Month: March 2020

15 year dream fulfilled: New musical about an extraordinary forgotten Yorkshire genius set to tour.

· At the start of this century, two men with with no experience of professional theatre, embarked on a bold dream to bring a unique forgotten story to the professional stage. 15 years later their show, No Horizon is set to tour.

· Writer, Andy Platt has twice given up his job as a Deputy Headteacher and then a Headteacher to pursue the goal.

· Now, success at the Edinburgh Fringe and funding from the Arts Council and Foyle Foundation have finally opened the door and the musical, No Horizon will tour this March and April

· No Horizon tells the astonishing forgotten story of blind Yorkshire genius, Nicholas Saunderson. With no eyes, before Braille, no qualifications and coming from a rural backwater, he became the Stephen Hawking of his age – Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, celebrated across Europe and sought out by Kings and Queens. This man with no eyes ended up lecturing on Newton’s light and colour!

· Musical described as a ‘Yorkshire Les Mis’ by Chris Evans (Radio 2) and ‘One to watch out for’ by Elaine Paige, herself a star of West End musicals and a Radio 2 broadcaster.

· No Horizon stars visually impaired actor, Adam Martyn in the title role.

No Horizon was born in 2003 as a community musical. Buoyed by a wonderful audience response, writer and then Deputy Headteacher, Andy Platt and partner, businessman Max Reid set up right Hand Theatre and embarked on their dream of taking the story to a national audience. Their goal; restoring the forgotten protagonist, Nicholas Saunderson to his rightful position as a national icon. Andy left his job as a Deputy Headteacher and Max put his other business interests on the back burner and, for a year, the pair promoted the work to theatrical producers. That eventually proved fruitless and the project lay dormant until 2016 when Right Hand Theatre took the production to the Edinburgh Fringe.

“The run at Edinburgh was really significant. We saw the power of No Horizon to entertain, inspire and move people. We also noticed it had a particular impact on people with similar life challenges to Saunderson – and we simply had to pursue it,” said Max.

During the run at Edinburgh, audiences grew from 30 to 200 and really strong reviews, piqued interest from the Arts Council who funded Research and Development work on No Horizon. A nationally recognised creative team was assembled, including director, Andrew Loretto (Hat Fair), Sally Egan (Opera North) and Lucy Cullingford (RSC) in order to create the show for its forthcoming tour. Andy, who had since gone back into education as a Headteacher, left his job for a second time in order to concentrate full time on the show.

No Horizon is no ordinary musical. It is inspired by the remarkable story of Nicholas Saunderson. Saunderson embodied the typical characteristics of Yorkshire grit and determination. Born into relatively humble rural origins he was blinded as a one year old after losing his eyes through smallpox. This was in 1683, long before braille was invented. Legend has it that he taught himself to read, using the gravestones in the local churchyard, subsequently learning to write. He had a hunger for knowledge and seized on any opportunity to answer the questions that his enquiring mind threw at him. In particular a genius for mathematics and science evolved. By the end of his life, Saunderson was and early day Stephen Hawking – Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Christ’s College, Cambridge; this blind man was lecturing on Isaac Newton’s theories on light and colour. Yet he had not a single qualification. His story has sadly been airbrushed by history.

“No Horizon is a story of inspiration and aspiration. Saunderson’s achievement simply shouldn’t have happened, yet it did. In many ways, his story has been an inspiration to Max and I. He refused to accept the limitations he had to deal with and would always seek to find a solution. It’s been an example to us in our own journey with the show,” said Andy.

The lead role of Nicholas is to be played by the hugely talented Adam Martyn, a graduate of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool institute of Performing Arts in Liverpool. Adam is himself visually impaired.

No Horizon is touring from March 19th to April 15th 2020, including dates at:

The Civic, Barnsley March 19th – 21st

The Viaduct Theatre – Dean Clough March 26th – 28th

City Varieties – Leeds March 31st –April 1st

CAST Doncaster April 2nd – 4th

Harrogate Theatre April 7th – 8th

York Theatre Royal April 9th and 11th

Millgate April 15th

No Horizon – The Astonishing story of a Forgotten Yorkshireman

Two Royal & Derngate Made in Northampton productions gain Olivier nominations

Royal & Derngate is thrilled that two of its Made in Northampton productions which transferred to London last year have been nominated for the 2020 Olivier Awards.

The theatre’s much-loved 2018 Christmas show The Worst Witch, which enjoyed a six week summer season at the Vaudeville Theatre in London’s West End, has been nominated for Best Family Show.

In addition, Royal & Derngate’s production of Katori Hall’s Our Lady of Kibeho, which had its acclaimed UK debut in Northampton as part of the theatre’s Made in Northampton season in January and February 2018, has been nominated in the category for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for its transfer to the Theatre Royal Stratford East last Autumn. The production was directed by Royal & Derngate’s Artistic Director James Dacre.

James Dacre said: “We are absolutely delighted to hear that two of our productions, which started life here in Northampton, have been honoured by nominations in this year’s Olivier Awards. I’d like to thank everyone involved – our staff, co-producing partners and the fantastic companies – who made these productions such a success.”

Royal & Derngate Chief Executive Jo Gordon added: “We are absolutely thrilled for the teams here at Royal & Derngate. It’s brilliant recognition for all the passion and craft they put into each and every production created under our Made in Northampton banner.”

Royal & Derngate’s Made in Northampton season is sponsored by Michael Jones Jeweller.

WAITRESS CELEBRATES OLIVIER AWARD NOMINATIONS, INCLUDING BEST NEW MUSICAL AND BEST ORIGINAL SCORE OR NEW ORCHESTRATIONS

• NOMINATIONS FOR BEST NEW MUSICAL AND BEST NEW ORIGINAL SCORE OR NEW ORCHESTRATIONS FOR MUSIC AND LYRICS BY SARA BAREILLES
   
• AS GRAMMY AWARD WINNER SARA BAREILLES AND OLIVIER AND TONY AWARD WINNER GAVIN CREEL HEAD INTO THE FINAL TWO WEEKS OF THEIR RUN, WAITRESS IS TODAY CELEBRATING BEING NOMINATED FOR TWO OLIVIER AWARDS.

Waitress has been nominated in two different categories in this year’s Olivier Awards including Best New Musical and for Sara Bareilles’ music and lyrics for Best New Original Score or New Orchestrations.

Waitress audiences have just over 2 more weeks to see 2020 Grammy Award winner Sara Bareilles and Olivier and Tony Award-winning actor Gavin Creel as new performance dates have been added following a rapturous critical and public reception at the Adelphi Theatre. Sara Bareilles, who wrote the music and lyrics for Waitress, is making her West End debut in the lead role of Jenna with Gavin Creel as Dr Pomatter having previously performed together on the Broadway run.  They will be extending for a further two weeks, now appearing through to 21 March 2020.

Waitress celebrated its official opening night at the Adelphi Theatre on 7 March 2019 and the Tony-nominated musical is now booking until 4 July 2020. The show has also just announced a new UK and Ireland tour which will open in Dublin in November 2020.

Sara Bareilles first achieved mainstream critical praise in 2007 with her widely successful hit Love Song, which reached No. 1 in 22 countries around the world from her debut album Little Voice. Since then, Sara has gone on to receive seven Grammy® nominations, two Tony nominations and three Emmy nominations.  Her book, Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song, was released in the fall of 2015 by Simon & Schuster and is a New York Times bestseller. Making her Broadway debut, Sara composed the music and lyrics for Waitress, and made her Broadway acting debut in 2017 by stepping into the shows lead role.  Recently, Sara teamed up with Apple as an executive producer for Little Voice a 10-episode series, which she will create the original music for. On April 5, 2019 Sara released her fifth full-length and first album of original material since 2013, entitled Amidst The Chaos, to rave reviews.  For this latest body of work, she joined forces in the studio with legendary Academy® Award-winning producer T Bone Burnett.  As a result, the album spotlights her voice as a singer and storyteller like never before, while making an enduring statement. She recently completed her Amidst The Chaos North American tour.

Gavin Creel received a Tony Award for his performance as Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce. He made his Broadway debut originating the role of Jimmy Smith in Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which he received his first Tony Award nomination. He has since created such memorable performances on Broadway as Claude in Hair, which earned him a second Tony Award nomination, Jean-Michel in La Cage Aux Folles, and Stephen Kodaly in the Roundabout Theater Company’s production of She Loves Me, which was filmed live and is available on BroadwayHD. No stranger to London audiences, Gavin most notably originated the role of Elder Price in the West End production of The Book of Mormon, for which he received the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He also starred as Bert in Disney’s Mary Poppins and reprised his performance as Claude in Hair. As well as starring opposite Sara Bareilles in the Broadway production of Waitress, his other stage credits include The Book of Mormon (on Broadway and originating the First National Tour), and the world premieres of Stephen Sondheim’s Bounce (at The Goodman Theatre and The Kennedy Center) and Prometheus Bound at A.R.T. On television, Gavin co-starred alongside Julie Andrews in ABC’s Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime. He has released three original albums GoodTimeNation, Quiet (which landed on Billboard’s Top Heat Seekers) and Get Out, and his single Noise raised money and awareness for marriage equality. Creel was a co-founder of Broadway Impact, the first and only grassroots organization to mobilize the nationwide theater community in support of marriage equality. A native of Findlay, Ohio, he is a proud graduate of University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

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 seven-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 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.

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 has announced an Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre with further productions to open in the Netherlands in September 2020, the UK and Ireland in November 2020 and in 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.

That’s Rich! A New Production of David Walliams’
BILLIONAIRE BOY
Alhambra Theatre, Bradford
Tuesday 31 March – Saturday 4 April 2020
Signed performance: Thu 2 April 10.30am
*Tickets: £21 – £19
Concessions & Family Tickets Available
Call the Box Office on 01274 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk
*All prices shown include booking fees but are subject to postage charge if applicable.
Bradford Theatres usual terms and conditions apply.

The bestselling children’s author David Walliams and the award-winning Birmingham Stage Company have teamed up again for a brand-new production of Billionaire Boy.

This will be their third collaboration after the Olivier Award nominated Gangsta Granny and acclaimed Awful Auntie productions. Billionaire Boy started life as a David Walliams novel for children in 2010, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, and was filmed for the BBC in 2016. As part of a major national tour the stage adaptation is coming to the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford from Tuesday 31 March to Saturday 4 April.

Billionaire Boy tells the story of Joe Spud, who is twelve years old and the richest boy in the country. He has his own sports car, two crocodiles as pets and £100,000 a week pocket money. But what Joe doesn’t have is a friend. So he decides to leave his posh school and start at the local comp. But things don’t go as planned for Joe and life becomes a rollercoaster as he tries find what money can’t buy!

David Walliams said: “What a magnificent show! If this production as on Britain’s Got Talent, I’d be giving it the Golden Buzzer! It couldn’t be better!”

David Walliams has become one of today’s most influential writers. Since the publication of his first novel, The Boy in the Dress (2008), illustrated by the iconic Sir Quentin Blake, David Walliams has celebrated more than ten years of writing success with global sales exceeding thirty-two million copies, and his books have been translated into fifty-three languages. David’s titles have spent 138 weeks (non-consecutive) at the top of the children’s charts – more than any other children’s author ever. He closed 2018 as the UK’s biggest-selling
author for the second year running. In addition to his fiction, David has worked with Tony Ross on six picture books as well as three bestselling short-story collections, The World’s Worst Children.

Neal Foster is the adapter and director of Billionaire Boy. He is the Actor/Manager of The Birmingham Stage Company which since its foundation in 1992 has staged over eighty productions. The company has become one of the world’s leading producers of theatre for children and their families, including Horrible Histories Live on Stage for fourteen years in the UK, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.

Neal has written and directed all of the most recent Horrible Histories shows including the Barmy Britain series seen in the West End, across the UK, and abroad. Billionaire Boy will be his third David Walliams stage show after Gangsta Granny and Awful Auntie. In 2019 he directed the world premiere of Tom Gates which he also adapted alongside author of the books, Liz Pichon.

Billionaire Boy is adapted and directed by Neal Foster, designed by Jackie Trousdale, lighting by Jason Taylor, sound by Nick Sagar and music by Jak Poore.

Billionaire Boy is suitable for ages 5 +

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford – until 7 March 2020

Reviewed by Terry Genis

3***

On a cold and damp evening the comings and goings of this farce provided a warming glow with quick-fire dialogue.  The story switches between the elegant French home of a lawyer, Monsieur Duchotel, and his wife Leontine, and the love nest  in a Parisian apartment rented by the family friend Doctor Moricet. These provide the settings for the revelation that Duchotel’s hunting trips away are not so innocent and that the ‘bang, bangs’ are not aimed at rabbits and hares, but another ‘prey’.  The deceits are exposed in a sequence of wardrobe-hiding, door-slamming and trouser-losing, by a cast of characters that include a spurned husband, a maid, an investigating policeman, an abandoned countess, and a young nephew seeking money to support his student life. 

The play is an adaptation of ‘Monsieur Chasse’ by George Feydeau in 1892, and John Cleese’s stage writing debut gives us a touch of Basil and Manuel. The direction by Daniel Buckroyd is fast and Tessa Peake-Jones as Leontine and Tony Gardner as Duchotel exchange lines at a cracking pace.

Wendi Peter is the abandoned Countess, Madame Latour,  and as she sings her story, the set is transformed from the drawing room of the Duchotel house to the art nouveau apartment of the Belle Epoch. Stay in your seat in the interval to see the transition in reverse and the magic of the changes.

In real life, infidelity can have bad consequences, but this is a farce after all, and all those ridiculous things occurring are quite good fun.

TICKETS GO ON SALE FOR
HELLO AND GOODBYE AT BOULEVARD THEATRE

• YAËL FARBER WILL DIRECT HELLO AND GOODBYE BY ATHOL FUGARD, RUNNING FROM 4 JUNE – 25 JULY 2020
   
• £12 TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR ALL PERFORMANCES

Tickets for Hello and Goodbye, the third show in Artistic Director Rachel Edwards’ 2020 season for the Boulevard Theatre, will go on sale today at 11am to priority members. Tickets will go on sale to the general public 24 hours later. Online booking can be accessed here.

Written by Tony Award-winning playwright Athol Fugard, Hello and Goodbye is a searing exploration of the claustrophobic hold the past can have on the present. Multi award-winning director Yaël Farber (Blood Wedding, Young Vic; The Crucible, Old Vic; Mies Julie, Riverside Studios) will direct the show, and Soutra Gilmour, winner of the 2020 WhatsOnStage awards for Best Set Design, will be designing the set.

It’s been fifteen years since Johnny and Hester Smit have seen one another – not since the day Hester fled to Johannesburg in search of a different life. While Hester’s world has expanded – not always for the better – Johnny’s life has been reduced to the four walls of the rundown family home, and his role caring for their infirm father.

Suddenly Hester returns one night to claim the inheritance she believes to be rightfully hers. What begins as the siblings’ search for their legacy quickly becomes a desperate pursuit for truth, understanding and a future free from the shackles of their shared heritage.

Hello and Goodbye follows productions of Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited and Lucy Prebble’s The Effect, which opens on the 25 March and runs from 19 March to 30 May 2020.

Performances for Hello and Goodbye run at the Boulevard Theatre from 4 June until 25 July, with press night on 12 June 2020.

Casting to be announced.

Aylesbury Waterside Theatre- until 7 March 2020

Reviewed by Annie Hughes

4****

Mary Shelley’s Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein, dubbed the first ever classic horror story, the first “science fiction”, has been reinvented once again. So when I sat down in my seat last night to watch this latest adaptation by Rona Munro at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, I could not help thinking sceptically, what could they possibly add to this version that has not already been done before?

Enter Mary Shelley the writer herself played by Eilidh Loan. Portrayed as a fiery, sharp-witted, creative and intelligent woman, this adaptation places the female writer herself at the very centre of her own story. Literally positioned centre stage writing her prose in the opening scene of the play, this is without doubt what I loved most and find most exciting about this adaptation. During the age of Romanticism and Enlightenment in which Frankenstein was written, society was still patriarchal and men dominated largely the arts and science. And even after Shelley’s work was published in 1818 to enormous acclaim, it was still her male protagonists that have been remembered. So how refreshing as a new adaptation, and particularly in today’s modern society, to allow the eighteen year-old female writer Shelley herself to recreate her masterpiece and narrate it in front of our eyes.

And I do not think if the real Mary Shelley had been watching this adaptation, she would have been disappointed. After all, Shelley wrote Frankenstein with the intention of unsettling and horrifying audiences, and that is what this production achieved. The entire cast created this chilling atmosphere with their excellent character portrayals, in particular Ben Castle Gibb as Frankenstein and Michael Moreland as the Monster. Credit should also go to the set and costume designer, Becky Minto, and the lighting designer, Grant Anderson, who together created a chilly, wintery set of whites and greys, which created a sense of dread from the start.

At times I felt that the play would have benefited from longer moments of silence and less shouting from the main characters as this would have increased the level of chill even further across the audience.

That said, Frankenstein offers a night of thought-provoking themes, a powerful nod to female writers and above all a highly entertaining night that will send chills down your spine as Shelley intended it to.

THE 13-STOREY TREEHOUSE IS SET TO TAKE THE UK BY STORM AND CHILDREN EVERYWHERE WILL WANT TO BE THERE!

Kenny Wax Family Entertainment Presents a CDP Kids Production

The 13-Storey Treehouse

A play by RICHARD TULLOCH

based on the bestselling book by ANDY GRIFFITHS and TERRY DENTON

will premiere in the UK in 2020

Playing the iconic Alexandra Palace Theatre, London, from 30 July – 23 August 2020

followed by a UK Tour

Following sold out seasons at the Sydney Opera House and theatres across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, The USA and The Netherlands, The 13-Storey Treehouse, a play by Richard Tulloch based on Andy Griffiths‘ and Terry Denton‘s best-selling children’s book will premiere in the UK this year.

The production will preview at the Capitol Theatre, Horsham (16-18 July) before making its London premiere at Alexandra Palace Theatre, London (30 July – 23 August; relaxed and BSL signed performance on 6 August at 2pm).

The Autumn 2020 tour will include King’s Theatre, Glasgow (1-3 October), Wycombe Swan (6-7 October), Rose Theatre Kingston (27 October – 1 November), New Victoria Theatre, Woking (10-12 November) and Theatre Royal Winchester (14-15 November). See your local Box Office for full tour details. A full list of venues is to be announced.

Adapted by Australian writer and playwright Richard Tulloch (The Book of Everything, Bananas in Pyjamas), this action-packed and hugely successful 60 minute play will be brought to life across the UK for children 5+ and their families by a seriously funny cast with magical moments of theatrical wizardry, physical comedy and a tree-load of imagination!

Enter the mad-cap, fun world of Andy and Terry! The one and only, super-famous, ultra-brilliant The 13-Storey Treehouse is now a stage show…there’s just one problem – Andy and Terry have forgotten to write it! Where will they find flying cats, a mermaid, a sea monster, an invasion of monkeys and a giant gorilla? 

Andy Griffiths said: “Terry and I have been thrilled and amazed to see the Treehouse series capture the imagination of children in more than 35 countries over the past decade. And now we are especially excited that The 13-Storey Treehouse stage show is coming to the UK. This rambunctious, joyfully silly production is very faithful to the spirit of the original book and we hope that this show about making a show about a book about making a book delights both adults and children in the UK as much as previous productions in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Singapore and The Netherlands.”

The cast and creative team for the show is to be announced. 

THE NATIONAL THEATRE’S INTERNATIONALLY-ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION OF
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
EMBARKS ON A THIRD UK AND IRELAND TOUR THIS AUTUMN

• TOUR INCLUDES A LIMITED SEVEN WEEK RUN AT THE TROUBADOUR WEMBLEY PARK THEATRE FROM WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2020

Back by popular demand, the Olivier and Tony Award®-winning production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time will tour the UK and Ireland this Autumn. Launching at The Lowry, Salford, Curious Incident will then go on to visit to Sunderland, Bristol, Birmingham, Plymouth, Southampton, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast, Nottingham and Oxford, with further venues to be announced. Curious Incident will also play for a limited run in London at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in Brent – London Borough of Culture 2020 – following the acclaimed run of War Horse in 2019.

Curious Incident has been seen by more than five million people worldwide, including two UK tours, two West End runs, a Broadway transfer, tours to the Netherlands, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Australia and 30 cities across the USA.

Curious Incident is the winner of seven Olivier Awards including Best New Play, Best Director, Best Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design. Following its New York premiere in September 2014, it became the longest-running play on Broadway in over a decade, winning five Tony Awards® including Best Play, six Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play, five Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off Broadway Play.

Curious Incident is adapted by Simon Stephens (Carmen Disruption, Sea Wall) from the novel by Mark Haddon, and directed by Olivier and Tony Award® winner Marianne Elliott (War Horse, Angels in America, Company).

The play tells the story of Christopher John Francis Boone, who is fifteen years old. He stands besides Mrs Shears’ dead dog, which has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in a book he is writing to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths while ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and distrusts strangers. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that upturns his world.

The production is designed by Bunny Christie, with lighting design by Paule Constable, and video design by Finn Ross. Movement is by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett for Frantic Assembly, music by Adrian Sutton and sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph. The Associate Director is Anna Marsland. Casting is by Jill Green CDG.

This tour of Curious Incident is presented by the National Theatre and Trafalgar Theatre Productions.

Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was published in 2003 and was the winner of more than 17 literary awards, including prizes in the US, Japan, Holland and Italy, as well as the prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year Award in the UK in 2004. The novel has been translated into 44 languages and sold more than 5.5 million copies world-wide. His other novels include A Spot of Bother and 2019’s The Porpoise.

Curious Incident visits Salford and Sunderland as part of Theatre Nation Partnerships, a multi-year collaboration between the National Theatre and six partner organisations with the aim to broaden and grow local audiences for drama in England through touring, working with schools, and creating theatre with local communities. Drawing on combined expertise, resources and each partner’s deep community links, the project has engaged with over 100,000 people since 2017. As part of TNP, Curious Incident recently completed a second schools tour, which saw a specially staged in-the-round 90 minute version play to 25,000 students in more than 100 schools in London and the NT’s Theatre Nation Partnership areas of Doncaster, Greater Manchester, Hornchurch, Sunderland, Wakefield and Wolverhampton.

National Theatre UK Touring is supported by The Thompson Family Charitable Trust, The Royal National Theatre Foundation, and Jacqueline and Richard Worswick.
 

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#HTCLASSICS #HT60 #HTTwoCharacter

A Hampstead Theatre production

THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY

By Tennessee Williams

Directed by Sam Yates

Design by Rosanna Vize

Lighting by Elliot Griggs

Sound by Dan Balfour

Video by Akhila Krishnan

Cast David Dawson & Lyndsey Marshal

·         CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM ANNOUNCED FOR TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’ INNOVATIVE, AND PARTLY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WORK, THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY

·         DAVID DAWSON AND LYNDSEY MARSHAL WILL PERFORM IN THIS NEW PRODUCTION WHICH ORIGINALLY PREMIERED AT THE THEATRE IN 1967

·         AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR SAM YATES WILL MAKE A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED RETURN TO HAMPSTEAD THEATRE, FOLLOWING HIS OLIVIER-NOMINATED AND CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION OF THE PHLEBOTOMIST

·         THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY WILL RUN FROM 24 APRIL UNTIL 23 MAY 2020

·         IT IS PART OF HAMPSTEAD THEATRE’S CLASSICS SEASON WHICH SEEKS TO CELEBRATE 60 YEARS OF ORIGINAL THEATRE, THIS SPRING/SUMMER

·         FOUR BOLD PLAYS FROM THE NEW WRITING THEATRE’S DIVERSE ARCHIVE WILL BE STAGED BY A VARIETY OF DISTINCTIVE BRITISH DIRECTORS

“A doctor once told me that we were the bravest people he knew.  I said “Why, that’s absurd, my brother and I are terrified of our shadows.” And he said, “Yes, I know, and that’s why I admire your courage so much…”

Hampstead Theatre has announced the cast and creative team for Tennessee Williams’ innovative, and partly autobiographical work, The Two Character Play.  Acclaimed stage and screen actors, David Dawson and Lyndsey Marshal, will perform in this unique two-hander which Williams called ‘My most beautiful play since Streetcar, the very heart of my life’.  The production, directed by award-winning theatre and film artist, Sam Yates, will run from 24 April until 23 May 2020.

David Dawson is an acclaimed stage and screen actor.  Recent television credits include playing Joseph Merrick (as The Elephant Man) in Channel 4’s Year of the Rabbit (2019) and starring in BBC espionage drama The Secret Agent alongside Toby Jones, Vicky McClure and Stephen Graham.  Recent theatre credits include Fairview at the Young Vic and Casimir in Brian Friel’s Aristocrats at Donmar Warehouse.

Dawson will be joined by Lyndsey Marshal, best known for her performance in the psychological film The Hours, alongside Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore, and for her recurring roles in HBO’s Rome (as Cleopatra) and BBC period legal drama Garrow’s Law (as Lady Sarah Hill).  Recent screen credits include Mike Barnett’s ITV drama Trauma and the BBC’s New Year hit Dracula by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat.  She was nominated for an Olivier and Evening Standard Award for her role in Phyllida Lloyd’s production of Boston Marriage at the Donmar Warehouse.  Recent theatre credits include The Wild Duck; The Hypochondriac and Blood Wedding at the Almeida Theatre.

Sam Yates is making a highly anticipated return to Hampstead Theatre following his Olivier-nominated and critically acclaimed production of The Phlebotomist (2018, 2019).  Recent credits include Incantata by Paul Muldoon, currently playing at the Irish Repertory Theatre (New York), Glengarry Glen Ross starring Christian Slater and The Starry Messenger starring Matthew Broderick and Elizabeth McGovern (London’s West End).  He will be joined by designer, Rosanna Vize with lighting by Elliot Griggs, sound design by Dan Balfour and video design by Akhila Krishnan.

Tennessee Williams, one of the foremost playwrights of the twentieth-century, spent over ten years writing The Two Character Play.  It was originally directed by Hampstead Theatre’s founding Artistic Director James Roose Evans and received its world premiere at Hampstead in 1967. 

Fellow actors, brother and sister Felice and Clare have been on tour too long: every town looks increasingly the same until they feel they could be anywhere… Abandoned by the rest of the acting company, but faced with an audience expecting a performance, they must enact The Two Character Play. But as their gripping ‘play within a play’ unfolds, the line between reality and illusion becomes increasingly unclear; as their characters reach out to the outside world, the actors’ isolation and uncertainty grows…

“It seems to me his finest work for a decade, the most successful piece of sustained theatrical writing he has achieved since the first act of Sweet Bird of Youth.  It is good to see the poet laureate of lost grip recover his own” 

The Observer, Ronald Bryden (reviewing the original production)

“Very brave… A haunting play full of ghosts, memories and outcries”
The New York Times (reviewing the original Broadway run)

Sam Yates, Director of The Two Character Play said: “I am honoured to bring together for the first time two of our finest actors, Lyndsey Marshal and David Dawson, to play brother and sister in Tennessee Williams’ daring experiment in form.  I’m particularly excited to return to Hampstead with designer Rosanna Vize and an ambitious creative team.”

Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director ofHampstead Theatre,said, “The Two Character Play is one of Hampstead Theatre’s gems.  Tennessee Williams was at the height of his career when he chose to offer the world premiere of this very personal play to the old theatre – a temporary pre-fab. This speaks volumes of Hampstead’s standing as an artistic space under its founder James Roose Evans. I look forward to sharing this unique play, by one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century with our audiences, revived by a wonderful group of artists.”

The Two Character Play is part of Hampstead Classics, the theatre’s spring/summer programme to mark its 60^th anniversary and celebrate its ambitious history as a new writing theatre.  Featuring four bold plays which all premiered at the theatre, the productions will be performed in chronological order and staged in the thrust, by a variety of distinctive British directors. 

Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter will open Hampstead Classics with Alice Hamilton directing this 60th anniversary production.  Philip Jackson and Harry Lloyd will star in this timeless black comedy from 19 March until 18 April.  Sam Yates will make a highly anticipated return to Hampstead Theatre with Tennessee Williams’ The Two Character Playfrom 24 April until 23 May; founder and former Artistic Director of Eclipse Theatre Company Dawn Walton will direct Alfred

Fagon’s remarkable tribute to the culture of London’s King’s Road in the 1970s, The Death of a Black Manrunning from 28 May until 27 June; and Roxana Silbert, Hampstead Theatre’s Artistic Director, will direct Marsha Norman’s ground-breaking ‘night, Mother running from 2 July until 1 August.

The Haystack is currently playing on the Main Stage at Hampstead Theatre.  Roxana Silbert’s critically acclaimeddirecting debut as Hampstead Theatre’s Artistic Director has been extended until 12 March.  The Haystack, a fast-paced, topical play, which delves into the intriguing world of GCHQ and examines the human impact of national surveillance, is Al Blyth’s first full-length play.