On Saturday, June 29 2013 Alida Pantone will be starring in Slap Happy by Roger Barker directed by Kenneth Michaels, assisted by Adam Bambrough.
Slap Happy is part of Popcorn Saturday, a RealDeal Theatre free community event, hosted at Westminster Reference Library, 35 St Martin Street, London WC2H 7HP. The evet starts at 6.30 pm..
Reserve tickets at http://popcornsaturday.eventbrite.co.uk
Action takes place on film set during the shooting of the classic western, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Lee Van Cleef, an actor best known for his portrayal of screen villains, has a dilemma. One the one hand, Sergio Leone’s previous film, For A Few Dollars More, has made him an international star after years of labouring amongst the lowers echelons of the supporting cast.
However, in one scene from the film, the script requires him to slap actress Rada Rassimov, and Leone wants him to do this for real.
Van Cleef recoils against the thought of actually striking a woman, even if she consents to such treatment in the interests of on-screen realism.
Does he play his screen villain persona for real and sell out his principles, or should he make a stand in the best western tradition?
Characters:
Rada Rassimov/Maria (an Italian actress of Serb descent who played a frontier town prostitute during the American Civil War) will be interpreted by Alida Pantone, a talented Italian actress making her London debut.
Alida Pantone is an actress who trained in Italy and the UK. Previous roles include Helena, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Isabelle of Brienne, The Wives of Frederico II and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. She has also produced and broadcast on Italian and Australian radio.
Lee Van Cleef/Sentenza (Hollywood actor playing his “Man in Black” character in villain mode) will be interpreted by Nicholas Cowell.
Sergio Leone (Italian film director) will be interpreted by Richard Worland.
Richard Ward is a character actor graduate of Drama Studio London. Theatre includes “We The People” (Shakespeare’s Globe), “The Tempest” (Rose Theatre Bankside), “The School For Scandal” (Bridewell Theatre) and many other Shakespeare performances and stage adaptations of BBC television comedies. Television includes “Blue Peter” and “Midsomer Murders”, and film includes “Tortoise In Love” (2012). Richard particularly enjoys voice work and regularly performs rehearsed readings.
Founded in 2008 by writer Alice Josephs, RealDeal Theatre is a voluntary theatre group with professional writers and directors performing plays and sitcoms. The group brings together writers, directors and actors who often have never worked previously together in a theatrical equivalent of speed dating.
Westminster Reference Library, built in 1928, houses a performing arts’ collection of more than 15,000 books and is both a reference and lending library, specializing in Arts and Business.. The library’s site was once the home of scientist Sir Isaac Newton and also novelist Fanny Burney.
The six Popcorn Saturday are:
007 Reduced by Chris Paxton
Bollywood Rose by Sumerah Srivastav
Film Fun by Philip Whitmore
How It Turned Out by Alice Josephs
Purgatorio by Dan Minghella
Slap Happy by Roger Barker
Popcorn Saturday is supported by Ovivo Mobile, Regent’s University, Samuel French Ltd, Shloer, Tangerine Confectionery and Tesco.