ELLING
By Simon Bent Wed 25 Apr - Sat 2 Jun, 2007Elling and his roommate, the uncouth, reluctant virgin Kjell Bjarne, are the Odd Couple of Oslo: a pair of confused souls taking their first steps in the outside world after years of isolated, institutional life. Given a flat in the city by social services, they must re-assimilate themselves into society or face a return to the asylum.
What the papers say
'The most blissfully funny and touching evening I've had in the theatre for ages.
Simm and Bower are sensational, and there is brilliant support from Jonathan Cecil as a poet with writer's block, Keir Charles as the social worker and Ingrid Lacey as an assortment of angels and devils. Rare, very rare.'
The Guardian
creatives
Direction - Paul Miller
Design - Simon Daw
Lighting Design - Mark Doubleday
Sound Design - Jack C Arnold
cast includes
Adrian Bower
Jonathan Ceci
Keir Charles
Ingrid Lacey
John Simm
details
'The performances are a joy. Simm's Elling is a twitching, acid-tongued, buttoned-up model of prissy precision, Adrian Bower's Kjell Bjarne loping, cuddly and malodorous, exactly the soulful-eyed orang-utan that Elling labels him. Watching them first resist, then connect with, a world that proves remarkably compassionate and accommodating is moving and very, very funny. Thoroughly life-affirming. '
The Times