Private Lives National Tour ahead of West End Transfer

A major revival of Noël Coward’s fabulous masterpiece, Private Lives will commence a National Tour ahead of a West End transfer, starring stage and screen stars Tom Chambers (Top Hat, Strictly Come Dancing) as the loveable and charming Elyot and Laura Rogers (Tipping The Velvet, An Ideal Husband) as the unconventional and vivacious Amanda, alongside Charlotte Ritchie (Call The Midwife, One Night in November) as Sybil and Richard Teverson (Downton Abbey) as Victor.

The production is generally acknowledged as being one of the greatest plays of all time, and will begin at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking, from 11th January 2016, directed by Tom Attenborough, with designs by Lucy Osborne, lighting by Oliver Fenwick and sound by Gregory Clarke.

Other confirmed venues for this major new production of Private Livesinclude the Churchill Theatre, Bromley (18-23 January), Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent (25-30 January), Theatre Royal, Brighton (1-6 February), New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham (8-13 February), Richmond Theatre (15-20 February), Theatre Royal, Glasgow (22-27 February), Princess Theatre, Torquay (29 February – 5 March), Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury (7-12 March) and Theatre Royal, Bath (14-19 March).

Private Lives, written in just three days, remains Coward’s greatest success and the play that marked the peak of his career. Elyot (a role originated by Coward himself) and Amanda are a gloriously selfish divorced couple who, by a quirk of fate, meet again on their honeymoons with their new spouses and reignite their old spark,. The revival of their fiery romance, alternating between heated rows and passionate reconciliations, reminds them that although they cannot live with each other, nor can they live without.

A masterpiece of 1930’s high comedy full of razor sharp wit and sparkling dialogue, Private Lives remains one of the most sophisticated, entertaining plays ever written, offering an evening of acutely sharp, divinely decedent, and unashamed humour.

Tom Chambers’ (Elyot Chase) most recent stage credits include the West End production of White Christmas at the Dominion Theatre, and the Olivier and Evening Standard Award winning musical Top Hat, for which Tom was nominated for the Olivier and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Male Performer In A Musical. Tom is popular for his leading roles in television dramas Holby City and Waterloo Road as well as winning the 6th season of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008.

Laura Rodgers’ (Amanda Prynne) stage credits include the World Premiere of Tipping The Velvet at the Lyric Hammersmith, An Ideal Husband, Blue Remembered Hills and Hay Fever at Chichester Festival Theatre, Pressure for Royal Lyceum Theatre, Masterpieces at the Royal Court, 55 Days and Revelations at Hampstead Theatre, The Comedy of Errors on USA Tour and Shakespeare’s Globe, The 39 Steps at The Criterion Theatre, West End, The Philosophers at the National Theatre of Wales, Macbeth, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Timon of Athens, The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III at the Shakespeare’s Globe, Gloucestershire at the Arcola Theatre, See How They Run at the Royal Exchange, Bad Girls – The Musical at the Garrick Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Three Musketeers and The Barber of Seville at the Bristol Old Vic, Celestina at the Birmingham Rep and on UK Tour and Jamaica Inn at the Salisbury Playhouse. Laura’s screen credits include New Tricks, The Smoke, Law and Order, Dates, Twelfth Night, Dark Matters, Doctor Who, Midsomer Murders, Missing, Albert’s Memorial, Holby City, Bad Girls, Rock Face, Running Scared, Relic Hunter, Pleasure Beach, The Sins, Love Me Do, The Right Hand Man, Nylon Ghosts and In Two Minds.

Charlotte Ritchie (Sibyl Chase) is best known for her roles in Call The Midwife as series regular Barbara Gilbert, the role of Oregon in Channel 4’s Fresh Meat, which has recently completed filming their 4th and final series, and Siblings for BBC 3. Charlotte’s other screen credits include Open Doors, Princess Daffodil, Life Of Riley, Outsiders, Undercover, Doctors, Jolene: The Indie Folk Star and The Portrait. Charlotte is also a founder member of All Angels, a British classical crossover choral group formed in 2006. All Angels have released 4 albums and have sold over a million albums across the world. Charlotte’s stage credits include One Night In November at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.

Richard Teverson’s (Victor Prynne) stage credits include Handbagged on UK Tour, How Many Miles To Babylon at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, The Schoolmistress at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, The Winslow Boy and Cause Célèbre at the Old Vic, Somersaults at the Finborough Theatre, The Doctor’s Dilemma and After The Dance at the National Theatre, The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre, When Harry Met Sally and A Woman Of No Importance at the Theatre Royal Haymarket,The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre, Private Lives, Tons Of Money and Hobson’s Choice all for the Freud Company, The Singing Group at Chelsea Theatre, Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle & Dick at the New Vic Theatre and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Creation Theatre. Richard’s screen credits include Downton Abbey, Coalition, Jamaica Inn, The Bletchley Circle, Spies Of Warsaw, Dancing On The Edge, Upstairs Downstairs, The Roman Mysteries, Private Peaceful, Brideshead Revisited and Workhorse.

Tom Attenborough (Director)
Noël Coward (Writer)
The major production of Private Lives is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group.

LISTINGS
PRIVATE LIVES
11 JANUARY – 19 MARCH 2016
WRITTEN BY NOËL COWARD
DIRECTED BY TOM ATTENBOROUGH

NATIONAL TOUR
General Onsale from Monday 26 October 2015
New Victoria Theatre, Woking
11 – 16 January
0844 871 7645

Churchill Theatre, Bromley
18 – 23 January
0844 871 7620

Regent Theatre, Stoke
25 – 30 January
0844 871 7649

Theatre Royal, Brighton
1 – 6 February
0844 871 7650

New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham
8 – 13 February
0844 871 3011

Richmond Theatre
15 – 20 February
0844 871 7651

Theatre Royal, Glasgow
22 – 27 February
0844 871 7647

Princess Theatre, Torquay
29 February – 5 March
0844 871 3023

Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury
7 – 12 March
0844 871 7607

Theatre Royal, Bath
14 – 19 March
01225 448844
Tickets On Sale Soon

Tickets via http://www.atgtickets.com/

Woman ‘singing badly’ removed from The Bodyguard musical

A woman who sang “loudly and badly” through a performance of The Bodyguard was ejected from a theatre after she became aggressive to people who told her to shut up.

The woman continued singing for about 20 minutes despite other audience members shouting at her to leave.

It was the final performance in Nottingham of the hit musical.

Some audience members said police were called, but Nottinghamshire Police said they could not find any record of it.

Sacha Gainard, from Wymeswold in Leicestershire, said the atmosphere at the Royal Concert Hall “felt more like a football match” than a trip to the theatre.

“We were a few rows in front of the woman, who it sounds like was being told off for singing along loudly and badly,” he said.

“She was swearing and being quite aggressive to those who were trying to shush her.

“It rumbled on, and after every song, it seemed to bubble back up to enough of a level most of us on the second tier could hear her.”

Mr Gainard said theatre staff removed her “after a good 20 minutes of her carrying on”.

He had bought tickets for his parents as a Christmas present and they had driven up from Somerset for the show.

“It did ruin the first half for those of us on that tier, and not really the kind of atmosphere you expect at the theatre,” Mr Gainard said.

Alexandra Burke is starring in the musical as Rachel Marron, the character made famous by Whitney Houston in the film of the same name.

Mr Gainard said there was “no way” the cast could have missed the audience shouting at the woman.

“How they kept singing, and so beautifully, I don’t know,” he said.

F*CKING MEN AND 5 GUYS CHILLIN’ EXTEND AT THE KING’S HEAD THEATRE

5 Guys Chillin’: 29 October – 28 November, 10pm (Thurs – Sat)

F*cking Men: 5 December – 9 January

Due to popular demand, the King’s Head Theatre are proud to announce extensions to their 5-star “fan-f*cking-tastic” (CultureFly) production of F*cking Men and Peter Darney’s verbatim 4-star “brave, bold, and thoroughly raw-nerve” (British Theatre) 5 Guys Chillin’.

5 Guys Chillin’ is a graphic, gripping, funny and frank verbatim drama exposing the gay chill-out scene, and will now be playing late night dates through November as part of our new writing festival #Festival45. Reviews have described the show as “beautifully done, bold and tackles issues that hit home to many” (Gay Times) and “an absolute must see for anyone who goes to the theatre to feel stirred, provoked and who cares deeply about the socio-political issues within our society” (Top London Theatre).

Artistic director of the King’s Head Theatre, Adam Spreadbury-Maher, says “This play tackles the most serious, urgent gay men’s health crisis since the outbreak of HIV in the early 80s. HIV and hepatitis infections are on the rise again due to shared needle use and unprotected sex on the chill-out scene, causing a huge strain on individuals, communities and the NHS. From just 3 nights at the Brighton Fringe, we are now extending the show into a second month to keep the conversation going about this crisis. We’re so thrilled to be doing such important verbatim work.”

***** “The King’s Head Theatre continue to amaze and surprise with the shows they stage – this is one of the best” Stephen Vowles, Boyz

This will be followed, in December, by a restaging of the smash success F*cking Men, which has already extended once since our August production and will now be entering a third month. The production will be undergoing changes, retaining artistic elements while streamlining the show for a sustainable touring future that will continue to provide employment for the artists involved.

Adam says “This new production has been praised for its universality across sexual orientations. We’re proud to be producing gay theatre that speaks to a universal audience!”

Now in its 45th year, The King’s Head Theatre is celebrating this anniversary with an exciting new artistic policy after the departure of OperaUpClose, becoming a crucible for new writing and critical rediscoveries. Work from Irvine Welsh, Richard Cameron, Richard O’Brien and Arthur Miller, as well as Mike Bradwell directing for the first time since the 1970s, guarantees that if it’s on here, you won’t see it anywhere else. Led by Adam Spreadbury-Maher, second artistic director following Dan Crawford (who set up the King’s Head as the first pub theatre in 1970), the theatre is the first unfunded venue to have an Equity agreement to pay theatre-makers fair wages since 2011, and continues to do so despite receiving no public funding.

Titus Andronicus Review

New Wimbledon Studio Theatre, 20th October – 14th November.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

“A couple of chaps are mutilated and beheaded, another is stabbed and thrown in a pit. And to cap it all, some queen is made to eat her children baked in a pie… it’s hardly a comedy!”

Those words from Theatre of Blood, the glorious camp-fest of the best Shakespearean deaths (fab film for a wet autumn afternoon), are what made me read Titus Andronicus in the first place. It is my favourite play, and I think Aaron is the greatest villain ever written. Yes, it is violent and bloody, with political and personal vendettas that still resonate today in our world of tit for tat air strikes, honour killings and acid attacks, but above all, the whole thing is as mad as a box of frogs. And that’s why I love it.

So my heart sank when I looked at the programme and saw that Marcus Andronicus was now Marcia. What else would they be changing? Thankfully, not much. Perhaps the director thought that a female Andronicus would help balance out the power and make the Andronici less militaristic and cold hearted? Or maybe there just weren’t enough male actors in the company? Either way, Cornelia Baumann is an excellent actress, but the gender change adds nothing to the play – occasionally Marcia comes across as shrill as Tamora, rather than as the steadier, more political sibling. At least the director cut the dead fly scene – not one of Shakespeare’s finest moments.

Julie Taymor’s 2000 film loomed large in my memory as the first act began with young Lucius playing with his soldiers, and then silently watching the action, but the use of the character throughout was wonderful, leading up to a shocking and ambiguous final moment. Matthew Ward as Titus seemed to morph into Anthony Hopkins at times – which can’t be a bad thing.  

Tamora and her sons had just the right mix of malice and hedonism – the boy’s’ father apparently being Vyvyan from The Young Ones. I am still not sure about Aaron – Spencer Lee Osborne was magnificently oily and silver tongued manipulating those around him and revelling in his misdeeds, but when he was in captivity he was a little too teary and shouty for my liking – making his defiance seem like empty bravado rather than malicious disdain. But I have a very specific idea of what Aaron should be, and Osborne may now have changed that a little.

Shockingly, there was not that much blood in the production. The most disturbing deaths were silent and slow, carrying on in the background as the scenes unfolded. Using modern clothing and props enables some interesting touches. While a hedonistic party plays out in the background to the strains of Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus, a wedding full of ritualistic gestures to the gods is carried out. Instead of messages tied to arrows, Saturninus (Gareth Kearns gleefully channelling Kenneth Branagh’s Gilderoy Lockhart) is terrified by the retweeting of young Lucius’ messages. The machinations leading up to the climactic feast are played out as a dumb show to a thumping beat with great comic effect.

So Inspector Boot of Theatre of Blood was wrong – amongst the blood, gore and spiral of tragic revenge, there is plenty of humour, albeit dark and twisted. Arrows and Traps have created a production with just the right mix of tradition and modernity. It is such a shame that last night the cast outnumbered the audience.

This is Shakespeare at his bloody best. Go and experience the madness. Take your friends. Take your teenage children. Tell them that THIS is what Game of Thrones wants to be when it grows up

MADAM BUTTERFLY RETURNS – a one man opera

hwsf_MBLOGO_1MADAM BUTTERFLY RETURNS
COMPOSED BY MICHAEL FINNISSY
LIBRETTO BY ANDREW G MARSHALL
 
AT THE LANDOR THEATRE
FROM WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER UNTIL SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER
PRESS NIGHT THURSDAY 5TH NOVEMBER
 
What happens next in the iconic Puccini story? The son of Madam Butterfly has travelled to America to meet his father for the first time but he’s brought the ghost of his mother too. The play blends the music and myths from the original opera with a new score by one of the UK’s leading contemporary composers, Michael Finnissy (whose work was last heard in London at the Proms) and tells a new story using Japanese dance, masks, shadow work and physical theatre. Ignacio Jarquin sings and plays all the characters accompanied by an ensemble of four musicians on stage.
Background:
 
The show won 1st prize at the Scratch Night of the Casa International Latin American Theatre Festival and has been developed with Marlborough Theatre in Brighton, Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival, The Poly in Cornwall and Erin Arts Centre on the Isle of Man. Madam Butterfly Returnsdraws on Japanese Noh theatre for the dance and mask work and Naga Uta for the music.
Story:
 
Fast forward thirty years from the end of Puccini’s iconic opera, Tomisaburo, Butterfly’s son has travelled to America to meet his father for the first time. However Pinkerton, the former US naval officer is now Governor of Atlanta and in the middle of an election campaign: “purity of race and Christian family values” is his bill. The last thing he needs, in thirties America, is the arrival of his illegitimate mixed race son. How much does Tomisaburo know about the true nature of his parent’s marriage or his mother’s death? Will Governor Pinkerton reject or embrace his only child and how will his son react? Is Butterfly really only a far memory left in a far-away world?
Previous Reviews:
 
“Heartrending..” Camden Review
“Good tale excellently told…” Ham Life
“Jarquin is a great singer and a natural story-teller.” The Scotsman
“…a work of genius..” thelatest.co.uk
For production pictures, promotional video clip and more information about the show visit:http://madambutterflyreturns.com
Twitter: @MButterflyRtns
 
 
LISTINGS
 
WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER – SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER
THE LANDOR THEATRE

Landor Theatre, 70 Landor Rd, SW9 9PH

Performances: Wednesday – Saturday 8.00pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees 3pm & 6pm
Press Night: Thurdsay 5 November, 8.00pm
Tickets: £16/£14 Final week £18/£16 (Previews £12)
Box Office: www.landortheatre.co.uk| 020 7737 7276
ON SALE NOW
hwsf_MmeButterflyTOMOMatthewAndrews2013rtch_1

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child dates and plot details announced

Priority tickets for JK Rowling’s brand new Harry Potter story will go on sale on Wednesday 28 October with public booking opening on 30 October, it has been announced today.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II takes up where the seventh book finished in Rowling’s saga about the boy wizard.

Previews begin on 7 June 2016 at the Palace Theatre and throughout the run on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays both shows will be performed with a matinee performance of part one and an evening performance of part two. The press performances will be on Saturday 30 July.

New artwork has also been released for the show, which shows a boy inside a bird’s nest with wings.

The price of tickets for each show start at £15 (with £10 for previews), with 250 tickets for every performance being sold at £20 (£15 for previews) or less for each show.

There will also be a lottery for reduced price tickets available for each performance.

The new episode in the Harry Potter story has been split into two plays. The plays have been written by Jack Thorne and will be directed by John Tiffany.

The play will follow the trials of a Harry Potter who works in the Ministry of Magic with a wife and three kids nineteen years later. His youngest son, Albus, is struggling with his family legacy. The show synopsis continues: “Both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.”

There will also be four special preview performances at the end of May. Details on how to get tickets for these performances will be released in due course.

Rowling said: “The story only exists because the right group of people came together with a brilliant idea about how to present Harry Potter on stage. I’m confident that when audiences see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child they will understand why we chose to tell this story in this way.”

Casting is still to be announced. Sign up before the priority booking closes on Saturday 24 October.

 

How to get tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Priority Booking

You must sign up to priority booking by 11.45am on Saturday 24 October to be eligible for early release tickets. Tickets for the first four months of performances, including previews (7 June to 18 September 2016) will go on sale online only at 11am GMT on 28 October 2015 on a first come first served basis to all who registered.

General On Sale

Keep your fingers on the mouse on 30 October 2015 at 11am GMT as tickets go on sale to the general public.

Prices for general tickets are as follow:

Previews: £20, £50, £80 or £100 for a seat for both Part One and Part Two of the play; £10, £25, £40 or £50 if bought separately.

Performances after opening night (30 July 2016): £30, £70, £100 or £130 for a seat for both Part One and Part Two of the play; £15, £35, £50 or £65 if bought separately.

Reduced price weekly lottery tickets

Every Friday at 1pm, once the run starts, there will be a weekly online release of 20 reduced priced tickets for each performance. These will be for the following week’s performances and situated in the stalls. Tickets will be £30 during previews and £40 after the show opens (30 July 2016) to purchase a seat for both Part One and Part Two.

Daily ticket lottery

There will be a daily ticket lottery, with 20 tickets in the stalls at £30 during previews and £40 after the show opens to purchase a seat for both Part One and Part Two. These will be available in person at the Palace Theatre Box Office on the day of the performance.

Performance schedule

Previews begin at the Palace Theatre, London on Tuesday 7 June 2016 and tickets can be secured at a reduced rate. Opening night for Part One and Part Two of the play will be on Saturday 30 July 2016 at 2pm and 7.30pm.

Four special preview performances are planned for the end of May 2016. Details of when these performances will go on sale will be announced at a later date.

For the schedule of performances check the official website.

Giggin4good Presents Best Of British A Celebration of British Musical Theatre

best-of-britishGiggin4Good present Best Of British a celebration of British Musical Theatre through the ages, at the Actors’ Church, Covent Garden on Sunday 15th November, with a fabulous cast of West End and Off-West End vocal talent, including 2015 Olivier Award winner (Lorna Want).

This will be the 8th charity concert produced by Giggin4Good since its commencement in 2010 to raise much needed money to support the vital palliative and life-saving work done at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Generally the money raised has been donated to a specific ward at the hospital. This year, as it is a few weeks before Christmas, all proceeds will go towards buying Christmas gifts for the children in the hospital.

The evening will celebrate the work of British musical theatre composers from the vintage to the modern – from Noel Coward and Ivor Novello to Andrew Lloyd Webber and George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. The concert will also feature some new British musical theatre writing, including songs from musicals My Land’s Shore and A Pebble For Aaron.

The cast (subject to change) will include:
Jemma Alexander (Wicked, Rent), Jamal Andreas (Bend It Like Beckham, Ragtime), Julie Atherton (Pure Imagination, I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change, Therese Raquine, Avenue Q), Marcus Ayton (Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat), Katie Brennan (White Feather, The Spitfire Grill), Kieran Brown (The Phantom Of The Opera, Pipe Dream, Wicked, Love Never Dies), Michael Burgen (The Pirates Of Penzance, Spamalot), Michael Colbourne (Les Miserables, A Little Night Music), Matthew Croke (West Side Story, Wicked, Chicago), Tim Driesen (Jersey Boys, Rock Of Ages, Never Forget), Lauren Ingram (Gypsy, From Here To Eternity, Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat), Keith Jack (HMS Pinafore, Sincerely Mr Toad, Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat), Sejal Keshwala (Bend It Like Beckham, After The Tone), Jeremy Legat (Wicked, Therese Raquin) , Jordan Langford (Elegies For Angels, Punks & Raging Queens, Orton: The Musical) Leigh Lothian (Beautiful, Selkie, The Beautiful Game), Carolyn Maitland (Miss Saigon, Singing In The Rain, From Here to Eternity, Kiss Me Kate), Shaun McCourt (Warhorse, Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat), Ian Mclarnon (Sunday in The Park With George, Forever Plaid, Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables), Kayleigh McKnight (Bend It Like Beckham, The Mikado, The Dreaming), Sarah McNicholas (Carrie, Evita, Whistle Down The Wind), Gary Mitchinson (Warhorse, The Witches Of Eastwick, The Fix), Michael Riseley (Les Miserables), Laura Tebbutt (Love Me Tender, Forbidden Broadway, The Wizard Of Oz), Lowri Walton (Warhorse) Lorna Want (Beautiful, Dreamboats And Petticoats, The Fantasticks, Romeo And Juliet) Scarlet Wilderink (Warhorse), Gary Wood (Infidel the Musical, A Chorus Line).

The compere for the evening – making his Giggin4Good debut – will be Ian Stroughair (Cats, Fame, Chicago), who is also widely known in his drag alter-ego, Velma Celli. The show’s musical director will be Huw Evans (The Lion King, Oliver!, Evita).

Giggin4good Presents Best of British- A celebration of British Musical Theatre
Sunday 15th November Time: 7pm
Venue: Actors Church, Covent Garden
Tickets: £25 (VIP) £20 (standard) £15 (student) http://www.etickets.to/buy/?e=13185

Fifteen hours of theatre to be broadcast on Saturday 31 October 2015

home-theatre280Home Theatre (UK), Theatre Royal Stratford East’s ambitious theatre project that had thirty one-person shows staged in thirty homes across London on Saturday 17th October, is to move into its second stage with a broadcast of all performances taking place on the theatre’s web platform stratfordeast.tv on Saturday 31st October, 2015. From 8am, one new performance will be released every thirty minutes, with more than fifteen hours of theatre in total.

Performances took place in a wide-variety of homes across the capital. Home Theatre (UK) went to a homeless charity in Canning Town, a care home in Newham, a Victorian terrace in Brockley and on to the roof of a flat in Ealing Broadway. The project participated in a surprise celebration for a wife in South Woodfood, a family reunion in Leytonstone and a gathering of neighbours and friends in Battersea.

Home Theatre (UK) took place following a summertime public call-out for hosts, where members of the public from across the capital applied to have a tailor-made performance created for them in their own home. The performances were bespoke and tailored to each of the 30 selected hosts and ranged as broadly as a play on multi-culturalism devised especially for children, to a piece for a journalist based loosely on his own writings.

Audience and host feedback:
Sharon Zhu, a performance host said: “THANK YOU to you and your colleagues for bringing a most memorable production to our house. David Mumeni (the performer) did a fabulous job, and all our audience members – adults as well as little ones – had a wonderful time”.

Paul Evans, a performance host at Genesis Housing Association said: “What a success. The event at Colin Winter House was amazing, Ashley Gerlach (the performer) and the team did a fantastic job. We had 30 people attend and all had a wonderful time.”

The performance artists were supported in the creation of their work by six directors and thirty third-year students from the University of Reading’s Film and Television degree course, who recorded all performances using iPads and iPhones ahead of the broadcast on Saturday 17 October.

Home Theatre is now an international project happening on a global scale working in different geographic contexts. The international Symposium took place on Monday 19 October at Theatre Royal Stratford East, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Speakers from across the world came together to share their experiences of creating theatre in homes, and how to further develop the notion of using theatre to reach out to people in a non-theatrical setting. Speakers included:

Cora Bissett, Theatre Director and Actor
Simon Sharkey, Associate Director at National Theatre of Scotland
Dr John Gibbs, University of Reading (discussed the digital element of Home Theatre (UK))
Amal Khatib Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, Palestine
Mathilde Lopez Theatre Director discussing her works at National Theatre of Wales
Tessa Walker Associate Director Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Aubrey Sekhabi, Artistic Director of South African State Theatre, Pretoria
Marcus Faustini, Festival Internacional de Cenas em Casa, Rio de Janeiro

Kerry Michael, Artistic Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East said “Home Theatre (UK) is about telling great stories. It’s an opportunity for artists and London audiences to come together, share a meal and have an open dialogue about their stories and the project. With the International Symposium we took this further by opening up the debate and inviting other artists to come in, talk about what we’re doing and how they might also get involved. We want to share our experiences on this project with other people in the arts and help them to explore how they might use that in their own work with their audiences and communities. Our aim is to open up the arts, to broaden its appeal and reach. We want audiences who regularly experience theatre to do so in new ways, and also to reach out to people who have never been inside a theatre before, and enable them to experience new, something entertaining and hopefully something that will make them realise that theatre is for them. It’s for everyone.”

The International Symposium has generated further interest and is stimulating the conversation around Home Theatre, and how other organisations can learn from it.

The Home Theatre (UK) 2015 project will be streamed to www.stratfordeast.tv on Saturday 31 October from 8am onwards, in 15 hours of continuous broadcast. The broadcast is free of charge to watch.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter returns to the stage for one night

Set your watches – The Clockmaker’s Daughter is returning to the stage in London – for one night only!

Following an acclaimed world premiere season at the Landor Theatre, the original cast and creative team of The Clockmaker’s Daughter, a fabulous new British musical by Michael Webbon and Daniel Finn, are to reunite for a special one-off concert version in St. James Studio on Monday 2 November, 2015.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter was widely praised by critics and the production was nominated for 10 awards. It sold out for the majority of its run, had 4 and 5 star reviews and received support from the likes of Tom and Giovanna Fletcher (McBusted/hit blogger and novelist), Matt Lucas and #WestEndProducer (theatre impessario).

Overall, great music, great story, great set, great cast and therefore great show.
Spindlewood, like most towns of age, has its traditions. But no practice, custom or Old Wives Warning is so firmly adhered to as ‘The Turning of the Key’. Every year, on the last night of winter, as the first day of spring unfolds, the townsfolk gather to take part in a strange ritual. They meet in the centre of the town square, where a statue bearing the likeness of a young girl stands, poised and still, one hand raised as if to toast the sky. Constance has stood in the square for as long as any can remember. But she is never more lifelike than tonight. Spindlewood is also home to a clockmaker with a secret – something the simple folk of the town must never discover. Through methods hidden even to himself, the Clockmaker has created something much, much more than a machine…

Cast: Jennifer Harding, Alan McHale, Jo Wickham, Lawrence Carmichael, Alyssa Martyn, Alex Spinney, Rob McManus, Leah Pinney, Matthew McCabe, Natalie Harman, Clodagh Meany, Emily Peach, Paul Brangan, Paul Bradshaw, Kathryn Aitken, Colette Lennon, Max Abraham, Ryan Lynch,

Director: Robert McWhir. Musicians: Michael Webborn (MD), Lauren Forder (Violin), Alessandro Lombardo (Percussion), Doug Grannell (Double Bass).

Monday 2nd November at 8.00pm. Tickets: £15 – £25
St. James Studio Theatre, 12 Palace Street London SW1E 5JA
www.stjamestheatre.co.uk