Northern Broadsides and the Skipton-born playwright, poet and novelist Blake Morrison have joined forces to stage the world premiere of For Love or Money, a new adaptation of Alain-Rene Lesage’s savage eighteenth-century comedy, Turcaret.
A small town in Yorkshire sees a beautiful widow wooed by two suitors, one old and wealthy, one young and deceitful. Throw in a bailiff, a drunkard, a vamp, a second-hand clothes dealer and two upwardly mobile servants, and watch a comedic tale of monstrous wealth and whopping lies begin to unfold.
Opening on 26th September, the play is directed by Northern Broadsides Artistic Director Barrie Rutter, in his final touring production ahead of stepping down from his role next April.
Blake Morrison said: “It is 21 years now since my first collaboration with Barrie Rutter. It was The Cracked Pot, an adaptation of a Kleist play in which, as well as directing, he took the leading role. By my count there have been seven more collaborations since, with adaptations of plays written in German, Italian, Russian and Ancient Greek, plus one in Geordie which required only minor adjustments to be Yorkshire-fied. That is the pattern: wherever and whenever the original play is set I try to render it in a language that’s true to Rutter’s allegiance to Northern speech. Instead of RP it becomes NBI, Northern Broadsides Idiom.”
The cast features Bradford-born Sarah-Jane Potts, who played Lauren in the smash hit British film Kinky Boots; Jos Vantler (King Lear, Northern Broadsides, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, West Yorkshire Playhouse UK tour); Jordan Metcalfe (The Hypocrite, Hull Truck Theatre & Royal Shakespeare Company); Matthew Booth (Richard III & When We Are Married, Northern Broadsides); Sarah Parks (Henry V, Royal Shakespeare Company); Bierley based Kat Rose-Martin (The Mighty Atoms, Hull Truck Theatre); Jim English (Richard III, Northern Broadsides & Hull Truck Theatre); Barrie Rutter (King Lear, Northern Broadsides) and Jacqueline Naylor (The Railway Children, Kings Cross & York Theatre Royal).
For Love or Money is at West Yorkshire Playhouse from Tuesday 26th to Saturday 30th September at 7:30pm. Book online at wyp.org.uk or call the Box Office on 0113 213 7700.
