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Hitchcock Blonde
- opened: 4/4/2003
- closed: 5/24/2003
- Royal Court Downstairs
- Box Office: 020 7565 5100
- Details:
- Summary: Visit theARCHIVE to hear a discussion. Terry Johnson's three-tiered homage to Hitchcock. Shuttling between three different time periods, the play takes as its chronological centre 1959, the year Hitchcock made Psycho. Weaving fact and fiction Johnson imagines the encounter between the auteur and an actress auditioning for the role of Janet Leigh’s body-double in the notorious shower-scene. Here the auditionee – played by Bond film star Rosamund Pike – remains anonymous, and is referred to in the text simply as the Blonde. The shower scene itself is the central thread of preoccupation running through the rest of the play, as Johnson cuts from 1959 to 1999 and a middle-aged film studies lecturer called Alex who is himself preoccupied with Hitchcock footage he has discovered that seems to date back to 1919. Luring a young blonde student called Nicola to the Greek island of Kalithia to help him salvage the rusting reels, Alex plainly hopes a bottle or two of ouzo might encourage more than just a few frames of film to stand exposed.
- Author: Terry Johnson
- Director: Terry Johnson
- Composer: n/a
- Lyricist: n/aSet Designer: William Dudley
- Lighting Designer: Simon Corder
- Costume Designer: n/a
- Choreographer: n/a
- Cast Details: Fiona Glascott (Nicola); David Haig (Alex); William Hootkins (Hitch); Rosamund Pike (Blonde); Owen McDonnell (Husband). Transferred to West End, Lyric Shaftesbury Avenue (16 June-20 Sept 2003).
- Reference: More Info
