''Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners'' is an
anthology-style play compiled and written by ''
Carry On...'' writer
Norman Hudis
Norman Hudis (27 July 1922 – 8 February 2016) was an English writer for film, theatre and television, and is most closely associated with the first six of the ''Carry On (series), Carry On...'' film series, for which he wrote the screenplays un ...
and
producer Marc Sinden
Marcus Andrew Sinden (born 9 May 1954) is an English actor and film & theatre director and producer.
Sinden has worked in film and theatre (mainly in London's West End) as both actor and producer and directed the documentary series ''Great We ...
, who is also the
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
. It was originally devised by Sinden as a female rival to the
RSC
RSC may refer to:
Arts
* Royal Shakespeare Company, a British theatre company
* Reduced Shakespeare Company, a touring American acting troupe
* Richmondshire Subscription Concerts, a music society in Richmond, North Yorkshire, England
* Rock Ste ...
's ''
The Hollow Crown ''The Hollow Crown'' may refer to:
* a passage in Shakespeare's play '' Richard II''
* ''The Hollow Crown'' (anthology), a 1961 work by John Barton
* ''The Hollow Crown'' (TV series), a BBC adaptation of Shakespeare plays
* '' Hollow Crown'', a 2 ...
'' and was the first anthology to have a permanent 'pool' of actresses from which four appear for the performance.
It has toured in the
UK since 15 June 2003 (premiering at the Princess Theatre,
Hunstanton,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
) and is produced all over
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and throughout the rest of the world by
Marc Sinden Productions
Marcus Andrew Sinden (born 9 May 1954) is an English actor and film & theatre director and producer.
Sinden has worked in film and theatre (mainly in London's West End Theatre, West End) as both actor and producer and directed the documentary ...
. Internationally, it has been performed at the
British Theatre Season, Monaco;
the
Holder's Festival,
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
;
on
Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.
It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...
(one of the
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
) and is currently on an 18-month tour of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
It is billed as: "An anthology evening of Wicked Comedy, Heavenly Drama, Devilishly Tall Tales, Enchanting Poetry and Seductive Stories starring Four Deadly Beautiful Temptresses, who will enlighten you on how to survive, or even live by, the Seven Deadly Sins!"
Cast
Compiled from the works of nearly everyone with a sense of humour (sometimes unintentional) - from
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
to
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 – 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director.
Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over se ...
, from
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
to
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
via
Flanders & Swann,
Joyce Grenfell
Joyce Irene Grenfell OBE (''née'' Phipps; 10 February 1910 – 30 November 1979) was an English diseuse, singer, actress and writer. She was known for the songs and monologues she wrote and performed, at first in revues and later in her solo s ...
,
Steven Berkoff and
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
, it stars four from the following alphabetically listed, interchangeable cast:
*
Lysette Anthony
Lysette Anne Chodzko (born 26 September 1963), known professionally as Lysette Anthony, is an English actress and model. She is known for her roles in the film ''Husbands and Wives'' (1992), as Princess Lysssa in the 1983 fantasy epic '' Krull ...
*
Debbie Arnold
Debbie Arnold (born 14 June 1955) is an English actress, producer and voice artist. She is known for her portrayal of April Branning in BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' between 1995 and 1996. Arnold has portrayed regular characters in ''EastEnder ...
*
Jane Asher
Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)The International Who's Who of Women, 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and has worked extensively in f ...
*
Samantha Beckinsale
Samantha-Jane Beckinsale (born 23 July 1966), known professionally as Samantha Beckinsale, and Sam Beckinsale, is a British actress. She played firefighter Kate Stevens in '' London's Burning''.
Early life
Beckinsale is the only daughter of ac ...
*
Tara Blaise
Tara Blaise (born 1 March 1975) is an Irish female pop, folk, and rock singer. The eldest of six children, Blaise was born in London, but at the age of three moved with her family to Ireland and grew up in Aughrim County Wicklow.
Biography
E ...
*
Judy Buxton
Judith Catherine Buxton (born 7 October 1949) is an English actress best known for playing Nurse Katy Shaw in ''General Hospital'' (1972–1973), Susan Protheroe in ''By the Sword Divided'' (1983–1985) and Ruth Carpenter in '' On the Up'' (199 ...
*
Tracey Childs
Tracey Childs (born 30 May 1963) is an English actress, known for playing Lynne Howard in the 1980s drama series '' Howards' Way''. Her other television roles include Marianne Dashwood in '' Sense and Sensibility'' (1981), Linda Cosgrove in '' ...
*
Sara Crowe
Sara Crowe is a Scottish film and stage actress who mainly plays comedy roles.
Biography Career
After beginning her career on stage and in television, Crowe began to take film roles, including a part in ''Carry On Columbus'' and as the 'first ...
* Lorna Dallas
*
Janie Dee
Janie Dee (born 20 June 1962) is an English actress and singer. She won the Olivier Award for Best Actress, Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play, and in New York the Obie and Theatre World Award ...
*
Serena Evans
Serena Evans (born 2 December 1959 in London, England) is a British actress who is best known for playing Police Sergeant Patricia Dawkins in the sitcom '' The Thin Blue Line'' which was shown on BBC1 from 1995 to 1996.
She also had a regular r ...
*
Jan Francis
Janet Stephanie Francis (born 5 August 1947) is an English actress. She appeared as Penny Warrender in the 1980s romantic comedy ''Just Good Friends''.
Early life
Francis was born at the former Charing Cross Hospital London. She is the eldes ...
*
Liza Goddard
Louise Elizabeth Goddard (born 20 January 1950) professionally known as Liza Goddard, is an English television and stage actress, best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s.
Early life
Goddard was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire.Before 1 ...
*
Anita Harris
*
Sue Holderness
Susan Joan Holderness (born 28 May 1949) is an English actress on both stage and screen having had appearances in '' Bless This House'' (1974), '' The New Avengers'' (1977), ''Canned Laughter'' (1979),
''The Sandbaggers'' (1980), ''The Cleopatr ...
*
Belinda Lang
Belinda Lucy Lange (born 23 December 1953), known professionally as Belinda Lang, is an English actress. She is known for playing Liza in the ITV sitcom '' Second Thoughts'' (1991–94), and Bill Porter in the BBC sitcom ''2point4 Children'' ...
*
Caroline Langrishe
Caroline Langrishe (born 10 January 1958) is an English actress.
Early life
Born in London, Langrishe is the elder daughter of Patrick Nicholas Langrishe (1932–2022), of The Manor House, Sellindge, Kent, a Lieutenant in the 11th Hussars, late ...
*
Rula Lenska
Rula Lenska (born Róża Maria Leopoldyna Łubieńska, 30 September 1947) is a British actress. She mainly appears in British stage and television productions and is known in the United States for a series of television advertisements in the 19 ...
*
Annabel Leventon
Annabel Leventon (born 20 April 1942 in Hertfordshire, England) is an English actress who has acted in various roles on stage and television.
While reading English at the University of Oxford she made several appearances at the Oxford Playhouse ...
*
Cherie Lunghi
Cherie Mary Lunghi (born 4 April 1952) is an English film, television, and theatre actress, known for her roles in many British TV dramas. Her international fame stems from her role as Guinevere in the 1981 film ''Excalibur''. Her long list of ...
*
Nichola McAuliffe
Nichola McAuliffe (born 1955) is an English television and stage actress and writer, best known for her role as Sheila Sabatini in the ITV hospital sitcom '' Surgical Spirit'' (1989–1995). She has also starred in several stage musicals and won ...
*
Kerry Norton
*
Eva Pope
Eva Rebecca Pope (born 16 November 1967) is an English actress, best known for her portrayal of longest-serving headmistress Rachel Mason in '' Waterloo Road'', and appearances in '' Coronation Street'', ''Dream Team'', '' Baby Boys'' and ''He ...
*
Linda Purl
Linda Purl (born September 2, 1955) is an American actress and singer, known for her roles as Ashley Pfister (Fonzie's girlfriend) on '' Happy Days'' (she originally played Gloria as Richie’s date in season 2 episode 6), Sheila Munroe in the 198 ...
* Georgia Reece
*
Liz Robertson
Liz Robertson (born 4 May 1954) is an English actress and singer and the widow of playwright and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. She is especially well known for her performances as Madame Giry, having played the role in the original cast of '' Love Ne ...
*
Twiggy
Dame Lesley Lawson (''née'' Hornby; born 19 September 1949) is an English model, actress, and singer, widely known by the nickname Twiggy. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London.
...
*
Joanne Whalley
Joanne Whalley (born 25 August 1961) is an English actress who began her career in 1974. She has appeared primarily on television, but also in nearly 30 feature films, including ''Dance with a Stranger'' (1985), ''Willow (film), Willow'' (1988), ...
References
{{Reflist
2003 plays
Comedy plays
Literature about literature
Plays by Norman Hudis
Plays by Marc Sinden
Seven deadly sins in popular culture