You can see this response on the following dates:
12 October (7.30pm)
25 October (7.30pm)
24 Hour Performances - 14 & 28 October
Also playing on 12 and 25 October:
Acts - Lachlan MacKinnon
Romans - Amy Rosenthal
1 Corinthians - Matt Charman
2 Corinthians - Wena Poon
Galatians - Deirdre Kinahan
Phillippians - Chris Goode
Collossians - Zukiswa Wanner
Laurence Marks & Maurice Gran
Ephesus-Schmephesus in response to Ephesians
Laurence and Maurice started writing together in the Seventies, penning several stillborn sitcoms. Then in 1978 Laurence found himself on a train opposite legendary comedy writer Barry Took. They began talking, and Barry generously offered to look at the lads’ efforts. He was sufficiently impressed to introduce them to Frankie Howerd, and within weeks they were writing the bulk of a Frankie’s radio series, whilst trying to hold down day jobs.
After this baptism of fire they went full time and migrated to television. Their first comedy series, Holding the Fort, was a top ten hit. They followed this up with the hugely popular Shine On Harvey Moon, one of TV’s first “comedy dramas”.
After working in Hollywood, Laurence and Maurice joined forces with Rik Mayall to create The New Statesman, a blistering political satire that won the BAFTA for Best Comedy, as well as International Emmy a Golden Rose of Montreux, and goodness knows what else.
In 1989 Laurence and Maurice set up Alomo Productions with uberproducer Allan McKeown. For the next decade Alomo was a leading programme maker, with “Lo and Mo” creating a catalogue of hits, including Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart, Unfinished Business, Get Back, Love Hurts, Mosley, a historical serial about Britain’s would-be Fuhrer, and Wall of Silence, a TV thriller set in the orthodox Jewish community.
In 1993 they were awarded the British Academy Writers’ Award, British television’s highest honour. They surpassed this in 1997 when they featured in their very own South Bank Show, and were invited to give the prestigious McTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival.
Always lovers of the theatre, a meeting with Sir Alan Ayckbourn led them to write their first stage play, Playing God, which premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough in 2005. The next year they adapted The New Statesman for the stage - the production toured to great acclaim, and had a riotous Christmas residency in the West End.
In 2008 they fulfilled another ambition when they wrote the book for hit West End musical Dreamboats and Petticoats, for which they received an Olivier Award nomination. It continues to run in the West End, with a simultaneous national tour.
Music by Lemez Lovas & Yaniv Fridel.
