GILES Coram, who recently starred recently at St Martin’s Theatre in the West End, where he played the role of Christopher Wren in The Mousetrap, Britain’s the longest ever running theatre production, is set to perform at the Cotswold Playhouse in Hands Up for Jonny Wilkinson’s Right Boot – a play for The Rugby World Cup 2015. Produced by the award-winning Live Wire Theatre Company this new comedy will be performed in the town as part of an eight week tour on Friday and Saturday.

 

Commenting on his starring role in Hands Up for Jonny Wilkinson’s Right Boot, Giles said, “As a great rugby lover I am so excited to be part of a brilliant show that re-enacts all greatest moments in rugby history in a wonderfully inventive way. It is a fast paced comedy, incorporating song and physical theatre including our own version of the All Blacks’ legendary Haka."

 

The show begins in the present day when three ardent rugby fans find themselves arguing as to which is the greatest moment in the game’s history: Francois Piennaar receiving the World Cup from Nelson Mandela in 1997, Jonah Lomu’s four astonishing tries for New Zealand against England in the same year, or Jonny Wilkinson’s dramatic last minute drop goal in the 2003 World Cup Final.

 

Disagreements are put on hold when a mysterious stranger arrives and offers an option involving Frederick Stanley Jackson - a Cornish tin miner who had been on the first ever British Lions tour to New Zealand in 1908.

 

As the tale of Jackson’s extraordinary life unfolds, Hands Up for Jonny Wilkinson’s Right Boot travels back and forth from the present day to the early 1900s via such moments as Cornwall’s County Championship victory of 1908, South Africa’s emotional World Cup victory on home soil in 1997 and England’s last minute win in Australia in 2003.

 

Giles Coram says that “the moment I read the script I was hooked. It is one of those plays when you are either howling with laughter or crying your eyes out. It is so full of dramatic twists and turns that it cannot fail to delight audiences of all ages.”

 

Tickets for the performance at the Cotswold Playhouse are available on line at www.cotswoldplayhouse.co.uk