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Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell

In a life devoted to alcohol, gambling and women, the ever-charming Jeffrey Bernard distinguished himself by excess. From Bernard’s colourful contributions to the Spectator’s Low Life column, fellow Fleet Street legend Keith Waterhouse created this gloriously funny and occasionally poignant entertainment. Read more …

Winner of the Evening Standard’s Best Comedy Award 1990, Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell finds the journalist trapped overnight in his favourite Soho pub. A host of ex wives, friends and enemies join him in retracing scenes from a life packed with hysterical and absurd incident.

Robert Powell plays the tour-de-force title role which was immortalised in the original production by Peter O’Toole. Equally adept at portraying heroes or villains, Robert Powell is best known for playing Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth and Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps and Hannay and has also starred in The Detectives with Jasper Carrott and as consultant nurse Mark Williams in Holby City, a part he has played since 2005.


The critical consensus

One thing Bernard never was, was boring. And it’s impossible not to be charmed by him here.

Alan Chadwick, STV, 01/06/2011

Keith Waterhouse’s tribute to Bernard and his lifestyle was first seen in London and Brighton back in 1989, when its subject was still alive and drinking; and 22 years on, it still makes for a mellow if slightly soporific evening’s entertainment, touched with an edge of truly enjoyable English absurdism, and a thought-provoking rejection of the increasingly insistent edicts of the health police.

***(*)(*)Joyce McMillan, 02/06/2011


Features about Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell

Tall tales of a low life

Brian Beacom, Evening Times, 26/05/2011

Life and times of a hellraiser

Brian Beacom, The Herald, 26/05/2011

Where and when?

Theatre Royal, Glasgow from Tuesday May 31, 2011, until Saturday June 4, 2011. More info: www.theambassadors.com/theatreroyalglasgow/

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