Francis Tucker, one of Liverpool’s favourite comedy performers, will return to the stage in Robert Farquhar’s comedy Di Is Dead at the Playhouse Studio from Wednesday 17th to Saturday 29th April.
It’s September 1997, and a wannabe Brit pop hanger on is struggling to write a book about the excesses of the time. And then it happens. Princess Diana is killed in a car crash in a Parisian subway. The country goes into grief frenzy meltdown. He goes in search of a subject to say something about something about where we’re at.
Robert Farquhar’s work is informed by modern life, while his influences range from Monty Python to Alan Bennett. His play Dead Heavy Fantastic was a hilarious charge through Liverpool’s nightlife staged at the Everyman in 2011 and Bad Jazz won critical acclaim when it premiered in 2006. Robert’s work with Big Wow, who regularly appear at the Unity Theatre, includes the award-winning Insomnobabble, The Friendship Experiment and The Art of Falling Apart. He also scripted Spike Theatre’s Sink or Swim which was recently staged in the Playhouse Studio and which was an absolute joy to see.
Francis Tucker is one of Liverpool’s most recognisable performers having appeared in Brick Up, Good Golly Miss Molly, and Reds & Blues at the Royal Court and his central role as the Dame in the Everyman and Playhouse rock ‘n’ roll panto for the last eight years. Francis’s other stage credits include Pistols (Brighton Royal), Twelfth Night (Birmingham MAC), Romeo and Juliet (Lodestar) and he will play Lucifer in Chester Mystery Plays later this summer. On screen Francis has appeared in Coronation Street and Dave Kirby’s 15 Minutes That Shook the World.
Francis Tucker said, “I’m very excited we are bringing Di Is Dead to the Playhouse Studio and working with Bob Farquhar again. We performed it last year at The Lantern Theatre and each night was a fantastic unique experience so hopefully we can repeat the same at in the Playhouse Studio.”
Following Sink or Swim earlier this season, Di Is Dead sees the Playhouse Studio continuing to establish itself as a breeding ground for new work both by the Everyman and Playhouse and local companies.
Tickets for Di Is Dead are available from the Box office, by telephone 0151 7094776 or online at www.everymanplayhouse.com. Tickets are priced at £10. There is also a matinee performance available on Saturday 27th April at 2.30pm.
Age recommendation: 16+ Contains bad language and scenes of a sexual nature.