We’re really excited to be partnering with AUK Studios who have produced a new audio drama, Cary On, which focuses on Cary Grant’s experimentation with LSD, which is being released as a special edition audio CD (digital release to follow). Read on to find out about the chance for you to win one of these exclusive CDs!
Written by Kenton Hall, starring Barnaby Easton-Jones and Wink Taylor as Cary Grant, the project explores a lesser-known period of Cary Grant’s life as he struggles with fame and his own identity.
“Cary On was a joy to perform… Ever since I can remember I have always loved Cary Grant,” says Taylor. “When I found out that the super smooth Cary Grant was, in reality, an anxious man from Bristol called Archibald Leach I became even more fascinated.”
Cary On is a journey into the heart and mind of a cinematic icon. And, more importantly, of the man who brought him to life. About Cary On It’s 1958 and Cary Grant is at the height of his fame and his powers. He is adored by cinematic audiences around the world but there’s something missing. On screen, he is the sophisticated romantic. In the real world, he’s staring down the barrel of yet another divorce. On screen, he’s light-hearted and level-headed. In the real world, he hides from (and is troubled by) the dark secrets of his past. If he’s honest, the biggest problem is that he doesn’t have the slightest clue who he really is. He just knows he’s not Hollywood’s Cary Grant. But he also knows he’s not Archie Leach either, his birth name in Bristol, England. What can he do about that? Well, he does what any self-respecting Hollywood movie star would do, under the circumstances. He decides to try LSD.
“Cary Grant has always struck me as a wounded soul, in search of something. For me, that’s what Cary On is really about. The universal search for meaning and for self. Just in a finely tailored suit and with a twinkle in its eye,” says Cary On writer Kenton Hall. “I was exceedingly fortunate to be asked to write it.”
The concept of Cary On came from producer/director Barnaby Eaton-Jones, who adapted Kenton’s theatre script for audio. Nearly 20 years ago, Eaton-Jones had written a televised documentary about Cary Grant. Fascinated by the actor’s experimentation with LSD and how it freed him from his anxieties, worries and insecurities, Cary On was born. From there, Kenton Hall (‘London After Midnight’, ‘Getting Better: The Fight for the NHS’, ‘Bisection’) wrote the script and Wink Taylor (Winston Churchill in ‘Getting Better: The Fight for the NHS’) was cast in the lead role.
For a chance to win a copy of this exclusive audio drama, then put your glad rags on – the production team have offered us a special edition CD as a prize for our best dressed at our screening of An Affair to Remember at the Curzon on 25 November 2023. Click here for tickets and more information.