A stunning revival of Kevin Elyot’s landmark gay play is announced to go on tour to 5 venues across the North and West midlands in 2020, opening at The Lowry from the 23-25 January.
Manchester based theatre company Green Carnation Company have announced their second major production following their sell-out success of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Pride at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre in 2018.
Kevin Elyot’s award-winning play ‘My Night with Reg’ will go on tour from January to March 2020, opening at The Lowry’s Quays Theatre before performing at Hull Truck Theatre, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Gala Theatre Durham and Warwick Arts Centre.
Funny, sad and sweet, Kevin Elyot’s dark comedy play about the relationships of a group of gay men and their connections to the unseen yet magnetic Reg is a moving exploration of friendship, happiness and love, and their fragility in the shadow of the 1980’s AIDS crisis. First opening at The Royal Court in 1994, winning the Olivier Award for best comedy, among others. Since then it has enjoyed several revivals including a 1997 film and a second Olivier Award-winning revival at the Donmar Warehouse in 2014.
An evening of laughter, heartbreak and celebration, Elyot’s razor-sharp wit will be brought to life in a stunning, visual feast that captures the decadence, celebration and uncertainty of 1980’s London. Award-winning young Leeds-based designer George Johnson-Leigh will be bringing the play’s 1980’s world to life with stunning neon visual effect and an elegant, deconstructed set design.
Bringing such a landmark LGBT play to prestigious regional theatres is a thrilling prospect for the two Dans, as Dan Jarvis says:
“When I was growing up as a gay adolescent in Middlesbrough, I could feel very isolated with no role models or positive portrayals of gay men that I would find on stage or on TV, unless I crept up in the middle of the night to watch Queer As Folk or Clapham Junction. It was rare to see any depictions that truly felt like they reflected who I was, especially fully-formed, three dimensional characters, which Kevin Elyot’s gorgeously human script is rich with. To have the opportunity to bring this exceptional play to theatres across the North and West Midlands is a dream come true.”
The Lowry, Salford – 23 – 25 January 2020
