28 February 2009
Posted by Bonnie on 28 February 2009 at
12:58
I've done a tidy-up type of update this evening, and added some new stuff to the site! I didn't manage to get everything added that I wanted to add, but that's probably because I've got a bit of a backlog of photos/articles/news to upload. I'll try to get caught up again tomorrow.
I've made a change to the way some of the career pages display, and added video previews if they're available. I think it adds a bit of interest to the pages and means that people don't have to go searching for a trailer or preview if they're interested in finding out more about a particular TV show or film.
After a quiet few months, Rachael has had a few new projects on the go lately.
Earlier this month, she starred as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion at the 37th Hong Kong Arts Festival. We don't have any photos yet, and the awkward thing is that Michelle Dockery also starred in the same role at one point. Some of the promo photos of her look quite like Rachael at first glance, so identifying genuine photos of Rachael is quite a challenge! If anyone spots any, let me know.
Rachael will be appearing in the penultimate episode of the current series of Minder next Wednesday. She'll be playing ex-model Eve Cornell, and you can read more about it here. The above pic is taken from the video preview. Don't miss it!
Finally, the highly-anticipated feature film The Young Victoria is released in UK cinemas next Friday, and looks set to be the biggest cinematic release yet of a film starring our Rachael. She plays the Duchess of Sutherland, one of Victoria's ladies-in-waiting, and I am looking forward to it.
I've added a couple of new articles to the Press section:
With any luck there'll be another update from me tomorrow, as I'm hoping to get caught up with everything.
2 Comments
Posted by Bonnie on 28 February 2009 at
12:00
Rachel Stirling, daughter of Diana Rigg, adds a touch of glamour to the penultimate episode of the surprisingly successful revival.
Archie's warehouse is the unlikely venue for an exclusive fashion function for a charity run by ex-model Eve Cornell (Ms Stirling) which campaigns against the use of sweatshop labour in the world's garment factories.
The event is being bankrolled by her wealthy husband Felix (Clive Wood). Archie (Shane Richie) hopes it may be the start of a lucrative new line of business.
On the same day, an old business associate asks Archie to look after his stunning Porsche sports car for a while, but Archie being Archie, he can't resist boasting to Felix that the car belongs to him. One poker game later, the car now belongs to Felix, and Archie is in deep doo-doo.
Meanwhile, an ex-employee of Felix's seems to be stalking the lovely Eve, and it's going to be up to minder Jamie (Lex Shrapnel) to sort out the stalker, win back the car and unmask the real villain of the piece.
It looks like a tall order, but on recent form, you never know, the lad might just manage it.
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6 February 2009
Posted by Bonnie on 6 February 2009 at
12:00
Peter Hall Company, Lyric Theatre, Academy for Performing Arts, Until February 8
Even before it was adapted into the hugely successful musical My Fair Lady, George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion was a great play, as this Peter Hall revival reminds us.
While keeping it entertaining, the British director also prods into the more intellectual aspects of the work, touching on themes such as social snobbery, sexual inequality and how you may be able to change a person's appearance but not their character.
Linguist Professor Henry Higgins (played by Adrian Lukis) makes a bet with Colonel George Pickering (Terence Wilton) that he can transform, within six months, the foul-mouthed Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Rachael Stirling) into a woman so elegant that she could be passed off as a duchess. While his "experiment" is a great success, it leaves Eliza wrecked because she can no longer return to her former life and Higgins realising his life is lonely and sad.
It's interesting that the best moments in the play, about how a person can be judged by something as superficial as speech, should come from the long, silent pauses. The scene in which Eliza is tested at the house of Mrs Higgins (Antonia Pemberton) is a great moment. While she is told to speak only about the weather, she starts to talk of her drunken aunt before uttering the "b" word in well-pronounced English.
You may be able to take the girl out of the gutter but not the gutter out of the girl.
Stirling plays Eliza with sensitivity, though her voice was a little hoarse. Lukis' Higgins is like a spoiled puerile schoolboy who fidgets non-stop and has slightly exaggerated mannerisms. The production is enhanced by a grand set (including an old London taxi) by Simon Higlett and beautiful costumes by Christopher Woods.
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5 February 2009
Posted by Bonnie on 5 February 2009 at
12:00
Most people know the musical adaptation of Pygmalion: My Fair Lady; many sing along to the songs and most love the final scene, a happy ending of love and marriage. An ending, incidentally, that George Bernard Shaw derided as "damnable". Shaw deliberately subverted Ovid's Metamorphoses when he wrote Pygmalion. In his play, the boy doesn't get the girl. Sir Peter Hall's "scintillating revival of Shaw's most famous comedy" (The Guardian) returns to the original text resulting in a wry comedy about class, language and emotion.
Arrogant, pompous and truculent Henry Higgins bets that he can transform guttersnipe Eliza from a Cockney flower-seller into a posh lady. She is eager for elocution lessons and he takes on the task with diabolical joy. He attempts to change Eliza's entire personality, oblivious to the consequences for her. While not overtly political, Shaw's play reflects his sympathy for the suffragette movement and has a distinct feminist bent. Rather than marry his transformation, as did Ovid's Pygmalion, Higgins is left forlorn as Eliza's metamorphosis gives her unexpected independence and strength of character, allowing her to leave him.
Pygmalion delighted both audiences and critics when it opened in Bath in 2007. This superb production is a triumph for Hall. Shaw had become unfashionable — his plays considered only lightweight entertainment. Hall's production rediscovers Shaw as a writer who merged the comic and the serious, writing about character and human destiny. Described as "astonishingly fresh and funny" (Sunday Times), Hall's rendition exposes the danger of being transformed into someone else's toy.
Eliza's scandalous exit line, "Walk! Not bloody likely", continues to cause laughter; it is a comedy after all. But it is the seriousness of the play that remains powerful and contemporary.
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