Month: March 2020

Update for West End theatre ticketholders

The following statement has been issued today by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) on behalf of the major commercial West End theatre operators and the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR), to provide clear information for theatre customers in light of Monday’s shutdown, and help ease the unprecedented strain on box offices and ticket agents.

The theatre industry is lobbying government for a clearer time frame on closures and extending the legal refund window, and urging credit card companies to look at their automatic charge-back processes during this time period.

‘We are so sorry that in these testing and difficult times you are not able to enjoy the show you have booked for. We are cancelling all performances until 26 April 2020, whilst we wait for further clarity from the government.

There is nothing that you need to do if your performance has been cancelled.

If you have booked directly with the theatre or show website for an affected performance, please be assured that they will contact you directly to arrange an exchange for a later date, credit note or refund.

As you can imagine, we have an unprecedented number of ticket orders which we are processing in strict date order of performance. We ask for your patience and understanding as the current circumstances means that it is impossible to process all tickets within our usual 14 days.

If you have booked via a ticket agent, they will also be in contact with you directly.

Please do not contact your credit card company as that will slow the process down and put an additional burden on our box office and ticket agent teams.

In order for us to serve our audiences the best we can, please do not get in touch with your point of sale if you have booked for performances after 26 April but please be reassured that if we have to cancel future performances you will be directly contacted by your theatre or ticket provider. We will continue to provide updates as additional information becomes available.

We look forward to welcoming you back into our theatres as soon as we are allowed to resume performances. In the meantime stay safe and healthy.’

LIFT ANNOUNCES CANCELLATION OF 2020 FESTIVAL

Today LIFT Festival has announced the cancellation of the 2020 Festival due to take place from 2 June – 11 July 2020. Following Government advice on Monday 16 March and to protect the safety of audiences, artists and workforce, LIFT cannot proceed with the festival at this time, and will instead return with an edition in 2021. More details to follow.

LIFT, London’s leading biennial festival of international theatre, has been running for over three decades, connecting London audiences with some of the most exciting artists, thought-provoking ideas and cultural experiences in spaces right across the capital. The festival was due to return this summer with the inaugural programme from new leadership team, Artistic Director / CEO Kris Nelson and Executive Director Stella Kanu.

Artistic Director / CEO Kris Nelson and Executive Director Stella Kanu said:

“We are incredibly sad to announce that we will not be proceeding with this year’s festival. The health, safety and wellbeing of our audiences, artists and team is our upmost priority, and having listened to advice from the Government, and consulted at length with festival artists and LIFT’s trustees, partners and colleagues, it is clear that there is no choice but to postpone.

We wish to thank every member of our team, and our co-producers and co-presenters, collaborators, and creatives for the enormous amount of time, and work they have invested in this year’s festival, and our audiences for their support to date. LIFT is a festival that stands for inclusion and for community and in these uncertain times, we will do all we can to support the artistic sector in the UK, as well as international artists all over the world.

If you have bought a ticket for a cancelled festival event, we would like to assure you that you are entitled to a credit note, exchange or refund. However, we would ask those who have purchased tickets to kindly consider donating the cost of your tickets to the festival if you have the capacity to do so. Please bear with us during this unprecedented and difficult time – we will contact you as soon as we can and keep our audiences as up to date as possible via the Festival website, social media and email. We are grateful for your support, your understanding and for wanting to be a part of LIFT.

We look forward to returning in 2021 to bring you a festival of extraordinary and ground-breaking experiences when, we hope, these challenging times are far behind us.”

IMMERSIVE LDN PRESENTS

HOUSETRAP THEATRE & ARTS FESTIVAL 2020

TAKING PLACE ONLINE

ON FRIDAY 3 APRIL FROM 6.30PM – MIDNIGHT

DELIVERING UK THEATRE FROM YOUR LIVING ROOM – TO THEIRS

#HousetrapFestival

As the theatre industry and wider society reels from the unprecedented shock of the coronavirus outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic, many producers and artists are taking the initiative to share work and support each other during these difficult times.

The team at IMMERSIVE LDN (the West End venue dedicated to developing and staging theatre-led immersive experiences, which like all London and UK theatres has closed its doors for the foreseeable future) today announced that they will be curating the Housetrap Theatre & Arts Festival, which will be streamed live on Friday 3 April from 6.30pm – midnight.

The Festival is donation based, so audiences can give as they are able, and the money raised will be shared between the artists performing (with a small percentage going to the running costs).

Performers can apply to take part via the website www.immersiveldn.com/housetrap and potential slots will be between 15 – 50 minutes in length.

Louis Hartshorn of Hartshorn-Hook Enterprises said, “At IMMERSIVE | LDN we work with a wide range of excellent professionals who make this industry great.  The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 has in a single motion entirely disrupted our world and cost countless people their jobs.

Access to culture and entertainment has come to an immediate halt while the demand for making and consuming theatre and the arts burns ever bright.

That’s why Immersive LDN have come up with the Housetrap Theatre & Arts Festival using our in-house kit and artists’ domestic technology to create the closest thing we can to a Work From Home environment for an industry built on human interaction. We hope Housetrap Festival will come from living rooms all across the UK and end up in living rooms that may not have had access before the pandemic – and we hope to continue this afterwards.

Our venue was destroyed during the second world war – the middle was literally blown out of it. In the rebuilt apex in the centre, we now have the set of The Great Gatsby. While we’ve had to close the show on Government advice, to devastating effect on the cast and crew, it will be back – and we are absolutely committed to continuing the work IMMERSIVE | LDN has started and want to create the opportunity to keep artists working, not as a charity cause, but as a robust industry that hasn’t been knocked down before.

Housetrap follows the makeup of the traditional festival, with the exception that it’s entirely remote. It will, however, be organised by a team with over 50 years of festival experience between them (from Brighton to Edinburgh and Singapore to Adelaide), with performers programmed into a curated evening of entertainment with a mix of genres and audiences.”

LINE-UP ANNOUNCED FOR FIRST WEEK OF LEAVE A LIGHT ON

Lambert Jackson Productions and the Theatre Café today announce the line-up for the first week of their Leave A Light On series.The series of intimate, piano vocal concerts streamed live from The Theatre Café will feature performances from Blake Patrick Anderson, Aimie Atkinson, Christopher Cameron, Alice Fearn, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, Evelyn Hoskins, David Hunter, Cassidy Janson, Lucie Jones, Bradley Judge and Harry Cooper Miller, Emma Kingston, Sarah O’Connor, Steph Parry, Danielle Steers, and Layton Williams.

For a fee of £7.50, significantly less than a ticket to a show, audiences around the country will be able to access a live concert from their favourite West End performer from the best seat in the house – their own home!

There will be three concerts a day on weekdays. The fee per show will be split between the artist, who will have the highest percentage, Lambert Jackson and the Theatre cafe to cover running costs, and the streaming and licensing fee. There are also ongoing discussions about charity partnerships to further help those in our industry who are in need during this difficult time.

Details of how to stream and further line ups will be coming very shortly – please keep an eye on the Lambert Jackson and The Theatre Cafe social accounts.

Twitter:

@LJProds

@thetheatrecafe

Instagram:

@lambertjacksonproductions

@theatrecafeUK

Facebook:

Lambert Jackson Productions

The Theatre Café

FULL LINE-UP W/C 23 MARCH

Monday 23 March

2.30pm: Layton Williams

4.30pm: Sarah O’Connor

6.30pm: Lucie Jones

Tuesday 24 March

2.30pm: Emma Kingston

4.30pm: Victoria Hamilton-Barritt

6.30pm: Aimie Atkinson

Wednesday 25 March

2.30pm: Christopher Cameron

4.30pm: Evelyn Hoskins

6.30pm: Cassidy Janson

Thursday 26 March

2.30pm: Bradley Judge and Harry Cooper Miller

4.30pm: Blake Patrick Anderson

6.30pm: David Hunter

Friday 27 March

2.30pm: Danielle Steers

4.30pm: Steph Parry

6.30pm: Alice Fearn

HAMPSTEAD THEATRE TO STREAM HIT PRODUCTION OF I AND YOU, STARRING MAISIE WILLIAMS, FOR FREE FROM MONDAY 23 – SUNDAY 29 MARCH

Hampstead Theatre and the entire company of I and You,announce the re-release of hit production I and You by Lauren Gunderson on Instagram for free. 

For a week, Monday 23 March 10am – Sunday 29 March 10pm GMT, anyone with an Instagram account will be able to watch the full production by following @hampstead_theatre or @lalatellsastory (Lauren Gunderson). The play will be available to view on demand on their IGTV channels. 

I and You, starring Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Zach Wyatt, is a witty and uplifting portrayal of friendship, youth and living life to the full written by one of America’s most produced playwrights. It was a box office and critical success at Hampstead Theatre where it received its UK debut in 2018. The Hampstead productionwas specially performed, filmed and edited for Instagram’s mobile video platform IGTV, during its run at the theatre, and was previously broadcast for free from 30 November to 3 December 2018.

The theatre closed its building following UK Government advice on Monday 16 March 2020 and currently looking at alternative ways of continuing to engage with its industry and audiences.

Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director of Hampstead Theatre said: “Like everyone in the theatre community right now, and indeed across the globe, we at Hampstead Theatre are watching these unprecedented events unfold and wondering what we can do to help.

We are an industry that seeks to bring people together and tell stories that resonate. I hope this particularly tender and funny story offers some much-needed entertainment and connection right now – thank you to Lauren Gunderson, Edward Hall, Maisie Williams, Zach Wyatt and the entire company in allowing us to share your beautiful work.”

A Statement from Immersive Dracula

Immersive Dracula is a London theatre show about complicity and wilful ignorance when powerful men are accused of dark deeds. We sold out every ticket, and then a week before opening night the coronavirus pandemic forced us to postpone.

Many of the cast have lost their second jobs because of the virus and now face food insecurity and/or housing insecurity. We are a profit-share production with no Arts Council or external support. As such, we have opened a cast hardship fund, which has already raised over £2000 in under 24 hours! It will enable us to survive and continue working on the show until the pandemic subsides and London’s theatres re-open, and we can finally have our glorious opening night.

We are a cast of 11 and will allocate the funds based on need to help pay rent, housing deposits, and living costs, and if your generosity exceeds what we need to survive then we will re-invest the remainder into making the show even more skin-crawlingly delicious!

We will also be streaming a 36 hour live reading of Gothic fiction with the cast, crew and guests on Good Friday (April 10th) – more information will be shared about the event in due course. We would love to talk about our plans, and how we’ll continue to raise funds to help our cast in this difficult time for our industry.

This is a dark time for actors everywhere, but the motto of the Dracula family is ‘Resurgemus’ – We Rise Again!

The fundraiser can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/imm…

ACCLAIMED UK TOUR OF HELEN FORRESTER’S

BY THE WATERS OF LIVERPOOL CUT SHORT DUE TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK IS TO BE RE-SCHEDULED

PRODUCERS WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY VIRUS AND WILL REMOUNT TOUR

This week, the stage production of Helen Forrester’s By The Waters Of Liverpool was ground to a halt after just three venues into a seventeen venue UK tour. This was due to the Prime Minister’s statement on Monday, advising UK public to avoid unnecessary social contact, including theatres which forced immediate closure of most theatres across the country.

By The Waters Of Liverpool opened on Tuesday 3 March at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton – just a few miles from the author’s birthplace at 5 Warren Road, Hoylake. It was here a blue plaque was unveiled by actors Sian Reeves and Mark Moraghan to coincide with the opening of the tour.

The production received a raft of 4-5-star reviews, being described in one review as “An absolute must see!”. The stellar cast featured star names from stage and screen, including Sian Reeves, Mark Moraghan, Parry Glasspool, Lucy Dixon, Eric Potts, Lynn Francis, Danny O’Brien, Roy Carruthers, and Chloe McDonald.

The show then played venues in Stockport and Warrington before the tour was forced to stop prior to its run in St Helens where it was due to open on Tuesday 17 March.

The tour was also due to play at venues in Lancaster, Crewe, Southport, Rhyl, Swansea, Darlington, Malvern, Eastbourne, Isle Of Man, Hayes, Winchester, Liverpool and Blackpool.

By The Waters Of Liverpool is a period drama produced by Liverpool producers Pulse Records Limited in association with Bill Elms, written by Rob Fennah and directed by Gareth Tudor Price.

By The Waters Of Liverpool has sold more than a million books.

The show’s producers have announced they are determined not to allow Helen Forrester’s vast army of readers to be disappointed due to the virus outbreak and steps to remount the tour in the Spring 2021 have already begun.

Writer and co-producer Rob Fennah said: “People who have worked with us over the years know we have a mantra when things get tough, ‘don’t give up – don’t give in!’

“The last couple of weeks have been really devastating, not just for our own cast and crew, but the entire entertainment industry and beyond. But we’re not going to let this get the better of us. By The Waters Of Liverpool will be re-launched early next year, bigger, bolder and as glorious as ever!”

Co-producer Bill Elms added: “We are deeply saddened to have been placed in this position with no alternative, our wonderful cast and crew have worked tirelessly to create an exceptional production that we are all immensely proud of.

“We must bring the show back to the stage for the sake of our company and the audience members who bought tickets, we all need something to look forward to in these bleak times. We will be back stronger than ever, even though it’s very unlikely that we will see any form of compensation for our losses.”

The tour will open at Liverpool’s Epstein Theatre on Tuesday 2^nd March 2021 and further dates confirmed at Rhyl Pavilion, Lancaster Grand, Southport Theatre, Crewe Lyceum, St Helens Theatre Royal and the Gaiety Theatre in the Isle of Man. More will be added over the coming weeks.

WHAT THE PRESS SAID

“An Absolute Must See!”

Writebase ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Will leave your heart warmed”

Opening Night ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Very Impressive”

My Theatre Mates ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“A joy to see”

North West End⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“An atmospheric bitter-sweet drama”

Wirral Globe⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Helen Forrester’s best-selling volumes of autobiography include Twopence To Cross The Mersey, Liverpool Miss, By The Waters Of Liverpool, and Lime Street At Two.

The Production is fully endorsed by the Helen Forrester Estate.

Website:         www.bythewatersofliverpool.com

Facebook:       facebook.com/ByTheWatersThePlay

Twitter:           @bythewatersofl1

York Theatre Royal production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad  postponed until 2021

A new production of The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood at York Theatre Royal has been postponed until next year. Originally scheduled to open in July, The production will now be staged in 2021.

Uncertainty surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic is holding pre-production work by the creatives, led by director Juliet Forster, who is associate director at York Theatre Royal.

Juliet said: “The joy of Atwood’s work is that it doesn’t date, so although we are disappointed that we have to postpone our production of The Penelopiad, I know it will be just as relevant and exciting to stage this wonderful play in 2021. 

“And on the upside, for the creative team involved, having a little more dreamtime on this story will only make the final staging of it all the more spectacular!”

The play by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale and 2019’s The Testaments tells the story of Odysseus’ wife Penelope and the Trojan Wars from her point of view.

Ticket holders will be contacted by the Box Office in coming weeks.

Hope Mill Theatre cancels UK theatrical premiere of the Broadway version of
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

The UK theatrical premiere of the Broadway version of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester has been cancelled, it is announced today.

Cinderella was due be the first musical produced by A Factory of Creativity (charity no 1183251) – the charitable organisation recently formed to take over the running of Hope Mill Theatre , which was co-founded by Joseph Houston and William Whelton in 2015.

The production was scheduled to run at Hope Mill Theatre from Saturday 9th May to Saturday 6th June 2020 and then at Clonter Opera Theatre, Cheshire from Tuesday 9th to Sunday 14th June 2020, however this has now been put on hold indefinitely due to uncertainty over the current Covid-19 outbreak.

Hope Mill Theatre closed to the public earlier this week, following the Government’s guidance that people avoid going to the theatre at this time.

William Whelton, Executive Director of Hope Mill Theatre, said: “During these uncertain times and with our current closure, Hope Mill Theatre is unable to financially commit to producing the upcoming theatrical premiere of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. This was a heartbreaking decision to make but unfortunately was the only decision we faced in order to safeguard our current employees and the future of our venue.

“To produce a show on this scale, at a theatre of Hope Mill’s size poses many challenges in the best of circumstances, so to do so in the current climate simply posed too great a risk.”

Joseph Houston, Artistic Director of Hope Mill Theatre, said: “The past few days have been the hardest times we have ever faced as a venue and community. A show like Cinderella has been a year in the planning for us, with a full creative and production team in place and already at work, and an incredibly exciting casting process which resulted in the most talented group of performers confirmed.

“We are hopeful that Cinderella will go to the ball, but at this time we are unsure when that will be. As for Hope Mill Theatre, like so many venues we do not know what our fate holds but we stay hopeful that our doors will open soon and once again we will be filling our little mill with music, laughter and applause.” 

Audience members will be contacted in due course – week commencing Monday 23th March – for refunds. The theatre is requesting customers please don’t call the theatre direct regarding refunds as they have limited staff available to take calls at this time.

Hope Mill Theatre are asking audience members, if they are in a position to do so, to consider donating their ticket money to the venue to allow them to operate during these uncertain times. 

Audiences can also make a donation to Hope Mill Theatre via its website hopemilltheatre.co.uk.

There are two ways to do it, either as a straight donation, or to become a Friend of the theatre, with different priced packages available.

Hope Mill Theatre also launched its ‘First Curtain’ scheme to coincide with Cinderella. The scheme was set up to allow audience members to purchase tickets for local young children to have their first theatre experience. These funds will stay in place and we will continue to work with local primary schools and youth groups for when the venue is back in operation. 

World-renowned comedians, exciting
newcomers and fantastic thespians fill the third
on-sale for Pleasance Theatre Trust

Pleasance is known for its amazing comedy and this year’s programme is like no other. Sindhu Vee, 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer nominee, known from Live At The Apollo, Mock The Week and, more recently, Sex Education, brings a brand new hour of stand-up in Alphabet. World-famous Simon Amstell presents a work-in-progress with his generation-defining comedy. And newcomer Chloe Petts, who started out in Pleasance’s Comedy Reserve, deep dives into the world of masculinity, both toxic and otherwise.

Reginald D Hunter also brings a work-in-progress to Pleasance this year – expect relentless hardhitting comedic pressure. Festival favourite Jess Robinson returns with a brand-new show with her incredible live band, original musical comedy and dazzling vocal stylings. The big names just keep on coming: Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show nominee 2019, Ivo Graham, finds life coming at him ever faster so he’s trying to respond ever funnier. And Fin Taylor, as seen on Live At The Apollo, finds there’s comedy about speaking the truth to those in power but what happens when no one agrees on what’s true or who’s in power? Marcus Brigstocke is back at his hilarious, satirical best in Thread – grab this thread and pull it, if it all falls apart we’ll blame it on the French.

At 40, sell-out Fringe star Mark Watson is halfway through his life, if he’s lucky. That life is in the best shape in living memory…but one huge problem remains! International microstar Sean McLoughlin (Chortle Award nominee) returns to Edinburgh with his hugely accomplished stand up in Gold Rush. Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer nominee, Sarah Keyworth is back with her lil’ keys and big jokes. As seen and heard on 8 Out Of 10 Cats, The News Quiz and The Guilty Feminist Podcast, Catherine Bohart returns to take the Fringe by storm in This Isn’t For You. Meanwhile, Angela Barnes (Mock The Week, Live At The Apollo and The News Quiz) is trying to live her best life, and it’s really bloody hard. In 2010, the world was in a sorry state and everything is still going downhill; Stephen K Amos asks us to forget the divisions and immerse ourselves in an hour of laughter.

Check out the most exciting comedy newcomers at Pleasance; join rising star Jamie D’Souza as he performs his highly anticipated debut show about his first school crush. 2019 BBC New Comedy Award finalist and Pleasance Reserve alumnus, Josh Jones presents a debut hour from an atypical northern bloke. Party with carnage-wielding, mayhem-manifesting, disco ball, Katie Pritchard, winner of the Musical Comedy Awards, in her brand-new Musical Comedy show.

Returning to Pleasance this year are Pleasance Reserve alumni Tom Lucy who will tackle his family, his upbringing, his genitals, laser quest and yellow tracksuits; George Lewis who’s determined to show that the boring Google suggestions for his name are wrong; and multi-award-winning comedian and true king of the northern realm, Alasdair Beckett-King who plans to unravel life’s shallowest mysteries. Fresh from supporting Michael McIntyre and Romesh Ranganathan, Jake
Lambert (Comedy Central) returns with his new show. The Improvised Doctor Who Parody is back to take us on an adventure in space and time, created from audience suggestions – it also features a live radiophonic workshop.

So many comedians, so little time, so head along to Fast Fringe and see twelve top comedy and variety acts perform ridiculously short sets in one furiously fast-paced showcase. The global smash hit podcast, No Such Thing as a Fish, returns to the Fringe for three nights only of live podcast recordings where the writers behind QI present a show bursting with facts, jokes, and much much more. Or join Edinburgh Comedy Award 2019 Best Newcomer nominees, Crybabies, as they present their latest narrative-driven sketch adventure.

Turning to the theatre programme, Who Here’s Lost? sees a melancholy artist and a mute architect take a road trip of the soul as Pleasance legend Ben Moor returns with a new storytelling piece that is hilarious, cryptic, beautiful and wise. In comic play Adrian Bliss: How To Not Go Extinct, a budding social media star jumps on the climate change bandwagon, inviting you to the launch of his book in a thinly veiled plot to get famous fast. After total sell out runs of his last two works, David William Bryan now stages Not Quite Midnight Radio, a brand-new psychological drama with a twist.

The much-loved, regular Fringe sell-out Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show is back for the company’s 15th anniversary year with three delicious daily rotating ‘menus’ of 10-15 minute comedies, eccentricity and mini-drama with fresh coffee, tea, croissants and strawberries. Circus spectacular Cirque Berserk! are also returning with over 30 acrobats, aerialists, dancers, drummers and daredevil stuntmen including the hair-raising Globe of Death. And, for two shows only, join Olivier Awardwinning improvisers as they take your kids’ amazing ideas and transform them on the spot into interactive musical adventures in The Showstoppers’ Kids Show.

With more shows to be announced over the coming months there will be comedy, theatre, circus, magic, dance, kids’ shows and much more, alongside support for some of the most innovative newcomers through artist development strand Pleasance Futures. The Pleasance should certainly be the pick of your Fringe this August.