STAGE ADAPTATION OF JUBILEE OPENS IN LONDON 15 FEB
Feb 14, 2018
Derek Jarman’s anarchic punk film Jubilee has been adapted for the stage with a cast including Toyah Willcox who made her screen debut in the original version 40 years ago. Willcox played the cackling pyromaniac Mad, a member of a girl gang whose fights, orgies and random acts of cruelty are witnessed by Queen Elizabeth I when she is magically transported to the 1970s. The new stage version premiered at Manchester’s Royal Exchange and casts Willcox in the role of the time-travelling queen.
“At the time it was made, it was utterly outrageous,” says Willcox of the film, which she describes as the tale of “women who are trying to kind of kill everything that controls them or that has exploited them. It’s a very resonant story today. Nothing’s changed except the technology.” The stage version will be firmly set in the modern day, with the script updated throughout the show’s run to acknowledge current events.
Toyah said: I am thrilled to be part of this production. Derek Jarman would be thrilled to have seen it come to fruition.”
The production opens at London’s Lyric Hammersmith theatre on 15 February and runs until 10 March. The Royal Exchange, Lyric Hammersmith and Chris Goode & Company co-production will see the Lyric’s main house reconfigured to recreate the Royal Exchange’s theatre-in-the-round. Tickets/details
arman’s anarchic punk film Jubilee has been adapted for the stage with a cast including Toyah Willcox who made her screen debut in the original version 40 years ago. Willcox played the cackling pyromaniac Mad, a member of a girl gang whose fights, orgies and random acts of cruelty are witnessed by Queen Elizabeth I when she is magically transported to the 1970s. The new stage version premiered at Manchester’s Royal Exchange and casts Willcox in the role of the time-travelling queen.