His offbeat comedy drama about ambition, family and keeping the dream alive sees the world of 18 year old Kelisha and her Dad turned upside down when an old friend of the family and former band member of The Electric Hills - an 80's one-hit wonder - pays an unexpected visit. Directed by Nick Bagnall and starring Louis Emerick, Dave Fishley, Claire Keelan and Azuka Oforka, The Electric Hills is at the Liverpool Everyman from Friday 9 to Saturday 31 March 2007.
'It was the best thing we ever did, on the telly, down in London, you know!
TOP OF THE POPS!.....We were only miming, we didn't stop laughing. And you said your hairs stood up at the end. You must have had hair then. Do you remember Ricky?'
Kelisha's dad Ricky Hill was Top of the Pops. His band, The Electric Hills, were one hit wonders with an 80's floor filler. Now he's over the hill, with a bad back, sleeping all day and running dead discos at night. The one thing he can count on is the enduring support of his younger girlfriend Joanne and his daughter Kelisha. But as they both start to follow their own career ambitions, the sudden reappearance of Ricky's former bandmate only adds fuel to the fire and threatens to reveal everyone's secrets.
Liverpool writer Michael McLean was a winner at the Everyman Write Now Festival, and in 2003, he was a finalist for the BBC New Comedy Award for sketch-writing. A graduate of the Everyman and Playhouse Young Writers Programme, Michael was also invited to take part in London's Royal Court Young Writers Regional Scheme. In 2005, he was chosen as one of the Everyman and Playhouse theatres' Henry Cotton Writers on Attachment, which culminated in The Electric Hills receiving a rehearsed reading at London's Soho Theatre and Writers Centre in July 2006. His first play, Joy Above, had a rehearsed reading as part of 2005's Everyword Festival.
Actor Louis Emerick returns to the Everyman, following one-man show A Little Pinch of Chilli, to play 'over the hill' Ricky. His other theatre credits include Master Harold & The Boys and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Liverpool Playhouse); Basil & Beattie (Manchester Royal Exchange); Sizwe Bansi Is Dead (New Vic, Newcastle Under Lyme); Hamlet (Horseshoe Theatre) and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Contact Theatre, Manchester). His television work includes Brookside, Last of the Summer Wine, and Merseybeat, and he also appeared in the film Layer Cake. Dave Fishley is Richard, the unexpected blast from the past. Dave's impressive theatre credits include: The Odyssey (Lyric Hammersmith, Bristol Old Vic and tour); Macbeth (Out of Joint); Paradise Lost and Marat/Sade (National Theatre); Dido, Queen of Carthage (The Globe); Crime and Punishment In Dalston (Arcola Theatre); Caledonia Road (Almeida Theatre); The Nativity (Young Vic); Silver Face and Ballad of Wolves (Gate Theatre); Now You Know (Hampstead Theatre); and Smoke (Manchester Royal Exchange). Television audiences will recognise Dave from his roles in Between The Lines, Casualty, Buried, and Judge John Deed. He has also appeared in the films Bridget Jones' Diary, The Fifth Element and Solitaire For Two.
Claire Keelan plays Ricky's frustrated girlfriend Joanne. With theatre work including Top Girls (Diorama); Ultra Violet (Royal Court, London); and A Midsummer Nights Dream (Canal Studio), Claire's tv work includes roles in Nathan Barley, Perfect Day, Sorted, and Singled Out. She also starred in the highly acclaimed film Pierrepoint. Playing Ricky's ambitious daughter Kelisha is Azuka Oforka. Azuka trained at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, London and makes her Everyman debut. Her theatre credits include: Skyvers (Royal Court, London) and Low Dat (Birmingham Rep).
Director Nick Bagnall is better known to theatre audiences as an actor and was seen most recently in Tim Firth's highly acclaimed The Flint St Nativity at the Liverpool Playhouse. Nick's directing credits include Low Dat and The Bolt Hole (Birmingham Rep) and as associate director of Promises and Lies, a musical by Jess Walter in collaboration with UB40 and the Birmingham Rep (Birmingham Rep). Nick's extensive acting credits include: Bus, Foxes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Mr. Heracles (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible and Theatre Royal, Stratford East); Hamlet (Theatre Royal, Plymouth); The Mayor of Zalamea (Liverpool Everyman); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic); The Arbor, Voices on The Wind, Exit and The Machine Wreckers (National Theatre); Caravan (Bush Theatre, London) and King Henry VI Part III (Royal Shakespeare Company).
The creative team of Liverpool-based designer Becs Andrews with lighting designer Prema Mehta and sound designer Fergus O'Hare promises to give us a truly offbeat production from the evocation of Ricky's 80's heyday right through to his dead disco at the British legion. -- www.everymanplayhouse.com
Posted February 14th, 2007 by ruzik_tuzik
