Latest News:
Keep It In The Family on DVD - Series 3 Available To Buy On May 28th.
Starring Robert Gillespie, Stacy Dorning (Black Beauty) and Pauline Yates (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin), Keep It in the Family was created by sitcom veteran Brian Cooke (Man About the House, George and Mildred) especially for Robert. The first two series – also featuring Roy Kinnear, Pat Coombs and Burt Kwouk – were released in 2010 and 2011, and now the third series will be released on May 28th 2012.
A resounding success over five series between 1980 and 1983, this Thames Television comedy is set in the delightfully chaotic home of Dudley and Muriel Rush, whose daughters, Jacqui and Susan, satisfy a hankering for freedom by moving into the family’s vacant basement flat. Dudley is a gifted cartoonist but an inveterate procrastinator with a fondness for practical jokes, who finds it hard to concentrate amid an ever-increasing number of distractions – to the despair of his long-suffering agent, Duncan. But at least he can still keep an eye on his wayward daughters, and their visitors...
"I was absolutely delighted that this series has finally been released on DVD having been such a big fan when it was originally broadcast. The excellent script and performances well stand the test of time and bring back some great memories for me. Having the chance to watch this series again highlights just what an excellent comedy performer Robert Gillespie is, his timing is perfection, and the combination of wicked mischieviousness and childlike innocence makes his character so endearing. He simply never stops in each episode and the supporting cast are all excellent." - Amazon.com review.
All three series are available from all major high street stores, or from online retailers including Amazon.co.uk.
Love, Question Mark
Love, Question Mark finished playing at the Tabard Theatre in November 2011 to great acclaim. Robert Gillespie's interview about the play with Greg Jameson of Entertainment Focus can be viewed here.
For the very latest news of upcoming productions, please follow us on Twitter or keep up to speed at www.lovequestionmark.co.uk.
© Richard Davenport
"Plenty of wonderful one-liners to enjoy, as well as a deliciously satirical view of the conventional wisdom on the subject trotted out by religious authorities and their ilk. Love, Question Mark is often laugh-out-loud funny; though in Brechtian style there are moments of humour that leave you questioning your taste and morals" - Entertainment Focus
"Excellently acted thought-provoking theatre...An outstandingly brilliant performance by Clare Cameron who steals the stage from the very second she appears on it...Sessions plays this part brilliantly and thoroughly convincingly." - Backstage Pass.
"Love, Question Mark is a brilliant piece with which to open the New Diorama Theatre. Robert Gillespie has cleverly penned a contemplative piece that throws up resounding, trans-generational issues about relationships and loneliness...A stand-out performance by Clare Cameron." - Spoonfed.
"Fast-paced and very funny...A sharp and witty show, deftly directed by Gillespie...Wonderfully performed by Stuart Sessions and Clare Cameron. It challenges us to be curious about our ideas of love, and to look for our own truth." - British Theatre Guide.
“Gillespie’s new play challenges us to think outside the box...The writing which teeters into black comedy is witty, acerbic with lots of brilliant one liners, many with a wealth of meaning behind them.” - ThePublicReviews.com.
Jane Nightwork presents:
POWER OF THREE: Love, War and Death
Written and directed by Robert Gillespie
Play One: Love, Question Mark
“The only difference between prostitution and those who sell themselves into marriage, is in the price and length of the contract.” So said Simone de Beauvoir.
Three years after the death of his wife, Michael gets a shock. Just a pair of legs on a bus but it’s enough to unlock long-buried desires. Suddenly he wants to know: What is love? Is it wrong to buy sex? Is marriage the best answer? And why does the Hormonic Jazz Band always prevail?
Catch up with this racy, raw, comical-tragical show. Career around the emotional hairpin bends, stub your toe on the laughs, be shocked to the very core, just don’t miss it...
Writer-director Robert Gillespie explores the curious gap between what we say we want and what we actually do. He has written a fascinating piece here, where he explains what inspired him to write the play. And photographs from the production can be viewed here.
Theatre Voice have also recently interviewed Robert, and you can listen to the interview on their site here.
Cast: Clare Cameron, Stuart Sessions.
Design: Mamoru Iriguchi (2009 Evening Standard award, Mincemeat) and Maria Garcia.
"Love, Question Mark" was first performed at The New Diorama Theatre, from 6th April - 1st May 2010, and was then restaged at The OSO in Barnes in October 2010.
Mincemeat
And if you missed Robert Gillespie in Mincemeat you can check out the background story at: http://www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/, and the reviews linked below this image. We hear there's a move to bring the show back - and will post further news here as soon as we have it. 
Mincemeat is the story of a nobody who became a somebody, and in doing so changed the course of the Second World War.
The true story behind The Man Who Never Was; a site specific promenade performance through a re-imagined wartime London.
Cardboard Citizens’ new production was performed by a professional cast including ex-homeless actors. Mincemeat is the first in a three year cycle of plays about forgotten histories, all based on real events in which an ordinary person affects the bigger sweep of history.
More information, along with very positive reviews from The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times and The Telegraph, can be found here.
Simone de Beauvoir, author of THE SECOND SEX and partner of Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote a fascinating play while she endured Nazi occupation in Paris. In association with the National Theatre Studio, we ran an intensive two-day workshop of the play, with a view to a full production.
For further information click here.
Our Reading Of
went extremely well, and we received this response from John Theocharis, a former BBC Radio Drama Producer.
"Most enjoyable. Most entertaining. Well-made, intriguing, eloquent. The text sounds appropriately literate, but also natural and convincing. Attractively and wittily performed, even as a reading. A nicely paced one too. Just a few belly laughs, but lots of amused faces in the audience smiling and laughing noiselessly throughout it. Charmingly wordy, but I'm sure it can be shortened for a stage performance to good effect and without loss of substance, or indeed charm. Quite a feat, eventually, for the actors to memorise all those long speeches. It should work on the airwaves too, but it may have to be compressed so drastically that some of its essential flavour may be lost, and its credibility weakened. Many thanks for inviting me. So glad I came."
Further information about Chains can be found here.
For more information on our previous productions, including Golden Opportunities, Making Dickie Happy, Sex, Death and A Baked Swan, and Oedipus: A Double Bill, please click here.
Previous Productions
For further information on our previous productions, please click on the appropriate link.
Chains
Golden Opportunities
Sex, Death and A Baked Swan
Making Dickie Happy
Passion Play
Oleanna
My Heart
Recollections by Robert Gillespie
The Royal Shakespeare Company's U.S. Tour - Robert's Diary.
Previous Recollections:
Directing Tennessee Williams Period of Adjustment
Hamlet - the Old Vic, 1954, Assembly Hall, Edin. Festival
Peter Howell talks about Olivier's Richard III in WW2 London
The Old Vic, 1953/4 - Michael Hordern's Malvolio
**
Doctor Theatre - A Giggle Before You Go
Click above to see video clips from Keep It In The Family, the sitcom written for Robert by Brian Cooke, and other tv series that he has appeared in.
