The Many Roles of Alun Armstrong

Theatre: 1971-1978

Jump to: 1971 * 1973 * 1975 * 1976 * 1978

Note: Plot summaries focus on Alun Armstrong's character.

Prior to his professional career, Alun Armstrong acted in plays at Consett Grammar School, playing Petruchio in the Taming of the Shrew and the title role in Hamlet. He joined the National Youth Theatre in 1964. He studied fine art at Newcastle University but did not complete his degree. After jobs with a bricklayer and as a gravedigger, he worked as an assistant stage manager at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. Around 1969-70, he spent a year with a theatre-in-education company affiliated with the Sheffield Repertory Theatre.

 

1971:

I Was Hitler's Maid
Dates 29 June to 3 July 1971 - 7 performances (Sheffield); from 3 August 1971 - 23 performances (London)
Theatres Sheffield Playhouse; transferred to King's Head Theatre Club (Soho Theatre), London
Playwright Christopher Wilkinson
Director Christopher Wilkinson
Role Adolf Hitler
Lead role
Also Starring Maev Alexander, John Price, Frank Hatherley
The role of Hitler in this intentionally shocking avant-garde play involved sex scenes, nudity and vomiting. In a 2004 interview, Armstrong recalled that he projected his fake vomit at a disapproving audience member who turned out to be drama critic Harold Hobson of the Sunday Times. Hobson subsequently gave the play a bad review, though apparently he had no hard feelings for Alun, noting in his review that he "vomits very well." (Sunday Times, 15 August 1971)
Notes  According to an interview with Christopher Wilkinson, this was the last production at the Sheffield Playhouse - tacked onto the official season - before the theatre closed in 1971.
Director Lindsay Anderson came to see the play and cast Armstrong in The Changing Room later the same year.

 

The Changing Room
Premieres 9 November 1971 (Royal Court); 15 December 1971 (Globe)
Theatres Royal Court Theatre, London; transferred to the Globe Theatre, London
Playwright David Storey
Director Lindsay Anderson
Role Billy Spencer
Supporting role
Also Starring John Barrett, Peter Childs, Warren Clarke, David Daker, Peter Dawkins, Michael Elphick, Brian Glover, Matthew Guinness, David Hill, Geoffrey Hinsliff, Edward Judd, Barry Keegan, Brian Lawson, Mark McManus, Don McKillop, Frank Mills, Jim Norton, Edward Peel, John Price, John Rae, Peter Schofield
In a changing room at a rugby field in northern England, a group of working class men gather to play rugby league football on the weekends. Billy Spencer is one of the reserves who doesn't get to play even though his girl is watching in the stands.
By John Haynes from the theatre programme.
Alun Armstrong Changing Room  Alun Armstrong Changing Room Alun Armstrong Changing Room

 

Ding the Dastard Down
Premiere 1971 or 1972 - 10 performances
Theatre Unknown
Playwright Alun Armstrong
Starring John Ording, Alison Groves, John Price
This play is said to be written by Alun Armstrong as an adaptation of a Wakefield Mystery play. It's listed in The Best Plays of 1971-72 (not as one of the "best plays," mind you; it's in the "Season in London" section) along with I Was Hitler's Maid, so it appears to be one and the same Alun Armstrong. The only further light I can shed on this mysterious (!) play is that "Ding the dastard down" - or "dyng that dastard downe" - is a line from The Wakefield Pageant of the Harrowing of Hell, in which Satan and his minions try to prevent Jesus from entering Hell to free the tormented souls. The word ding in this instance means "knock."

 

1973:

A Fart for Europe
Premiere 9 January 1973 - 10 performances
Theatre Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London
Playwright Howard Brenton and David Edgar
Role Edgar
Also Starring Hugh Hastings as King Lear; Jeremy Child as Kent
The title was meant as a dig at the Fanfare for Europe festival in the West End celebrating the UK's entry into the Common Market. The plot and character names were drawn from King Lear, but it involved businessmen trying to oppress the worker, represented by Alun Armstrong's character.
Review "The script was on the dull side, with its variations on King Lear, but Hugh Hastings, Jeremy Child and Alun Armstrong gave highly imaginative performances that deserved better collaboration from the authors." Theatre Review '73, ed. Eric Johns, p. 122.

 

Dracula
Premiere 8 February 1973 - 24 performances
Theatre Bush Theatre, London
Playwrights Stanley Eveling, David Mowat, Alan Jackson, Clarisse Eriksson, Robert Nye, Bill Watson, John Downing
Role Renfield
Supporting role
Also Starring Jack Shepherd as Dracula; Anthony Haygarth, Petra Markham, Ann Holloway
Adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. Renfield is an inmate at Dr Seward's lunatic asylum who eats bugs and other creatures and falls under Dracula's influence.

 

Cromwell
Dates 15 August to 15 September 1973 - 28 performances Cromwell theatre programme
Theatre Royal Court Theatre, London
Playwright David Storey
Director Anthony Page
Roles Morgan
Wallace
Supporting roles
Also Starring Albert Finney, Brian Cox, Frances Tomelty, Pete Postlethwaite
"Oliver Cromwell is never mentioned by name, although the play contains a few references to a distinguished 'him' and to sides or competing armies in a civil war... A group of stragglers, who seem to be Royalist and Catholic, wander in the woods. They meet other stragglers looking for an army to join who seem more determined and Protestant, but the two small groups join forces anyhow. They all meet a family who, frightened away from their farm by a band of soldiers, are carrying a corpse they suspect is that of their old father and grandfather and are looking for a priest to perform last rites before they can bury the old man. The stragglers all help with the corpse, which is finally identified as a murdered soldier instead of the old farmer. The group breaks up, different members joining different armies. Throughout the wanderings, the loss and pain that war involves is clearly presented." - Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 13, p. 506

 

1975:

As You Like It
Premiere 14 August 1975
Theatres Nottingham Playhouse; Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh Festival
Playwright William Shakespeare
Director Peter Gill
Role Touchstone
Supporting role
Also Starring Jane Lapotaire as Rosalind; John Price as Orlando; Susan Tracy as Celia; Paul Dawkins as Duke Frederick; Susan Porrett as Audrey; Matthew Scurfield as William; James Hazeldine as Silvius
Frederick usurps his brother's place as Duke and banishes his niece Rosalind, who takes refuge in the Forest of Arden accompanied by Frederick's daughter Celia and the court jester Touchstone. Touchstone falls in love with the shepherdess Audrey and drives off William, a shepherd who also loves her. In the end, Touchstone and Audrey are among a number of couples who marry, including Rosalind and Orlando.
Notes "Alun Armstrong kept the spirit yearning for more with his Geordie stories and songs during and after rehearsals, like a definitive Touchstone. He was a master of timing and made sure that Sue Porrett, who was playing Audrey, and I had the lines in our scene down to an absolute art. He taught me to be more than ready with the words. During the first few weeks when I left the stage as William I got a round of applause, I had no idea why or how this was happening. When one of the other actors asked me how I did it I became self-conscious and the clapping stopped. Alun was unrelenting with his energy and commitment to the scene, with him there was no time to wonder or to analyse why, you just got on with it and in doing so the applause returned." - Matthew Scurfield, I Could Be Anyone, p. 235

 

1976:

The Sons of Light
Premiere  11 March 1976 By John Vere Brown
from Plays & Players, May 1976.
Alun Armstrong Sons of Light
Theatre University Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne
Playwright David Rudkin
Director Keith Hack
Role Stephen Yescanab
Also Starring Ron Cook as Samuel; Andrew Crawford as Peter Yescanab; Ian Hogg as John; Harold Innocent as Nebewohl; Jonathan Kent as Corporal Gower; Leonard Maguire as Pastor Bengry; Jennie Stoller as Child Manatond
A pastor and his sons come to a remote North Atlantic island, leading to the discovery of a subterranean government experiment on "deviants" and an uprising of the prisoners. Stephen Yescanab is the homosexual son of an island elder who becomes an acolyte of the pastor. Yescanab descends into the Pit and finds a gang of slaves who have been conditioned by the "mad scientist" Nebewohl to be solely occupied with work, forgetting the world above. Yescanab awakens one, Corporal Gower, and leads him into the light but in doing so condemns him to a horrible death.

 

Mother's Day
Dates 22 September to 23 October 1976 - 39 performances Mother's Day programme
Theatre Royal Court Theatre, London
Playwright David Storey
Director Robert Kidd
Role Gordon Johnson
Supporting role
Also Starring Jane Carr as Judy; Betty Marsden as Mrs Johnson; Bryan Pringle as Mrs Johnson; Patricia Healey as Edna; Susan Porrett as Lily; Colin Farrell as Farrer
Judy, a teenage girl who eloped with an already married man, arrives at the home of the dysfunctional Johnson family where her husband Farrer has arranged lodgings. The Johnsons' son Gordon pounces on Judy and starts to choke her and then nonchalantly introduces himself. Gordon is obsessed with sex - which he talks about in explicit detail - and he is also fixated on killing his father. Creeping into a dark room brandishing a poker, he accidentally knocks out a detective hired to find Judy, leading to a farcical situation when Judy's parents arrive.
Notes  On press night, Alun Armstrong forgot his lines during a key, profanity-laden speech. The play was poorly reviewed, and later when David Storey was giving the actors a pep talk, they were interrupted by critics on their way to another play in the Theatre Upstairs. Storey lost his temper and cuffed Michael Billington of The Guardian who had called Mother's Day "a stinker." - Read more at The Telegraph

 

1978:

The Passion
Dates 8 August to 2 September 1978 (return performance) Passion theatre programme
Theatre Cottesloe Theatre (National Theatre), London
Playwright Tony Harrison (adaptation) 
Director Peter Hall 
Role Fourth Soldier
Supporting role
Also Starring Mark McManus as Jesus; Howard Goorney as John Baptist; Fulton Mackay as Peter; Brian Glover as Cayphas; Edna Doré as Mary Mother; June Watson as Mary Magdalene; Brenda Blethyn as Mary Salome; Jack Shepherd as Judas 
An adaptation of the Passion of Christ from the 15th century York Cycle of Mystery Plays, with the actors using Yorkshire accents. Tony Harrison's three-part adaptation of The Mysteries also included The Nativity and Doomsday.
Notes  The role of the Fourth Soldier was played by Tom Wilkinson in the original production, which premiered 21 April 1977.

 

One for the Road 
Premiere  18 September 1978 (Norwich)*   With Prunella Scales;
see more images at the
Willy Russell website
Alun Armstrong One for the Road 
Theatres National tour including the Theatre Royal, Norwich; Darlington; Brighton 
Playwright Willy Russell 
Director Mike Ockrent 
Role Dennis
Lead role
Also Starring Elizabeth Estensen as Pauline; Philip Jackson as Roger; Prunella Scales as Jane 
On a quiet bungalow estate, someone has been vandalising garden gnomes and cabbages. On the verge of turning 30, Dennis has a dinner party with his wife Pauline and their neighbours Jane and Roger, but he is becoming desperate in the confines of suburbia and considers hitting the road.   
Reviews  "Alun Armstrong gives a beautiful performance of the apparently eternal boy who has married, produced a child and joined the blissful bungalow crowd. He envies the freedom of childhood and on the eve of his thirtieth birthday feels lost and old. Mr. Armstrong is hugely funny, but I never doubt the angry frustrations beneath the jokes. Like the other three characters, also splendidly acted under the direction of Mike Ockrent, he is a very real human being." - Neville Miller 

"The four performances are superb, especially that of Alun Armstrong as Dennis.  He plays the part with both lightness and sincerity." - Michael Coveney 
Interview

"I came back to [Norwich] to play the lead in the premiere of the Willy Russell play Dennis the Menace. It was a memorable time for me. It was the first time I had the headline role in a commercial play. There was a lot of pressure on me and I was quite terrified. I learnt something in the first few seconds. It was the gap between one's expectations and fears and what actually happened. It was a comedy and the first line was a funny line. I got a laugh and that was it - I was immediately in love with the play and with the theatre." - From the Eastern Daily Press, 2009
Notes  *The play originally premiered in Manchester in 1976 with a different cast under the name Painted Veg and Parkinson. The working title had been Tupperware Man, which was changed for legal reasons. For the Norwich premiere, the name Dennis the Menace was used but the audience mistook it for a children's play and it was changed again to Happy Returns and finally One for the Road.