Northern Broadsides production of Much Ado About Nothing to open prestigious Shakespeare Festival in Germany

Northern Broadsides are delighted to announce that their acclaimed co-production with the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme of William Shakespeare’s glorious tale of antagonistic romance and chaotic comedy Much Ado About Nothing will be opening this year’s Shakespeare festival at The Globe Theatre in the German city of Neuss from the 14-16 June.

The prestigious festival– now is in its 29th year – will run in from 14 June to 13 July and will stage 33 performances of fifteen productions from France, Poland, Hungary, England and Germany. As well as the productions, there will be a Shakespeare Day for children, workshops for school pupils and teachers, and introductory presentations for the seven premieres scheduled to take place in Germany and on NRW radio.

Northern Broadsides Artistic Director Conrad Nelson said:

“As we career into continued uncertainty I take some solace in the knowledge that Arts organisations across European and the words of a 400 year old play can still form the foundations for an effective and enjoyable artistic partnership. I’m absolutely delighted to be returning to the International Shakespeare festival in Neuss, with our critically acclaimed production of Much Ado about Nothing. Under the enthusiastic leadership of producer Dr Rainer Wiertz The Globe Theatre continues to flourish. My last visit in 2000 was playing the reluctant lover, ‘Benedick’ in the same play – the memories of which are vivid. In 2019 I return as Director and despite of all, I have no reluctance in hoping that our future cultural liaisons with Europe could be equally as bright.”

Dr. Rainer Wiertz, Artistic Director of the Festival added:

“The start of our festival is always a very special event, and we all are eagerly and curiously looking forward to your vibrant, explosive and dashing Much Ado About Nothing. We are very proud that you will participate in this year’s program!”

The Shakespeare Festival, which takes place annually in the early summer, is unique of its kind. Fans of Shakespeare’s dramatic, turbulent, witty plays make the journey to the Rhine from all over Germany and are inspired by the atmosphere. It’s relaxed and uncomplicated and the theatre companies from all four corners of the world contribute to this, bringing international flair to Neuss for four weeks of the year in June and July.

The Globe Neuss on the Rennbahn is a small-scale replica of Shakespeare’s 1599 theatre. The intimate horseshoe design brings the audience really close to the action, whether their seats are in the stalls or on one of the two raised tiers. A unique atmosphere is created by the lovingly designed ambiance, with its “(Shakes)beer garden” and its inviting foyer contributing to the festival’s veryspecial quality.

The Northern Broadsides and New Vic Theatre co-production is currently on a national tour and will be visiting in the coming weeks Derby Theatre (26-30 March); Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds (2-6 April); Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield (16-20 Apr), Viaduct Theatre, Halifax (25 Apr-4 May), The Lowry Salford (7-11 May); York Theatre Royal (14-18 May) and Harrogate Theatre (21-25 May).

For more information visit www.northern-broadsides.co.uk andwww.shakespeare-festival.de

Pulse Records Limited in association with Bill Elms present

‘A BIG SWEEPING STORY WITH REAL EMOTION’

THE STAGE

MAJOR UK TOUR FOR

HELEN FORRESTER’S

BY THE WATERS OF LIVERPOOL

National dates revealed for new show from the team behind Helen Forrester’s beloved Twopence To Cross The Mersey

Following on from its highly acclaimed run at the Liverpool Empire Theatre last autumn, By The Waters Of Liverpool is set to embark on a major UK tour in Spring 2020 it has been revealed today.

The production follows the smash-hit success of Forrester’s Twopence To Cross The Mersey and is being brought to audiences by the team behind both the musical and stage play versions of the award-winning true story.

By The Waters Of Liverpool is a period drama set in the 1930s. The story opens in 1935. Helen Forrester is sixteen years old and fighting a bitter battle with her parents for the right to educate herself and go out to work.

During the Great Depression, Helen’s father lost his fortune when the stock market and the family were suddenly thrown into poverty. Leaving behind the nannies, servants and comfortable middle-class life in the South West of England, the Forrester’s chose Liverpool as the place to start over. They were in for a terrible shock. Taken out of school to care for her younger brothers and sisters while her parents struggled to re-build their shattered lives, Helen is treated as an unpaid slave and desperate to escape.

By 1939, now aged twenty and with Britain on the brink of war, she has never been kissed by a man. But things start looking up for Helen when she meets a tall strong seaman and falls in love.

And in celebration of what would have been Helen Forrester’s 100th Birthday, the 11-week tour will open at Wirral’s, New Brighton Floral Pavilion from March 3-8, 2020, just a few miles from where she was born.

The tour will then move on to the Stockport Plaza from March 10-12, Warrington Parr Hall on March 14-15, St Helens Theatre Royal from March 17-21, Lancaster Grand on March 23-24, Crewe Lyceum on March 25-26, and Southport Theatre on March 27-28.

It continues with dates at Rhyl Pavilion Theatre from March 31 to April 4, Swansea Grand Theatre on April 6-7, Darlington Hippodrome from April 9-11, and Malvern Theatres on April 14-15.

The 2nd leg of the tour and full casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

Millions of people know Helen Forrester’s life story told through her best-selling volumes of autobiography, Twopence to Cross the Mersey, Liverpool Miss and By The Waters Of Liverpool.

Writer and friend of Helen Forrester, Rob Fennah has written both the stage play versions of Twopence To Cross The Mersey and By The Waters Of Liverpool. The new touring production is again produced by Pulse Records Limited in association with Bill Elms, and is directed by Gareth Tudor Price.

Rob Fennah said: “We had an amazing response when we premiered By The Waters Of Liverpool last autumn. Helen Forrester’s books resonate with millions of people across the UK and many more around the world.

“This adaptation of By The Waters Of Liverpool features a sizeable chunk from Liverpool Miss, Helen’s second volume of autobiography, together with flashbacks to Twopence To Cross The Mersey, so newcomers to Helen’s story will get a complete picture of her life.

“This June marks the centenary of Helen’s birth and, although she is no longer with us, she’ll be in our thoughts at this very special time. Last year her son Robert Bhatia made the journey from Canada to see the production at the Liverpool Empire and loved it. Now, with Robert’s full backing, we can’t wait to share his mother’s story with audiences across the UK.”

By The Waters Of Liverpool by Helen Forrester has sold more than a million books. Now this is your chance to see it come to life in this exciting new stage play adaptation.

Adapted by Rob Fennah   ·   Directed by Gareth Tudor Price

Produced by Pulse Records Limited in association with Bill Elms

Fully endorsed by the Helen Forrester Estate

Website:         www.bythewatersofliverpool.com

Facebook:       www.facebook.com/ByTheWatersThePlay

LISTING INFORMATION

BY THE WATERS OF LIVERPOOL

FLORAL PAVILION

Tuesday 3-Sunday 8 March 2020

Marine Promenade, New Brighton, CH45 2JS

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.floralpavilion.com

Box Office:      0151 666 0000

STOCKPORT PLAZA

Tuesday 10-Thursday 12 March 2020

Mersey Square, Stockport, SK1 1SP

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.stockportplaza.co.uk

Box Office:      0161 477 7779

PARR HALL

Saturday 14-Sunday 15 March 2020

Palmyra Square, Warrington, WA1 1BL

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          https://parrhall.culturewarrington.org/whats-on

Box Office:      01925 442345

ST HELENS THEATRE ROYAL

Tuesday 17-Saturday 21 March 2020

Corporation Street, St Helens, WA10 1LQ

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.sthelenstheatreroyal.com

Box Office:      01744 756000

LANCASTER GRAND THEATRE

Monday 23-Tuesday 24 March 2020

St Leonardgate, Lancaster, LA1 1QW

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.lancastergrand.co.uk

Box Office:      01524 64695

CREWE LYCEUM

Wednesday 25-Thursday 26 March 2020

Heath Street, Crewe, CW1 2DA

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.crewelyceum.co.uk

Box Office:      01270 368242

SOUTHPORT THEATRE

Friday 27-Saturday 28 March 2020

The Promenade, Southport, PR9 0DZ

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.waterfrontsouthport.co.uk/events/whats-on

Box Office:      01704 500036

PAVILION THEATRE RHYL

Tuesday 31 March-Saturday 4 April 2020

East Parade, Rhyl, LL18 3AQ

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.rhylpavilion.co.uk

Box Office:      01745 330000

GRAND THEATRE SWANSEA

Monday 6-Tuesday 7 April 2020

Singleton Street, Swansea, SA1 3QJ

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.swansea.gov.uk/swanseagrandtheatre

Box Office:      01792 475715

DARLINGTON HIPPODROME

Thursday 9- Saturday 11 April 2020

Parkgate, Darlington, DL1 1RR

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk

Box Office:      01325 405405

MALVERN THEATRES

Tuesday 14-Wednesday 15 April 2020

Grange Road, Malvern, WR14 3HB

Tickets from £22 plus booking fee

Website:          www.malvern-theatres.co.uk

Box Office:      01684 892277

Selladoor Productions, Matthew Townshend Productions, Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Perth Theatre at Horsecross Arts present

NEW UK TOUR ANNOUNCED FOR

UK Tour 5 September – 30 November 2019

A new theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelley’s seminal 1818 gothic horror novel Frankenstein is set to depict Shelley onstage, as she unfolds her monstrous tale of creature and creator. Adapted by award-winning writerRona Munro and co-produced by leading company Selladoor (in the company’s tenth anniversary year),Matthew Townshend Productions, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, and Perth Theatre at Horsecross Arts, the production will tour nationwide from 2 September – 30 November 2019. Further dates and casting are yet to be announced.

An eighteen year-old girl, Mary Shelley, dreams up a monster whose tragic story will capture the imaginations of generations to come.

A young scientist by the name of Frankenstein breathes life into a gruesome body. Banished into an indifferent world, Frankenstein’s creature desperately seeks out his true identity, but the agony of rejection and a broken promise push him into darkness. Dangerous and vengeful, the creature threatens to obliterate Frankenstein and everyone he loves, in a ferocious and bloodthirsty hunt for his maker.

Rona Munro’s brilliant new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Gothic masterpiece places the writer herself amongst the action as she wrestles with her creation and with the stark realities facing revolutionary young women, then and now.

Rona Munro said of the new production: “This story has been told and retold in hundreds of different versions since it was first written. But it remains the dark and rebellious roar of its adolescent author. Mary Shelley was only eighteen when she wrote the novel and she’d already broken every social rule that should have shaped her life. That’s the version of Frankenstein I’ve returned to, the version of the novel. The story is told in the voice of that defiant and passionate young girl accusing her elders, the culture of her age and intent on terrifying the whole world.”

Anna Fox, Head of New Work at Selladoor Creation, said: “Selladoor Creation are delighted to be working with Rona to create a dramatic reinvention of this classic story. We relish the work we do with writers, so we are proud to be a part of a production that will examine the writers’ process in such an innovative way. It has been a fascinating journey to go on with the piece, and we are excited for this bold new take on a beloved gothic horror to be brought to life for audiences of today.”

The production will be directed by Patricia Benecke, with composition and sound design by Simon Slater, lighting design by Grant Anderson and designed by Becky Minto.

Rona Munro has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television. Her recent theatre credits include Lucy Barton, adapted from the novel by Elizabeth Strout and performed by Laura Linney at the Bridge Theatre London in 2018-19. Other credits include The James Plays: a trilogy of award-winning plays produced by the National Theatre of Scotland, the National Theatre UK and Edinburgh International Festival, Scuttlers (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Little Eagles (Royal Shakespeare Company) and Iron (Traverse Theatre, Royal Court Theatre) for which she won the John Whiting Award in 2003.

Her television credits include the BAFTA-nominated Bumping the Odds (BBC Scotland) and Rehab (BBC Two), and her films include Ladybird Ladybird and Oranges and Sunshine. Her work for radio includes several dramas for The Stanley Baxter Playhouse. Rona is the only writer so far to have contributed episodes to both the classic and contemporary series of Doctor Who (BBC One).

Director Patricia Benecke directs in the UK and Europe. For her company Dialogue, she has directedScorched (Old Vic Tunnels), The Furies/Land of the Dead/Helter Skelter (Bush Theatre and UK tour), Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Qu’ran (Bush Theatre, Assembly Rooms and UK Tour), Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons (Soho Theatre), Top Dogs (Southwark Playhouse and UK Tour), Merlin (Riverside Studios),Heroes Like Us (Edinburgh Festival/NXT) and The MC of a Striptease Act Doesn’t Give Up (international tour). Patricia is Creative Associate at Belgrade Theatre Coventry, where her shows include Cougar the Musical andNora. Patricia also directed Stop Blaming, Start Loving for the Old Vic’s 24 Hour Plays Gala.

Designer Becky Minto has designed over 100 productions for companies including National Theatre Scotland, The Royal Lyceum, Grid Iron, Perth Rep, Visible Fictions, Vanishing Point, Scottish Dance Theatre, Lung Ha, All Or Nothing, 7:84, The Byre, The Citizen’s Theatre, Upswing Aerial Theatre Company, Fire Exit, Walk The Plank, Mark Murphy, Dundee Rep and Pitlochry Festival Theatre. She was awarded the Silver medal for Space Design for the National Theatre Scotland’s production of The 306:Dawn at the World Stage Design exhibition in 2017. She has been nominated for 3 CATS awards and a Manchester Evening News Award for Best Design.

Simon Slater is an Olivier Award-nominated composer, and has composed original music for over 300 theatre, film, television and radio productions. His recent theatre credits include: Amadeus (National Theatre), Killology(Sherman Theatre/Royal Court Theatre) and Constellations (Duke of York’s Theatre, Royal Court Theatre) for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award, Cost of Living (Hampstead Theatre), Build a Rocket, Thirty Nine Steps, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Foxfinder (The Ambassadors Theatre), The Crucible (Storyhouse), The Rivals (The Watermill Theatre), King Lear (The Globe Theatre), Sand In The Sandwiches (UK Tour), Carmen Disruption(Almeida), The Cherry Orchard, Doll’s House (Sherman Theatre),Talking Heads (UK Tour) and Tis Pity She’s A Whore, The Broken Heart & A Winter’s Tale (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse).

Grant Anderson’s lighting design credits include: The Broons (Selladoor), Miss Julie (Horsecross Arts), We’ll Live And Die In These Towns (Belgrade Theatre). Currently he is designing shows for The National Theatre of Scotland as well as internationally for Unigram in Miami. Other selected credits include: Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs, Light on the Shore (Edinburgh International Festival), Cuttin’ A Rug, Simon’s Magical Christmas Socks, Panic Patterns (Citizens Theatre), One Mississippi, Submarine Time Machine, To Begin (National Theatre of Scotland & NTS Learn), Snow Queen, A Christmas Carol, Love Song, In My Father’s Words, Hecuba, Promises Promises and Baby Baby (Dundee)

TOUR DATES

TOUR DATES 2019

5 – 21 September (performances vary)                                                       Box Office: 01738 621031

Perth Theatre, Perth                                                                                         Website: horsecross.co.uk

24 – 28 September                                                                                            Box Office: 01227 787787

Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury                                                                        Website: marlowetheatre.com

1 September – 12 October                                                                              Box Office: 024 7655 3055

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry                                                                            Website: belgrade.co.uk

14 – 19 October                                                                                                   Box Office: 0844 871 7650

Brighton Theatre Royal, Brighton                                                                  Website: atgtickets.com 

28 October – 2 November                                                                               Box Office: 029 2087 8889

New Theatre, Cardiff                                                                                         Website: newtheatrecardiff.co.uk

4 – 9 November                                                                                                  Box Office: 01483 440 000

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford                                                                Website: yvonne-arnaud.co.uk

11 – 16 November                                                                                             Box Office: 0151 709 4776

Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool                                                                       Website: everymanplayhouse.com

25 – 30 November                                                                                              Box Office: 0844 871 7647

Theatre Royal Glasgow, Glasgow                                                                  Website: atgtickets.com 

Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Northern Stage in association with Nuffield Southampton Theatres present the

EUROPEAN PREMIÈRE of

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
By Ursula Rani Sarma
Based on the book by Khaled Hosseini

·         The European première opens at Birmingham Repertory Theatre with dates also at Northern Stage, Nuffield Southampton Theatres and Hackney Empire.

·         Khaled Hosseini’s book has been adapted by Ursula Rani Sarma and will be directed by Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert, her last as Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

·         The cast includes Waleed Akhtar, Pal Aron, Sujaya Dasgupta, Munir Khairdin, Naveed Khan, Mollie Lambert, Shala Nyx, Liza Zahra and Amina Zia.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini’s spiritual sequel to The Kite Runner will have its European première at Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 2 – 18 May before playing at partner venues Northern Stage (30 May – 15 June) and Nuffield Southampton Theatres (25 June – 6 July). The show will also tour to Hackney Empire (22 -25 May).

The cast features Waleed Akhtar (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen/ Lasse Hallström; What Shadows / Birmingham Repertory Theatre and The Kite Runner/Nottingham Playhouse & Liverpool Everyman);Pal Aron (Behind the Beautiful Forevers/National Theatre; Stella/ Sky One); Sujaya Dasgupta (Death of a Salesman/Royal & Derngate, Press/BBC);  Munir Khairdin (Whitechapel/ITV); Naveed Khan(Tamburlaine and Tartuffe /RSC); Mollie Lambert (The White Devil/Shakespeare’s Globe); Shala Nyx (Miss Prue/Bristol Old Vic; The Shadow Factory/Nuffield Southampton Theatres) and Liza Zahra(The Kite Runner/Wyndham’s) and Amina Zia (Tartuffe/RSC).

Khaled Hosseini’s international best-selling novel is the powerful story of three generations of women discovering strength in unity and finding hope in the unlikeliest of places. Set in 1992 in an Afghanistan ravaged by war, an orphaned Laila is left alone in an increasingly threatening world.  Her older neighbour Rasheed is quick to open his home and takes Laila as his second wife.

Rasheed’s first wife Mariam has no choice but to accept her younger, and now pregnant, rival. As the Taliban take over, life for all of them becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, and the two women find themselves unlikely allies.  In A Thousand Splendid Suns, love grows and sustains the human spirit even during the hardest of times.

Roxana Silbert directs A Thousand Splendid Suns, her final show as Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre. She said:

“In Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns we are given a rare glimpse into 30 years of contemporary Afghan history and thanks to Ursula Rani Sarma’s emotionally stirring adaptation audiences will be able to bear witness to the extraordinary story of two radiant women who struggle to survive the terrifying political situation they find themselves in. I can’t wait to bring this inspiring and enlightening story to the stage.”

Playwright Ursula Rani Sarma said:

“This play is about the immense strength and endurance of women and how they can survive tremendous suffering to keep those they love alive. It is also about how even in the darkest of times and places, love can grow and sustain the human spirit beyond all pain and hard-ship. It’s about friendship and loyalty, courage and selflessness, grief and violence. What the play has to say about love, endurance, and survival is very much worth listening to for a contemporary audience. There is beauty and strength at the heart of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I feel so proud to be part of its evolution from novel to stage.”

Ursula Rani Sarma is a scriptwriter for stage and screen. Her previous credits include Delicious(Sky), the award-winning film Anywhere But Here, Yerma (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and The Dark Things (Traverse Theatre).

Khaled Hosseini is one of the most widely read and beloved novelists in the world, with over 38 million copies of his books sold in more than seventy countries. The Kite Runner was a major film and was a Book of the Decade, chosen by The Times, Daily Telegraph and Guardian. A Thousand Splendid Suns was the Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year in 2008. Hosseini is currently a Goodwill Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Refugee Agency and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and lives in northern California.

A Thousand Splendid Suns will have set and costume designs by Ana Inés Jabares-Pita, lighting design by Simon Bond, composition by Mahmood Kamen, sound design and co-composition byDave Price with Ben Hart as magic consultant.

Listings Information

2 – 18 May
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Box Office: 0121 236 4455 / birmingham-rep.co.uk

22 – 25 May

Hackney Empire

Box Office: 020 8985 2424/hackneyempire.co.uk

30 May – 15 June
Northern Stage
Box Office: 0191 230 5151 / northernstage.co.uk

25 June – 6 July

Nuffield Southampton Theatres

Box Office: 023 8067 1771 / nstheatre.co.uk

24 HOURS; 48 PERFORMERS; TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND WORDS – NEIL BARTLETT’S NEW NATIONAL ARTWORK

Acclaimed Writer and Director NEIL BARTLETT is travelling across the UK interviewing and recording a hundred remarkable people to create an extraordinary new national public artwork titled 24 HOURS OF PEACE – a twenty-four-hour-long performance dedicated to the work of peace. Taking place at the Royal Exchange Theatre on Remembrance Sunday the theatre will keep its doors open for the full twenty-four hours of the performance of this unique and free event.

The interviewing process has already started and Neil has met with and recorded the voices of some remarkable people, from an 84-year-old Greenham Common veteran to a young volunteer recently returned from a Syrian refugee camp; from a trans activist to an imam; from an ex-sniper who served in Afghanistan to an IRA bomb survivor, all of these one hundred people have one thing in common – they have all committed themselves to working for peace. In creating 24 HOURS OF PEACE Neil will edit the transcripts from the interviews into a single, marathon monologue that will be delivered live on Remembrance Sunday by a company of 48 performers, a relay-team of voices featuring members from Greater Manchester’s diverse communities as well as professional performers.

Launching the project Neil said,

“Every year, the two-minute silence on Remembrance Sunday asks us all to look back, but it also asks us to look forward. Last year, as the amazing moment of the silence ended, I found myself wondering about what the word ‘peace’ that is so often mentioned on the day really means to us all these days. In particular, I started wondering about all the people who go to work every morning to try and turn that powerful little word into some kind of daily reality. So, what I’m trying to do with this performance is to make a space in which some of those very special peoples’ voices can be heard. Whether you choose to come to the centre of Manchester and join the crowd at the Royal Exchange Theatre on Remembrance Sunday for this event – or whether you go online to hear their words as part of the live national twenty-four hour broadcast , I hope people all over the country will take this chance to listen to some of these stories of peace. Trust me, they are amazing.”

Some interviewees include:

Emma Sky OBE – author and activist who served in Iraq as the political advisor to US General Ray Odierno, after acting as the Governorate Coordinator of Kirkuk for the Coalition Provisional Authority. She is currently Director of the Yale University World Fellows program and a Senior Fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Nigel Bromage – founder of Small Steps, an organisation of former members of far-right organisations who have rejected violence and far-right narratives and are now committed to exposing and eradicating far-right extremism in the UK.

Cllr Tommy Judge – Manchester City Councillor, former serviceman and chair of Moss Side Fire Station boxing club.

Audrey Layton – 84 year old former Greenham Common women’s camp resident.

24 HOURS OF PEACE will be performed live on the main stage of the ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE starting at 11.02 on Sunday November 10th – Remembrance Sunday. It will also be broadcast live in its entirety on national digital radio station RESONANCE FM. It is produced by Thomas Carter Projects, in partnership with Royal Exchange Theatre and Resonance FM.

You can follow the project here @24HoursPeace.

FROM NORTHAMPTON TO MILAN TO LEEDS GRAND THEATRE, KINKY BOOTS STRUTS INTO TOWN

From the factory floor of Northampton to the catwalks of Milan, Kinky Boots struts into Leeds Grand Theatrefrom Tuesday 9 to Saturday 20 April 2019.

With songs by Grammy® and Tony® winning pop icon Cyndi Lauper, direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde, Hairspray) and book by Broadway legend Harvey Fierstein (La Cage Aux Folles), this ‘dazzling, fabulously sassy and uplifting’ (TIME OUT) musical celebrates a joyous story of Brit grit to high-heeled hit and is the winner of every major Best Musical award, including threeOlivier Awards, three WhatsOnStage Awards and six Broadway Tony® Awards.

Inspired by true events, Kinky Boots tells the story of Charlie Price, a shoe manufacturer from Northampton who is struggling to live up to his father’s expectations and continue the family business of Price & Son. With the factory’s future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola, a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos. Kinky Boots is a joyous musical celebration about the friendships we discover and the belief that you can change the world when you change your mind.

Kinky Boots will star Kayi Ushe in the role of Lola, Paula Lane, known for her role as Kylie Platt in Coronation Street, as Lauren and Joel Harper-Jackson as Charlie.

Kinky Boots is at Leeds Grand Theatre from Tuesday 9 to Saturday 20 April 2019

Book online at leedsgrandtheatre.com or call Box Office on 0844 848 2700

IN CONVERSATION AT CITY VARIETIES MUSIC HALL

It’s good to talk; The City Varieties Music Hall plays host to a variety of acts with a lot to say.

Friday 5 April 2019

SABE DOUGLAS-HAMILTON

Join Saba Douglas-Hamilton, the highly acclaimed elephant conservationist and wildlife TV presenter of This Wild Life and Big Cat Diaries, for an evening of exciting animal stories and intimate behind the scenes tales of life in Kenya with her young family.

Wednesday 17 April 2019

CONRAD ANKER: Hold fast – Yosemite to Everest to Meru

American rock climber, mountaineer and author.

Wednesday 1 May 2019

SUSIE DENT The secret lives of words

Take a journey into the curious, unexpected and downright surreal origins of the words we use every day. Susie will retell the adventures that lie hidden within such words as lasagne (involving a chamber pot), bugbear (a terrorising monster) and explain such oddities as the silent h in ghost and the mysterious disappearance of kempt, gormful and ruly.

Each evening will include some of Susie’s favourite words from the towns and regions she visits, and she’ll be asking the audience for theirs. You will also hear Susie’s selection of the funniest moments from her 25 years on Countdown and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, as well as some startling results from eavesdropping on a group of waiters!

Saturday 22 June 2019

GILL SIMS Why Mummy doesn’t give a ****!

Author of online sensation Peter and Jane, Gill Sims is the number one best-selling author behind Why Mummy Drinks, Why Mummy Swears and the recently announced Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A ****!

Join Gill as she is interviewed about her blog, books, characters and more; there will be readings from her books and a Q&A.

Saturday 5 October 2019

BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH: The life & rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah

He befriended Nelson Mandela, fought in the 1980s race riots and recorded radical and relevant reggae music with Bob Marley’s former band.

Benjamin Zephaniah was unable to read and write at school but has become one of Britain’s most remarkable poets. Now he’s back with his first tour in eight years to coincide with his remarkable autobiography, The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah. In a compelling and inspiring show, Zephaniah will explain how he fought injustice and discrimination to lead a remarkable life, while sharing a selection of favourite stories and poems.

The Works Entertainment and Fiery Angel Entertainment present…
CIRCUS 1903

• LAST YEAR’S CHRISTMAS HIT RETURNS TO THE UK THIS YEAR TO PLAY ENGAGEMENTS IN BIRMINGHAM, SALFORD AND DUBLIN FOLLOWED BY A TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE IN LONDON
   
• CIRCUS 1903 WILL FEATURE AN ARRAY OF JAW-DROPPING NEW PERFORMERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD ALONGSIDE MANY OF THE EXTRAORDINARY ACTS FROM LAST YEAR
   
• THE INTERNATIONAL SMASH-HIT PHENOMENON BRINGS ALL THE GLAMOUR AND ROMANCE OF THE CIRCUS TO THE STAGE, ALONG WITH TWO VERY LOVEABLE ELEPHANTS, TO DELIGHT ALL MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY
   
• TICKETS GO ON GENERAL SALE THIS WEEK. VISIT WWW.CIRCUS1903.COMFOR FULL DETAILS

Circus 1903 is back! Thousands of people flocked to Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall over Christmas and New Year last year to delight in the wonders of the Golden Age of Circus. Producers today are delighted to announce that the show will return to the UK for a three-week tour to Birmingham, Salford and Dublin ahead of a repeat Christmas season at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

This year’s show will feature many of the best loved acts from last year, including Peanut and Queenie, undoubtedly the most charming elephants on any stage around the world, alongside ringmaster David Williamson. A range of new acts from around the world will join the troupe to astound and delight audiences across the UK.

Full details of the company will be announced in due course and tickets for all four venues go on sale this week, for full details see below.

LISTINGS

CIRCUS 1903

Birmingham Hippodrome
24 October – 2 November
https://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/
Box office: 0844 338 5000
General on sale Wednesday 27 March at 3pm

The Lowry, Salford
19 – 24 November
https://thelowry.com/
Box office: 0843 208 6000
General on sale Friday 29 March

Bord Gáis, Dublin
27 November – 1 December
https://bordgaisenergytheatre.ie/
Box office: +353 (1) 677 7999
General on sale Friday 29 March

Royal Festival Hall
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
19 December – 5 January 2020
www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Box office: 020 3879 9555
Members on sale Tuesday 26 March
General on sale Thursday 28 March

www.circus1903.com  

Explosive Inaugural Season

PERFORMANCE LAB 

Bringing the arts and scientific research together

UCL’s Bloomsbury Theatre and Grant Museum of Zoology

Rare Kurt Weill Opera – Science of Laughter – New musical Man & God – Flute Theatre

Experience eleven energetic live performances created from eleven experiments in science and the arts, as they explode onto the Bloomsbury Theatre’s stage and the Grant Museum of Zoology in the first exciting PERFORMANCE LAB season from Monday 29 April 2019 – Thursday 20 June 2019.

Commissioned  by UCL Culture, PERFORMANCE LAB brings a radical and bold theatrical season of ground-breaking discoveries to the stage. Brought to life by artists, dancers, opera singers, stand-up comedians and UCL academics – a season of symposiums, live performance, discussions and full theatre and musical performances.

Free performances and a top ticket price of £10 makes this exciting new enterprise even more genius!

UCL has a long history of supporting the creative crossover between research and the arts, and now for the first time the hugely innovative PERFORMANCE LAB season explores how research can inspire creativity in the arts and how live performance can animate the cutting-edge research at UCL, one of the world’s leading universities. 

Highlights of the season include a full production of the rarely performed Kurt Weill comic opera The Tsar Wants His Photograph Taken (4/5) casting young opera talents, baritone Edmund Danon as the Tsar and mezzo-soprano Joanna Harries as the leader of the anarchists. The production is a collaboration with Virtually Opera, combining opera and film to create a multimedia production, with full orchestra conducted by award winning conductor Johann Von Stuckenbruck, produced by UCL Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

The Science of Laughter (2/5) is a high octane evening with UCL neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scottexperimenting with the audience and multi-award winning stand-up comedians Tim Key, Stuart Goldsmith (Like I Mean It – Dead Parrot) and Maawan Rizwan (who has amassed 18 million+ views of his comedy YouTube videos.) Discover the secrets of why we laugh and having a good giggle!

MUSO (7/5) an unique comedic evening of opera with UCL academics Subhadra Das (Curator of UCL Science Collections), Dr Chiara Ambrosio (UCL Science & Technology) and Dr Claire Thomson (UCL Scandinavian Studies) as they are joined on stage by Impropera, creating opera on the spot inspired by the untold stories behind some of the exciting research taking place at UCL.

Deconstructing the Dream (15&16/5) developed in collaboration between Kelly Hunter’s Flute Theatre and Professor of Social Neuroscience at UCL Antonia Hamilton, this performance takes you inside Bottom’s brain as he dreams the dreams of Shakespeare. This project inspired the research and enabled new approaches to imaging technologies used by the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience – which will reveal activity in the performers’ brains to the audience.

The Grant Museum of Zoology will open its doors to Vigil, an exciting new performance by award-winning artist Tom Bailey in response to the museum’s unique zoology collection. What’s a Cinnamon-coloured Cryptic Tree Hunter, a Problematic Flasher, a Dusky Seaside Sparrow, or a Fire Millipede from Hell? Vigil is a wild, playful encounter with internationally threatened species and excavates the moving, poetic, often comic qualities in these names, exploring the human experience of mass animal disappearance in a poignant and artistic way.

Sylvia Kluczewski, Producer (Theatre), UCL Culture says: “Performance Lab is an exciting new programme from UCL Culture, which will make public the university’s cutting edge research in a creative experiment with some of the UK’s most innovative artists, musicians and theatre-makers. The university’s recently refurbished Bloomsbury Theatre and world-class museums will welcome academic and artistic communities to develop and to share their work with peers, students and the general public. This first season will generate new ideas and ways of working through workshops, talks and new collaborations, as well as presenting an eclectic range of public performances.

At its heart, the programme unpicks the relationship between academics, artists and live performance, investigating how these collaborations can help us to see the world more clearly.  How does live performance animate research and research inspire great art – we invite the audience to explore with us.”

PERFORMANCE LAB is an exciting new fixture at UCL’s venues including the Bloomsbury Theatre – the home of innovative performance.

PERFORMANCE LAB’s Autumn Season 2019 will continue to develop and grow with more live performance and creative experiments highlighting the extraordinary synergy between culture and research pumping through the veins of UCL – bringing the arts and scientific research together.

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Crowded Room presents
THE LISTENING ROOM
By Harriet Madeley

Directed by Max Barton

• THEATRE COMPANY CROWDED ROOM ANNOUNCES A UK TOUR OF ‘THE LISTENING ROOM’, A CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED PLAY EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF VIOLENT CRIME
• TRUE STORIES OF VICTIMS MEETING THEIR OFFENDERS ARE BROUGHT TO LIFE IN THIS DEVASTATING PLAY WHICH WILL TOUR TO THE LOWRY IN SALFORD, NORTHERN STAGE IN NEWCASTLE, THEATR CLWYD IN MOLD, AS WELL AS PRISONS AND SCHOOLS IN MAY AND JUNE
• THE LISTENING ROOM WILL ALSO BE BROADCAST ON BBC RADIO 4 AND NATIONAL PRISON RADIO FROM 2.15PM-3PM ON MARCH 27TH
   

Following critically acclaimed runs at the Old Red Lion and Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2017, Crowded Room today announces that its production The Listening Room will embark on a UK tour in 2019. The production will visit theatres, prisons and schools across the country including The Lowry in Salford, Northern Stage in Newcastle and Theatr Clwyd in Mold. The OFFIE-nominated cast from the original production will return, including Golden Globe and BAFTA-nominated actress, Cathy Tyson.

Written by Harriet Madeley and directed by Max Barton, The Listening Room explores three violent crimes, each committed by young men, and the extraordinary decision taken by victims and offenders to meet years later. The devastating consequences of the crimes are explored alongside the humanity of the interviewees and the transformative impact of the meetings. In an increasingly fractured and impersonal era, this production uses live performance to explore the power of face to face communication.

The Listening Room has been created from interviews compiled over the course of 2016 conducted with victims and offenders who participated in restorative justice. In 2016 the Office for National Statistics revealed that reoffending rates among young people were at their highest level for 10 years. Restorative justice has been proven to reduce reoffending by as much as 27% and reports have pointed to an 800% return on investment for every pound spent.

Crowded Room will be running workshops for schools and communities alongside the show.

Full dates of the tour are listed below.

LISTINGS

27 March
BBC Radio 4 and National Prison Radio
Broadcast at 2.15pm

14 – 15 May
Theatr Clwyd
www.theatrclwyd.com
01352 701521

16 May
Oldham Coliseum
www.coliseum.org.uk/
0161 624 2829

17 May
HMP Grendon

18 May
Glassbox Theatre
www.glassboxtheatre.com
01634 383 388

21 May
Bethlem Psychiatric Hospital

22 May
HMP Thameside

23 May
Lighthouse, Poole
www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
01202 280000

24 – 25 May
Cheltenham Everyman
www.everymantheatre.org.uk
01242 572573

29 May
Northern Stage
www.northernstage.co.uk
0191 230 5151

30 – 31 May
Harrogate Theatre
www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk
01423 502 116

3 June
HMYOI Brinsford and HMP Stafford

7 June
Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital

8 June
The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre
www.thespring.co.uk
023 9247 2700

10 June
HMP Kirkham

11 June
CAST Doncaster
www.castindoncaster.com
01302 303 959

12 June
Arlington Arts
www.arlington-arts.com
01635 244 246

13 – 15 June
The Lowry, Salford
www.thelowry.com
0843 208 6000

More dates to be announced