RUSSELL TOVEY - No.1320

I AM GOING TO SHOOT RUSSELL TOVEY

Catriona247: Spent the afternoon on a shoot for Sky Arts filming the lovely Russell Tovey - what a thoroughly nice bloke :)

russelltovey: Just about to eat a post gym chicken salad.. X

russelltovey: RT @JosefValentino: @russelltovey FINAL Gagosian THIS Saturday in London - Davies Street @ 1:30pm. Hope to see you there!! #averagejoe :) http://t.co/rzg7rGN1

russelltovey: RT @H_Woolfenden: Press night for http://t.co/MC9BPMBL  and my masks..great exhibition really worth checking out, talented designers..really well put together.

RUSSELL TOVEY 
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

Russell Tovey, Simon Callow and Celia Imrie to feature in Sky Arts season celebrating Dickens, Wilde and Coward

Published Wednesday 15 February 2012 by Matthew Hemley

In Love With…Dickens, to be broadcast on February 21, will see Callow, Miriam Margolyes, Douglas Booth, Steve Evets, Thomas Brodie-Sangster bring their favourite Dickens characters to life through a series of monologues.

Meanwhile, In Love With…Coward will see Hodge read passages from the playwright’s Hands Across the Sea, while Karen Gillan will perform the closing voice-over from Brief Encounter. Hancock will recite Coward’s song, If Love Were All. This programme will air on March 12.

The final programme, In Love With…Wilde, to be broadcast on March 19, features Fry reading from The Happy Prince and Paterson Joseph performing from An Ideal Husband. Russell Tovey will also read from The Importance of Being Earnest and Caroline Quentin will perform from Lady Windermere’s Fan as part of this programme.

Sky Arts channel director James Hunt said: “I couldn’t imagine a better cast to celebrate the colourful work of Dickens, Coward and Wilde.”

sarapascoe: @russelltovey YO! am coming to your matinee on Saturday, super excited, maybe come find you for a cuddle afterwards? X

russelltovey: @sarapascoe yes do! X

JoeStephenson: (I'm filming Russell Tovey today, if he's anything but charming I will be fuming)

riceypop: Me and @russelltovey in Sitges 2011! 

russelltovey: RT @elliottfranks: @russelltovey in #SexWithAStranger at Trafalgar Studios @martinshippen iPaper today twitpic.com/8k6rga

russelltovey: RT @mikeyjc1990: Aforementioned #Heinz advert with  @russelltovey #AdorableLittleBastard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GCgSDTNLrg

'Sex With A Stranger' review

or

'Spit-filled silences'

Here's a shocker – a new play, that isn't trying to shock! Even better still, Stefan Golaszewski's 'Sex with a Stranger' is about a trio of twentysomethings, who – for once - aren't royally screwed up. They're not even on drugs! And, in a final shock revelation, this slow-building comedy features two TV actors, Jaime Winstone and Russell Tovey, who seem completely at home in the theatre.

Like the play itself, Winston and Tovey are understated and all the more powerful for it. Tovey plays Adam - a man stuck in a depressingly dull relationship, who hooks up with Grace (Jaime Winstone) on a rare night out. Their's is not exactly a meeting of minds. They chat about Homebase. A lot. It's not even a meeting of lips; when they kiss, it's as if Tovey is trying to suck a massive bottle of milk, just out of reach. It isn't exactly sexy but, in its slobbery fervour, it is realistic.

These absurdly amusing kisses set the the tone for a play that might explore romance but is resolutely unromantic. Director Philip Breen does a great job of keeping the 'romantic' encounters messy and gloss-free. Throughout much of their fumbling flirtations, Tovey and Winstone's characters look like they long to be elsewhere. Tovey's eyes dart about anxiously, constantly searching for something or someone else. Winstone's screeching laughter is far from a thing of a joy. Even when the two kiss, it feels like they're grappling about for a connection they cannot find.

These spit drenched and awkward encounters are not all that different from the scenes between Adam and his girlfriend, Ruth. The only difference is that the conversations between Adam and Ruth do not tingle with the promise of sex. They barely even offer the hope of a hug. Naomi Sheldon, as grey and goggle-eyed girlfriend Ruth, looks like Bambi caught in the headlights. One wishes someone would put her out of her misery. The same goes for Adam, who visibly pales in the company of his sensible but spark-free girlfriend.

It all sounds a bit depressing but Golaszewski, whose TV work has obviously taught him a lot about tight structuring, handles the heavy stuff lightly. The doubt and depression build slowly, in the gaps between the clever punchlines. In fact, the sadder moments are often trapped inside the jokes themselves. During an early date, Ruth breathlessly declares her excitement at their similar tastes; 'You like olives, that's good!' It's a slight line but it still captures the gulf between these two people, as Ruth quietly plans for a future we now know has been obliterated for good.

Sex with a Stranger

AT TRAFALGAR STUDIOS, 1ST - 25TH FEBRUARY 2012

BY TOM WICKER

As the BAC revisits Homer’s Odyssey care of Paper Cinema, Trafalgar Studios’ latest production also tells the story of an epic journey. But instead of gods and monsters, Adam (Russell Tovey) and Grace (Jaime Winstone) must contend with sub-zero temperatures, night buses, taxis and their utter mismatch on the seemingly endless trek from the nightclub where they have hooked up to Grace’s bedroom. Meanwhile, an oblivious Ruth (Naomi Sheldon) waits like a Sainsbury-shopping Penelope for her straying boyfriend to come home.

Writer Stefan Golaszewski demonstrates the same painfully acute grasp of the nonsense we spout on a habitual basis as he did in recent sitcom Him & Her. Adam’s and Grace’s conversation is pockmarked with misunderstandings and banalities as they try in vain to impress each other and make something more of their initial dance-floor meeting and imminent fumble. The pair talks in clichés that are hilariously and depressingly spot-on in their absurdity. References to Homebase and the vagaries of ghds are the patina of a language flattened of meaning, existing purely to fill up the silence in a world where there is nothing new left to say.

Director Phillip Breen plays up this sense of disconnect by regularly plunging Tovey, Winstone and Sheldon into darkness – sometimes mid-sentence – and then repositioning them around the stage, to indicate the passing of time when the lights go up. These staccato and distinctly filmic jump-cuts, which reflect the sitcom set-up hardwired into the show’s DNA, aren’t entirely successful on stage. When it works, the effect can be as funny as someone caught mid-expression in a photo they weren’t expecting. But more often than not, the dim outline of the cast hurrying between their marks just takes us out of the story.

Nevertheless, Tovey and Winstone are achingly funny, brilliantly conveying their characters’ complete lack of sexual chemistry as they slobber over each other in a cringing and increasingly desperate imitation of attraction. Loveable bafflement is something Tovey does well, and here is no exception; his voice breaking into a frustrated squeak as he tries to salvage something from an ill-fated situation. Meanwhile, a mini-skirted Winstone’s enjoyable mix of alcohol-fortified coquettishness, defensiveness and occasional blank incomprehension means we miss her when the spotlight turns to Adam and Ruth.

Via a fragmentary sequence of flashbacks we learn that what has landed Adam on a night bus to somewhere near Homebase is, in part, his inability to cope with moving in with his violinist girlfriend, who he has been with since university. As the cheekily long scene of Ruth ironing Adam’s shirt in silence makes clear, their relationship has been subsumed by monotony and routine; dominated by strained conversations about shelving, what should go in a salad and whether Adam’s best friend, Robert, is a nice guy or not. They may as well be strangers for the distance that has grown between them.

A wide-eyed and plaintive Sheldon is affecting as Ruth; her character speaking tentatively to Adam as if afraid that everything will shatter if she says what’s on her mind. But in spite of Sheldon’s best efforts, the part feels underwritten, more like a collection of middle-class tics than a fully-rounded person. And as we are encouraged to laugh at her foibles and roll our eyes as she nags Adam about shaving, it’s hard to escape the feeling that the play is actively pushing you to sympathise with Adam, ultimately the least likeable and most manipulative character. Even Grace, fun as she is, rarely ventures out of a certain kind of ‘everywoman’ territory and into a three-dimensional landscape.

This is a story ostensibly told from several perspectives, but which doesn’t always feel like it. And a single, nastily foul-mouthed outburst from Adam when Ruth accuses him of looking at another woman isn’t enough to even the equation – particularly when the production contrives to keep the well-toned Tovey shirtless or in boxers for more scenes than just the obvious. In the end, this witty, well-paced show has a keen ear for the everyday and a fine cast; just don’t be surprised if, occasionally, your laughter leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Above: Russell Tovey & Graham Norton from the radio interview conducted 28 Jan 2012. If you would like to hear this interview and see a slideshow please select it from the videos found on the right side of this web page.

☠THE PIRATES☠

'MAKES OTHER FILMS SEEM LIKE COMPLETE PANTS'

Latest trailers for 'Pirates' starring Hugh Grant, Russell Tovey and Imelda Staunton among many other notables. The movie is due for release at the end of April 2012.

RichTaylorNeil: My friend @Faye3011 is in a pub & @russelltovey is in a cafe opposite. She is to scared to go & say hello!

Faye3011: @RichTaylorNeil @russelltovey actually I was in the same cafe, after having been in the pub..Think I see him there every few days GR8 Café

RichTaylorNeil: @Faye3011 @russelltovey I'm guessing you could be a stalker! lol xx

Faye3011: @russelltovey  was what ever you ate for lunch in the box lovely? my steak and cheese wrap from same cafe was delicious!

BoyVirginiaMade: I'm featured here: BEGINNINGS @ RUSSELL TOVEY - A STAR IN THE MAKING http://t.co/6yR7hp5B

mrjackderges: @BoyVirginiaMade are you a massive Russell tovey fan?? I don't get it!!