'I am very happy to make this website, designed by Liz, official.'
Zoë Wanamaker CBE.
(Please note that Zoë is not on Twitter or Facebook - the best way to contact her is to write to the fanmail address.)
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse:
You can donate to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, and find out more about this project to recreate an indoor Jacobean theatre, on the Shakespeare's Globe website. In addition, Zoë, who is Honorary President of the Globe, talks about the history and significance of the project in a video by the theatre.
Guestbook - To sign the guestbook, please click the picture below.
Your comments are much appreciated.
Guestbook
Welcome to the official website for Zoë Wanamaker!
More excellent reviews of Passion Play's 'uniformly magnificent acting', plus audience reaction
12 May 2013 18:13
More excellent reviews of Passion Play have been published during the past few days, in addition to those that appeared immediately after Tuesday's press night. Please see some of the highlights below.
Wall Street Journal: 'The uniformly magnificent acting is exemplified by Ms. Wanamaker who, in the second half, alters her entire body language from confident to grieving, helped by Hildegard Bechtler's fluid sets and Mark Henderson's lovely lighting. "Passion" also means undergoing and suffering - something this beautifully crafted play, directed with well-honed precision by David Leveaux, never lets you forget.'
Observer: 'A first-rate cast is led by Zoë Wanamaker's outstanding Eleanor. She shows what happens when nonchalant marital trust becomes desolation.'
Independent: 'Driven to despair, Wanamaker's once-confident Eleanor is searing.'
Mail on Sunday: 'Zoë Wanamaker is at her most compelling. Initially as springy as her curls, confident of her husband’s love, she almost visibly caves in, crushed by grief.'
Daily Express: '[Eleanor] risks losing part of herself, becoming a husk of the assured, confident woman she was at the start, something the excellent Wanamaker conveys to devastating effect.'
The Arts Desk: 'Leveaux’s production zings, stings and draws blood, and Wanamaker is devastating, visibly crumbling as every certainty is stripped away from her.'
British Theatre Guide: 'Director David Leveaux manoeuvres his wonderful cast, performing to perfection, around the stage and each other with deceptive skill, ensuring that each has a chance to shine'
The Arbuturian: 'A production of true class'
Be The Red Carpet: 'Wanamaker does a fantastic job of garnering the audience’s sympathy [...] The change in the character from a bubbly, outgoing wife to a shell of her former self is heartbreaking and brilliantly played.'
In addition, Passion Play is among Bloomberg Businessweek's arts and leisure recommendations for this weekend.
Updated 13 May:
If you would like to find out what some of the well-known audience members at Passion Play's press night thought about the show, as well as hear brief insights from Zoë and other members of the cast, you are bound to enjoy the video below from Strike Digital (who also made the trailer).
Bloomberg echoes the praise of the articles above in its own review of Passion Play, published today: 'The quiet despair in Wanamaker’s voice is worth the price of the ticket.'
With thanks to Janet for the video link.
Photo by Johan Persson.
Passion Play competition from Official London Theatre
10 May 2013 23:38
Official London Theatre is offering theatregoers the chance to win a box for four people at a performance of Passion Play - which opened to excellent reviews earlier this week - plus a bottle of wine.
For full details about the competition, including how to enter, please see the Official London Theatre website.
The competition closes on 16 May, so do get your entries in quickly. Good luck to any of Zoë's fans who decide to enter!
Excellent reviews for Passion Play
8 May 2013 20:12
Passion Play has received excellent reviews following its press night yesterday. Below are some of the highlights.
Telegraph: 'David Leveaux’s beautifully judged production does full justice to this ingenious modern classic [...] Both Zoë Wanamaker and Samantha Bond give deeply moving performances as the betrayed wife while Teale and Cotton capture both the sexual elation and guilty panic of the husband.'
The Times: 'Wanamaker carries it through brilliantly, from a cheerful lack of suspicion to shock, shades of attempted acceptance, and final dissolution.'
Financial Times: 'the production is worth seeing for Zoë Wanamaker alone.'
Guardian: 'it's Wanamaker who gives the evening its distinction by showing, with vivid particularity, how loss of trust in one's partner numbs the sense of self.'
Independent: 'Wanamaker’s performance, especially, is one of infinite pain and dark intimations of mortality.'
Daily Mail: 'This production has much going for it: strong acting from the likes of Samantha Bond and Zoe Wanamaker, plus a performance of wickedly slinky glamour from Annabel Scholey.'
The Stage: 'what is so supremely affecting in Leveaux’s production is the effortless transparency of Zoe Wanamaker’s beautiful performance as the wife'
Official London Theatre: 'Everything about the Olivier Award-winning actress – the way she holds herself, her facial expressions, the look in her eyes – conveys that of a destroyed woman, plagued by doubt and no longer able to trust her once loving husband.'
London Theatre Guide: 'Zoë Wanamaker's hugely affecting Eleanor is a woman trapped in an insufferable dilemma.'
Wales Online: 'As a result of this strong casting and a great script that does not suffer at all from the passage of 30 years, Passion Play proves to be an absolute delight that should fill the Duke of York's auditorium throughout this limited run.'
The photographer Dan Wooller has a large number of photos from the press night, both on-stage and off. For photos of the cast and guests (such as the image of Zoë above) at the after party, please see Passion Play's official Facebook Page. In addition, you can see a selection of production photos taken earlier in the run by Geraint Lewis on Photoshelter.
And there is even more press coverage in the form of an interview with Zoë in The Lady, written by the same journalist who conducted Zoë's recent interview in Saga.
Tickets to Passion Play can be purchased from ATG Tickets.
With thanks to Janet for the production photos link.
Photo by Paul Clapp.
Passion Play press night photos
7 May 2013 22:43
You can see photos of the cast and guests at Passion Play's press night, which took place this evening at London's Duke of York's Theatre, on Getty Images.
Among the well known guests in the audience were Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Mangan, and Jenny Eclair.
Zoë's Telegraph interview
7 May 2013 21:09
If you missed Zoë's interview in the Telegraph newspaper towards the end of last month, you will be pleased to hear that it has now been published on the newspaper's website.
In the interview Zoë emphasises the importance of theatre in the UK. In her words, 'this country thrives on theatre, and art. It should be our life blood'. She adds that 'because I enjoy going to the theatre myself and become fed by it, I want to pass it on' to other people by working in stage productions such as Passion Play.
Coincidentally, Passion Play has its press night today. I will add highlights from the reviews to the website tomorrow.
Most images used on this site are the copyright of their photographer, Ms. Wanamaker, and/or the production company of the show. Use of these images is covered under the fair use limitation in the USA, and the fair dealing limitaton in the UK.
This site is a non-commercial endeavour.