Director Barry Park brought the queer classic The Boys in the Band to the stage in 2020, and his next production is another landmark play about being gay.
In 2022 he’ll stage Jonathan Harvey’s acclaimed work Beautiful Thing at the Old Mill Theatre in South Perth and auditions for all the roles are coming up soon.
Beautiful Thing has established itself as a modern classic, charming and delighting audiences across the world. It premiered at the Bush Theatre, London in 1993 and sold out its five-week run.
A West End season at the Donmar Warehouse, and the Duke of York’s Theatre, and many UK and international productions followed. It was the winner of the John Whiting Award in 1994 and it won an Olivier Award nomination. It was made into a much-loved, ground-breaking cult film in 1996.
A critically acclaimed independent production premiered in Sydney in 1998. The play was last revived in the UK for its West End 25th anniversary in 2018. Beautiful Thing has featured in the careers of many actors including Jonny Lee Miller, Hugh Bonneville, Philip Glennister, Andrew Garfield, and Rhys Ifans.
A tender love story set during a hot summer on a South-East London housing estate. Beautiful Things tells the story of Jamie, a relatively unpopular lad who bunks off school to avoid football, lives next door to Ste, a more popular athletic lad who is frequently beaten up by his father and older brother.
Such an episode of offstage violence brings Jamie and Ste together: Sandra (Jamie’s mum) offers refugee to Ste, who has to ‘top-and-tail’ with Jamie. Their growing attraction for one another, from initial lingering glances to their irrefutable love, is magnificently illustrated.
The play deals with the tribulations of coming to terms with their sexuality and of others finding out, Sandra’s unwavering loyalty and defence of Jamie, and the fear of repercussion should Ste’s family find out.
Jonathan Harvey’s play unfolds their tentative, awkward relationship with delicacy and with joy. The plot is set against sub-texts of Sandra’s desire to manage her own pub, and thus escape the estate, and of her new relationship with her younger boyfriend Tony; and of Leah, the brassy girl next door who has been expelled from school and spends her time listening to Mama Cass records and tripping on a variety of drugs.
Jonathan Harvey has gone on to write many more plays, as well as the popular TV series Gimme, Gimme, Gimme and Beautiful People. He’s also collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on their musical Closer to Heaven,
Director Barry Park’s most recent productions are Hay Fever (Old Mill Theatre), Arcadia (Harbour Theatre) and The Boys in the Band (Dolphin Theatre and State Theatre Centre of WA for GRADS).
For Playlovers, his production of August: Osage County won several Finley Awards including the Finley’s Director Award and the Robert Finley Best Play Award, and Other Desert Cities, nominated for six Finley Awards, won the Technical Achievement Award.
The new production of Beautiful Thing will be staged at The Old Mill Theatre with a preview on 9th March and shows running through until Saturday 26th March. Rehearsals will run from 8th January.
If you are an actor who’d like to audition for this community theatre production, download the audition notes and book an audition.
OIP Staff
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