Rachael Stirling Online » Career

The Recruiting Officer

Bonnie — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:51:53 +0000

'Unless we could make ourselves some pleasure amidst the pain, no mortal man would be able to bear it.'

It's with the promise of money, glory and adventure that Captain Plume is recruiting the men of Shrewsbury for the King's army. He's also determined to make a conquest of Sylvia, but as she’s now an heiress she can afford to put him to the test. All the while, the scheming Melinda is toying with the affections of Captain Brazen and the gentleman Mr Worthy.

From military manoeuvring to sexual strategies, Farquhar's triumphant The Recruiting Officer, written in 1706, is an unashamed celebration of love, lustiness and victory in battle and in the bedroom.

Rachael Stirling plays Melinda.

Possession

Bonnie — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:00:35 +0000

Obscure scholar Roland Michell, researching in the London Library, discovers handwritten drafts of a letter by the prestigious (fictional) Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash, which leads him to suspect that the married Ash had a hitherto unknown romance. He feels compelled to take away the documents secretly — an unprofessional act — and begins to investigate. The trail leads him to Christabel LaMotte, a minor poet and contemporary of Ash, and to Dr. Maud Bailey, a modern LaMotte scholar and distant relative of LaMotte's family, who is drawn into helping Roland with the unfolding mystery. They become obsessed with uncovering the truth and unearth more letters and evidence of an affair between the poets, and their own personal romantic lives — neither of which are happy or even satisfactory — develop and become entwined in an echo of Ash and LaMotte, whose story is told in parallel to theirs.

The news of this affair will make headlines and reputations in academia, and colleagues of Roland and Maud become competitors in the race to discover the truth, for all manner of motives. And the truth is this: Ash's marriage was barren and unconsummated, although he loved and remained devoted to his wife. He and LaMotte had a short, passionate affair resulting in the suicide of LaMotte's companion (and possibly lover) and the secret birth of an illegitimate child, whose existence LaMotte sought to conceal from Ash, but whom he did once meet, unknown to her. As the Great Storm of 1987 strikes England, all the interested parties come together in a dramatic scene at Ash's grave, where documents buried with Ash by his wife are believed to hold the final key to the mystery. Reading them, Maud learns that rather than being related to LaMotte's sister, as she has always believed, she is in fact directly descended from LaMotte and Ash's illegitimate daughter, who was raised by LaMotte's sister and passed off as her own child, and she is therefore heir to their correspondence. Roland, freed from obscurity and a dead-end relationship, manages to live down the potential professional suicide of the theft of the original documents, and sees an academic career open up before him. Maud, who has spent her adult life confused and emotionally untouchable, finds her human side and sees possible future happiness with Roland. And the sad story of Ash and LaMotte, separated by the mores of the day and condemned to secrecy and separation, is resolved at last through Roland and Maud.

Adapted for BBC Radio 4 by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

The 24-Hour Plays Celebrity Gala 2011

Bonnie — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:00:46 +0000

The ultimate theatrical challenge. A host of well-known actors, directors and writers join forces to write, rehearse and perform six short plays in just 24 hours, culminating in a unique performance hosted by a special guest, for the Gala audience on one of the world's most celebrated stages.

Rachael Stirling took part in 2011. The gala took place on Sunday 13th November 2011 at The Old Vic theatre, London, and here are the details of the play in which Rachael performed:

Title: Greedo Doesn't Shoot First!
Playwright: Roy Williams
Director: Steve Macmion
Assistant Director: Laura Keefe

Cast:

Molly: Rachael Stirling
Jack: Robert Glenister
John: Brendan Coyle
Kat: Sophia Myles

Rachael played Molly, a bipolar girl who had stopped taking her medication. The character was obsessed with Star Wars and the play involved her, along with the other characters, capturing George Lucas and holding him hostage.

Snow White and the Huntsman

Bonnie — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:19:55 +0000

In the epic action-adventure Snow White and the Huntsman, Kristen Stewart plays the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen (Oscar-winner Charlize Theron) who is out to destroy her. But what the wicked ruler never imagined is that the young woman threatening her reign has been training in the art of war with a huntsman (Chris Hemsworth, Thor) who was dispatched to kill her. Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) joins the cast as the prince long enchanted by Snow White's beauty and power.

The breathtaking new vision of the legendary tale is from Joe Roth, the producer of Alice in Wonderland, producer Sam Mercer (The Sixth Sense) and acclaimed commercial director and state-of-the-art visualist Rupert Sanders.

A Celebration of Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Bonnie — Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00:55 +0000

A script-in-hand performance of Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' scandalous novel with a cast including Clare Higgins and Una Stubbs.

Premiered by the RSC in 1985 in The Other Place, it went on to be a hit in the West End and on Broadway. The play is a masterclass in novel adaptation: concise, dramatic, heart-rending, exuberant.

The performance was followed by an on-stage Q&A with Director Gérald Garutti, Christopher Hampton and West End producer Kim Poster, hosted by Company Dramaturg Jeanie O'Hare.