Chichester’s Festival 2014 opens with a revival of Hugh Whitemore’s Stevie Smith.
‘Smart writing people think it’s not at all chic to live in the suburbs with an aunt, but I don’t care what they think. I’ve never cared about chic things, fashion and so on. What does it matter? I love Aunt and Aunt loves me. That’s what really matters.’
Nervous and droll, Stevie Smith spends her days as a private secretary at the Newnes Publishing Company and her evenings in the London suburbs eating Battenberg cake and Ginger Nuts
with her beloved Aunt. All the time she is writing the piercing poetry and prose that will make her famous.
In between there are diverting visits from a series of men and, later on, tussles with literary celebrity. Beyond everything there is her greatest, often darkly comic, struggle: to keep waving when she feels like drowning.
Hugh Whitemore’s award-winning play is a moving glimpse into an unconventional and challenging life, together with a compelling celebration of Stevie Smith’s ever-popular and powerful poetry.
Zoë Wanamaker plays the eponymous heroine Stevie having last appeared at Chichester in Electra (1997).
Cast: Zoë Wanamaker as Stevie Smith, Lynda Baron, as Aunt, Chris Larkin as Man.
STEVIE
Minerva Theatre
24th April – 24th May 2014
www.cft.org.uk
Thursday 24thn April 2014
