Comedy/Drama (Camp Guard)

In 1989 REG was involved in the theatre production of "Bent".

The Temple has managed to get a copy of the theatre programme cover (below), as well as some brief details of the production.

BENT – Stage play by Martin Sherman.

June 25, 1989: single-performance charity production to benefit the Stonewall Group (gay rights activists).

Adelphi Theatre, London, directed by Sean Mathias.

Cast (partial): Ian McKellen (Max), Michael Cashman (Horst), Michael Aldridge, Ian Charleson, Ralph Fiennes (camp guard), Richard E. Grant (camp guard), Alex Jennings, Alexis Denisof.

For more details on the program, click here.

Comedy (Nurse/Bedhead)

A star cast gets into bed together for this play by Jim Cartwright that deals with insomnia, growing old and death.

A retired sea captain (Lionel Jeffries) is compelled to go into an institution. In his dreams he joins the "Sleep Club" where he finds himself in bed with all the other residents, including June Brown ("Dot Cotton" in EastEnders).

Above them all gazes the spiteful face of the Bed Head (Richard E Grant) who, driven mad by his insomnia, pours abuse on the inhabitants of the bed.

"Bed Head is the patron saint of insomnia," explains Richard. "He embodies pure malevolence although, to be fair, if we could never go to sleep, we‚d get a bit short-tempered too."

The play is both surreal, and a meditation on growing old and dying.

Jim Cartwright has won the Olivier Award and Evening Standard Drama Awards for Best Comedy in 1992 and has written many plays, including The Rise And Fall of Little Voice, which was made into the film Little Voice starring Jane Horrocks.

Best REG line:

Comedy/Drama (George IV, Prince of Wales)

King George IV (Richard E. Grant) and his earthy German wife, Caroline (Susan Lynch), whose 1794 arranged marriage of fiscal convenience (to benefit indulgent, free-spending George) is a mismatch from the start. In this grand script by Stanley Price, at least, their tragically cold and distant relationship yields biting humor and commentary on the manners of the age, as George spends nearly the entire marriage trying to extricate himself from it, even as Caroline initially seeks to win acceptance by him and his pompous court. Their bawdy, rambunctious conduct and intense rivalry and bitterness, swelling to a climactic courtroom battle, are described in a droll narration by Ian Richardson.

For extravagantly perfumed and wardrobed George, it’s nausea at first whiff when meeting the unfragrant, unglamorous woman he has reluctantly agreed to marry in hopes of reducing his massive debts. The wedding rites, with George all red-eyed and tipsy, are especially funny. As is much of what follows, thanks also to the crafty work of Lynch and especially Grant (ever the superb farceur) and the ease with humor by director Sheree Folkson. All earn credit for this sly royal blast.

Best REG scene: Where REG and his estranged wife meet in a large hall and speak coldly to each other for the last time, as one stands on the black floor tiles, and one stands on the white floor tiles.

Drama (Bob Cratchit)

REG is Bob Cratchit in "A Christmas Carol", opposite Patrick "Star Trek" Stewart, who plays Scrooge. It’s a wonderful production as you can see from Megan’s review of it here.

Best REG line:

Drama (Mycroft)

Forget all the cliches you’ve been used to in Sherlock Holmes stories and movies, this is where the legend begins. The famous detective is not the mature hero and flawless detective depicted by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but is instead London’s new headline star. A young man in his early twenties, rather arrogant, self-assured, and eager for publicity, he came into the spotlight by killing England’s most wanted man – Professor Moriarty, the man who the police have been after for years with no success. However the young genius detective had allowed himself to be tricked by this shrewd enemy, being overwhelmed with adoration. The no less clever Professor Moriarty fakes his own death, thus having an unbreakable alibi in order to start a new criminal empire – dealing heroin, which he invented. He wants to start selling it all over the world.

Patiently taking one step at a time, the Professor eliminates all the important competition in the opium business, before anyone even knew there was one. Holmes fails to protect the life of the man who employed him to avoid the same fate – Harrington, one of the most important opium traders. With the help of his brother Mycroft, who was subdued with drugs by the evil Professor in his youth, Holmes starts after the “dead” Moriarty, again. With sharp wits and his newfound friend Watson, the doctor-inventor, at his side, he finally tracks down Moriarty to fight him one last time. It all ends in a lethal ballet of swordfighting, set in the Big Ben clock room – that was still under construction at that time.

Moriarty falls to his death through one of the clock’s open faces, dropping down into the Thames… with that, Sherlock Holmes’s first case has been successfully solved.

Best REG line: