by William Saroyan
Directed by Mel Cook
Designed by Saka Matsushita
Music by Steve Pretty
Sound Design by Cressida Klaces
Presented by Snakebit Theatricals in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre
Cast includes: Geoffrey Burton. Rachel Clare. Kevin Colson. Elizabeth Counsell. Paul Greenwood. Vincent Shiels. Kyle Soller.

[ saroyan centennial season ]
Monday, 6 October; Sunday, 12 October, Monday, 13 October; Sunday, 19 October, Monday, 20 October 2008
Evenings at 7.30pm. Tickets £13, £9 concessions.
Performance Length: Approximately 80 minutes with no interval.
Full booking information here
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“I believed goodness was a coin for exchange more powerful than any coin minted by any government – the only coin. I’m no longer sure.”

The Beautiful People refuse to play by the rules of a wicked world, steadfastly preserving their enchanted and – at times illegal – innocence, by any means necessary.

A philosophical father, a one-word boy novelist, and blessed Saint Agnes of the Mice battle the breaking of dreams, accompanied by a ghostly cornet player, a nostalgic clerk, an octogenarian drunk, a drunken priest, an almost-mother, and several literate vermin.

Cheques are stolen from a dead man. Mice are daringly rescued by a poet. Strangers become family. The prodigal son returns. And lost loves are finally and forever found.

At the time of its publication, Saroyan wrote: “Putting on this play was the happiest experience in the theatre I have ever known.”. A Broadway hit in 1941, The Beautiful People has been unseen in London since 1956.

One of America’s most famous writers, William Saroyan (1908-1981) was born one hundred years ago in Fresno, California, the son of Armenian immigrants. His Armenian heritage gives his work a unique flavour, resulting in a very different view of the American experience than his slightly younger contemporaries Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Indeed, in 1991, he was the first and only individual to be jointly honoured by the USA and the former Soviet Union with his own commemorative postal stamps. He sprang to fame overnight in 1934 with his short story about a starving writer trying to survive the Depression, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, and his published writings include over 1,500 short stories, plays, and novels including The Human Comedy and My Name Is Aram. His most enduring achievements as a writer date from the late 1930's and early 1940’s when he won a Pulitzer Prize (which he refused on the grounds that “Commerce should not patronize art”), an Academy Award, and The Drama Critics Circle Award. From 1958, he lived mainly in Paris, and continued writing until his death in 1981.

The Finborough Theatre’s [ saroyan centennial season ], celebrating the centenary of the birth of William Saroyan, runs from September-December 2008, and also features rare revivals of two of Saroyan’s other plays – Sam the Highest Jumper of Them All and The Time of Your Life.

The cast includes:
Paul Greenwood – Since 1980, Paul has appeared regularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing lead roles in The Comedy of Errors, King Lear, The Wizard of Oz, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night, Henry VIII, and Richard II. Other UK theatre includes Guys and Dolls, Twelfth Night, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, The Seagull, Hamlet, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Television includes the title role in Rosie (for which he wrote and sang the theme tune), Captain Zep, Coronation Street, A Day Out, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Spender, Heartbeat, The Bill, Pie in the Sky, Holby City, Doctors, Casualty and Midsomer Murders.

Kevin Colson – A Finborough Theatre regular and Tony Award nominee, Kevin created the roles of Cliff Bradshaw in Cabaret, Sir George in Aspects of Love, and Walter DeCourcey in Chess. Other theatre includes Rat Pack Confidential (Whitehall Theatre), Mind The Gap (Soho Theatre), Annie (West End and National Tour), Divorce Me Darling (Chichester Festival Theatre), Maddie (Lyric Theatre), Imagine This, (Plymouth Theatre Royal), Hanging By A Thread (Almeida Theatre), and The Woman In White (Sydmonton Festival Theatre).

Elizabeth Counsell - Theatre includes Salad Days (Vaudeville), The Great Big Radio Show (Watermill Theatre, Newbury), Valentine’s Day (Globe Theatre), M Butterfly (Shaftesbury Theatre), The Corn is Green (Old Vic), Jean Seberg (National Theatre), Present Laughter (Vaudeville Theatre),The Glass Menagerie (Lyric Theatre, Belfast),The Haunted Hotel (No.1 Tour), 101 Dalmatians (Nuffield Theatre), Blythe Spirit (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Noel and Gertie (Jermyn Street), and The Lost Musicals (Sadler’s Wells), as well as seasons at Billingham and the Bristol Old Vic.
Television includes ER, Doctors, Lock Stock, Nelson’s Column, Blue Heaven, 37 episodes of Brush Strokes, and 19 episodes of Executive Stress. Film includes If Tomorrow Comes and Claudia’s Story.

Geoffrey Burton - UK theatre work includes Gaddafi (English National Opera), One Under (Tricycle Theatre), Wrong Place (Soho Theatre), Driving Miss Daisy (Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds). Television and Film work includes The Bill, Outlaws, Defender, and White Light. Theatre work in the USA includes Spoon River Anthology, Zoo Story, The Catcher in the Rye and Deathwatch (Gene Frankel Repertory Theatre), The Pajama Game and Spring in Manhattan (The All-Souls Players), The Death of Bessie Smith, For Esme With Love of Squalor, The Negro Giant, Red Eye Of Love and A Taste Of Honey (Off-Broadway).

Vincent Shiels – Theatre includes Next Door’s Baby and Nutmeg and Ginger (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), Dance Hall Days (Riverside Studios), The Erpingham Camp (Greenwich Playhouse), The Barber of Seville (Royal Opera House), Jesus Christ Superstar (European Tour), West Side Story (Theatre Royal York), and The Pirates of Penzance (National Tour). Television includes Prince John, First Love, The Outcasts, and Rough Treatment.

Rachel Clare – A 2006 Drama Centre graduate. Theatre includes Dead Language (ICA), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in Syria), Three Sisters (Vahktangov Institute, Moscow), and As You Like It (Globe Theatre and Drama Centre London). Her latest film, K, is currently in post-production.

Kyle Soller – Graduated from RADA this year. Theatre at RADA includes Don John in Much Ado About Nothing, Laurie Laurence in Little Women, Matt in Tomorrow, Jamie O'Brien in Dolly West's Kitchen, Bernard in A Number, Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels, and Hotspur in Henry IV Part I.

Director Mel Cook has staged work for SPID (Remember the Name, Walking Tales, In a Different Light), New Wimbledon Studio (Burying Your Brother in the Pavement), Theatre 503(Telltales), Southwark Playhouse (A Christmas Carol), and several start night productions for Hampstead Theatre. In the last year, Mel has assisted Gregory Doran on The Giant, Anthony Clark on Life After Scandal and Fiona Laird on Woyzeck. A 2008 graduate of Birkbeck’s MFA in Theatre Directing, and graduate of RADA’s three-year Acting course, Mel has devised work for Shakespeare’s Globe, the BAC, Glastonbury, Camp Bestival, ITV, and the BBC. She has also been a finalist for both the JMK and the Channel 4 Theatre Director awards.

Works of William Saroyan used with permission of Stanford University.