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My blog has quite a lot of posts about Samuel West (Julius Caesar, On Chesil Beach and Darkest Hour) and Charles Edwards (My Fair Lady Australian tour and Henry IX).

Saturday 9 November 2013

Samuel West - Jonathan Strange and Look, Stranger


Sam and Dominic Cooper in Fleming; click thumbnails for full size (video source)

Sam plays Sir Walter Pole in the BBC's upcoming adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (via his Twitter, @exitthelemming 1|2). It began filming last week (BBC Media Centre).

Ben Hur is being repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Episode 1 is now available on iPlayer.

In Inside Croydon, he discusses the challenges of providing live narration for films (via @InsideCroydon). Britten Films will be performed at Fairfield Halls tomorrow.
Sam and the Utter Jazz quartet will perform Look, Stranger at the Theatre Royal Winchester 17 November (via @RuthieCulver).

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Britten in Wartime will be released by NMC on CD 9 December (via @nmcrecordings).
It premiered at the Bridgewater Hall 3 October. The Hallé shared a picture from the performance on Twitter. Northern Soul's review of the performance highlighted the interaction between narrator and orchestra (via @Northern_Soul_)
... this, in the expert hands of the HallĂ©, was a real treat for the ears and the addition of the accomplished actor Samuel West as guide and narrator lent the whole thing a real sense of atmosphere. At times we were all so drawn in it seemed like we really were sitting in New York’s Radio City Theatre, watching the original live broadcast back in 1942.

Sam narrates Little Red Riding Hood by Paul Patterson at the Southbank Centre on 21 December (via @Orch_of_StPauls).

A video interview with Dominic Cooper on Sky's Fleming site features some footage from the show.

One of Sam's upcoming voiceovers is about MI6 (@exitthelemming).

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Sam attended the National Theatre's 50 years on stage performance last week (Getty Images). His reflections about Arcadia (1993) are featured in the event program:
A memory: of rehearsals for Arcadia, and Tom Stoppard looking for a line. It needed to say that Thomasina couldn't have known about chaos theory because she didn’t have a computer. I'd described chaos as a door that had cracked open five or six times since we got up on our hind legs. The line was there, but underwater, waiting to rise. One day Tom came in, beaming. "I've got it", he said.
"You can't open a door till there's a house."
"That's it", I said. "That's what I wanted to say." And I got to, for the very first time.

Recent publicity for My Theatre Matters includes an article by Sam in the Morning Star (via @exitthelemming); interviews in the Northern Echo and BBC Radio Kent; and an article in The Stage. In October, he gave a speech about the campaign in Birmingham (@exitthelemming).

Nocturne was released in late October (via @LucyParham). Lucy Parham's Chopin performances are interspersed with readings by Sam and Harriet Walter.

Tom Stoppard received this year's PEN Pinter Prize. Excerpts from his plays were read at the event. Sam read from Coast of Utopia (@buzzbuzz_mylord).

Sam wrote a blog post about the Palestine Choral Festival for Sinfini Music (via @exitthelemming).

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