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Theatre listings > Kind Hearts and Coronets. – Scottish Premiere. Dramatisation - Adapted by Giles Croft from the screenplay by Robert Hamer and John Dighton. Director - Richard Baron. Set and Costume Designer - Ken Harrison. Lighting Designer - Jeanine Davies. Company - Pitlochry Festival Theatre Company Website. Cast - here . Venue - Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Dates -Runs in rep from 29 April to 21 Oct, details here . Run Time - 2 hours 15 minutes with one interval. Reviewer - Vivien Devlin. Entertaining blend...smattering of Wildean wit. The 1949 Ealing classic comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets, made Alec Guinness an international star and is still one of the best and most memorable British films ever produced. This Scottish premiere has been written for the stage by Giles Croft, who also adapted The Ladykillers, a Pitlochry Festival hit in 2001. The title is a quotation from Tennyson: “Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood.” Set around 1900 in London and the Home counties, the narrator is Louis Mazzini, Hywel Morgan, who relates the story of his rather tragic life in flashback. His mother is the daughter of the 7th Duke of D’Ascoyne, but her family disinherited her after she eloped with an Italian commoner. All she wants now is to be buried in the family crypt. This is refused and causes a simmering resentment in Louis. On being rejected because of his lowly status by his childhood sweetheart Sibella, he decides to permanently remove all the D'Ascoynes standing between him and the Dukedom. Morgan plays Mazzini as a loveable rogue, more heroic than criminal, as he tracks down the next D’Ascoyne on his list with another cunning murder plan. As in the film, all the members of the D’Ascoyne family (male and female) are played by the one actor. Gregory Gudgeon is comically brilliant, taking on the caricatures of a country gentleman, an elderly vicar, artistocratic huntsman and a brazen Suffragette. One by one, they are poisoned, blown up in photographic darkrooms, or killed in boating and ballooning accidents. A series of short scenes relies on a sophisticated system of tracks and trolleys as well as a backdrop portraying the changing landscape and murderous events. Bicycles, coffins and prams whizz across the stage complemented by inventive sound effects. Mazzini is in complete control of narrating the story, snapping his fingers to freeze a moment while he reveals another episode in his life. Complications arise when he falls in love with Edith, (a serene performance by the multi-talented Helen Logan), one of his victim’s widows and the devious and jealous Sibella plots her revenge. As in any good murder story, there’s a clever twist in the tale. All in all, this is an entertaining blend of the darkest black humour, satirical jokes about the English aristocracy, a touch of sweet romance, spiced up throughout with a smattering of Wildean wit. ©Vivien Devlin, 25 May, 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast List. Louis – Hywel Morgan. The D’Ascoynes – Gregory Gudgeon. Sibella – Aoibheann O’Hara. Lionel – Robin Harvey Edwards. Edith – Helen Logan and Maud – Kezia Burrows. Dates of Pitlochry Festival Theatre's production of Kind Hearts And Coronets. Runs in rep 12 May to 19 Oct. 12 May* at 2pm & 8pm, 14 May* at 2pm, 21 May* at 8pm, 28 May at 2pm. 1 June* at 8pm, 4 June* at 8pm, 7 June at 8pm, 10 June at 8pm, 13 June at 8pm, 18 June at 2pm, 22 June* at 8pm, 25 June* at 8pm. 4 July at 8pm, 9 July* at 2pm, 12 July at 8pm, 13 July at 2pm, 20 July* at 8pm, 23 July* at 8pm, 29 July at 8pm. 6 August* at 2pm, 6 Aug* at 2pm, 12 Aug at 8pm, 15 Aug at 8pm, 20 Aug* at 2pm, 27 Aug* at 8pm. 3 September* at 8pm, 6 Sept at 8pm, 7 Sept* at 2pm, 14 Sept* at 8pm, 22 Sept at 8pm, 27 Sept at 8pm, 28 Sept* at 2pm 3 October at 8pm, 8 Oct* at 2pm, 15 Oct* at 8pm, 18 Oct at 8pm and final performance 19 Oct* at 2pm. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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