REHEARSAL IMAGES RELEASED AND FURTHER DETAILS ANNOUNCED FOR
SUSTAINABILITY FOCUSSED WATERMILL ENSEMBLE PRODUCTION OF AS YOU LIKE IT
PERFORMANCES FROM THURSDAY 24 JUNE – 24 JULY
BOOK ONLINE AT WATERMILL.ORG.UK OR VIA THE BOX OFFICE ON 01635 46044
‘These trees shall be my books…’
Artistic Director Paul Hart and the team at Newbury’s TheWatermill Theatre are looking forward to opening the Watermill Ensemble’s brand-new sustainability focussed production of Shakespeare’s AS YOU LIKE IT, adapted by Yolanda Mercy and directed by Paul Hart. With a cast of ten actor musicians and an atmospheric modern folk soundscape, inspired by the music of Mumford & Sons, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and Taylor Swift AS YOU LIKE IT – currently in rehearsals – will open as part of the summer 2021 outdoor season on the main lawn on Thursday 24 June and runs until Saturday 24 July.
Forced to leave their homes behind, Rosalind and Orlando find sanctuary in the forest of Arden. Amongst whispering trees, their worlds collide, and they become entangled in a game of love, lust and mistaken identity.
What follows is a riotous adventure with a feisty heroine in disguise, feuding brothers, love poetry and laughs aplenty! Will love conquer all, or is it merely a madness?
Using responsibly sourced, repurposed, or recyclable materials to create the set, props and costumes, this production of Shakespeare’s famous pastoral comedy celebrates the unique environment of The Watermill gardens. With a focus on eco-friendly practices both on and off stage, this season marks a new direction for the venue in terms of sustainability and access for future generations.
Set and costume designer Katie Lias explains, “Creating eco-friendly, sustainable theatre is something I aim for in every production I work on, but none more so than The Watermill’s production of ‘As You Like It’. With the play’s inherent themes of nature and being set in the beautiful grounds, there is a constant reminder of the very landscape we are trying to protect for future generations.
For example, I’ve looked at what we used on previous Watermill productions and incorporated elements of these costumes, props and set pieces to be recycled in our new show. The floor of the stage even comes from another theatre – in its original form it wasn’t what I felt looked right for our aesthetic, so we turned it over and routed ‘wooden planks’ in it to create the desired finish.
The attempt to create something with as little negative impact as possible is made achievable thanks to a production team and company who place environmentalism at its very core, recognising that, whilst it is often quicker and easier to purchase something new, the future cannot sustain this level of waste.”
Emma Barclay plays ‘Touchstone’, Omar Baroud ‘Silvius / Duke Frederick’, Emma Manton ‘Jacques’, Chanelle Modi ‘Celia’, Katherine Jack ‘Rosalind’, Ami Okumura-Jones as ‘Phebe’, Yazdan Qafouri as ‘Oliver’, Ned Rudkins-Stow as ‘Orlando’, Jamie Satterthwaite as ‘Duke Senior’, Tom Sowinski as ‘Adam’
AS YOU LIKE IT is directed by Paul Hart, with dramaturgy and adaptation by Yolanda Mercy, set and costume Design by Katie Lias, movement direction by Anjali Mehra, lighting design by Tom White, and sound design by Tom Marshall.
To ensure the safety of all, the summer season will take place outside in The Watermill Theatre’s beautiful gardens with shows performed to a socially distanced audience. Audience members can book their own socially distanced seating area, with aisles and space between each seating area. Tables are reserved, and audiences will be able to select a seating area when booking their tickets. Seats will be uncovered, and performances will go ahead whatever the weather. Audiences are advised to bring appropriate clothing for the conditions and may also wish to bring extra cushions and blankets.
Face coverings, unless exempt, will be required to enter indoor spaces, such as the toilets. There will be hand sanitiser stations, a one-way system for accessing the toilets and signage to indicate routes and procedures. There will also be free onsite parking in the main car park. All current government guidelines will apply throughout the season and The Watermill will keep these under constant review.
A two-course pre-show menu from the restaurant will be available to enjoy from 5pm before evening shows starting at 7pm and from midday before matinée performances starting at 2pm. Cream teas will also be available to enjoy in The Watermill’s riverside gardens after matinée performances.
UNDERBELLY’S LONDON WONDERGROUND AT EARLS COURT ANNOUNCES DAZZLING LINE-UP FOR THEIR NEW SUMMER FESTIVAL
July – 26 September 2021
Empress Place, Earls Court, London SW6 1TT
Runaway international smash hit THE CHOIR OF MAN offers up an hour of foot-stomping, hair-raising, high-energy joy
Festival debut for iconic comedy show Dead Ringers Live with legends Jon Culshaw, Debra Stevenson, and Duncan Wisbey
Comedy from the likes of Rhod Gilbert, Al Murray, Stephen K Amos, Lucy Porter, Austentatious, Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho and Magical Bones
Top quality family entertainment from: Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo, The Witch and The Warthog, The Wonder Games with Maddie and Greg and Fireman Sam Live
Outdoor bars, street food, vintage fairground rides, family activities and West London’s only ‘city beach’ – an outdoor staycation for the capital
Site designed to be COVID-19 secure with distancing measures in place if required
London Wonderground, the major new summer festival in Earls Court, on the former Earls Court 2 Exhibition Centre site, produced by Underbelly, today announces the first shows of its spectacular2021 programme, which sees the very best in comedy, music, circus and family entertainment across its spectacular Big Top and the iconic upside-down purple cow, Udderbelly.
Headlining the legendary purple cow is the runaway international hit, THE CHOIR OF MAN. Premiering in London and known across the globe as “the ultimate-feel good show,” THE CHOIR OF MAN offers up an hour of indisputable joy! It is a party. It is a concert. It is a pint-filled good time set in a working pub (free beer anyone?!?) that combines hair-raising harmonies, high-energy dance, and live percussion with foot-stomping choreography. The multi-talented cast of nine handsome blokes sing everything – pub tunes, folk, Broadway, classic rock – all to roof-raising heights. It is the best singing, dancing, stomping, pub crawl of a concert you will ever attend having sold out venues such as the Sydney Opera House. An exhilarating, joyous and fun night out that will have audiences wishing they were up on stage too (and they just might be…) this is one not to be missed.
Leading the stellar line-up for The Big Top is none other than Dead Ringers Live, the iconic BBC Radio 4 series starring the dream team of Jon Culshaw, Debra Stephenson, and Duncan Wisbey. Fans can expect a mixture of classic sketches, new material and of course the trademark sharp, political humour for which Dead Ringers has garnered critical acclaim over its nearly 20-year history. Continuing the ‘legends-only’ theme, the Big Top will also see the return of the incredibly popular mixed bill London Comedy AllStars, featuring some of the very top names in comedy but even bigger and better than ever.
An icon of London summertime, Udderbelly, the upside-down purple cow is back for 2021, grazing in a new pasture in Earl’s Court and boasting a phenomenal line-up of comedy and family entertainment.
The London Wonderground programme will champion the spirit and quality of the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including a stellar comedy line-up, with Al Murray bringing one of the country’s best-loved alter-egos, The Pub Landlord to The Cow, Stephen K Amos – who aims to build some bridges with laughs in his acclaimed show Before And Laughter, and Rhod Gilbert makes hishotly anticipated return to the circuit with his highly acclaimed The Book Of John.
Other highlights include the cult smash hit Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho; hilarious stand up from Lucy Porter with Be Prepared; magician extraordinaire Magical Bones whose latest show Live & Direct effortlessly combines intricate sleight of hand with mesmerising illusions and jaw dropping break-dance fresh from appearances on Penn & Teller Fool Us, the BAFTA Awards, and ITV’s This Morning; and a live recording of smash-hit satirical podcast The Bugle with Andy Zaltzman
This year also sees the award-winning, delightfully brilliant, and entirely improvised comedy Austentatious take to the stage, in the highly imitable style of Britain’s greatest author – Jane Austen. With a cast including comedy superstars Cariad Lloyd, Andrew Hunter-Murray and Daniel Nils Roberts, Austentatious is always riotously funny, incredibly silly, and super smart – this is improv at its very finest.
On Pride Weekend it is party time with both a spectacular showcase from drag institution Tuckshop Live: Kings Vs. Queens and an evening of showstopping comedy from Mawaan Rizwan and Friends.
Further top-level entertainment comes in the form of the award-winning, intoxicating The Thinking Drinkers: Pub Quiz, Josh Berry and his confident, conservative alter-ego in Josh Berry is Rafe Hubris (BA, OXON): Hubris, Nemesis, Catharsis, an entirely unrehearsed and unprepared parody of a classic with Film Reads: The Shawshank Redemption from fringe favourites Dreamgun, and the hilarious Eshaan Akbar: In the Flesh, as seen on Mock of the Week and The Stand Up Sketch Show.
The grown-ups do not get to have all the fun though: the legendary Julia Donaldson will return to the Udderbelly stage to bring her wonderful stories to life in The Gruffalo, The Witch and The Warthog. With songs, puppetry, a sprinkling of magic, and her guitar-playing husband Malcolm, this is a special show not to be missed, with a book signing and a chance to meet the legendary author afterwards.
Another childhood favourite joining the line-up is Fireman Sam Live – Saves The Circus, whichsees Sam, Penny, Elvis, Station Officer Steele, and Norman take to the stage in an all singing, dancing, all-action adventure.
Other family show highlights include The Wonder Games with Maddie and Greg; (from Cbeebies’ Maddie’s Do You Know? and CBBC’s Blue Peter) the most mind-boggling, silliest science show around, where everyone can get involved in a battle of curiosity, creativity and pure madness live on stage. Joining them in the festival will be the Amazing Bubble Man, whose spellbinding bubble artistry is mixed with comedy, tricks, and audience participation, keeping the crowd (both big and small) mesmerised.
Swords, boots, and feathers in hats at the ready for a hilariously silly retelling of a classic tale starring the nation’s favourite time-travelling Victorian magicians in Morgan & West present – The Three Musketeers.
There is even more family entertainment in the form ofmagician extraordinaire, Penn & Teller-trained Kevin Quantum, fresh from his appearance as a semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent 2020. See the Disney classic as you have never seen it before with DreamgunFilm Reads Kids: The Lion King and embrace fantastic family fun and musical magic with Jarred Christmas’ Mighty Kids Beatbox Comedy Show.
Celebrating this new festival location in the heart of West London, Underbelly is welcoming local residents the Earls Courtiers to join in the fun – AMatinee At The Musicals is an all singing, all dancing West End bonanza, celebrating the very best of musical theatre from Les Miserables to The Greatest Showman, featuring a cast of over 80 local adults and children and even some West End stars. From stage to screen, London Wonderground will also host a special event by Earls Court Film Festival – an evening of screenings of festival highlights from throughout the years.
As if the fit to bursting line up of live entertainment were not enough, London Wonderground also boasts outdoor bars, street food, musical bandstand performances, vintage fairground rides, family activities and West London’s only ‘city beach’, making it the very best staycation spot in town this summer.
The festival offers free entry to the site, affordable ticket prices for the rides and a live entertainment programme, with most shows running for an hour without an interval. The whole site, including the performance venues, will incorporate all necessary social distancing measures and London Wonderground will have a robust COVID-Secure operational plan for customers and staff. London Wonderground holds the Good to Go industry standard certificate.
Ahead of the opening of London Wonderground, Warwick Road will be host to a new temporary public space opposite Earl’s Court Underground Station, where the entrance to the former exhibition centre was. This space on Warwick Road will be open for people to enjoy, curated by the Kensington + Chelsea Festival alongside Underbelly, and designed by Baker & Borowski.
The opening of London Wonderground at Earls Court is subject to successfully securing planning and licensing permission for temporary events from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
Customers are encouraged to sign up at www.londonwonderground.co.uk for further announcements, exclusive offers and to be the first to get further information on the London Wonderground live programme of shows.
Tickets will go on sale at londonwonderground.co.uk from Thursday 10June, 9am.
* Tickets purchased through londonwonderground.co.uk are subject to a £1.50 booking fee.
As part of an exclusive Today Tix pre-sale, tickets for selected shows will be available from just £15, running 7 – 9 June and are subject to availability. Access at www.todaytix.com or via the Today Tix App.
More shows will be announced in the coming weeks.
London Wonderground directors Ed Bartlam and Charlie Woods said:
“After such a long time away from the stage it’s a privilege to be bringing such a varied and high-quality programme of live entertainment to London Wonderground. Alongside our bars, street food, family activities, rides and our outdoor beach, this array of fantastic performance will make London Wonderground the perfect summer day out and bring the complete festival experience to Earls Court and West London.
“Dead Ringers is a national institution, and it will be a thrill to see it on stage, while shows such as The Choir of Man, The Gruffalo The Witch and The Warthog and Austentatious underline our drive to bring both the spirit and the very best performers from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to London Wonderground.
“We’d like to thank Earls Court Development Company for their continued support and sharing our vision to bring life back to the Earls Court 2 Exhibition Centre site and once again make it one of London’s most exciting destinations.”
Rob Heasman, Chief Executive of the Earls Court Development Company said:
“The Earls Court site has been closed off for far too long and many local people have told us they want to see it opened up again. We are taking a fresh approach to the site including bringing derelict buildings back into use and supporting a varied programme of events and art installations this summer. Many Londoners will have fond memories of attending events in Earls Court, so we’re delighted to be partnering with Underbelly to welcome people back with the amazing London Wonderground festival.”
THE AWARD-WINNING BITTERSWEET COMEDY BY KEVIN ELYOT
DIRECTED BY MATT RYAN
RUNNING AT THE TURBINE THEATRE
FROM 7 JULY – 21 AUGUST
Stephen K Amos (Benny), James Bradwell (Eric), Edward M Corrie (John), Paul Keating (Guy), Gerard McCarthy (Daniel) and Alan Turkington (Bernie), will star in Kevin Elyot’s award-winning, and much-loved dark comedy, My Night With Reg.
Presented by The Turbine Theatre, this dazzling new revival of the iconic play is directed by Matt Ryan, and runs from 7 July – 21 August 2021, with press night on Tuesday 13 July.
This modern classic, which captures the fragility of friendship, happiness and life itself, won both the 1995 Olivier and Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, after its premiere at the Royal Court and subsequent transfer to the West End.
Set in Guy’s London flat, old friends and new gather to party through the night. This is the summer of 1985 and, for Guy and his circle, the world is about to change forever, thanks to the mounting AIDS crisis.
My Night With Reg at The Turbine Theatre has designs by Lee Newby and casting by Will Burton CDG.
ORANGE TREE THEATRE ANNOUNCE FULL CAST FOR LONDON PREMIÈRE OF LAST EASTER BY BRYONY LAVERY
Orange Tree Theatre today announce full cast for the London première of Bryony Lavery’s Last Easter. Tinuke Craig directs Naana Agyei-Ampadu (June), Peter Caulfield (Gash), Jodie Jacobs (Leah), and Ellie Piercy (Joy). Last Easter opens on 7 July, with previews from 3 July, and runs until 7 August. It will be streamed live via OT on Screen on 22 and 23 July.
A lighting designer, an actress, a prop maker and a drag singer go on a pilgrimage looking for a miracle.
Even when June, the lighting designer, is diagnosed with a devastating illness, the jokes don’t stop coming as a quartet of theatre friends career across France. They glug red wine and hope to find a miracle at Lourdes for June, a non-believer who thinks the only good thing about religion is the lighting. They’ll soon discover that miracles come in many different forms.
Last Easter is a funny, moving and provocative play about the true nature of friendship.
Completing the creative team is Designer Hannah Wolfe,Lighting Designer Elliot Griggs, and Sound Designer Beth Duke.
Bryony Lavery is a multi-award-winning playwright. Her theatre credits include The Book of Dust, The Borrowers, The Lovely Bones, The Midnight Gang, Swallows and Amazons, Brighton Rock, Frozen (winner of the TMA Best Play Award, and the Eileen Anderson Central Television Award, and nominated for four Tony Awards), Balls, Brideshead Revisited, Queen Coal, The Believers, Treasure Island, Beautiful Burnout, The Origin of the Species, Wicked Lady, and More Light. Her television credits include Buy, and Revolting Women.
Naana Agyei-Ampadu plays June. Her theatre credits include Nine Lessons and Carols (Almeida Theatre), Fairview, Feast, Been So Long (Young Vic), Caroline, or Change (Hampstead Theatre, Playhouse Theatre), Pericles, I Want My Hat Back, The Amen Corner (National Theatre), King (Hackney Empire), Touch (Soho Theatre), A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer (Complicité, National Theatre), The Oresteia, Measure for Measure, The Frontline (Shakespeare’s Globe), Made in Dagenham (Adelphi Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (New Wolsey Theatre) and Avenue Q (Noël Coward Theatre). Her television credits include Enterprice, GameFace and Cuffs.
Peter Caulfield plays Gash. His previous theatre credits include A Christmas Carol, Aladdin (The Old Vic), Edgar Allen Poe and the Haunted Palace (Adelaide Festival, Bergen International Festival), Sketch You Up! (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Jerusalem (Watermill Theatre), Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Tempest (Southwark Playhouse), The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith), One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre, UK tour, Theatre Royal Haymarket), Nicked (HighTide Festival), Enron (Chichester Festival Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Noël Coward Theatre), The Merchant of Venice, The Wind in the Willows (Derby Theatre), Erics (Liverpool Everyman), White Liars (Etcetera Theatre), The Man of Mode (National Theatre), The Wild Duck (Donmar Warehouse), and Larkrise to Candleford (Finborough Theatre). His television credits include The Mystery of DB Cooper, Absentia, Modus, Banana, and Cucumber. For film, his credits include Great Yarmouth, Strangeways Here We Come, and After the End.
Jodie Jacobs plays Leah. Her theatre credits include Cinderella, Dick Whittington (Lyric Hammersmith), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Cadogan Hall), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It (Shakespeare in the Squares), Unexpected Joy, Bananaman, Carrie (Southwark Playhouse), But I’m a Cheerleader, Myth (The Other Palace), Lizzie (Greenwich Theatre), Disaster – The Musical (Charing Cross Theatre), Oliver! (Grange Park Opera), Rock of Ages (Garrick Theatre), Footloose, The Wedding Singer (UK and Ireland tour), We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre), Fame (Aldwych Theatre), Evita (Adelphi Theatre) and Little Shop of Horrors (Duke of York’s Theatre). Her work for television includes The Amazing World of Gumball and Drop Zone.
Ellie Piercy plays Joy. Her credits for the company includeThe Widowing of Mrs Holroyd. Other theatre credits includeSoft Animals (Soho Theatre), Eventide (Up In Arms), Sideways (St. James Theatre), Heresy of Love, As You Like It, Blue Stockings, All’s Well That Ends Well, Liberty, Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe), Much Ado About Nothing (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Taming The Tempest, A Touch of Sun (Salisbury Playhouse), How to Beat a Giant (Unicorn Theatre), and Romeo and Juliet (Glasgow Rep Company, Bard in the Botanics). Her television credits include Hanna, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, McMafia and The Impressionists; and for film,The Dig and Brothers of War.
Tinuke Craig’s previous theatre credits include Crave, Random/Generations (Chichester Festival Theatre), Hamlet for Young Audiences (NT tour), Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith), Vassa (Almeida Theatre), The Color Purple (Leicester Curve, Birmingham Hippodrome), I Call my Brothers (Gate Theatre), Dirty Butterfly (Young Vic). Craig was the 2015-2016 Associate Director at Gate Theatre, and received the 2014 Genesis Future Director Award. She is an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith, and an Associate at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.
Saturday 4th December 2021 – Sunday 2nd January 2022
Lesley Joseph, Rob Rinder and Andy Ford to star in Bristol Hippodrome’s strictly wicked Christmas pantomime!
Lesley Joseph will be heading from Chigwell to Bristol this Christmas to star as The Wicked Queen in the Hippodrome’s pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Lesley will be joined by Rob Rinder who will be making his panto debut as The Man In The Mirror and Bristol panto favourite Andy Ford as Muddles.
Birds of a Feather legend Lesley Joseph celebrates a career which has seen her appear on stage in dramas, musicals and reviews in the west end and across the UK and on every major television channel and on film working with major directors including Franco Zeffirelli. Most recently Lesley starred as Miss Hannigan in Annie, Mrs Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie as well as appearing in Home directed by Peter Hall. In 2018 she starred in the musical adaptation of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein in London’s west end starring as Frau Blücher, a role for which she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. No stranger to pantomime, Lesley stars in productions to audience and critical acclaim every festive season.
Rob Rinder has been presiding over cases in his TV courtroom since 2014 as Judge Rinder, and came fifth in the 2016 season of Strictly Come Dancing competing against Lesley Joseph. Rob was awarded a BAFTA for an episode of the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are where he explored his Jewish heritage, and last year presented a critically acclaimed BBC documentary series My Family, The Holocaust & Me. Rinder has appeared on Celebrity Googlebox, was crowned winner of All Star Musicals and is a Columnist for The Evening Standard and The Sun newspapers.
Andy Ford makes a return to Bristol Hippodrome following seven consecutive seasons as panto comic at the venue from 2009 to 2015. One of pantomime’s most successful comedians Andy has appeared on stages across the UK entertaining thousands of theatregoers with his quick-wit, physical routines and sense of humour winning rave-reviews and legions of fans wherever he performs.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is staged by Crossroads Pantomimes, the world’s biggest pantomime producer, led by Michael Harrison and the creative team behind recent Bristol Hippodrome successes including last year’s production of Dick Whittington.
Audience can look forward to a show spectacularly brought to life with an abundance of side-splitting comedy, sensational special effects and plenty of festive magic.
The cast replace John Barrowman who was announced for the production’s original 2020 dates.
Following a record-breaking week of THE SHOW MUST GO ON! LIVE AT THE PALACE THEATRE, the creators, Theatre Support Fund+ announced at the show last night they have reached an incredible milestone of raising £1million pounds for theatre charities. The show was broadcast LIVE across the world via the Shows Must Go On YouTube channel with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in attendance. Over 320,000 people watched the broadcast on Sunday 6 June and the show will be available to watch until Saturday 12 June.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan joined Chris and Damien, the founders of Theatre Support Fund+ on stage last night when this milestone was announced and spoke about the importance of theatre to London.
Chris and Damien said today, ‘We are stunned to have reached this extraordinary figure during our concert last week at The Palace. It’s been a thrill to have brought all of these amazing performers together and we are overwhelmed by the response. The views of the concert and donations from across the world really show the love and admiration there is for theatre in London and our talented community. Thank you to everyone who has supported us, and please continue to do so’.
Theatre Support Fund+ was founded last year to raise much needed funds for freelancers after the pandemic forced theatres to close on 16 March 2020. After creating the iconic The Show Must Go On! t-shirt, the creators produced The Show Must Go On! Live at the Palace Theatre as a celebration of West End theatre with 18 of the biggest musicals in a one-off unique concert.
The full range of The Show Must Go On merchandise and limited edition live at the palace items can be purchased from www.theatresupportfund.co.uk and you can still donate by texting ‘THEATRE’ followed by the amount you want to donate to 70460.
Salisbury Cathedral – Saturday 5 June 2021 – then touring until September 2021
Reviewed by Jo Gordon
5*****
To say I was beside myself with absolute joy, when asked if I was free to review Macbeth, in my home town, within the Cathedral grounds on a summer’s afternoon would be an understatement…. what a way to break my sixteen month theatre fast! Watching Macbeth performed by The Lord Chamberlains Men, the very company William himself would have tread the boards with some 400 years ago was a pure treat. A cast of seven, play twenty-two characters, and they play them perfectly.
Returning from battle, Macbeth and Banquo happen across three weird and magical sisters out on the Scottish moorlands. The three sisters prophecy that Macbeth, will one day become King of Scotland. With the help of his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, the prophecy comes to fruition but not without betrayal and blood upon their hands. Part of the prophecy was that Macbeth could not be killed by any man born to a woman, however, life sometimes finds a way of putting you back in your place as he eventually finds out.
The stage, despite being small provides enough magic to transport you to the misty lands of large stone castles and the Elizabethan costumes stay true to how the play would have first appeared to the masses, with an all male cast also playing the female characters, again just how it would have been. What more could you desire than some classical, outdoor theatre full of tragedy, the supernatural and a moral to give us all little warning about our actions. Book up to see it at your local venue, grab a camping chair and indulge in ninety-five minutes of superb outdoors theatre like Bill himself meant it to be.
Not seen on stage since it’s 1975 Hampstead Theatre premiere, Alfred Fagon’s punchy tale of a pair of young Black Londoners trying to make the big bucks via whatever means necessary in a hostile, stiflingly white-dominated world, is a commendably bold choice to reopen this North London venue. Set against a fascinating if unedifying socio-political landscape where undisguised racism ran unchecked thanks in no small part to the notorious ‘Rivers Of Blood’ speech of Enoch Powell, the toxic shockwaves from which were still reverberating throughout an unstable UK nearly a decade later, it’s a challenging piece. Powell is referenced several times in Fagon’s text, as is the 1973 Test Match triumph of the West Indies cricket team, thereby reflecting what were arguably the nadir and the zenith of the 1970s British Black experience.
Given how high all these stakes are, I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the actual play itself, which starts off like a slightly off-kilter sitcom (an impression borne out by Simon Kenny’s garishly kitschy 70s living room setting) where late-teen wheeler dealer Shakie is getting a tongue-lashing from his upwardly mobile, older girlfriend Jackie, by whom he has fathered a child. The arrival of his brash sidekick, would-be music promoter Stumpie, ups the comic ante further, at least until he starts an alarming aggression towards Jackie. The second act degenerates into edgier territory -the increasingly desperate men hold the moneyed Jackie hostage with plans to sell her off to rich white men- but alas with all the finesse and subtlety of a sledgehammer.
It’s a wildly uneven ride, the tone of the writing veering from polemic to poetic to just plain nasty and all the way back again within a few lines of dialogue. The unlikeable characters feel more like mouthpieces than real people which might be less problematic if Fagon hadn’t sought to invest them with the weight of so much history: one minute they’re snarling abuse at each other and the next they are cataloguing unforgivable white-on-Black transgressions that, while an understandable source of fury, carry little dramatic momentum as it sounds as the though the actors are spouting extended Wikipedia quotations. Not that they had Wikipedia in the 1970s of course.
The play is undoubtedly a product of its time, and the casual anti-Semitism, repeated throwaway rape references and perhaps above all, the repellent misogyny are undoubtedly jarring to modern ears. I think Fagon’s point was that oppression never really ends, the oppressed continuing with the oppressor’s appalling behaviour ad infinitum, but Dawn Walton’s slightly unfocused, sluggishly paced production – long on volume, short on subtlety – doesn’t elucidate.
A blandly unconvincing performance from Nickcolia King-N’Da as central man-child Shakie doesn’t help: there is real comic mileage in a scene where, by phone, he tries to verbally seduce the wife of a business associate while simultaneously trying to ascertain the whereabouts of items he has ordered, but it went for very little the night I saw it, the tiresome procedure of using a rotary dial phone getting the only true laughs. Toyin Omari-Kinch injects some much needed energy as the unstable Stumpie, and Natalie Simpson impressively charts Jackie’s disintegration before our very eyes.
Black British playwrights are shamefully underserved by most of the UK’s mainstream theatres so Hampstead programming The Death of a Black Man is, on the one hand, welcome, but I can’t help but wish that they had given this slot to an up-and-coming Black writer rather than disinterring this dated hot mess of a drama. A neglected masterpiece has not been recovered.
AMY TRIGG’S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED REASONS YOU SHOULD(N’T) LOVE ME
AVAILABLE TO STREAM FOR 3 PERFORMANCES ONLY
****
“Bravura one-woman show is a knock-out.” Evening Standard
Following a sell-out run at Kiln Theatre, Amy Trigg’s debut play Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me, will be available to view online for 3 performances only from 18–20 June. Tickets are available via www.KilnTheatre.com from £10, with audio description and captions available.
****
“Trigg is terrific” Daily Telegraph
Directed by Charlotte Bennett, Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me opened to critical acclaim at Kiln Theatre in May, and has limited number of tickets available for the remainder of its run until 12 June.
Charlotte Bennett said today, “I’m thrilled that we have been able to capture a live show for a digital release following its run at Kiln Theatre. I am incredibly proud of this show and delighted that we will now be able to share it with an even wider audience. We hope that by offering this digital release it will increase the accessibility of the production for more audiences around the country as well as those who are not yet able to or feel ready to return to a live theatre setting.”
Artistic Director of Kiln Theatre, Indhu Rubasingham added, “It has been so wonderful having audiences back at Kiln Theatre, but with our live performances sold out, it’s brilliant that we’re able to share Amy’s generous piece with even more people who couldn’t make it.”
****
“Enormously entertaining” Guardian
For a long time I didn’t know how it’d work. Or what I’d be able to feel. People would ask me if I could have sex and I’d feign shock and act wildly offended whilst secretly wanting to grab them by the shoulders and be like “I don’t know, Janet!”
Juno was born with spina bifida and is now clumsily navigating her twenties amidst street healers, love, loneliness – and the feeling of being an unfinished project.
Winner of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020, Amy Trigg’s remarkable debut play Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me is a hilarious, heart-warming tale about how shit our wonderful lives can be.
Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me is designed by Jean Chan, with lighting design by Guy Hoare, composition and sound design by Elena Peña, associate director Hana Pascal Keegan and produced by The Women’s Prize for Playwriting, Paines Plough, 45North and Kiln Theatre. The piece was filmed by Rachel Bunce and sound engineer Rob Ketteridge.
SEE IT SAFELY
Kiln Theatre has been granted the use of Society of London Theatre & UK Theatre’s See It Safely mark. The mark certifies that they are complying with the latest Government and industry COVID-19 guidelines, to ensure the safety of their staff and audiences. Ticket holders can find out more here [https://officiallondontheatre.com/see-it-safely/] about the measures that have been put in place ahead of their visit, and what they will need to know beforehand.
THE BARN THEATRE & SCOOT THEATRE TO STAGE SHAKESPEARE COMEDY DOUBLE BILL AT NOTGROVE ESTATE THIS SUMMER
Cirencester’s award-winning theatre, the Barn Theatre, have teamed up with theatre company Scoot Theatre to take over the gardens of Notgrove Manor in the Cotswolds from 21-22 August for a weekend of outdoor theatrical family fun.
The Barn at Notgrove, in association with Scoot Theatrewill feature performances of Scoot Theatre’s family-friendly, sixty-minute productions of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Comedy of Errors.
The production will be staged on the lawn of the Manor House at Notgrove at the following times:
The Comedy of Errors at 3pm (21August) and 12pm (22 August)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at 5pm (21 August) and 2pm (22 August)
Tickets for the productions are now available to purchase at barntheatre.org.uk with family tickets available for £35.
Picnic hampers, provided by Relish, will be available to pre-order with your tickets at £35. On the day you can purchase freshly made pizza by Captain Brown’s Pizzas and British Polo Gin will be running the Horseshoe Bar selling soft drinks, hot drinks, draft lager/cider, ale, cocktails and of course gin and tonics made with their lovely organic gins. Parking and facilities will also be available for audience members.
Max Hutchinson, founder of Scoot Theatre, said of the announcement, “I’m thrilled that Scoot is teaming up with the Barn again this summer. I started Scoot last year to provide safe, live entertainment again after months of us all being indoors. The Barn have been incredibly nimble in adapting to the challenges of the pandemic and so to work with them on their first outdoor venture away from the theatre itself is really exciting.
Regular Barn Theatre-goers will recognise some of our cast and our production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is directed by Joseph O’Malley, who was behind the Barn productions of The Hound of the Baskervilles, The 39 Steps and Ben Hur, so anyone who saw those shows will know what to expect from Scoot! The Notgrove Estate is an absolutely stunning location for some al fresco theatre. They’re going to be offering picnics and a well-stocked bar, so we hope people will come along, indulge in the hospitality of this beautiful venue and enjoy two fast paced, family-friendly Shakespeare comedies in the sunshine! What more could you want!?”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Returning following its smash-hit 2020 UK Tour and run at the Barn Theatre’s outdoor theatre festival BarnFest is Scoot Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The production’s director Joseph O’Malley also directed the Barn Theatre’s acclaimed five-star productions of The 39 Steps, The Hound of the Baskervilles and Ben Hur.
Hermia loves Lysander. Lysander loves Hermia. But Demetrius loves Hermia. And Helena loves Demetrius.
They all run into the woods where the mischievous sprite Puck has plenty of tricks in store for them! Meanwhile, the local cricket team is getting together to rehearse a play…
Expect music, magic, and cricket bat sword fights!
The Comedy of Errors
The second half of the double bill is Scoot Theatre’s new production of The Comedy of Errors which will be directed by Scoot Theatre founder Max Hutchinson.
Two sets of long lost twins. Finally in the same city. They just don’t know it! Separated in childhood, Antipholus of Syracuse is travelling the globe in search of his twin brother. He defies the law by entering the mysterious city of Ephesus, where all Syracusians are banned. Things quickly get spooky when everyone he meets in Ephesus seems to know who he is… Let the confusion and chaos commence!
Expect madness, mistaken identities and slapstick in Shakespeare’s classic farce!
