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Now Sean puts
his Bottom in
the spotlight
Sean Luckham as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream
After finishing his day’s studies as a 14-year-old at Priory School in Southsea, he went to the Kings Theatre and learnt to operate the follow-spot – and now he himself is to be in the limelight on the same stage.
Sean Luckham will play one of Shakespeare’s greatest comic creations, Bottom the wacky weaver who is ‘transported’ into an ass by the mischievous Puck, in the Shakespeare 4 Kidz musical production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
In his youth, Portsmouth-born Sean enjoyed performances at the Kings by many stars and admits he still swoons over his memories of Judi Dench and Kate O’Mara.
They inspired him to join the Hampshire Specialist Drama Course and then to tour in many shows before producing and performing as a Redcoat for Butlins at Bognor Regis.
He now lives at Bognor with his wife and three children – so what do his own ‘kidz’ think of their dad playing Bottom?
‘They love it,’ he says. ‘They think it’s the norm for Daddy to dress up in silly wigs and costumes, and frocks at Christmas to play the Dame in panto. They think all daddies do that!’
And why does he love playing Bottom? ‘He is fantastic and goes on a fabulous journey.
‘He thinks he is everything but really he is nothing. Then he goes off into this dreamlike state and has a relationship – albeit brief – with the most beautiful creature.’
Sean is one of S4K’s popular regular actors. He was a huge success playing Peter the servant in Romeo And Juliet – a role in which he rode on and off stage on his scooter and wore a silly wig.
He is usually cast as one of the funny characters, including a gravedigger in Hamlet and Stephano, the drunken butler, in The Tempest.
He recalls: ‘My niece Sophie came to see that show with her school. She told all her classmates I was her uncle but they wouldn’t believe her.’
Now he jokes that he is looking forward to showing his Bottom to home audiences, friends and family at the Kings on Wednesday (10.30am and 1.30pm).
n Tickets: (023) 9282 8282 or kings-southsea.com.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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