereas this feels like a truthful piece of writing about somebody’s particular circumstances [ . . . ]

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Northern Lights but no stardust in Local Hero

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The Lyceum’s artistic director David Greig has written a serviceable adaptation that covers most of the story’s bases but lacks its romantic sweep, writes PATRICK MARMION.

Back then, the idea of the legendary Hollywood tough guy rocking up in the Highlands in a helicopter was out of this world. It made Forsyth’s story seem so much bigger and less parochial.

This genial new musical version of the film could do with some of that A-list stardust. The Lyceum’s artistic director David Greig has written a serviceable adaptation that covers most of the story’s bases but lacks its romantic sweep.

And even with songs by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, developing his original film score for the stage, John Crowley’s production feels a bit run-of-the-mill.

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Local Hero, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh – captivating musical with a harder edge

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New staging brings the iconic 1983 movie’s themes and characters into sharper focus.

Review by David Kettle

“Cult” is probably an over-used adjective, especially when it comes to movies. But there’s undoubtedly something truly special about Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film – about a Texan oil executive on a mission to buy up a section of the Scottish coast for a vast new refinery, only to end up falling in love with the place – that makes it so warmly cherished by certain viewers.

Maybe it’s Local Hero’s disarming mix of laid-back whimsy and harder drama, its unapologetic sentimentality, its surreal eccentricity, its gentle humour. Or maybe it’s the movie’s ironic role-reversal, as villagers grow impatient to plunder their new-found wealth while the swaggering incomer grows ever more enraptured with the place. It’s a mix that’s undoubtedly helped by Mark Knopfler’s evocative original score, whose guitar theme “Going Home” alone can transport you straight back to the ramshackle charm of Ferness and its iconic phone box.

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Local Hero at Royal Lyceum Theatre review: ‘magic of Bill Forsyth’s film conjured up on stage’

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Local Hero on stage

Joyce McMillan reviews Local Hero at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

4 stars ****

A BIG SKY, a beach, a row of tiny houses along a harbour wall; and in the foreground, an old-fashioned red telephone box, glowing in the west highland dusk. Oh yes, it’s Local Hero – but this time not Bill Forsyth’s legendary 1983 film, but the brand new stage musical version, co-produced by the Old Vic in London and Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum, which celebrated its joyful, touching and – in the end – highly emotional world premier at the Lyceum this weekend.

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