The Devil May Wear Prada But Dr Dianne Cassell Wears Fur

The Devil May Wear Prada But Dr Dianne Cassell Wears Fur

Auckland Theatre Company will re-open Maidment Theatre with Richard Bean's The Heretic on July 18, starring Jennifer Ward-Lealand in the comedy role of the year.

Horrified that global warming has become less climate science and more quasi-religion, Dr Dianne Cassell argues the science is not so clear cut. It's a stance that's getting her branded as her the global warming anti-Christ.

Richard Bean's riotously un-PC comedy The Heretic won the 2011 Evening Standard Award for Best Play. An accomplished stand up comedian, Bean's most recent smash hit One Man, Two Guvnors which came to Auckland Arts Festival earlier this year.

"its originality and humour outweigh its minor blemishes, guaranteeing laughs from devoted environmentalists and climate change sceptics alike." - Manchester Review

She leaves her carbon footprint in Jimmy Choo.
She's a scientist - She doesn't believe in anything.
She's the heretic.

Dr Dianne Cassell is the pin up girl for the skeptics. An opinionated scientist who makes Paul Henry look like the leader of the PC brigade. She's also in hot water with the Sacred Earth Militia, at odds with anorexic Greenpeace daughter and in trouble with her faculty boss - and former lover - who sees Global Warming as a funding cash cow for her university, if only she'd shut up.

The politics of science, the idiocy of academia and the chaos of family life collide in this wonderfully irreverent comedy about truth, lonely hearts, brilliant minds and blowing yourself up on Top Gear. Provocative, pugnacious, contrarian and entertaining.

"An absolute corker, funny and touching... A play on the side of life and optimism." - Daily Telegraph

Richard Bean is one of the Britain's most exciting and prolific playwrights. Between 1989 and 1994 he worked as a stand-up comedian and went on to be one of the writers and performers of the sketch show Control Group Six (BBC Radio), which was nominated for a Writers Guild Award. His first full length play, Of Rats and Men was staged at the Canal Cafe and went on to Edinburgh. He adapted it for radio for the BBC and it was nominated for a Sony Award. His breakthrough play Toast found critical acclaim at the Royal Court Theatre in 1999. He has won the George Devine Award 2002 for Under the Whaleback, the 2004 Pearson Play of the Year Award for Honeymoon Suite and the Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play 2005 for Harvest. Oberon Books publishes his Plays One, Plays Two, Plays Three, England People Very Nice, London Assurance, The English Game, In the Club,  The Big Fellah, The Heretic and his stage version of David Mamet's House of Games. He has also translated and adapted Moliere's The Misanthrope, published as The Hypochondriac, and Le Pub! by Serge Valleti. His new play One Man, Two Guvnors, based on  The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, premiered at The National Theatre in May 2011.

Tickets can be booked from Maidment Theatre on 308 2383 or www.atc.co.nz

ENDS

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