Tired? Depressed? Looking for a place in the sun?
Look no further! Join West End stars Aden Gillett (BBC’s hit series The House of Eliott) and double Laurence Olivier Award winner Janie Dee in this dazzling revival of the 1950s smash hit comedy The Little Hut.

Translated by Nancy Mitford, one of the wittiest English writers ever, from the French original by André Roussin, and directed by Tim Luscombe this is the barnstorming marital farce that ran for over 1,500 performances in Paris and three years in the West End, before being made into the glossiest of MGM vehicles for Ava Gardner, David Niven and Stewart Granger.

On a desert island, Philip, a stalwart Englishman, is shipwrecked with his elegant wife Susan and her secret lover Henry. In such close quarters, Henry persuades Susan to confess her infidelity to Philip and adopt a plan, whereby each man will dwell with her every other week while the other retires to…the little hut.

A scandalous attack on hearth & home? A hilarious depiction of what makes the world go round? Either way, funniest play of the year!

‘I can think of nothing at present running that is so honestly, sharply funny’
The Times

‘This delightful and surprisingly provocative play would merit a West End run'
The Daily Telegraph

‘Is there a more enchanting actress on the British stage than Janie Dee?... No'
The Times

Interview with Janie Dee

The Little Hut started life as a dazzling hit comedy in the Fifties, translated by Nancy Mitford from the French original by Andre Roussin. It ran for more than 1,500 performances in Paris and three years in London’s West End before being made into the 1957 film starring Ava Gardner, David Niven and Stewart Granger.
This revival reunites multi-award winning Windsor-born actress Janie Dee and Aden Gillett, last seen as adulterous lovers in Peter Hall’s revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal in London’s West End, and co-stars in Design for Living and Much Ado About Nothing.
Clare Brotherwood talks to Janie Dee about The Little Hut, her connections with Windsor and the Theatre Royal, and her amazing career.
　
The winner of the three most prestigious drama awards for theatre in London (an achievement matched only by Dame Judi Dench), Janie Dee is one of the UK’s most versatile performers, wowing audiences on both sides of the Atlantic in everything from modern comedy to Shakespeare, contemporary drama to musical theatre and opera, and in cabaret.
But she couldn’t be more thrilled about appearing at the Theatre Royal Windsor from May 4-8.
“I’m coming home,” said the 44-year-old mother of two who was born in the town, grew up in Dedworth and Dorney Reach, but has lived in London since her marriage to fellow thespian Rupert Wickham 15 years ago.
Janie’s enthusiasm extends to the production which is bringing her to Windsor.
“I’m very excited about it,“ she enthused. “It’s really funny and playful but incredibly disciplined. Learning the lines is a challenge because it’s a language-based play. It’s very wordy but it goes at a rate of knots, not unlike Noel Coward. Maybe people have changed since then but it really got to me. I read it in one. I just couldn’t stop. And I kept bursting out laughing on the Tube.”
Janie agreed to do the production after co-star Aden Gillett told her he had the script for a play which his parents said made them laugh the most they had ever laughed in their lives.
Set on a desert island, it revolves around the elegant Susan who is shipwrecked with her husband Philip, a stalwart Englishman, and her secret lover Henry. In such close quarters Henry persuades Susan to confess her infidelity to Philip and adopt a plan whereby each man will dwell with her every other week while the other retires to… the little hut.
“Susan is an extraordinary woman and yet she’s every single housewife,” Janie explained. “She’s a fantasist, an optimist, and she believes herself to be psychic. But whether that’s true remains to be seen. That’s part of the wonder of the play, that and how she copes with the two men - and a stranger. She handles things very cleverly and very wittily.”
Completing the ménage a trois is Robert Portal, ‘a wonderful actor’ says Janie. “We are having a lot of fun; a wonderful time.”
Despite having worked non-stop for 20 years, Janie made her Windsor debut only three years ago, in Harold Pinter’s play Old Times.
“He came down and took me to a beautiful Italian restaurant I used to pass as a girl. We had a wonderful dinner; champagne, and he turned up looking like a young man, but I knew it would be the last time I’d see him.”
Janie’s aspirations of becoming a performer began at an early age.
“I first wanted to be a performer after hearing George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and feeling my heart soar and that I should dance, and I first wanted to go on the stage when I went to the Joan Selley School of Dance in Burnham.”
Surprisingly, however, the Theatre Royal did not play a big part.
“We used to go to the panto but I did not actually see much else. We didn’t have a lot of money when I was little.”
At the age of 11 Janie went to the Arts Educational School in London, just like her sisters, Trudy, Claire and Emma.
“My mum, Ruth, worked as a post woman in Windsor to make money to send us girls there,” Janie recalled. “The middle two didn’t want to go and they are now both involved in the world of healing, but the youngest, Emma, is a dancer and choreographer, and we are all very grateful for that dance and voice training.”
It certainly helped Janie on her way. Highlights of her career include winning her first Oliver Award in 1992 for Carousel, and in 2000 she won the Olivier, London Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Best Actress Awards in the UK and the OB Awards, Theatre World Awards, Lucille Lortel Nomination, Drama League Citation and Drama Desk Nomination for Best Actress on Broadway for the leading role of Jacie Triplethree in Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s Comic Potential.
“They just threw the awards at me, but that was 10 years ago and it’s still something that people put on posters, which amazes me. It’s very, very fantastic to win awards but you are still an actor being tested and having to prove yourself. There were nights in Comic Potential when I thought I was awful. The moment you think you are good you lose your vulnerability and appeal.”
Janie works regularly with Sir Alan Ayckbourn and is currently working on the screenplay of Woman in Mind. Other credits include working for the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National Theatre.
As a singer, she has had several songs written for her, including one by Andrew Lloyd-Webber who accompanied her in her own London show, and at the end of the year she is to star in a national tour of The King and I.
But her roots remain in Windsor. Recently she appeared in cabaret at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead, a gig she said meant a great deal to her - not least because a lot of her old neighbours from Dorney were in the audience.
“The whole of Dorney still come to see me,” she said. “When I’m in the West End they get up a coach load. I’m really moved.
“I’m planning a lunch for them for when I’m in Windsor.”
For an extended interview with Janie Dee go to www.beatmagazine.co.uk

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