It’s 1991 and a TV show celebrates the life of the recently knighted ‘Most Trusted Man In Britain’. Whilst the great and the good praise him in the studio, a starkly different story unfolds in the shadows…
Jonathan Maitland’s AN AUDIENCE WITH JIMMY SAVILE will play at Park Theatre in London from 10 June – 11 July 2015, with a press night on 11 June. Directed by Brendan O’Hea, designed by Lone Schacksen, with lighting design by David Howe and sound design by Tristan Parkes, the production will star Alistair McGowan, Charlotte Page, Robert Perkins, Graham Seed and Leah Whitaker. Drawing extensively on material from genuine interviews, transcripts and TV shows, this is the first play to explore the most shocking sex scandal of our time.
Writer Jonathan Maitland, whose acclaimed debut play Dead Sheep about Margaret Thatcher and Geoffrey Howe recently broke Park Theatre box office records, explains,
“An Audience with Jimmy Savile is a drama based on real events. It uses material from multiple sources including books, transcripts of police interviews, witness statements and several official inquiries. It also uses testimony from face-to-face interviews given to me by survivors of abuse. Some scenes involving Jimmy Savile have been created but they use actual and paraphrased quotes from him over a period of 60 years.
Whilst researching this play I have met and worked with groups such as NAPAC (a leading charity for adults abused in childhood) Phil’s Petition and Slater and Gordon (the Law firm representing more than 160 people who were abused by Jimmy Savile) as well as individual survivors of abuse perpetrated by Savile and others. We understand people are appalled by Jimmy Savile but sadly it’s impossible to erase him from history. Far from glorifying his crimes, we are working closely with victim support groups and aiming to tell the story of those survivors who suffered abuse but went unheard.”
The producers have confirmed that a substantial donation from any profit made by the production will be donated to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood.
