Rotterdam’s Alice McCarthy joins the cast in gender shifted role previously played by Michael Caine and Jude Law. Written by Sam Ra, You Game is a modern, female-led, story based on the Tony Award-winning classic Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer.
You Game takes the male role of Milo Tindle and shifts the character to become Bella Lanson, creating added challenges to the older character of Jack Guest (previously Andrew Wyke) on new levels of gender and patriarchy, on top of the twisty gameplay the original script is so famous for.
An immensely successful screenwriter lures his wife’s lover to the house and convinces her to stage a robbery of her jewellery; setting off a chain of events that leaves the audience trying to decipher what is true, and what is fiction for the sake of the game.
Sam Ra from the company said, “As a female writer Bella’s voice is very much my own. I wanted to give the younger character more power, so she became an ambitious young actress. For Jack Guest I drew from my own experience of deluded men in the entertainment industry.”
Alice McCarthy originated the role of Alice in Jon Brittain’s Olivier Award-winning play Rotterdam straight out of drama school, which she performed in the West End & on Broadway. This summer she appeared as Nanny Harewood in the Downton Abbey movie.
Ivan Murphy trained & performed at the American Academy of Dramatic Art in Los Angeles and the Shakespeare programme at RADA in London, where he played the lead in Pericles. Other credits include Body & Blood at the Capstone Theatre Liverpool, and he recently won Best Actor in an Indie Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards for his lead role in The Taping.
Murphy Ra is a film, tv, theatre, and commercial production company formed in 2018. Their first short film production The Taping was in the official selection at the London City Film Awards, a Semi-Finalist at the Los Angeles Film Awards and winner of Best Ensemble, Honorable Mention Dark Comedy and Best Actor in an Indie Film.
Anthony Shaffer was an English playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His other major works include screenplays for the Hitchcock thriller Frenzy, the British cult horror The Wicker Man, and Agatha Christie mysteries Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun. He was the identical twin brother of writer and dramatist Peter Shaffer.
Shaffer’s original was first staged in the UK in 1970, before transferring to New York later that year, where it ran for 1,222 performances. It won Best Play at the Tony Awards in 1971, alongside numerous other accolades. In 1972, Shaffer adapted his play for film, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.
You Game runs at RADA Studio ( RADA, 16 Chenies Street, London WC1E 7EX) from 26 November – 14 December 2019.
