Rylance to organize and direct charity event performance!

According to TheatreMania!:

Julie Christie, Mackenzie Crook, Sinead Cusack, Colin Firth, Emilia Fox, Michael Gambon, Sophie Okonedo, Mark Rylance, Danny Sapani, John Sessions, Kevin Spacey, Juliet Stevenson, Ken Stott, Zoe Wanamaker, and James Wilby will be among the performers in the West End benefit, WE ARE ONE – a celebration of tribal peoples, to be held at the Apollo Theatre, on Sunday, April 18, at 5pm. The event will also include a performance by Bruce Dickinson, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice.

The fundraising evening is created and directed by Rylance, and inspired by the words and images of tribal peoples featured in the recently published book, also titled WE ARE ONE – a celebration of tribal peoples. The volume was created and edited by Jo Eede and published by Quadrille Publishing, to mark the 40th anniversary of Survival International.

Proceeds from the West End event will benefit this human rights organization that campaigns for tribal peoples.

As quoted by London Theatre:

“As a child, I was enriched and inspired by the lives and stories of the world’s tribal peoples. As an adult, I have also been inspired by the ceaseless work of the organization Survival International, and their movement to protect these tribes – from the rainforest of the Amazon to the icy reaches of the Arctic…To celebrate 40 years of Survival’s work and enjoy the beauty of the spoken word from such rich oral cultures, I am gathering my friends from the theatre on the set of Jerusalem for a wonderful spring afternoon of eloquent recitals and stunning images from ‘We are One’.”

To attend:

Time: 5pm
Ticket prices: £20, £35, £50, £100
(£100 includes an invitation to the after-show party).
Telephone: 0871 297 0741

Mark Rylance announced as part of the cast for “La Bete”

According to Variety and Playbill, Mark Rylance will be starring in a West End revival of David Hirson’s comedy play, “La Bete,” alongside Joanna Lumley (“Absolutely Fabulous”) and David Hyde Pierce (“Frasier”). “La Bete” will be transferred to Broadway if the West End revival is a success. The production is slated to open in spring 2011.

Boeing-Boeing in West End, 2007!

I’ve finally put together some photos of Mark Rylance and company in West End’s 2007 revival of Boeing-Boeing, which was a huge hit. The play ran at Comedy Theatre (on February 2007) in London before transferring to Broadway in New York City in 2008. The play won many praises by critics and audiences alike. It should also be noted that Rylance won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the 2008 Broadway transfer of Boeing-Boeing.

Theatre critic Michael Billington wrote of Rylance’s performance:

The plum part is that of Robert, whom Mark Rylance invests with a Welsh accent and poll-scratching air of bemusement that reminds one of Stan Laurel at his best. Rylance, with his tenative gestures and secretive smiles, works in a different rhythm from everyone else ,as befits a rural visitor. But what he dazzlingly shows is how the outsider gets caught up in the wicked Parisian game. At one point Rylance, overcompensating for the compromising undergarments found in his bag, essays a macho toughness which leads him to point his fingers like pistols and kick open a door in the manner of John Wayne. It typifies a great farce performance in which innocence is corrupted by experience.

promotional poster for Boeing-Boeing

Comedy Theatre, where Boeing-Boeing was being played at. (source)

Tamzin Outhwaite, Frances de la Tour, Roger Allam, Michelle Gomez, Mark Rylance, and Daisy Beaumont

Rylance with Tamzin Outhwaite

Mark Rylance and Tamzin Outhwaite (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

Roger Allam (Bernard), Mark Rylance (Robert) (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

photo by Manuel Harlan

Rylance and Michelle Gomez

Rylance with Tamzin Outhwaite

Mark Rylance, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Roger Allam (source)

Roger Allam, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Mark Rylance

Daisy Beaumont, Roger Allam, and Mark Rylance.

photo by Joan Marcus

the cast takes bows at curtain call! (source)

(source)

Daisy Beaumont, Mark Rylance, and Tamzin Outhwaite, celebrating the huge success of the play! at London’s Ruby Blue club (February 2007)

Rylance greets Haydn Gwynne at the post-show party

For reading information on Rylance in Boeing-Boeing, check out the article/interview, Praised and Confused and here’s another nice article/interview by an American newspaper.