Theatre Royal to live stream ‘Being Mr Wickham’ round the world

Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds has linked up with Original Theatre Company for an exciting first – a  live stream to audiences around the world direct from the stage of the Suffolk playhouse.

Pride and Prejudice’s George Wickham is on the eve of his 60th birthday and wants to lift the sheets on exactly what happened 30 years on from where Jane Austen left him and set the record straight.

What really happened with Darcy?  What did he feel about Lizzie? What happened at Waterloo? Not to mention Byron …

Original Theatre Company – the production company behind the critically acclaimed lockdown online productions of Sebastian Faulks’s “Birdsong Online”, Louise Coulthard’s “Watching Rosie”, Torben Betts’s “Apollo 13: The Dark Side of The Moon”, Philip Franks’s “The Haunting of Alice Bowles” and “Barnes’ People” – are delighted to present Adrian Lukis in “Being Mr Wickham”.

Written by Adrian and Catherine Curzon, this one-man play about one of Jane Austen’s most charmingly roguish characters, will be directed by Guy Unsworth, designed by Libby Watson and filmed by Matt Hargreaves and his team from North West Culture, who recently worked on the acclaimed streaming of “Hymn” at The Almeida.

Artistic director of Original Theatre Company, Alastair Whatley said: “After months spent making work from home, I am delighted to be returning to the beautiful Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds with ‘Being Mr Wickham’; an apt venue in every way for our first ever live streaming. This stunning regency theatre is the theatre we call home and it could not be better suited to host an evening with Adrian Lukis reprising his acclaimed performance as Mr Wickham.”

Owen Calvert Lyons, artistic director of Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, said: “Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds is delighted to be supporting Original Theatre to create ‘Being Mr Wickham’. George Wickham is one of literature’s most loved/hated figures and it feels fitting that he should make his return on the stage of the country’s last remaining Regency theatre. That audiences will experience this reinvention of Jane Austen’s story through online streaming is a beautiful fusion of the past and the future.”

The live performances will be followed by a Q&A with Adrian Lukis and hosted by radio presenter, journalist, drama critic and author, Libby Purves.

The play will be live streamed from the stage of the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds at 7.30pm, on Friday, April 30, and at 3pm and 7.30pm on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Tickets are on sale now.

Live Stream tickets can be booked at www.theatreroyal.org and watched from anywhere in the world.