Tom Cheshire, the co-founder of 5 Quarters Theatre Company, has brought together a cast of local performers to help realise his long-held ambition of bringing to a Guernsey audience Simon Beaufoy’s adaptation of his own hit film script.
‘I’ve wanted to do The Full Monty for well over 10 years,’ Tom says, ‘but I wanted to find the right cast and I wanted to find the right charity in Guernsey to raise money for.’
A portion of the ticket sales for the production – running from Wednesday until Saturday at the Princess Royal Centre for Performing Arts – will be donated to the men’s mental health charity Male Uprising Guernsey, alongside additional fundraising initiatives throughout the run.
But it hasn’t just been finding the cast and the charity that has held Tom back.
‘I’ve been applying for The Full Monty every year and it was actually my wife Katey who got the rights,’ he says.
‘I’d always been told it was on tour, or the rights weren’t available, so when she got the rights we said “OK, let’s get it on – we need a venue, we need a cast”.’
The play – not to be confused with the Americanised musical set in Buffalo, New York – is very close to Beaufoy’s original screenplay for the film, which grossed a remarkable $257m. from a budget of only $3.5m.
‘What you’ll have seen in the early ‘90s film set in Sheffield is very, very similar to what you will see on stage,’ Tom explains.
‘That includes themes of mental health, suicide and sexuality.’
The key role of Gaz is played by Ashley Ellis, who is returning to the stage after a long absence.
‘How can you say no to The Full Monty, really?’ he says.
‘I’ve been on hiatus for four or five years now but I’m now able to come back to acting, and this is such a cool production to be a part of – and a challenging one as well, because of course we have to get naked at the end. But I’m just happy to be a part of it.’
The going-all-the-way nudity is what gives the story its title, as Gaz comes up with the idea of putting on a strip show so that he and his fellow laid-off steelworkers can make ends meet.
‘Gaz is trying to earn money so that he can see his son – because he’s split up with his wife,’ says Ashley.
‘He sees that the Chippendales are in town and women are going wild for them and he thinks “If those guys can do it, so can we”, even though the Chippendales are muscle-bound men and our characters are just normal people.’
Tom seems to have had little difficulty in persuading the cast to part with their clothes for the nude scene but he’s keen to spell out the production’s caution around nakedness.
‘The tickets are for 18-plus,’ he says.
‘The guys will be going “the full monty” – a decision which wasn’t taken lightly. We sat down and decided how it would be done. It has to be done tastefully and the lighting has to be absolutely right. It was a serious conversation but it was a fun meeting.’
As with some current productions in London such as Equus and Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, all patrons will be required to proffer their smartphones in order that stickers can be put over the camera lenses.
‘We’ll also have people on the stairs ensuring there are no cameras,’ says Tom.
‘Nobody’s going to be seeing anything but they will be going the full monty, fingers crossed.’
One cast member has been sharing with his fellow actors his plentiful experience of getting his kit off. Stephen Rouxel, who plays Gerald, has been telling them to expect volume.
‘The part of Gerald really speaks to me quite strongly,’ he says.
‘He’s a ballroom dancer and I happen to be a ballroom dancer. He’s slightly older than all the other guys and I happen to be slightly older than all the other guys. And I used to be a stripper, in 1998. Myself and some of the other guys from Gadoc did a striptease, originally for one of our friends who was getting married not long after the film came out, but it turned out to be quite popular and lots of hen parties booked us all over the island for about a year. My one piece of advice to the cast has been that it’s going to be loud.’
The stars have aligned for one of the local actors involved in The Full Monty.
The next acting assignment for Mike Sullivan-Pugh, after he finishes playing the part of Dave at the Princess Royal, will be acting alongside the man who played that part in the 1997 Oscar-nominated film.
Mark Addy has been announced by Ivy Gate Films as the star who will play Tony in their latest feature-length picture, which is to be shot entirely in Guernsey. Addy will therefore be involved in a number of scenes with Mike, who plays one of the main roles in the drama.
‘I am honestly thrilled to be given the opportunity to work alongside the original Dave,’ Mike says.
‘I do love that life sometimes has these happy little accidents where coincidence just seems unreal. I mean, what are the chances that a week after I finish playing Dave, I’m going to be working alongside the original actor on camera? It’s crazy.’
But ahead of those few weeks of filming, Mike is fully focused on the stage play in front of him.
‘Dave is a brilliant character, and one I see a lot of myself in,’ he says.
‘Being a big guy, I’m often used to the idea of feeling a little apprehensive about my body and the idea that people will look at that often as a joke, in disgust, or just shame. But the character goes on a journey through this show that helps him gain not only confidence in his own body, but confidence in himself as a person. Seeing him battle depression quietly in the background, using humour and wit to cover his insecurities is always astonishing to me, as it is something that people do daily. So here is hoping that this show prompts people going through similar situations to speak up, recognise their issues, and love themselves for who they are.’
The cast of this Guernsey production of The Full Monty received a surprise visit during a recent rehearsal, when Foley artist Felicity Cottrell popped in to say hello.
Resident in Guernsey for the last five years, Felicity has been working in the film industry since the late 1980s, creating and recording everyday sound effects in post-production in real-time, to synchronise with the on-screen action. The craft is named after Jack Foley, who pioneered the process when reworking silent films after the advent of sound.
Felicity was credited as ‘footsteps artist’ on The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover, which was released in 1989, and as ‘Foley artist’ for dozens of movies including Sexy Beast, Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, 28 Days Later, Touching The Void, Love Actually, Troy and – of most interest to the cast – The Full Monty.
Her work on The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers won her a Primetime Emmy award for outstanding sound editing for a mini-series, movie or special in 2005, and she brought her Emmy along to show the actors.
‘It was a joy to work on The Full Monty because it’s a bitter-sweet story with some lovely funny bits in it,’ Felicity told us.
‘With some films, you think “Oh gosh, do I have to?” but the other Foley artist and I loved it from start to finish. It was a lovely highlight of my career. The actors were brilliant and the characters were empathetic – I remember Mark Addy with his tummy, wrapping himself in cling film.’
Felicity has tickets for the Guernsey production, which will be her first viewing of the stage play. She became aware of it after bumping into Paul Jones – who will be playing Barrington ‘Horse’ Mitchell – in a charity shop while he was holding his script and learning his lines.
Tickets, priced £20 and £18, are available from the prcpa.gg website.
You need to be logged in to comment.