Philip Larkin: Masterspy
4 Oct - 4 OctPhilip Larkin: Masterspy
Tasked by Margaret Thatcher with carrying out an audacious piece of international espionage that could alter the course of the Cold War, poet Philip Larkin must steal a top secret document from the handbag of Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife, Raisa. But can the Hermit of Hull – ageing, infirm and almost pathologically grumpy – really turn James Bond and complete his dangerous mission?
Get tickets for this & Together In Electric Dreams as part of the double bill!
Writer: Daniel Thackeray (Together in Electric Dreams), Mark Griffiths (Philip Larkin: Masterspy)
Director: Ross Kelly
Performers: Daniel Thackeray, Carly Tarett, Steve Cain
Room 5064 is known for its pieces celebrating the history of British TV and comedy. It produced writer Mark Griffiths and director Ross Kelly’s previous collaboration, We Apologise for the Inconvenience, a play about Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy creator Douglas Adams, which has been touring to much acclaim since 2018. In a similar vein it regularly produces Sitcom Stories, anthologies of short original plays about the creators of classic TV comedies, and recently made He and Him and Who, Stephen Wyatt’s dramedy about Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner. www.fatsoma.com/p/room-5064-productions
Scytheplays Ltd was created to produce science fiction theatre and to use this to further the interest in and understanding of science. It has also produced works in the horror and fantasy genres. Previous productions include Daniel Thackeray’s ghost story The Dead, Live, acclaimed adaptations of Alan Moore’s The Ballad of Halo Jones and Simon Clark’s Hotel Midnight, and Manchester’s first ever Horror Fringe festivals. Website: www.scytheplays.blogspot.co.uk
The two companies both hail from Manchester and have worked with several of the same actors, writers and directors, so it seemed natural that they would join together to produce this double-bill. They are united by a love of British pop culture and a determination to celebrate lesser-sung icons.
“You’re asking me, a knackered old poet, to commit espionage against the wife of a world leader!
Look at me – I’m 63, half-deaf, and I can hardly even get up the stairs
without needing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
I’m Philip Larkin. I’m the Archbishop of Negativity. It’s sort of my thing.”