The Gents In Art

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>The End Of The Line</B></div> <div> Platform 3 - Royston Vasey <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><B>   </B></FONT></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=140 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B><U>The Gents</U></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jeremy Dyson"><U>Jeremy Dyson</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reece Shearsmith"><U>Reece Shearsmith</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mark Gatiss"><U>Mark Gatiss</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Steve Pemberton"><U>Steve Pemberton</U></A></div> <div> <B><U>Information</U></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News and Rumours"><U>News and Rumours</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Magazines"><U>Articles</U></A></div> <div> Interviews</div> <div> <B><U>On The Town</U></B></div> <div> Scripts</div> <div> Information</div> <div> <B><U>Royston Vasey</U></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Series 1 Scripts"><U>Scripts</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Series 1 Picture Gallery"><U>Series 1 Pictures</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Series 2 Picture Gallery"><U>Series 2 Pictures</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Series 3 Picture Gallery"><U>Series 3 Pictures</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Papa Lazarou.net "><U>Papa's Page</U></A></div> <div> <B><U>Events</U></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Local Show"><U>The Local Show</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Darkness Over Britain"><U>Darkness Over Britain</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="HMV Book signing"><U>HMV Book Signing</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Art"><U>Art</U></A></div> <div> <B><U>Appearences</U></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TLC"><U>TLC</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Randall and Hopkirk"><U>Randall and Hopkirk</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spaced"><U>Spaced</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="P.R.O.B.E"><U>P.R.O.B.E</U></A></div> <div> <B><U>Fans</U></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id50.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fan Art"><U>Fan Art</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Encounters"><U>Encounters</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Precious Things"><U>Precious Things</U></A></div> <div> <B><U>Site</U></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="From The Gents"><U>A Message From TLoG</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id135.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Thanks and Links"><U>Thanks and Links</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hairdoo Online"><U>Hairdoo</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <U>T</U><U>he League Of Gentlemen In ART - BBC</U></div> <bR> <div> <B>Art (Whitehall Theatre) </B></div> <bR> <div> <I>And now for something completely different: no, not </I><I><B>Monty Python</B></I><I>, but the comedy troupe sometimes regarded as their modern successors, the</I><I><B> League of Gentlemen</B></I><I>, who have shed the sketches and taken on a full-length play to become the 27th and final cast of Art. </I></div> <div> <IMG SRC="219825a0.gif" border=0 width="130" height="90" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> This long running comedy of Parisian male manners and modern art has been in the West End since October 1996 - almost exactly as long as the League themselves, who first came to prominence at the Edinburgh Fringe in August that year - and will finally close in January next year. </div> <div> The League are not the first comedians to star in the show - <B>Jack Dee</B>, <B>Frank Skinner</B> and <B>Sean Hughes</B> have all been in it - but they're the first ready-made trio to take over. </div> <div> And they do so with a genuine, rather than actorly, rapport that gives the play's tale of long-term friendships an extra resonance. </div> <div> <B>Yasmina Reza's</B> play - which revolves around the friendship of three men that is fatally disrupted when one of them buys an expensive modern work of art that resembles nothing so much as a blank white canvas - remains a giddy, elegant delight. </div> <div> <B>Reece Shearsmith</B> is a little too giddy with Yvan's furious diatribe about his impending wedding - the laughs are landing so hard that some others are being lost in the process. </div> <div> But he is a particularly touching and vulnerable go-between, desperately sitting on the fence in the conflict that erupts between his friends Serge (<B>Mark Gatiss</B>) and Marc (<B>Steve Pemberton</B>), and finding - as you do - that those who sit on fences are liable to get splinters. </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>