Rossiter – Liverpool 2021
Rossiter – Preview
Rossiter by Jim Blythe, first performed in May 2019 in Cardiff, has been scheduled for November 2021 at the Hope Theatre, Liverpool 4 – 6 Nov and 2 Nov at St John’s Church, Canton, 2 Nov.
Rossiter
Author: Jim Blythe
DIrector: David Baxter
Music: Helen woods
Sound: Helen Woods and David Baxter
Rossiter: Toby Harris
Running time: 1hr approx, no interval
Leonard Rossiter was one of the leading comic actors of his generation. He was also a man of paradoxes – a committed husband who nevertheless had a long-standing affair, a working-class man who kept a fine wine cellar, an amateur actor who became a professional, a theatrical performer whose greatest fame came from his television work.
This play explores his life, his work and his motivations. Set backstage, we find Rossiter preparing for his nightly performance as Inspector Truscott in Joe Orton’s “Loot”. This was to be his final role – he died backstage, in his dressing room, of a heart condition associated with athletes.
To die at the age of 57 may be seen as a tragedy: it was certainly a great loss to the theatre. To die backstage was, to an actor of Rossiter’s stature, only to be expected – he was far too prolific, far too hard-working, to have been seen dead anywhere else.