Natalie Dormer and David Oakes in

Venus in Fur

By David Ives

Directed by Patrick Marber

• Natalie Dormer and David Oakes to star in David Ives’ play Venus in Fur at Theatre Royal Haymarket for a strictly limited run from 6 October.

• Directed by Patrick Marber with designs by Rob Howell and lighting designs by Hugh Vanstone.

• Tickets are on sale now here

 

TRH Productions will present Natalie Dormer and David Oakes in the West End premiere ofDavid Ives’ hit Broadway play Venus in Fur this autumn for a strictly limited nine week engagement at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. This critically-acclaimed two-hander will run from 6 October to 9 December with opening night for press on 17 October.

Enigmatic actress Vanda Jordan appears unannounced for an audition with director Thomas Novachek. She’s determined to land the leading role in his new production – despite seeming wrong for the part. Over one evening in downtown Manhattan their charged meeting becomes a seductive dance to the end.

Directed by Patrick Marber, designed by Rob Howell with lighting by Hugh Vanstone andcasting by Executive Producer Ilene Starger, Venus In Fur is an intoxicating dark comedy of desire, fantasy and the innate love of fur.

Natalie Dormer is to play Vanda Jordan. Dormer is known globally for film and television roles including Margaery Tyrell in HBO series Game of Thrones, Anne Boleyn in The Tudors for Showtime, Cressida in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, Focus Features’ The Forest, Ron Howard’s Rush, and Ridley Scott’s The Counselor.  Upcoming, Dormer stars opposite Sean Penn and Mel Gibson in The Professor and the Mad Man, and the independent thriller In Darkness, which she also co-wrote. She is currently in production on FremantleMedia’s Picnic at Hanging Rock in Australia. Venus in Fur sees Dormer reunite with Patrick Marber, who wrote After Miss Julie (Young Vic) for which she received widespread critical acclaim in the title role. Her other stage credits include Sweet Nothings (also at the Young Vic) and .45 (Hampstead Theatre).

David Oakes is to play Thomas Novachek. Oakes is best known for portraying Juan Borgia in the Emmy Award-winning Showtime Original series The Borgias, for playing William Hamleigh in Emmy Award-winning mini-series The Pillars of the Earth, for BBC’s The White Queen in the role of George, Duke of Clarence and, most recently, on screen as Prince Ernest in ITV’s Victoria, for which he is currently filming the second series. Stage credits include Kit Marlowe in Shakespeare In Love (Nöel Coward Theatre) and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre). Oakes will also appear in the film adaptation of Albert Sánchez Piñol’s thriller Cold Skin set for release later this year.

Patrick Marber is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, actor and director. His productions of his own work includes Dealer’s Choice (NT & Vaudeville), After Miss Julie (BBC TV), Closer (NT, Lyric & Music Box NY) Howard Katz (NT), Three Days in the Country (NT) Don Juan in Soho (Wyndhams). His other directing credits include Travesties (Menier Chocolate Factory/ Apollo Theatre) The Caretaker (Comedy Theatre), Blue Remembered Hills  (National Theatre), ‘1953’ (Almeida) and The Old Neighborhood (Royal Court Theatre). Other plays include The Red Lion, The Musicians, The School Film (all for NT) and Hoop Lane (BBC Radio 3).His film credits include Closer (directed by Mike Nichols), Notes on a Scandal (directed by Richard Eyre), Old Street and Love You More. For television his co-writing credits include The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge.  More recently Ivo van Hove directed Marber’s version of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for the National Theatre starring Ruth Wilson. His plays have won Evening Standard, Olivier, Time Out, New York and London Critics’ Circle and Writers’ Guild Awards. His TV work has received BAFTA, British Comedy and Royal Television Society Awards. His screenplays have been nominated for Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Awards. He received the British Independent Film Award for Notes on a Scandal.

David Ives was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play for Venus In Fur, which has been produced all over the country and the world, and was turned into a film by Roman Polanski. He is also well known for his evenings of one-act comedies All In The Timing and Time Flies. Other plays include New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza; The Liar (adapted from Corneille); The School For Lies (adapted from Molière); The Metromaniacs (adapted from Alexis Piron); Is He Dead? (adapted from Mark Twain); Ancient History, and Polish Joke. A Chicago native, he lives in New York City.

Rob Howell has worked extensively in costume and set design in theatre and opera within the UK and abroad including at the Royal Court, Almeida, Donmar Warehouse, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Welsh National Opera, Royal Opera House and Metropolitan Opera, New York as well as at numerous other West End and Broadway Theatres. Recent credits includeThe Ferryman (Royal Court) and Groundhog Day (UK and Broadway). He has received three Olivier Awards and multiple nominations for Tony and Olivier Awards for both Set and Costume Design, including the Olivier Award for Best Set Designer for Troilus and Cressida, Vassa andRichard III in 2000 and for Hedda Gabler in 2006. He received an Olivier Award in 2012 and a Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Tony Award in 2013 and for his designs forMatilda the Musical in New York and London.

Hugh Vanstone has designed the lighting for over 200 productions and worked extensively with UK national companies and on Broadway. He has received many awards including three Oliviers, a Tony and a Molière. As associate artist at The Old Vic, he has recently lit Art, No’s Knife, Groundhog Day (UK and Broadway), The Caretaker, The Master Builder and  Future Conditional. Other work includes: Dreamgirls (Savoy), Welcome Home, Captain Fox and  Closer (Donmar);The Red Lion (National Theatre, Dorfman); Closer (Donmar and in New York); An Act Of God(New York & tour); Matilda (RSC and internationally); Strictly Ballroom (Australian tour);  Don Quixote (Royal Ballet); Tanz Der Vampire (throughout Europe & Russia); Shrek The Musical (New York, West End & UK tour); Ghost (London and internationally).

Ilene Starger is a Casting Director and Producer. West End theatre credits include The Libertine(as Casting Director/Executive Producer for TRB and TRH); Breakfast at Tiffany’s (as U.S. Casting Director for 2009 TRH production; also for 2016 UK tour.) Broadway credits includeWaiting for Godot, No Man’s Land, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Casting Director & Associate Producer), Marlene, The Elephant Man, Dance of Death, The Diary of Anne Frank, Dirty Blonde, Closer (Artios Award.) Film credits include Custody (also Associate Producer), The Rewrite, Pink Panther 1 & 2, Music and Lyrics, Two Weeks’ Notice, Night at the Museum (Artios Award),School of Rock (Artios Award), Sleepy Hollow, A Simple Plan, The Parent Trap, First Wives’ Club, Marvin’s Room, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, No Way Out. TV credits include: Witness to the Mob, The Great Gatsby, Earthly Possessions. Starger is a former VP of Casting for Walt Disney and Touchstone Pictures.

An adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novel Venus in Furs that inspired the term masochism, Venus in Fur was first performed off-Broadway, New York in 2010 with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley, before transferring to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway with Nina Arianda reprising the role of Vanda Jordan alongside Hugh Dancy as Thomas Novachek. Both productions were directed by Walter Bobbie and won Arianda multiple awards including the 2011/12 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play. In 2012, Roman Polanski directed a film version of the play, in French, starring Emmanuelle Seignerand Mathieu Amalric.

 

LISTINGS

Website: www.VenusOnStage.com
Twitter: @VenusOnStageLDN
Facebook: facebook.com/VenusOnStageLDN

Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, London SW1Y 4HT

www.trh.co.uk
Box Office: 020 7930 8800

First performance on 6 October
Final performance on 9 December
Opening Night for Press on 17 October

Performances
Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm
Thursday and Saturday at 3pm

Prices
From £15
For full details either visit www.trh.co.uk or call 020 7930 8800

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NO

CAST ANNOUNCED FOR

GRAND OPERA HOUSE PANTOMIME

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

LYNNE McGRANGER (Home and Away) ANTONY COSTA (Blue) DEBBIE McGEE (TV personality) KEN MORLEY (TV’s Allo Allo & Coronation Street)

STUART WADE (York’s favourite for the 5^th year) STEVE WICKENDEN (Britain’s classiest Dame returns) AUDREY LAYBOURNE (One of Les Dawson’s Roly Polys)

and CHARLOTTE MACLACHLAN (as Beauty)

And introducing ERAGON of YORK, Yorkshire’s only flying dragon.

Friday 15 December 2017 – Sunday 7 January 2018

 

BLUE singer Antony Costa and Home And Away soap star Lynne McGranger will join Stuart Wade, Debbie McGee and dame Steve Wickenden in the Grand Opera House pantomime, Beauty And The Beast, this winter in York.

Presented by producers Three Bears Productions in their second year at the Cumberland Street theatre, the show also will feature Ken Morley, from the television series ‘Allo ‘Allo! and Coronation Street and assorted double-glazing adverts; Audrey Laybourne, formerly one of Les Dawson’s Roly Polys, and Lincoln musical actress, model and singer Charlotte Maclachlan.

Three Bears Productions, the company run by writer-producer Chris Moreno, co-producer Russ Spencer and actor-director Stuart Wade, made their Grand Opera House debut last Christmas with Aladdin and now return with another spectacular pantomime, with lots of surprises.  Beauty And The Beast is sure to be the Biggest and the Beast in Yorkshire. Expect new flying special effects with Eragon of York, Yorkshire’s only flying dragon, a truly horrorflying experience!  Plus a scary haunted bedroom scene with ghosts, ghoulies and goblins.

Antony Costa, who will play the Prince/Beast, will be making his second appearance of 2017 at the Grand Opera House. From October 16 to 21, he will star in the The Classic Thriller Theatre Company’s touring production of Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement In Stone.

Lynne McGranger is cast as Wizadora Crabapple after playing the Wicked Queen in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs in 2009-2010 and Witch Blackweed in Jack And The Beanstalk in 2003-2004.

Stuart Wade, in his fifth Opera House panto, will take the daft lad role of Hudson, The Beast’s manservant; Debbie McGee will be in fairy mode as Adorabella Marigold Angelpie, and classy dame

Steve Wickenden will play Mirabelle, Belle’s sister. Ken Morley will be Maurice, Belle’s father; Audrey Leybourne, Potty T Potts, and Charlotte MacLachlan, Belle, alias Beauty.

Mr Moreno said: “Three Bears Productions were thrilled that all panto box-office records at the Grand Opera House were broken last Christmas with Aladdin. We’re pleased to announce a brand new production of Beauty And The Beast with some very exciting special effects and fabulous sets and costumes.”

General manager Lizzie Richards said: “This pantomime title is a first for the Grand Opera House and we’re all looking forward to this year’s star cast.”

BOOK NOW FOR A BEAST OF A PANTOMIME AT

GRAND OPERA HOUSE YORK

Tickets from £15.75 from box office on 0844 871 3024 or online at www.atgtickets.com/york

Schools and Family rates available.

 

Mamma Mia! is getting ready to shimmy its way into Leeds as part of its first ever UK tour.

The Grand Theatre will fling open its doors at the end of May to welcome the hit show for six weeks.

Shall we re-run those stats one more time? At the last head-count, Mamma Mia! has been seen by 60 million people worldwide. There have been 50 productions of the show fashioned from the ABBA songbook. It has been seen in 16 different languages (including Swedish). Plus, of course, there was the massively successful movie starring Meryl Streep. And yet for all its 18 years trotting around the globe, Mamma Mia! has never once toured the UK. Until now. Why is that?

“Partly the success of the show in London,” explains the show’s producer Judy Craymer. “When we opened I asked someone’s advice about what should I be doing re. a UK tour. They said, ‘Watch your midweek matinee because when that begins to go soft then you should think about touring. It never did go soft.’

Instead the show went to Canada and Australia, then toured the US and took up residence in Las Vegas before landing on Broadway the month after 9/11. It stayed for a dozen years. More recent conquests have been of China in Mandarin, while a vast cruise ship tours the Caribbean with a Mamma Mia! that can be seen by 1000 seafarers at a go. Craymer has seen the show on every continent but has yet to be lured aboard the Royal Caribbean. “I was asked when they did the technical rehearsal between Hamburg and the Solent in November,” she recalls wryly.

Craymer is one of the least demonstrative super-producers on either side of the Atlantic. Hers is the only mega-musical to have proved itself unstoppable without any assistance from anyone called Lloyd Webber or Mackintosh or Nunn or be affiliated in any way to Disney or any other film franchise. Or indeed get any help from men at all (unless you thank Bjorn and Benny for the music). The three queens of Mamma Mia!, aside from Craymer, are director Phyllida Lloyd and book writer Catherine Johnson.

The show has been going since 1999, but its producer first had the idea for a film or a stage show based on Abba’s songs many years earlier when she was Tim Rice’s assistant on Chess, the musical he wrote with Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. “I started talking to them about it in the mid-80s, and then in about 1995 Bjorn said, ‘If you can get the right story, maybe.’”

By then she had worked as a producer in television and come across Johnson, a scriptwriter who had also written a couple of sparky hit plays. One of them was Shang-a-Lang, about three women from Chipping Sodbury who hit 40 in a holiday camp where their girlhood idols the Bay City Rollers are playing.

“I explained my thoughts and Catherine said, “What about a mother-daughter story?” and that was it. We have tentatively pitched it to Bjorn and Benny and it kind of worked from there. They trusted me. They weren’t saying, ‘Bring in a star team. We’ll only do it with Tom Stoppard and Hal Prince.’ They let us nurture it. I think timing was everything. It probably wouldn’t have worked ten years before in the same way.”

Craymer is resistant to the idea that Mamma Mia! is just another jukebox musical. “To me those songs were written by Bjorn and Benny for Mamma Mia!” In fact they were increasingly written about their own failing marriages to the band’s two singers, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. “’The Winners Takes It All’ was the inspiration for me. I kept thinking, that is a great 11 o’clock number, as they say on Broadway. It’s ‘Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina’. But what’s the story?”

The story centres on the search for a father. Twenty-year-old bride-to-be Sophie has grown up on a Greek island where her mother Donna runs a rackety taverna. Sophie doesn’t know who her father is, so rummages through her mother’s diary from twenty years back and secretly invites three potential candidates. As a feel-good plot it is a long way from the doom-laden blockbuster musicals which dominated in the 1980s and 1990s and Craymer thinks that helps explain its longevity.

“The show has a big heart and people love it so they return. In the audience sometimes one member will turn to the other and say, ‘Is this your first time?’ It’s like ‘welcome to the club’. It’s also a show that people like to see in a community atmosphere. They like to bring friends and family. Kids are brought up on the DVD of the movie and now’s their chance to see the show.”

The film – which also starred Julie Walters, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan – came out in 2008. At the time it felt like a final frontier for the show and Craymer looked about for alternative inspiration. It came in the idea of doing a Spice Girls musical. Viva Forever!, with a book written by Jennifer Saunders, opened in the West End in 2012. Alas it did not live up to its title and closed after six months.

“Although I do think it had potential’ she concedes, ‘there’s all kinds of reasons why it didn’t work, but I was very proud of it.” One thing that has changed is the power of social media to make or break a show. Mamma Mia! had good reviews but it mainly conquered the world by word of mouth – and, of course, wonderful songs. The show’s creators had no real idea how deep those songs are in all our bloodstream until they first launched them upon an audience.

“They stood up and cheered at the end and everybody was dancing. Somebody said to me, ‘This is just the first preview audience. Don’t expect this to happen again.’” People have been dancing at the end of the show ever since to “Waterloo” and “Dancing Queen”, sung by Donna and the Dynamos in wonderful Seventies spandex outfits. One night the audience proved so immovable that the front of house staff had to make an announcement that ‘the Dynamos had left the building’ otherwise the audience would have stayed all night. On another occasion they were joined onstage by Anna-Frid Lyngstad. “Frida came quietly one night, she wanted no fuss. She loved the show so much that she asked if she could go onstage at the end with cast, she did and she sang ‘Dancing Queen’ in front of the audience. And that was her quiet night out’.

Although the show has grown and grown, Craymer travels a great deal less than she used to. “Ten years of being on a plane all the time, I used to get remembered by the staff at BA quite a lot.” What spare time she can muster she spends reigniting her original passion for equestrianism. She was a “goodish” showjumper who competed at Hickstead as a junior. Now she is an ambassador of the British showjumping team and owns five baby National Hunt horses. One has gone off to Ireland to stud. Another is called Rock Chick Supremo.

“I’ve got ambitions to do dressage. I feel that’s more controlled and stately. I don’t really want to be charging over fences. I’m always joking that I will be a stable girl again.”

In the mean time there just may be another twist in the Mamma Mia! story in the shape of a second film. “I think it would be a companion piece. It would only happen if we all agreed it was the right thing. People love that film and those characters and love being in that moment of escapism on the Greek island. It’s good for us to always be thinking.”

The Mamma Mia! UK Tour opened at the Bristol Hippodrome in March 2016, and has continued onto Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cardiff, Southampton, Edinburgh, Plymouth and other UK venues.

“Mamma Mia! has been thrilling audiences of all ages all around the world, and now the party comes to Leeds Grand Theatre for the first time,” says the theatre’s General Manager, Ian Sime. “It promises to be a sensational feel-good show.”

Mamma Mia is at Leeds Grand Theatre from Tuesday May 30th to Saturday 8th July

Tickets are priced from £26 to £59.50

Book online at leedsgrandtheatre.com or call Box Office on 0844 848 2700

Developing Artists and Shubbak present

A new dark political comedy about retaining innocence in Palestine

From the team behind 2016’s acclaimed Queens of Syria

UK Premiere Tour from 27 June – 22 July 2017

Following the earliest footsteps of life through a warzone, And Here I Am is a coming-of-age story that witnesses the comedic absurdities of growing up in one of the world’s most troubled conflict zones. A world away from headlines and news bulletins, And Here I Am charts the intimate truths of Ahmed Tobasi’s personal odyssey. From his birth in a Palestinian refugee camp; to unwittingly escaping invading soldiers by playing hide and seek; And Here I Am is a tale of everyday human experiences against a backdrop of inhumane circumstances.

Combining fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy, spanning both the first and second Palestinian Intifadas, And Here I Am follows Tobasi through his transformation from armed resistance fighter to artist; his journey as a refugee in the West Bank to Norway, and then back again.

In a series of tragicomic episodes vividly brought to life by award winning writer Hassan Abdlrazzak, And Here I Am is directed by Zoe Lafferty, whose directing credits include Queens of Syria (Young Vic/New London Theatre/West Yorkshire Playhouse/Everyman, Liverpool).

“A raw yet artful reminder of our common humanity… graceful, painful, unsentimental”

★★★★★ The Times (Queens of Syria)

Born in Jenin refugee camp during the first Intifada, Tobasi’s childhood was overshadowed by the Israeli occupation. After joining the armed resistance at the age of 17, Tobasi was shot during the ruthless invasion of his camp that saw friends and family murdered, and his home razed to the ground. After being arrested and incarcerated for four years in an Israeli desert prison, Tobasi eschewed pressure to return to armed resistance.

Instead he opted to continue fighting with art, leading him to political asylum in Norway whilst studying at the prestigious Nordic Black Theatre. In 2013 he returned to Jenin Refugee Camp, and to The Freedom Theatre, contributing to the local artistic movement which focused on using culture as a form of resistance.

Developing Artists is a registered charity working to support the arts in conflict nations and marginalised communities. The development of the project has been supported by The Shubbak Festival, Nordic Black Theatre, The British Council, Fritt Ord, The Freedom Theatre, Jenin Refugee Camp, Al Qattan Foundation and The Arab Fund For Arts and Culture.

www.AndHereIAm.co.uk

 

UK TOUR DATES

Tue 27 – Wed 28 June                                                                            Box Office: 01242 572573

Cheltenham, The Everyman Theatre                                                                       Website: everymantheatre.org.uk

Fri 30 Jun – Sat 1 July                                                                                                      Box Office: 023 8067 1771

Southampton, The Nuffield Theatre                                                                       Website: nstheatres.co.uk

Thu 3 – Sat 8 July                                                                                                              Box Office: 020 7503 1646

London, Arcola Theatre (Shubbak Festival)                                                          Website: arcolatheatre.com

Mon 10 – Tue 11 July                                                                                                      Box Office: 0843 208 6000

Salford, The Lowry (Shubbak Festival)                                                                    Website: thelowry.com

Wed 12 July                                                                                                                        Box Office: 0151 709 4988

Liverpool, The Unity Theatre (Shubbak Festival)                                                Website: unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk

Fri 14 – Sat 15 July                                                                                                            Box Office: 01392 434169

Exeter, The Bike Shed Theatre (Part of the Boat Shed Festival)                   Website: bikeshedtheatre.co.uk

Mon 17 – Tue 18 July                                                                                                      Box Office: 0131 220 4348

Edinburgh, Assembly Rooms                                                                                      Website: assemblyroomsedinburgh.co.uk

Wed 19 July                                                                                                                        Box Office: 01865 319450

Oxford, The North Wall                                                                                                 Website: thenorthwall.com

Thu 20 & Fri 21 July                                                                                                          Box Office: 01223 300085

Cambridge, ADC Theatre                                                                                              Website: adctheatre.com

Sat 22 July                                                                                                                           Box Office: 0300 3033 211

Halesworth, The Cut Arts Centre                                                                              Website: newcut.org

 

• CASTING IS ANNOUNCED FOR THE UK PREMIERE OF TAYLOR MAC’S ‘HIR’ AT THE BUSH THEATRE

• ARTHUR DARVILL, GRIFFYN GILLIGAN, ASHLEY MCGUIRE AND ANDY WILLIAMS WILL PERFORM IN THIS NEW PRODUCTION DIRECTED BY NADIA FALL

Ovalhouse’s Summer Season 2017 Ovalhouse,

52-54 Kennington Oval, London SE11 5SW

Friday 5th May – Saturday 29th July 2017

Ovalhouse’s exciting Summer Season explores three powerful themes – migration and what it means to ‘belong’, the nature of violence in our society, and love and loss. By continuing to present challenging and inspirational theatre that speaks to a world beyond the mainstream, Ovalhouse acts as a vital home for boundary-pushing art, artists and audiences with an eye on the future.

Home invites audiences with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities into an immersive experience of unfamiliar landscapes; Bound explores the dark underworld of people trafficking; and One Item Only follows one boy’s journey seeking refuge from his troubled homeland. Two powerful new plays examine the pervasive nature of violence in our society: The Believers Are But Brothers explores how young men use the internet to enact violent fantasies while Kieran Hurley’s new play An Injury explores the harm that we do to one another.

The season closes with three plays about loss including Associate Artist Bella Heesom’s much loved antidote to grief My World Has Exploded a Little Bit.

Owen Calvert-Lyons, Ovalhouse’s Head of Theatre & Artist Development, comments, I am very proud to be presenting the work of three of our Associate Artists, Bella Heesom, Donnacadh O’Briain and Koko Brown, this season. We are supporting, developing and nurturing some of the most exciting artists in London and these are the first plays to come out of this programme. I am particularly excited by Trinity this season; we will be taking over the derelict chapel of a former asylum in Peckham to stage this beautiful production. Across the season our artists present you with challenging visions of our present as well as hopeful visions of our future and invite us to reflect on where our own journey will lead us.

The fantastic Summer Season 2017 is as follows:

Home by Frozen Light Theatre, in association with New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich (5 th – 6 th May, 11am and 1.30pm)

This exciting production for audiences with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD), explores a new and unknown world. This multi-sensory story of discovery explores a world that is not how Scarlet and Olive remember it. Where are they now and where is their home? Together, they must learn how to survive and create a future in an environment that is full of surprises.

Identity Crisis by Phina Oruche (9th – 13th May, 7.45pm)

Beginning with the real life story of the sudden death of Phina’s 1-year- old niece in her house in 2011, this show presents us with 60 images of Phina in fashion and provides an illuminating, humorous and candid exposition of life under the glare of the media spotlight. Phina portrays nine characters: Black, White, Old, Young, Male and Female, and explores identity struggles that are common to all.

Bound (9th – 13th May, 7.30pm)

Inspired by true accounts of human trafficking, Justice in Motion present a compelling tale of dreams and broken promises, of hope and resilience in the face of harrowing circumstances. Driven by the desire for a brighter future, three desperate, but very different people unknowingly take the biggest gamble of their lives. Told through a dynamic fusion of dance, circus, music, projection and spoken word, Bound is a beautifully crafted story of strength in the face of adversity

My World Has Exploded a Little Bit (23rd – 27th May, 7.30pm)

Bella Heesom’s debut play, directed by Donnacadh O’Briain, is part true story, part farcical performance lecture. It tells a deeply personal story of loss and love, through a darkly comic step-by-step guide to bereavement. Mixing tender intimacy and unflinching honesty with hardhitting philosophy, clownish silliness and an enchanting live piano score, it takes the audience on a powerful emotional journey, shot through with jet black comedy.

The Forever Machine (30th May – 3rd June, 2pm)

After the success of Eloise and the Curse of the Golden Whisk, award- winning company The Wardrobe Ensemble return to delight families at Ovalhouse during half-term, using bold stagecraft and out of this world soundscapes to bring this curious tale to life. Get carried away on this wild sci-fi adventure. Leap through vortexes in time and space! Fight demons in the past! Dance disco in the future!

One Item Only (1st – 3rd June, 11.30am and 2.30pm)

If you had to take a long journey and could only take one item with you – what would it be? Follow one boy’s journey across continents in search of refuge from his troubled homeland, in this eventful and uplifting story of hope and resilience where the human spirit triumphs. Inspired by recent events, and created by Bristol-based Greek artist, Margarita Sidirokastriti, family audiences will share the challenges of his adventurous journey towards an uncertain but ultimately optimistic future.

Trinity by Brave New Worlds (19th – 22nd, 26th and 27th June, 7.30pm)

Trinity is a visually stunning, design-led performance staged in a beautiful derelict gothic chapel that transports audiences to other worlds. A collaboration with acclaimed international artists, the show explores the aesthetics of gender and female iconography in our society’s visual culture, from pagan and religious artefacts to bedroom selfies, to create a highly visceral visual landscape with an immersive sound experience. This is an offsite event taking place at The Asylum, a ten minute walk from Queens Road Peckham station.

The Believers are But Brothers – Edinburgh preview (12th – 15th July, 7.30pm)

We live in a time where old orders are collapsing and tech savvy and extremist groups rip through twentieth century political certainties. Amidst this, a generation of young men find themselves burning with resentment. This crisis of masculinity leads them into an online world of fantasy, violence and reality. Writer and theatre maker Javaad Alipoor spent time in this digital realm, exploring the blurry and complex world of extremists, spies, journalists and fantasists. This bold one-man show weaves together their stories.

An Injury (18th – 22nd July, 7.30pm)

After their award-winning collaboration on Heads Up, writer Kieran Hurley (Beats, Hitch) and director Alex Swift (How to Win Against History, Mess) team up once again to create a thrilling new play about violence, love, the distance between us, and the harm we do to each other. Morvern wants to get up and walk away from this desk. Danny wants to write something revolutionary. Joe wants to protect what good we still have left. And then there’s Isma. We don’t know much about Isma. We know she’s twelve. We know she speaks only Arabic. We know she’s here. And we know she’s watching. Here, in this room, four speakers pick through the fragments of four shattered lives.

I am a Tree – Edinburgh preview (27th – 29th July, 7.30pm)

Writer Jamie Wood presents a show like no other. A show that is something else entirely. A dance party with ghosts, in a forest, in a theatre. A hopping ritual. An invitation to drink deep: to face the shadows that growl on your insides and laugh big. Hold on tight!

As with every Ovalhouse season, the Summer programme also include two exciting new worksin-development, a chance to see raw new ideas that might develop into a bigger piece, or might be a way to explore an idea. The new FiRST BiTES are:

WHITE (20th – 22nd July, 7.45pm)

Koko Brown considers the concept of mixed-race privilege as she tries to connect clashing cultures and explore what it means to be mixed in contemporary Britain. A show about identity which blends spoken-word with live vocal looping and asks ‘What are you when you are always the other?’

Juliet and Romeo’s work in progress (25th – 26th July, 7.30pm)

Ben Duke’s Lost Dog will be sharing something of their as yet unstarted and definitely still unfinished version of Shakespeare’s deeply pessimistic teenage love story. A humorous and heartfelt investigation into love, loss and longevity.

New Diorama Theatre 2 – 27 May.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

Engineer Theatre Collective’s new production is a spine-tingling story about fear. The first act takes part in almost total darkness. Being told that before we entered got me a little nervous before anything started, but a charming introduction from Simon Lyshon relaxed and acclimatised the audience.

Two explorers enter a huge sinkhole in Mexico – Ethan, a caving guide, and Hana, a PhD student searching for Mayan pots. Early on, the fact that there should be more than 2 people in an expedition is presented, so you just know this isn’t going to end well. They don’t find pots, but what they do find has a profound effect on Ethan and the first act builds to an almost cinematic climax. The second act feels like a completely different play at first, with Hana, now pregnant recovering from her ordeal and looking to the future with her boyfriend. But her conviction that events signal that something bad is coming builds, and there are some classic horror moments that made the audience jump.

Oscar Wyatt’s lighting design and Dominic Kennedy’ sound design is phenomenal, creating a truly eerie and nerve jarring atmosphere. The use of head torches to downlight the actor’s faces in the cave makes them seem otherworldly, and the glimpses of the audience behind the actors in the torchlight enhances the feeling of a ghostly presence. The physical movement to depict their journey through the narrow passages was a little “mime artist” at first, but you soon bought into the action, and got carried away by the story.

Ellie Isherwood is fantastic as Hana, moving from academic excitement to panic and fear very convincingly in act one, and portraying Han’s torment in act two sensitively but powerfully in act two. Simon Lyshon is completely unnerving as Ethan when he flips out, and Archie Backhouse makes you want to give Daniel a slap – which is just as it should be.

The contrast between Daniel’s rational engineer thinking, and Hana’s intuitive and emotional actions is portrayed cleverly. The concept of life as energy being constantly recycled is explored in an entertaining and thought-provoking way, and the ending led to a lot of debate on the way home about whether Hana should be afraid or accepting.

The Gap in the Light is fringe theatre at its best – intelligent, entertaining, and with some real shocks.

Tristan Bates 2 – 20 May.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

A live TV reunion of a singing duo who haven’t spoken since their divorce 5 years ago. What could possibly go wrong?!

It’s 1968, and America’s Swingin’ Sweethearts, Pete Bartel and Keely Stevens, just can’t quite stick to the script in this celebration of their career and their barbs and bickering escalate as the musical numbers keep coming.

This wonderfully arch and charming musical celebrates and spoofs those cheesy crooners from the 1950s and 60s, with catchy original music by Patrick Brady and some ridiculously entertaining arrangements of old standards that will have you howling with laughter. David Bardsley’s rendition of “Fever” is hysterical, and spot on in its creepily sad attempt at seductiveness – taking you back to 1970s Saturday night TV. *shudder* The story of their career is presented with relentless pace, interspersed with ad breaks where the arguments build brilliantly. The re-enactment of Pete ‘n’ Keely’s attempt to break Broadway is phenomenal, with the characters showing their awareness that they are performing dross to fantastic comic effect. The clever and witty writing reveals the issues that ended their marriage slowly and sensitively, giving these cartoon like characters depth and soul. You start wishing for a happy ending about five minutes into the show, and the unrelenting charm of Matthew Gould’s production will just keep you grinning all night.

Emily Bestow’s set design is colourful and bright, evoking TV shows of the era and the three-piece band are full of energy. The cast are simply amazing. David Bardsley is brilliant as Pete, styling it out in the worst wig you’ll ever see. He has one hell of a voice and is perfect as the faded and jaded star. Katie Kerr is a fantastic comic actor, and fizzles with energy as Keely. Her voice compliments Bardsley’s and it’s easy to believe that they’ve been singing together for years.

Pete ‘n’ Keely is a nostalgic and uplifting romp through the 50s and 60s with a feel-good factor that is off the charts. A little gem of a musical.

COLM MEANEY WILL JOIN

SIENNA MILLER AND JACK O’CONNELL IN

BENEDICT ANDREWS’ YOUNG VIC PRODUCTION OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’

C A T   O N   A   H O T   T I N   R O O F

OPENING IN THE WEST END JULY 2017

 

Colm Meaney will join the previously announced Sienna Miller and Jack O’Connell to play Big Daddy in the Young Vic production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof directed by Benedict Andrews. The twelve-week run in the West End at the Apollo Theatre begins previews on 13 July 2017 with press night on 24 July. The last performance is 7 October 2017.  Set designs are by Magda Williwith costume designs by Alice Babidge, lighting by Jon Clark and sound design by Gareth Fry.  Final casting will be announced at a later date.

The truth hurts. On a steamy night in Mississippi, a Southern family gather at their cotton plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday.  The scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies they tell.  Brick and Maggie dance round the secrets and sexual tensions that threaten to destroy their marriage. With the future of the family at stake, which version of the truth is real – and which will win out?

 

For this Young Vic production, there are seats available at £10 for under 25s for each performance booked through the Young Vic Box Office.  Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is the Young Vic’s first production to debut in the West End and is presented by the Young Vic and The Young Ones.  Previously the Young Vic have transferred A View from a Bridge, Golem, Romeo and Juliet, The Scottsboro Boys, Simply Heavenly, Tintin and A Doll’s House.

 

Colm Meaney (Big Daddy) was last on stage in London alongside Kevin Spacey in Moon for the Misbegotten at the Old Vic, with the production subsequently transferring to Broadway. His other theatre credits include Breaking the Code, The Cider House Rules and Juno and the Paycock. Earlier this year, Meaney won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Film for his portrayal of Martin McGuinness in The Journey, opposite Timothy Spall.  His additional film credits include all three adaptations of Roddy Doyle’s The Barrytown Trilogy (The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van), Die Hard 2, Dick Tracy, The Last of the Mohicans, Far and Away, Con Air, Layer Cake, The Damned United and Halal Daddy, to be released this summer.  He has also appeared in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa with Steve Coogan, as well as the comedy-drama One Chance, the story of Britain’s Got Talent winner Paul Potts. Meaney voiced the role of the ‘Miles Standish’ in Free Birds and ‘Grandpa’ in Norm of the North. He is best known on television for his long-running role as ‘Chief Miles O’Brien’ in the hit series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Meaney also starred in AMC’s western series Hell on Wheels and will next be seen in TNT’s new period drama Will in the role of James Burbage.

Sienna Miller (Maggie) trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.  She was last on stage in the West End as Patricia in Flare Path at the Haymarket Theatre and was previously seen at Wyndham’s Theatre as Celia in As You Like It.  Her New York theatre credits include After Miss Julie, Cabaret, Independence and Cigarettes and Chocolate.  Her many film credits include Live by Night, Mississippi Grind, Layer Cake, Alfie, Casanova, Factory Girl, American Sniper, Foxcatcher, The Edge of Love, G.I. Joe, Yellow and the forthcoming The Lost City of Z.  On television her credits include The Girl, Bedtime and Keen Eddie.  

 

Jack O’Connell (Brick) was last seen on stage in The Nap at Sheffield Crucible Theatre.  His other theatre credits include Scarborough for the Royal Court and The Spiderman, The Musiciansand Just for NT Shell Connections.  His film work has garnered him multiple awards, including the 2015 EE BAFTA Rising Star Award, the New Hollywood Award and the Chopard Trophy Award at the Cannes Film Festival.  Most recently, his project Home won the BAFTA for British Short Film in 2017.  His other film credits include Money Monster, 300: Rise of an Empire, Unbroken, ’71, Starred Up, Liability, Private Peaceful, Tower Block, Weekender, Wayfaring Stranger, Eden Lakeand Black Dog.  O’Connell will next be seen on screen in Tulip Fever, The Man with the Iron Heartas well as starring in the Netflix TV series Godless.  His television credits include Skins, United, The Runaway, This is England, Dive and Wuthering Heights.

 

Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer prize winning play received its world premiere in 1955 on Broadway with Barbara Bel Geddes and Ben Gazzara as Maggie and Brick.  The UK premiere, directed by Peter Hall, opened at the Comedy Theatre in 1958 with Kim Stanley and Paul Massie.  The 1958 Academy Award nominated film starred Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman.

For the Young Vic, Benedict Andrews has previously directed his own version of Three Sisters, which won the London Critics’ Circle Best Director Award, and A Streetcar Named Desire, with Gillian Anderson and Ben Foster, which transferred to New York in 2016.  His first production for the Young Vic was Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses, a co-production with ENO – where he has also directed La Boheme and Detlev Glanert’s Caligula.  His many directing credits for Sydney Theatre Company include The Maids with Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert, which toured to the Lincoln Centre Festival in New York; and Big and Small which came to the Barbican, also starring Cate Blanchett.  Andrews has also worked extensively at the Schaubühne Berlin, Komische Oper, National Theatre Iceland and Belvoir Street Sydney.  His first feature film, Una, starring Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn, premiered at last year’s Telluride Film Festival and will be released in September.

The Young Vic produces new plays, classics, forgotten works, musicals and opera. It co-produces and tours widely in the UK and internationally while keeping deep roots in its neighbourhood.  It frequently transfers shows to London’s West End and invites local people to take part at its home in Waterloo. In 2016 the Young Vic became London’s first Theatre of Sanctuary. Recent productions include Simon Stone’s multi award-winning new version of Lorca’sYerma which returns to the Young Vic with Billie Piper reprising her performance in July, the premiere of Charlene James’ multi-award-winning play Cuttin’ It and Ivo van Hove’s multi award-winning production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge (West End & Broadway transfers), as well as Horizons, a season of work exploring the lives of refugees.  David Lan is Artistic Director, Lucy Woollatt is Executive Director.  www.youngvic.org

 

LISTINGS INFORMATION  

 

Theatre:                  Apollo Theatre, 31 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7ES

Dates:                    13 July – 7 October 2017

Press Night:             Monday 24 July 2017 at 7pm

Performances:          Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

Prices:                    in previews Monday – Thursday £10-£55, Friday & Saturday £10-£57

From 25 July 2017 Monday – Thursday £10-£65, Friday & Saturday £10-£67

Box Office:                Apollo 0330 333 4809

                             Young Vic 020 7922 2922

Website:                 www.youngvicwestend.com

Twitter/Instagram:    @youngvictheatre

Facebook:               youngvictheatre