Lady in the Van opens autumn season (From Salisbury Journal)

Lady in the Van opens autumn season

5:20pm Thursday 27th August 2009

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WRITER Alan Bennett is often referred to as a “national treasure” for his prosaic gift for insightful writing about the human spirit, at the same time managing to infuse gentle humour into a multitude of situations.

Award-winning plays such as The History Boys, Talking Heads and The Madness of King George, are just a few examples of his prolific output and, as a patron of Salisbury Playhouse, it is fitting that his autobiographical comedy, The Lady and the Van, opens the autumn season.

The Lady in the Van is the true story of the elderly and eccentric Miss Shepherd, who parked her live-in van on Bennett’s property in smart Camden Town in 1974. The agreement was for her to park it for just three months, but this turned out to be 15 years.

Directing The Lady in the Van at Salisbury is the award-winning young director of stage and moving image, Sarah Punshon, whose short film, This Way Up, received its world premiere at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival this summer.

Sarah is confident that Salisbury audiences will find the play intriguing: “I am dying to know what the audiences will make of it and I am sure that the things that people find funny will change every night.”

Of course, one of the main characters is Alan Bennett himself and how does the writer resolve writing about someone he has known for 15 years.

“He achieves this by having his character played by two actors, so you have the real Alan Bennett (played by Malcolm James) and the writer Alan Bennett (played by Peter Temple). It is the writer Alan Bennett who becomes fascinated by Miss Shepherd and starts writing about her,” says Sarah.

“And the two characters argue,” she adds, “and there is a lot of interaction with the audience.”

Sarah has worked with Alan Bennett’s work before, directing productions of The Madness of King George III and his adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, but this will be her first production at Salisbury and she is delighted to be here.

The Lady in the Van runs at Salisbury Playhouse from Thursday, September 3 to Saturday, September 26. Tickets are available from the box office on 01722 320333 and range from £10 to £19 (£10 for all seats on the first five nights).

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