An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)

Set right after World War II, a naive teenage girl joins a shabby theatre troupe in Liverpool. During a winter production of Peter Pan, the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth... See full summary »

Director:

Mike Newell

Writers:

Beryl Bainbridge (novel), Charles Wood

Stars:

Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Georgina Cates

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alan Rickman	...	P.L. O'Hara
Hugh Grant	...	Meredith Potter
Georgina Cates	...	Stella
Alun Armstrong	...	Uncle Vernon
Peter Firth	...	Bunny
Prunella Scales	...	Rose
Rita Tushingham	...	Aunt Lily
Alan Cox	...	Geoffrey
Edward Petherbridge	...	St. Ives
Nicola Pagett	...	Dotty Blundell
Carol Drinkwater	...	Dawn Allenby
Clive Merrison	...	Desmond Fairchild
Gerard McSorley	...	George
Ruth McCabe	...	Grace Bird
James Frain	...	John Harbour

Storyline

Set right after World War II, a naive teenage girl joins a shabby theatre troupe in Liverpool. During a winter production of Peter Pan, the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth as she becomes drawn into a web of sexual politics and intrigue.

---

Plot Keywords:

theatre | girl | theatre troupe | peter pan | teenage girl | 

---

Taglines:

A revealing comedy about what really goes on when the lights go down.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality and some language

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 July 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Aventure en coulisses

Filming Locations:

Bewley's Oriental Cafe - 78-79 Grafton Street, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$258,195 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), British Screen Productions, Portman Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Georgina Cates had unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Stella under her real name of Clare Woodgate. Frustrated, she dyed her hair, reinvented herself as a 16-year-old Liverpool girl called "Georgina Cates", and landed the role.

---

Goofs

When O'Hara is running down the wharf in 1947, there is a modern car carrier (ship) in the background.

---

Quotes

Rose: You can't do anything I don't hear about, not on that motorbike.
[a beat]
Rose: You won't find her. Not now.
P.L. O'Hara: I might. And I might find him.
Rose: How will you know?
P.L. O'Hara: I'll know. Little chap, stands like me.
Rose: How's that?
P.L. O'Hara: Heroical, twice nightly.

---

Connections

References Stella Maris (1918)

User Reviews

The Show Must Go On

I've been curious about this movie for a long time. I finally saw it on IFC.

It was great! In this age of VERY expensive, predictable, committee-approved "art", I was relieved to watch this story unfold. Although I suspected early on about the relationship between Cates and Rickman's characters, it's execution was much better than the usual pap that pretends to be a surprise or twist.

Or even interesting.

The real twists in this story, was its own mirror of the real human forces and decisions that keep some of the sweetest, and unfortunately, worst stories going on. The twists were the tiny reasons why such things, sometimes painful and abhorrent to our collective cultural sense of what's right and decent in a society, to continue within it.

The hypocrisy of denying that these dark parts of ourselves exist often cause them to continue. Often times, the self-appointed moral-police of our culture make this inevitable in their pursuit of human frailty, the aftermath of its hunt, and the white-washing of the events (and non-events) they discovered.

No character represented total evil, good, decadence or purity, including Stella. She had as much (subtle) emotional weaponry with her, as she had emotional scars.

Many Americans don't like, or have been trained (over time) to not have patience for such imperfect main-characters in fiction anymore. The one-dimensional, mass-marketed character, is the norm here now.

That's sad. Because of that, this movie (and others like it) didn't do very well here.

Having this story take place within the entertainment industry is an excellent way of displaying so much of the world's human tragedy AND stupidity being covered up by some people's treachery, some people's nobility, or a combination of both.

And even at the end of this tale, all of the stage crew, like life itself, executed their own particular versions of the adage, "The show must go on."

No perfect hollywood story here, with it's base and stupid doling out of come-uppance of everyone's flaws...or Evil.