Last night I attended the press night of The Shawshank Redemption at Theatre Royal Brighton where it stays until Saturday 28th January 2023.
Based on the short novel by Stephen King which was released back in 1982, the story went on to become a multi award nominated film in 1994 staring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. The film is often described as Britain’s favourite ever movie!
“It’s a story of injustice, desperation, friendship and hope – behind the claustrophobic bars of a maximum security facility called Shawshank”
Andy Dufresne (Joe Absolom) is serving time at the notorious Shawshank facility due to the double life sentence handed to him for the brutal murder of his wife and her lover. Protesting his innocence he soon discovers that surviving alone at Shawshank is not going to happen.
Dufresne soon becomes friends with Red (Ben Onwukwe) the fixer at Shawshank, anything you need Red can get for you! But as things start to look up for Andy, Warden Stammas (Mark Heenehan) learns of his accountancy skills and exploits him for all he’s worth. But in a state of desperation a plan is quietly being hatched . . .
Joe Absolom best known for his roles as Matthew Rose in BBC’s EastEnders, and as Al Large in ITV’s Doc Martin is absolutely sensational as Andy Dufresne. Back in the day I used to watch EastEnders and I remember how gripped I was with the Steve Owen and Saskia murder storyline, in which Absolom’s character was framed for. I had only seen him in Doc Martin since so was excited to see how he would perform on stage.
Shawshank is quite a dark story and covers topics such a gang rape and suicide so my hat goes off to Absolom and all the cast for giving such a gritty, true performances and for not holding back.
The staging was fantastic, it really did look like an authentic American penitentiary and the scene changes were effortless and backed to music which I really liked as it took the focus off the moving stage. The planning and skill that must go in to creating the stage’s for theatre shows is beyond me! It’s like a transformer and things just seen to pop up from everywhere!
Mark Heenehan plays the role of Warden Stammas, the hard talking boss of Shawshank. Heenehan is an accomplished and much sought after voice over artist, which doesn’t surprise me, as he was great in this role, and his portrayal was perfect and quite terrifying at times. Fun fact, Heenehan was the first ever voice of Tinky Winky from Teletubbies which shows how diverse he is as an actor.
Everybody loved Morgan Freeman as Red the joke cracking narrator in the film, so the stage adaption was going to be a hard role to fill but Ben Onwukwe nailed it! Often sounding very similar to Freeman, as the narrator and story teller Onwukwe’s portrayal of Red was superb!
The whole cast are excellent in their own way, the ‘Sisters’ who are the bullies of Shawshank were very unlikable which is what they set out to do! Leigh Jones who plays Rooster looks next level evil, he was giving me Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell vibes from Prison Break. And the latino Rico played by Jules Brown obsessed with Lady Chatterley’s Lover had the audience laughing!
If you’re a fan of the film, or even if you haven’t seen the film I would highly suggest you catch The Shawshank Redemption while its touring the UK. A great story by great actors. Adapted by Owen O’Neill & Dave Johns and Directed by David Esbjornson.
The Shawshank Redemption is at Theatre Royal Brighton until Saturday 28th January 2023 with shows every evening at 7:45pm and matinees on Thurs & Sat 15th at 2.30pm. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets.