The Lady in the Van: SA Premiere for The Stirling Players

The Lady in the Van: SA Premiere for The Stirling Players

Alan Bennett is the renowned writer of such award-winning plays as The History Boys, The Madness of King George and Talking Heads, but in1974 the Beyond the Fringe star had a real-life experience that became the true story behind his poignant, yet very funny play, The Lady in the Van.

By chance, he met and took pity on Miss Shepherd, an itinerant old lady. Alan allowed her to park her smelly van in his London garden, where he thought she might stay for 3 months. Instead, she lived there in the van for 15 years, until she died in 1989.

The Stirling Players will present the South Australian premiere of The Lady in the Van from 4th-19th October 2013 at the Stirling Community Theatre in the Adelaide hills.

Kevin Burrett, President of Stirling Players, says the group is always looking for fresh and challenging plays. Challenging this production will most certainly be, with dozens of scenes taking place over the many years of Bennett’s hilarious and testing encounters with Miss Shepherd.

"One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation", Bennett said of the eccentric Miss Shepherd. He once had garden manure delivered, because it smelled better than the unpleasant odours coming from the old lady. However, as well as a source of frustration, the irascible and intriguing womanstirred a sense ofcompassion in the hearts of Alan and his neighbours.

Over the years, Bennett made notes about Miss Shepherd’s run-ins with people, her troubled and mysterious past, her rants about society, petitions to the Vatican (for a taller Pope!) and ambitions to be Prime Minister. A request for a piece of writing some time after she died brought him back to his jottings. They became a short story, then a radio serial and finally, the successful play, The Lady in the Van.

In December 1999 the play opened to rave reviews at the Queen’s Theatre, London, with Maggie Smith starring as Miss Shepherd.  The Sunday Times called it “one of the West End's saddest, funniest and most distinguished offerings for years."

In his 2005 collection, Untold Stories, Bennett wrote that Miss Shepherd’s story was his own story, too, and so he had to include himself in the play. Even so, it was difficult to write it, until he came up with the idea of including two Alan Bennett characters.

“The device of having two actors playing me isn’t just a bit of theatrical showing off, and does, however crudely, correspond to the reality,” he said. “There was one bit of me (often irritated and resentful) that had to deal with this unwelcome guest camped literally on my doorstep, but there was another bit of me that took pleasure in Miss Shepherd’s absurdities and her outrageous demands”.

in The Stirling Players’ production, Lee Cook plays Alan 1, the Alan who deals directly with Miss Shepherd and the various neighbours, social workers and journalists who come sniffing around. He is also the Alan who deals with her stinking garbage bags of waste, and her demands for more pencils!  Tim Edhouse is Alan 2, his counterpart’s conscience and the play’s narrator, who remains unseen to the other characters but in regular communication with the audience. It all makes for some very comic conversations.

Playing Miss Shepherd is Jill Morrell, last seen with The Stirling Players as the superbly understated female lead in It’s my Party…and I’ll Die If I Want To, which won the2009Adelaide Theatre Guide Curtain Call Award for Best Comedy.     

The challenge of mounting a play with dozens of scenes taking place over 15 years doesn’t daunt Dave Simms, the play’s director. While this is his first time directing for The Stirling Players, Dave is no stranger to the Adelaide theatre scene. He’s been involved as an actor, director, designer, sound designer and producer since 1997.

“Denis Noble, our set designer, and I have come up with an intriguing way of bringing Alan Bennett’s London street to life,” says Dave. “It’ll be amoving illustration; what you could call a pop-up book for adults!”  

As is the tradition in Stirling, audiences are invited to enjoy the ambience of the historic Stirling Community Theatre with a complimentary sherry by the log fires in the foyer before the show.

Lesley Reed

Photographs: Supplied by The Stirling Players.

Venue: The Stirling Community Theatre, Avenue Road, Stirling, South Australia.

Dates:  Fridays & Saturdays 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19 October 8pm, Sundays 6 & 13 October 4pm.

Bookings: From 2 September.Online atThe Stirling Players’ websitewww.sct.org.au or book at the Matilda Bookshop, 8 Mt Barker Road, Stirling. Shop open 7 days, 10-5. Tel (08) 83393931.

Tickets:Adult $20, Concession $16, Groups of 10+ $14.

Images (from top): Lee Cook (Alan Bennett 1) and Tim Edhouse (Alan Bennett 2) in dialogue; Lee Cook (Alan Bennett 1) and Jill Morrell (Miss Shepherd) rehearsing & Lee Cook (Alan Bennett 1) and Dave Simms (Director).

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