Month: September 2019

Fiona Allan and Professor Carl Chinn MBE Ph.D have unveiled a special Giant Playbill installation as part of Birmingham Hippodrome’s 120^th birthday celebrations.

Measuring 10 metres in length, the Giant Playbill was installed in the main foyer on September 20 and takes inspiration from the posters that hung outside the theatre a century ago announcing the acts for each week.

As well as some of the more unusual variety acts from the theatre’s history, the playbill features a selection of some of the most famous artists who have tread the Hippodrome’s boards over the last 120 years, such as The Beatles and Julie Andrews.

Fiona Allan, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Birmingham Hippodrome said:  “This commemorative artwork is another way for the Hippodrome to mark our 120^th anniversary, and we hope it prompts visitors to recall some of the great performers they have seen here over the decades.”

The Giant Playbill is completely free to visit and is situated in the main Hippodrome foyer, near the Coffee Bar.

Allan added: “Now that we are open all day, visitors can drop by anytime to see the giant Playbill, and our autumn art exhibitions on Levels 2 and 3- and take some time out for coffee and cake whilst they are here!”

Professor Carl Chinn MBE Ph.D is a celebrated champion of Birmingham, especially noted for his work as a campaigner and social historian. On unveiling the special installation, Chinn said: “The Hippodrome has been at the heart of cultural activity in the city for many decades and is a landmark theatre in Birmingham, and the UK. It was an honour to reveal this stunning artwork that celebrates the rich history of Birmingham Hippodrome.”

The Giant Playbill was launched as part of Heritage Open Days, England’s largest festival of history and culture and will be on display until the end of the year.

Full casting announced for the Claybody Theatre premiere of Deborah McAndrew’s new play The D-Road

Claybody Theatre are delighted to announce full casting for the premiere of The D-Road, Deborah McAndrew’s new play about one of Stoke-on-Trent’s most significant cultural and economic landmarks– The A500 dual carriageway.

The production’s cast will feature Angela Bain ( Brighton Rock, Pilot Theatre; Made in Dagenham (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and New Wolsey Ipswich) and the films Mary Queen of Scots (Working Title Films) and London Road ( BBC/Cuba Films); Michael Hugo (Around The World In 80 Days (Kenny Wax Family Entertainment and Simon Friend and Royal Exchange and 2019 U.S.A tour); The 39 Steps, The Lady Killers (co-production with Hull Truck); The Borrowers, Far From the Madding Crowd, Alice in Wonderland, The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, The Wicked Lady and Great Expectations, all at New Vic Theatre); Jack Wilkinson (Island Town, Sticks & Stones and How To Spot An Alien, Paine’s Plough Roundabout Season; Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s Globe; King Lear, Northern Broadsides/UK Tour; David Copperfield, Oldham Coliseum (Nominated for Best Actor at MTA Awards) and DeadKidSongs, Theatre Royal Bath) and Riana Duce (Leeds Lads, Red Ladder Theatre)

A house stands marooned on a forgotten island of land somewhere between the railway, the Trent and Mersey Canal, and the D-Road. It’s where Liam lives with his Nana. 

Liam and his girlfriend, Lois, dream of the bright lights of Manchester, but how can they leave Nana, with her very peculiar phobia? 

Then a charismatic stranger turns up at the door. Who is he? What does he want? And why is he so interested in the Nana’s back garden? 

Playwright Deborah McAndrew said:

“I’m thrilled that the cast includes two actors I love writing for – Angela Bain and Michael Hugo. They both have terrific charisma and are very popular with our audience. Jack Wilkinson is an actor I greatly admire, and I’m delighted that he is coming to play a part I created for him. It’s also a huge pleasure to welcome Riana Duce to the Claybody ensemble. She is an exciting young talent, and I’m sure audiences will love her in the role of Lois.”

Director Conrad Nelson added:

“I always aim to build a vibrant company around old friends and new. Our charismatic cast is complemented by an amazing creative team. Dawn Allsopp designs her fourth show for the company and, together with our lighting designer John Slevin, and our brilliant production team she will transform the iconic industrial site of Spode with a bespoke design and installation. This year we’re thrilled to have commissioned a new composition by Scott Ralph, whose work includes writing songs for Robbie Williams. Choreographer Beverley Norris-Edmunds, fresh from the West End, will create a fun opening musical sequence with our professional cast and community company.

Claybody Theatre is a Stoke-on-Trent based company whose work is inspired by the lives and experiences of local people. Founded by playwright Deborah McAndrew and director Conrad Nelson, the company’s work includes the highly successful Ugly Duck, first performed at the Burslem School of Art and then at the New Vic Theatre; Digging In, a play for schools about children of mining families during the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike; and Dirty Laundry, a domestic thriller presented in Spode last year (2017) and last year’s Hot Lane.

Written and directed by award-winning husband and wife team of Deborah McAndrew and Conrad Nelson, The D-Roadwill premiere from the 16-26 October at the Spode Works in Stoke-On-Trent. 

For tickets and further information visit http://claybodytheatre.com/

Acclaimed choreographer Sir Richard Alston announced as new patron for Northampton’s Royal & Derngate

Royal & Derngate is thrilled to announce that the acclaimed choreographer Sir Richard Alston is to become a patron of the Northampton-based theatre.

Founder of the renowned Richard Alston Dance Company and Artistic Director of The Place for the last 25 years, Richard Alston is internationally recognised as one of the most inspiring and influential choreographers in dance. Over the past 50 years, he has played a major role in the world of contemporary dance, developing a unique and distinct dance language and shaping the art form in this country. Perhaps more than any other choreographer, Richard is known for his instinctive musicality and his very close relationship with music, taking inspiration for his work directly from the music he uses, to use the music as a point of departure for the choreography.

Richard is deeply committed to nurturing the talents and interests of children and young people, and this has led to him offering incredible opportunities over the years for many young people in Northamptonshire to get involved in dance projects supported by him and his company.

Richard Alston Dance Company has been a regular feature on the Derngate stage for many years, and the company will be performing in Northampton for the last time on Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 October, as part of its final tour before the company closes in April 2020. The programme will include a group of young dancers from across the region, aged 14 to 18, performing a new piece of work developed over a weeklong residency during the summer, as part of a project with Richard Alston Dance Company and Two Thirds Sky

Richard Alston commented: “I am truly delighted to be asked to become Patron of Royal & Derngate theatres. Northampton has been a part of my touring life for decades and over all those touring years the stage of the Derngate has always remained one of my favourites on which to present my dances. I am, yes, delighted to be Patron but also very proud.”

Jo Gordon, Chief Executive of Royal & Derngate, said: “We’re delighted that we are going to be able continue our association with Richard Alston into the future. Richard has always been incredibly generous with his time, building activities around his company’s visits to Royal & Derngate that can engage the whole community. As such he has developed really strong relationships in the county across the years and his continued support of the venue, through becoming our patron, will be greatly valued.”

Born in Sussex in 1948, Richard Alston was educated at Eton where he discovered his passion for music in the school gramophone library, listening to Bach and Billie Holliday, or blasting Wagner’s Ring at the cows grazing outside. He then studied fine art and theatre design at Croydon College of Art in 1965, before becoming one of the very first students at the newly established London Contemporary Dance School in 1968, where he first started to choreograph under the ground breaking teaching of Robert Cohan and leadership of Robin Howard at The Place.

In 1975 Richard Alston went to New York to study with Merce Cunningham at the Cunningham Studios. He returned to the UK to take on the post of Artistic Director at Ballet Rambert from 1986-1992 before returning to his artistic home The Place as Artistic Director in 1994 – the same year he launched his Richard Alston Dance Company. 

He was made an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy (in Dance) at Surrey University (1992), received an Honorary MA from University College Chichester (1993), made an Honorary Doctor of the Arts by the University of Kent (2015), an Honorary Doctor of the Arts by Kingston University (2016) and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (2017). Alston was made Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France (1995) and received the CBE in the New Year Honours list (2001). Alston received the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards (2008). He was presented with the Award for Excellence in International Dance by the International Theatre Institute (2012). 

Alston was Chair of Youth Dance England, a position he held from 2009 until March 2016 when he became U.Dance Champion and is a Trustee of the Dance Professionals Fund. Alston was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours list. 

Royal & Derngate hosts a diverse programme of dance, drama, music, comedy and film and is one of the major producing venues in the country, well-known for its acclaimed Made in Northampton drama productions. For more information about the theatre and its programme, visit www.royalanderngate.co.uk.

WHAT’S THE FUZZ ALL ABOUT

AVENUE Q RETURNS TO MANCHESTER

Guess Q’s back! The naughtiest puppets in town will be coming to Manchester as comedy musical Avenue Q returns to the Palace Theatre 21-26 October with all of your favourite fuzzy friends.

Following five years in the West End, sell-out runs worldwide and smash hit tours in 2014, 2015 and 2016 (packed with mischief, bad behaviour and political incorrectness!) Tony Award-winning Musical, created by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, Co-creator of Book of Mormon and writer of the songs for Disney’s Frozen, is an irresistibly charming tale of the loveable characters on a downtown New York street trying to make sense of life’s burning issues.

Meet Princeton, a bright-eyed graduate who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. Brian the out-of-work comedian and his therapist fiancée Christmas Eve; Nicky the good-hearted slacker and his closet gay Republican roommate Rod, an Internet ‘sexpert’ called Trekkie Monster, Lucy the Sl*t (the name says it all!) and a very cute kindergarten teacher named Kate Monster. Featuring hysterically funny songs including The Internet is for Porn and Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist, Avenue Q is a hilarious musical with a warm (and very fuzzy) heart.

Cast includes Megan Armstrong, Jasmine Beel, Ellis Dackombe, Chloe Gentles, Nicholas Mclean, Robbie Noonan, Saori Oda, Cecily Redman, Lawrence Smith, Oliver Stanley and Tom Steedon

Avenue Q first opened Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in 2003, before transferring to Broadway later that year where it won three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. In 2006 it transferred to the West End where it ran for five years before touring the UK. It has appeared in more than ten countries all over the world.

Avenue Q is produced by Selladoor Worldwide (producers of Footloose, Little Shop of Horrors, Flashdance –  The Musical and Fame –  The Musical), Showtime Theatre Productions and in association with Richard Darbourne Limited – Avenue Q is directed and choreographed by Cressida Carré, designed by Richard Evans, Lighting Designed by Charlie Morgan Jones and Sound Designed by Chris Bogg.  Puppets are designed by Paul Jomain of Q Puppets with Puppet Coaching by Nigel Plaskitt.

Hilarious, cheeky and uproariously entertaining, with a cast of 11 hugely talented performers and puppets, Avenue Q is the musical like no other.

Don’t let your life suck – book your tickets today! (Suitable for audiences 14+)

CAST ANNOUNCED FOR WEST END TRANSFER OF

Professor Goodman will visit the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End to confirm the supernatural is PURELY a trick of the mind… or is it?

Watch a special message from Andy and Jeremy here: https://we.tl/t-oaAEHnHijW

Casting is today announced for Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s worldwide cult phenomenon Ghost Stories which is set to play a strictly limited engagement at The Ambassadors Theatre from Thursday 3rd October 2019 until Saturday 4^th January 2020. Simon Lipkin, performing as Professor Goodman, Garry Cooper playing Tony Matthews, Preston Nyman, appearing as Simon Rifkind and Richard Sutton, playing Mike Priddle, allreprise their celebrated Lyric Hammersmith Theatre roles in Ghost Stories most terrifying West End transfer.

WARNING

Please be advised that Ghost Stories contains moments of extreme shock and tension. The show is unsuitable for anyone under the age of 15. We strongly advise those of a nervous disposition to think very seriously before attending.

There’s something dark lurking in the theatre. Enter a nightmarish world, full of thrilling twists and turns, where all your deepest fears and most disturbing thoughts are imagined live on stage. A fully sensory and electrifying encounter, Ghost Stories is the ultimate twisted love-letter to horror, a supernatural edge-of-your-seat theatrical experience like no other.

Simon Lipkin plays Professor Goodman. Theatre credits includes: Ghost Stories (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre); All In A Row (Southwark Playhouse); Nativity! The Musical, The Wind In The Willows (The Palladium); Guys And Dolls (Phoenix Theatre); Miss Atomic Bomb (The Other Palace); Oliver! (Grange Park Opera); Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory);  I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (The Arts Theatre); The Lorax (The Old Vic, London); As You Like It (Southwark Playhouse); I Can’t Sing, Rock Of Ages (Shaftesbury Theatre); Spamalot (UK Tour); Alice In Wonderland (Nuffield Theatre); Footloose, The Wedding Singer (UK Tour); Austentatious (Landor Theatre); Avenue Q (Noel Coward); Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Gillian Lynne Theatre); Never The Sinner (Kenneth Moore Theatre). Television Includes: The Amazing World Of Gumball, Ricky Zoom, Dr. Who, Casualty, The Bill, No Strings Attached, Harry Hill’s Tea Time. Film Includes: Show Dogs, Nativity Rocks!, Nativity iii, The Muppets Most Wanted, The Harry Hill Movie. Concerts: Honeymoon In Vegas (The Palladium).

Garry Cooper plays Tony Matthews. Theatre credits includes: Ghost Stories (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre); The White Devil, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry VI trilogy (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Liverpool Everyman); The Last Days of Troy (Royal Exchange Theatre); Brassed Off (Derby Theatre); King Lear (The Old Vic & Tour); The New Statesman (Trafalgar Theatre & Tour).Television includes: New Tricks, Zen, Criminal Justice, Midsomer Murders, Charles II, In A Land of Plenty, Taggart, The Vice and the upcoming Gangs of London. Film includes: Quadrophenia, Caravaggio, Prick Up Your Ears, An Ungentlemanly Act, P’Tang Yang Kipperbang, 1984, Beautiful Thing, Biblioteque Pascal and Universal Soldier: Regeneration.

Preston Nyman plays Simon Rifkind. Theatre Include: Ghost Stories (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), George’s Marvellous Medicine (Curve/Rose Kingston/UK Tour). Film Includes: Agatha Christie’s Crooked House. Television Includes: Stath Lets Flats, Catch 22, Silent Witness, This Country, Doctors, Doc Martin, Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom.

Richard Sutton plays Mike Priddle. Theatre credits Includes: Ghost Stories (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre); The Cow Play (Brighton Theatre Festival); Transmissions (Birmingham Rep Theatre); Tall Phoenix (Coventry Belgrade Theatre); Confusions (Canal Café Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (Jamaican Tour); Albert Make Us Laugh(Birmingham Library Theatre); The Libertine (Birmingham Library Theatre); Charley’s Aunt (Stoke Repertory Theatre). Television Includes: The Crown, Line Of Duty, The Terror, Gigglebiz, Sherlock, Humans, Boomers, Silent Witness, Jekyll And Hyde, Dunkirk, Doctors, Mr Selfridge, Our Girl, The Missing, Hollyoaks, The Tunnel, One Night, Titanic, Eastenders, Miranda, Come Fly With Me, Hustle, Beautiful People, Sugar Rush, The Bill, Dalziel & Pascoe, Derailed, Courtroom, Making Waves, Nuzzle & Scratch, Holby City, Chucklevison.

Having exhilarating audiences across the globe with record breaking, sell-out productions and a smash hit film, Ghost Stories returns to the West End this autumn, following a smash-hit extended run at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. More spine-tingling and terrifying than ever, the Olivier Award-nominated show’s strictly limited transfer opens at The Ambassadors Theatre on Thursday 3rd October 2019, where it runs until Saturday 4^th January 2020. Ghost Stories first ever UK Tour opens at Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre on 7^th January 2020. 

                                                                                                                                     CREATIVE TEAM

Directed by Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman and Sean Holmes

Design by Jon Bausor

Lighting by James Farncombe

Sound by Nick Manning

Special Effects by Scott Penrose

Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Smith and Brant Theatricals and the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre present the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre’s production of Ghost Stories.

For more information, please see:

www.ghoststorieslive.co.uk

LISTINGS INFORMATION – GHOST STORIES

THE AMBASSADORS THEATRE

West St, London, WC2H 9ND

TICKETS

Box Office: (t) 020 7395 5405 | (W) www.atgtickets.com/venues/ambassadors-theatre/

Ticket prices start from £18.25

SEASON DATES

Thursday 3^rd October 2019 – Saturday 4^th January 2020

PERFORMANCE TIMES

Monday – Thursday: 7.30pm

Friday: 7.00pm & 9.30pm

Saturday: 7.00pm & 9.30pm

Halloween Performances: 7.30pm – 9.30pm

CHRISTMAS PERFORMANCES

Christmas Eve: 2.30pm only

Christmas Day: No performance

Boxing Day: 7.30pm only

SOCIAL MEDIA

Website: www.ghoststorieslive.co.uk

Facebook: @ghoststories

Twitter: @ghoststoriesUK

Instagram: @ghoststoriesLDN

LISTINGS INFORMATION – GHOST STORIES

Birmingham, New Alexandra Theatre                              0844 871 3011  

Tue 7^{th –}  Sat 11^th Jan                                              www.atgtickets.com

Bath,Theatre Royal                                                01225 448 844                                               

Tue 14^th – Sat 18^th Jan                                                           www.theatreroyal.org.uk

Nottingham, Theatre Royal                                 08448 11 21 21

Tue 21^st – Sat 25^th Jan                                                           www.trch.co.uk

Woking, New Victoria Theatre                                           0844 871 7645

Tue 28^th Jan – Sat 1^st Feb                                      www.atgtickets.com

Aylesbury, Waterside Theatre                                            0844 871 7627

Tue 4^th – Sat 8^th Feb                                               www.atgtickets.com

Brighton, Theatre Royal                                                       0844 871 3011

Tue 11^th – Sat 15^th Feb                                                         www.atgtickets.com

The Lowry, Salford                                                 0843 208 6000

Tue 18^th – Sat 22^nd Feb                                                         www.thelowry.com

Cardiff, New Theatre                                                            029 2087 8889  

Tue 25^th – Sat 29^th Feb                                                          www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk

The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury                     01227 787787

Tue 3^rd – Sat 7^th Mar                                              www.marlowetheatre.com

York, Grand Opera House                                     0844 871 3024  

Tue 10^th – Sat 14^th Mar                                                         www.atgtickets.com

Richmond Theatre, Richmond                                            0844 871 7651

Tue 17^th Feb – Sat 21st Mar                                 www.atgtickets.com

Liverpool Playhouse                                                            0151 709 4776

Tue 31^st Mar – Sat 4^th Apr                                  www.everymanplayhouse.com

Glasgow, Theatre Royal                                                       0844 871 7647

Tue 7^th  – Sat 11^th  Apr                                                           www.atgtickets.com

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh                                     0131 529 6000

Tue 14^th – Sat 18^th Apr                                                          www.capitaltheatres.com

Sheffield Lyceum, Sheffield                                  0114 249 6000                  *on sale soon

Tue 21^st – Sat 25^th Apr                                                          www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Nuffield Southampton Theatres City                 023 8067 1771                  *on sale soon

Tue 27^th Apr – Sat 2^nd May                                   www.nstheatres.co.uk

Pre-School school children help create theatre shows as the egg theatre and The Paragon School team up for year-long project

The egg theatre is delighted to announce a year-long partnership with The Paragon School, which will see the school’s staff and pupils involved in creating professional theatre pieces for the egg, as well as providing workshops and events for the school’s pupils.

The first project is SQUIRREL, the egg’s Christmas show for pre-school and Early Years audiences. Since July, Kate Cross MBE, Director of the egg, and Tim Bell, the egg’s Creative Producer, have been visiting the Paragon’s pre-school to work with children and staff, developing ideas for the production which is to be performed at the egg in December. As part of the project, the children have searched for squirrels in the woods and explored their habitation; created puppet squirrels and developed and performed stories about squirrels.

These activities will continue throughout the Autumn term, forming the basis of the professional production, which will also give the children the opportunity to work with professional actress Caroline Garland, a member of Bath’s Kilter Theatre, previously seen onstage at the egg in the acclaimed Little Mermaid.

Kate Cross says, “We cannot think of a better, nor more beautiful venue than the Paragon School at which to explore children’s responses to squirrels, nature and acorns. Being able to explore our theatrical ideas with the children from the pre-school means that in the final production, all the fascinations, impulses and brilliant ideas from such curious minds can be addressed. In Squirrel, we are attempting to make something both entertaining and beautiful in theatrical terms as well as allowing the young children to do whatever feels natural to them throughout the performance. A tall order but one which will be aided enormously by this partnership.”

Mrs Sarah James, Head of Pre-Prep at the school says “The Paragon is delighted to be working in collaboration with the egg to produce Squirrel this Christmas. It is a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to be involved in theatre from such a young age. As a creative school which embraces outdoor education, working with the egg on this project is a perfect fit”.

SQUIRREL is being performed at the egg theatre from Saturday 7 – Sunday 29 December. As part of the partnership with the egg, the parents and children of The Paragon School have been invited to two dedicated performances, enabling them to see the results of their work.

Throughout the remainder of the academic year, the egg’s partnership with The Paragon School will continue with activities planned around World Book Day in March, a Play-in-a-Week project for all the schools’ pupils in May and further events in the Summer Term.

Tickets for SQUIRREL are on sale from the egg reception on 01225 823409, the Theatre Royal Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk

If you would like to find out more about opportunities for schools to work with the egg theatre, please contact James Moore, the egg’s Head of Creative Learning: [email protected]

To find out more about how schools may be able to sponsor a production at the egg, or could benefit from partnerships similar to The Paragon School’s, please contact Anji Henderson, Development Officer at [email protected]

FULL COMPANY ANNOUNCED FOR

THEATR CLWYD’S MOLD RIOTS

Theatr Clwyd present the world première of

MOLD RIOTS

By Bethan Marlow

21 – 26 October

Director Katie Posner;Associate Director Gethin Evans; Designer Sara Perks

Lighting Designer Aideen Malone; Associate Lighting Designer Ben Cowens

Sound Designer Chris Bogg; Composer Lucy Rivers; Community Musical Director Nia Wyn Jones Movement Director Natasha Harrison; Casting Director Jacob Sparrow; Fight Director Bethan Clark

Theatr Clwyd today announces further details for the world première of Bethan Marlow’s Mold Riots, which will see a community and professional cast bring one of Wales’ forgotten dark days to life on the streets of Mold in a large-scale promenade production with locations including Mold Town Council Chamber, Mold cattle market and St Mary’s Church. Katie Posner directs Gethin Alderman (Robat), Lauren Fitzpatrick (Margaret), Amy Forrest (Ailis), and Kai Owen (David), alongside a community cast of over 100  from ages 7 to 87, including 30 children.

Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd, Tamara Harvey, said today, ““We’re phenomenally proud to be staging Mold Riots – an incredibly ambitious undertaking, taking place on the High Street and surrounding areas. It’s this community’s story, and this piece is very much born of them – with a local cast of over 100 people of all ages, and teams involved in writing, prop and costume making, photography and music, guided and supported by our team and led by the wonderful Katie Posner. This epic promenade production is a not simply a piece of history but a story for now.”

Summer, 1869. Miners stand trial in Mold for attacking their manager after their wages are lowered. A crowd has assembled to hear the verdict – will they get a fair hearing? Stones will be thrown and blood will be shed but will anyone find justice?

Marking 150 years since these events tore the town apart, Mold Riots tells this local story with the involvement of the local community at every stage, with a community photography and film group, costume group, writers’ group, and knitting group, as well as a community scenic art team making over 1000 pieces of coal. The professional and community cast will also be accompanied by local choirs, including Cor Y Pentan, Northop Voices, Maes Garmon, and Buckley Singers, performing an original score.

This production is Theatr Clwyd’s most ambitious to date, with the wardrobe team making over 800 items of costume including traditional Welsh clogs, and a specially formed Mold Riots knitting group making coal, shawls and hats for the 100-strong cast who come from all walks of life, from lawyers to electricians, from teachers to the Mayor of Mold.

Bethan Marlow’s site-specific interactive theatre productions include A Queer Christmas and Mess Up The Mess in collaboration with the LGBT community of Swansea, C’laen ta! (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru) with the residents of a council estate in North Wales, and her first verbatim play Sgint (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru). Her other work includes From Land to Mouth (Pentabus), Cysgu’n Brysur (Arad Goch, Aberystwyth Arts Centre and WMC), Ar Waith ar Daith (Walk the Plank), PyC (S4C/BBC Wales), A Place Called Home (Birmingham Rep), The Beach (National Theatre Wales) and Such Tweet Sorrow (Royal Shakespeare Company). Marlowe was selected as one of four Welsh writers on the talent scheme ‘Y Labordy’. She received a Creative Wales Award to explore the possibility of the “audience as co-creators of theatre” and won the first “Straeon Iris” competition (an Iris Prize/S4C/Ffilm Cymru and Bfi Net.wok initiative) which culminated in the short film Afiach (Sick) which premièred at the Iris Prize Film Festival this year.

Gethin Alderman plays Robat. His previous theatre credits include Blue, Blue & Shift Work (King’s Head Theatre), Seagulls (Volcano Theatre), Incident at Vichy (Finborough Theatre), You’re Invited (Southwark Playhouse), Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales (UK and international tour), The Princess and the Pea (Theatr Iolo), Hamlet (Secret Theatre London), and Quarter-Life Crisis (Theatre Royal Stratford East). For television, his credits include Observations on Relationships.

Lauren Fitzpatrick plays Margaret. Her previous theatre credits include The Scene: Fictional Female Anonymous (Tabard Theatre), Just to Get Married (Finborough Theatre), and The Play List, Presenting: I Don’t Know Where I Am, and Drinking Concrete: The Concept Album (Royal Court Theatre). For television, her credits include EastEnders as series regular Chloe.

Amy Forrest plays Ailis. Her previous theatre credits include Small Island (National Theatre), The Wide Night (Greater Manchester Fringe), Romy and Michele High School Reunion (The Lowry), Making Waves – JB Shorts, The Loves of Others (53two), Beautiful Monster (Gene Frankel Theatre, NY, Footlights Theatre), and Beauty and the Beast (UK tour). For television, her credits include Coronation Street as recurring character P.C. Hanley.

Kai Owen returns to Theatr Clwyd to play David – he previously appeared in Under Milk Wood, Aristocrats, The Winslow Boy, Rape of the Fair Country, Glengarry Glen Ross, As You Like It and A Chorus of Disapproval. His previous theatre credits include The Full Monty (UK tour), Ying Tong – A Walk With The Goons (New Ambassadors Theatre). For television, his credits include Hollyoaks as series regular Pete, Cariad Erin, The Syndicate, and Torchwood as series regular Rhys.

Katie Posner directs. She has recently been appointed as co-Artistic Director of Paines Plough, and was previously the Associate Director of Pilot Theatre, York, for eight years, where she directed multiple national and international touring productions. Her 2017 national tour of Made in India (Tamasha, Belgrade Theatre, Pilot Theatre) was nominated for an Off West End award, and won the Eastern Eye Theatre and Culture Award for Best Production. Recent productions include Swallows and Amazons (new adaptation by Bryony Lavery) for Storyhouse Chester, Babe for Mercury Colchester, Bridget Foreman’s Everything is Possible: The York Suffragettes at York Theatre Royal and Finding Nana by Jane Upton for New Perspectives. Posner has also directed productions for Northern Stage, Tron Theatre, Live Theatre and Out of Joint amongst many others.

Mold Riots                                                                                                                                 Theatr Clwyd

Raikes Lane, Mold CH7 1YA

21 – 26 October

Box Office: 01352 701521

www.theatrclwyd.com/en/

THE SMASH HIT, SELL OUT ALMEIDA THEATRE PRODUCTION

OF MULTI AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR

ROBERT ICKE’S

THE DOCTOR

STARRING THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED JULIET STEVENSON

TRANSFERS TO THE WEST END IN APRIL 2020

WRITTEN BY ROBERT ICKE

VERY FREELY ADAPTED FROM PROFESSOR BERNHARDI BY ARTHUR SCHNITZLER

★★★★★

The Guardian, The Telegraph, Financial Times, The Sunday Times, WhatsOnStage

★★★★

The Times, Evening Standard, The Observer, Independent, The Stage, Metro

PRESENTED BY THE ALMEIDA THEATRE & AMBASSADOR THEATRE GROUP

AND

BENJAMIN LOWY, FIERY ANGEL, GLASS HALF FULL PRODUCTIONS, SCOTT RUDIN AND SONIA FRIEDMAN PRODUCTIONS

Robert Icke’s (The Wild Duck, Hamlet, Mary Stuart, Oresteia, 1984) sold-out, five-star Almeida Theatre production, The Doctor, will transfer to the Duke of York’s Theatre from 20 April – 11 July 2020, with press night on Wednesday 29 April. Olivier Award winner, Juliet Stevenson, ‘delivering one of the peak performances of the theatrical year’ (The Guardian), will reprise her role as Professor Ruth Wolff.

Throughout the West End run of The Doctor there will be 150 seats per performance for under £30. These include over 4000 great seats in the stalls and dress circle across the run which are exclusively available to under 30s, key workers and those receiving JSA or other government benefits.

The Doctor, by Robert Icke, very freely adapted from Professor Bernhardi by Arthur Schnitzler, has been critically lauded since its opening at the Almeida in August 2019. The production has designs by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting by Natasha Chivers, sound and composition by Tom Gibbons and casting by Julia Horan. Further casting to be announced in due course.

This is the third West End transfer for Robert Icke and Juliet Stevenson in as many years, following the critical and commercial smash-hit productions of Mary Stuart and Hamlet.

***

First, do no harm.

On an ordinary day, at a private hospital, a young woman fights for her life. A priest arrives to save her soul. Her doctor refuses him entry. 

In a divisive time, in a divided nation, a society takes sides.

The latest smash-hit by “Britain’s best director” (Telegraph) is a “provocative, wonderfully upsetting” (Independent) whirlwind of gender, race and identity politics, and a “devastating play for today” (Financial Times). 

***

The productioncompletes its run at the Almeida Theatre on 28 September 2019.

Juliet Stevenson said “I am beyond thrilled that The Doctor is transferring to the West End. We have been blown away by the extraordinary response it has had at the Almeida. I think the play speaks to our current times with eloquence, complexity, humour and compassion – and I am so delighted it will have a future life and reach new audiences.  It is a joy to be part of, and I am so grateful to Robert Icke, the company, and to those who are making it possible for us to keep it alive and kicking into 2020.”

Juliet Stevenson’s previous work at the Almeida includes Mary Stuart, Hamlet and Duet for One (all also West End). She has worked extensively for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Royal Court, winning an Olivier award for her performance as Paulina in Death and The Maiden in 1991. Her other most recent theatre credits include Wings and Happy Days at the Young Vic. Her films include Let Me Go; Truly, Madly, Deeply; Bend it Like Beckham; When Did You Last See Your Father?; Being Julia; Pierrepoint; Mona Lisa Smile and Departure. Recent television work includes Riviera; One of Us; The Enfield Haunting; Atlantis and The Village. Other television work includes Place of Execution; The Accused; The Hour and White Heat. She was awarded the CBE in 1999. In addition to her Olivier award, she has been nominated a further four times and is five times BAFTA nominated for her film and television work.

The Doctor was Robert Icke’s final production as Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre. His work at the Almeida includes adapting and directing The Wild Duck, Mary Stuart (also West End), Uncle Vanya, Oresteia (also West End) and 1984 (co-created with Duncan Macmillan, also Broadway, West End, national and international tours). As director, his other Almeida productions include Hamlet (also West End and screened on BBC2), The Fever and Mr Burns. Elsewhere, his recent work includes The Crucible (Theater Basel), Oedipus (Toneelgroep Amsterdam and Edinburgh International Festival) and Orestie (Schauspiel Stuttgart, awarded the Kurt-Hübner-Regiepreis). His future work includes Ivanov (Schauspiel Stuttgart) and Children of Nora (Toneelgroep Amsterdam). He has won the UK Theatre Award, the Critics’ Circle Award and the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director, and is the youngest ever winner of the Olivier Award for Best Director.

Arthur Schnitzler (1862 – 1931) was an Austrian playwright and novelist. His plays include La Ronde (reworked by David Hare as The Blue Room at the Donmar Warehouse in 1998); Anatol; Flirtation; Fair Game; Light-O-Love; Paracelsus; The Vast Domain and The Green Cockatoo.

LISTINGS

THE DOCTOR

20 APRIL – 11 JULY 2020

DUKE OF YORK’S

VERY FREELY ADAPTED BY ROBERT ICKE, FROM PROFESSOR BERNHARDI BY ARTHUR SCHNITZLER
DIRECTED BY ROBERT ICKE

PRODUCED BY THE ALMEIDA THEATRE & AMBASSADOR THEATRE GROUP

AND BENJAMIN LOWY, FIERY ANGEL, GLASS HALF FULL PRODUCTIONS, SCOTT RUDIN AND SONIA FRIEDMAN PRODUCTIONS

General On Sale:

Monday 23 Sept for ATG TheatreCard Members/Almeida Members from 12pm

Monday 23 Sept for ATG General/Almeida General from 4pm

Tuesday 24 Sept Full On Sale

Performances:

Monday – Saturday Evenings – 7.30pm

Thursday and Saturday Matinees – 2.30pm

Ticket Prices: From £15.00

Running Time: Approx. 2 hours 45 minutes including a 20-minute interval

Age Recommendation: The Doctor includes the discussion of suicide and the description of suicide methods. We recommend an age recommendation of 14+

Address: Duke Of York’s Theatre, St. Martin’s Lane, London, WC2N 4BG

Box Office: 08448717623*

Group Bookings: 02072061174*

Access Booking Line: 08009126971

*Calls are charged at 7p per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge

Website:

atgtickets.com

almeida.co.uk

Twitter/Facebook:

@doctorwestend

Instagram:

@doctorwestend

EXTENDS ITS HIT WEST END RUN FOR A FOURTH TIME

• Waitress is now booking until 28 March 2020 at the Adelphi Theatre
   
• Tickets for the new booking period are released today and available at www.waitressthemusical.co.uk and via ticketing outlets
   

The producers of Waitress are delighted to announce that the smash hit musical will be extending its run at the Adelphi Theatre for a fourth time. The critically and publicly acclaimed production is now booking until 28 March 2020 with tickets on sale today for the new booking period.

As previously announced, Waitress will be holding its next Cast Album Karaoke Night on 25 September co-hosted by Joe Sugg who plays Ogie, and Marisha Wallace who plays Becky. Audience members who want to take part just need to sign up before that evening’s show for the chance to sing one minute of any Waitress song, by 7-time Grammy® nominee Sara Bareilles, accompanied by the show’s musical director Katharine Woolley live on stage.

Waitress tells the story of Jenna, a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams her way out of a loveless marriage. When a hot new doctor arrives in town, life gets complicated. With the support of her workmates Becky and Dawn, Jenna overcomes the challenges she faces and finds that laughter, love and friendship can provide the perfect recipe for happiness.  

Brought to life by a ground breaking, female-led creative team, Waitress features an original score by 7-time Grammy® nominee Sara Bareilles (Love Song, Brave), a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam) and direction by Tony Award® winner Diane Paulus (Pippin, Finding Neverland) and choreography by Lorin Latarro. The production is currently touring the US and has also announced it will have its Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre.

Waitress currently stars Lucie Jones as Jenna, Joe Sugg as Ogie, Laura Baldwin as Dawn, Marisha Wallace as Becky, Tamlyn Henderson as Earl, David Hunter as Dr. Pomatter and Andrew Boyer as Old Joe.

The full company includes Kelly Agbowu, Laura Baldwin, Piers Bate, Cindy Belliot, Andrew Boyer, Michael Hamway, Tamlyn Henderson, David Hunter, Lucie Jones, Stephen Leask, Chris McGuigan, Olivia Moore, Nathaniel Morrison, Sarah O’Connor, Leanne Pinder, Charlotte Riby, Joe Sugg, Marisha Wallace and Mark Willshire.

Waitress premiered on Broadway in March 2016 and has since become the longest running show in the history of the Brooks Atkinson Theater. The production is also currently touring the US and Canada and has announced an Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre with further productions to open in Holland next year and Japan in 2021.

On its Broadway opening, Waitress was nominated for four Outer Critics’ Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Musical; two Drama League Award Nominations, including Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical; six Drama Desk Nominations, including Outstanding Musical; and four Tony Award Nominations, including Best Musical.

Waitress is also touring the US and Canada and has announced an Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre with further productions to open in Holland next year and Japan in 2021.

It’s often said that if we fail to learn from history, we’re likely to repeat it.

And Cabaret is not simply a memorable night out at the theatre, it’s also a history lesson which might just offer some pertinent parallels with the here and now.

Set in Berlin at the dawn of the 1930s, Kander and Ebb’s dark classic pits tolerance against intolerance, liberalism against a particular brand of conservatism, and offers a stark warning of the dangers of mass indifference and denial.

The 1966 musical was based on John Van Druten’s 1951 play I Am a Camera – which in turn was inspired by Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin, a cautionary contemporary memoir set against the rise of fascism in the twilight days of a decadent Weimer Republic.

At its heart is a love story, between carefree British cabaret artist Sally Bowles and penniless American writer Cliff Bradshaw, both caught up in a vibrant, hedonistic and culturally liberal – and liberated – night-time world. Meanwhile a second romance, less turbulent but ultimately as doomed, blossoms between boarding house landlady Fraulein Schneider and Jewish greengrocer Herr Schultz.

These personal stories unfold against the backdrop of the rise of Nazism, which over the course of 12 months’ plot goes from a distasteful fringe philosophy to be ignored or laughed at to an enveloping political populist force driven by propaganda promising a glorious future for the ‘volk’ (people) – exemplified by the ominous lyrics of Kander and Ebb’s Tomorrow Belongs to Me.

The national populism – the völkisch ideology – expounded by the Nazis (the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist German Workers’ Party) gained traction by playing on the fears of ordinary people who felt they’d been abandoned in the disastrous economic aftermath of the First World War, and were looking for someone to blame.

In 1930s Germany’s case the NSDAP invoked the moral decay of the Weimar regime – and the existence of a perfidious Jewish population, which was incrementally dehumanised through the Nazi playbook’s ‘big lie’.

However, the economic and social circumstances of the 1930s are not historically unique.

And here in 2019, a decade on from the latest global financial crisis, significant portions of the world are in the grip of another mass flirtation with populism, whether that be in the United States or Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, through the rise of populist political parties in central and eastern Europe or in the divisions wrought by the Brexit debate here at home.

Another theme explored in Cabaret is the idea of inclusiveness verses divisiveness.

In the Kit Kat Klub, anything and anybody goes, whatever their race, religion or sexuality. Outside the confines of the club however, the wider world has a more culturally

conservative view which helps provide a receptive audience for the Nazis’ chilling and pernicious propaganda which gains momentum as the musical progresses.

We watch this unfold both from our theatre seats and from the vantage point of history and hindsight. But 80 years on, racism, extremism, LGBT+ issues and political propaganda remain hot topics, which is why the themes that run through Cabaret continue to resonate.

So perhaps it’s also worth posing the question – how inclusive are we as a modern society? And how can we guard against sleepwalking into a similarly dangerous situation in this increasingly neo-nationalistic world?

The news can often make depressing reading, from Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric and discrediting attacks on the media (with its echoes of Hitler’s lugenpresse, literally ‘lying press’) to China’s ‘re-education’ camps for its Uighur Muslim minority, the treatment of LGBT communities in regions like the Middle East, Africa and Asia, to a general rise in reported anti-Semitic, Islamophobic or other hate crimes across the Western world.

At the same time, it’s worth noting the majority’s rejection of the kind of far-right views expounded by organisations like the English Defence League and BNP.

Ignorance, indifference and self-involvement helped allow the skewed ideology of the Nazi party to take hold in Cabaret’s 1930s Germany, where silence ultimately became complicity.

So along with the idea that ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’, it’s also worth remembering another popular (although often misquoted) sentiment – that all it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing