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King’s Head Theatre  16 – 22 November.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

As part of Festival 45, celebrating its 45th anniversary, the King’s Head is showcasing new writing from around the country. In Living Between Lies, they’ve found a gem.

Written and devised by Underfoot Theatre Company – an all-female group based in London – the play is about four London women and their varying degrees of self-deception.

The stories are told episodically, jumping from one woman’s tale to the next, Alice and Lindsey reveal their stories through monologues, whilst Kim and Laura share the same scenes. This enables the writers and actors to leave the audience with cliff-hangers and shock lines, cleverly increasing the anticipation for the next revealing truth.  

Alice (Magdalena McNab) is an aspiring TV presenter who has sacrificed her dream job to start a family with Harry – who is absent on the night of their anniversary. McNab is wonderful as the self-deluding Alice, allowing the audience to see the fear and anger underneath the pleading phone messages to Harry. Her “interactive art piece” drunkenly performed at Harry’s favourite pub is a fantastically funny and bitter moment, while her scene teaching a class of 6 year olds is a wonderful 21st century update of Joyce Grenfell’s monologues. The innocently brutal questions about her private life and her reactions to them are a highlight of the play.

Lindsey (Orla Sanders) is a driven woman. She sees herself as a “Super” and despise and mocks us “Norms” and our inanity. This is a woman who sees waking up before the alarm as a victory. Sanders is bitingly funny and scary and delivers scathing criticism of humanity and then slips into poetic descriptions of her train journey without missing a beat or losing credibility. Her realisation that she is no different from the Norms is full of revelations about her relationship with her mother and the boss who has betrayed her.

The emotional journey of the two women is shown physically, with Alice becoming less bedraggled as she recognises the truth about her life, and Lindsey becoming less poised and messier as she has to face her reality.

Kim (Aleks Grela) meets Laura (Joanne Fitzgerald) in the hospital waiting room and is coaxed into talking about her life in order to get prescription drugs to feed her addiction. The two actresses interplay is brilliant. Grela  gradually reveals the truth about her dodgy relationship with her shiftless boyfriend – playing the vulnerable, bitter and lost character with great authenticity. Fitzgerald has a ball with Laura – slipping convincing lies into every conversation, then revealing the lie before launching blithely into another.  When Laura is challenged and reveals the truth about her life, it is more ridiculous than any of her lies, and her choice to blur the lines between fantasy and reality seems almost justifiable as she reminds us that everybody lies to themselves, just to get through the day.

This is a great piece of writing, showing how we cope, or not, with life’s disasters. The way we delude ourselves that everything is fine, and how to find our way back when life unravels is ridiculed and celebrated. The message is positive – these women are survivors – even though there is almost a tragic ending; another killer line from Laura.

This is a theatre company to look out for – fantastic energy and ideas.

 

The Old Vic have announced the full cast for their upcoming production of Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder in 2016.

Joining the previously announced Ralph Fiennes in the production, which opens at the Old Vic Theatre in January 2016, will be Linda Emond as Aline Solness, James Laurenson as Knut Brovnik, Charlie Cameron as Kaja Fosli, James Dreyfuss as Dr Herdal and Sarah Snook as Hilde Wangel. Fiennes plays the leading role of Halvard Solness.

Halvard Solness, a master architect, has spent his lifetime building the tallest spires in the land. Now at the height of his career and with a powerful position in the community he seems to have it all, but when Hilde, a radiant country girl, descends unexpectedly into his world cracks begin to show as age is confronted by youth and a series of revelations build to a tragic climax.

Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder is set to run at the Old Vic Theatre in a new adaption by David Hare. Directed by Matthew Warchus, the production also has designs by Rob Howell, sound design by Simon Baker and lighting design by Hugh Vanstone.

Ralph Fiennes is a stage and screen actor whose recent theatre credits include Shaw’s Man and Superman at the National Theatre and Trevor Nunn’s production of The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. His film credits include the new Bond film Spectre, The Grand Budapest Hotel and the Harry Potter films. He made his feature film directorial debut in 2011 with Coriolanus and in 2013 he directed and starred in The Invisible Woman.

Linda Emond is an American actress who was most recently seen on Broadway in the revival of Cabaret at Studio 54, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. She was also nominated for Tony Awards for her performances in Death of a Salesman and Life x3.

Sarah Snook is one of Australia’s most exciting young actresses. Her theatre credits include King Lear (South Australian Theatre Company), Lovely/Ugly: Transformer, Crestfall and S27 (Griffin Theatre Company). Her television credits includeThe Secret River, The Moody’s, Redfern Now, Spirited Series 2, Blood Brothers, Packed To The Rafters, My Place, All Saints and Australian series, The Beautiful Lie, in which she played the lead role.

David Hare is a multi-award-winning writer and author of 32 plays for the stage including Skylight, The Absence Of War,Amy’s View, Pravda and Stuff Happens

The Master Builder runs at the Old Vic Theatre from Saturday 23rd January to Saturday 19th March 2016. Press night is Friday 29th January 2016.

 

The Master Builder
Old Vic Theatre
103 The Cut, London, SE1 8NB
Evenings: Monday to Saturday 7.30pm
Matinees: Wednesday amd Saturday 2.30pm

Final casting and the full creative team are announced today for the eagerly awaited European première of the Broadway musical Grey Gardens, based on an iconic 1975 documentary, telling the spectacular real life rise and fall of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s aunt and cousin, Edith and Edie Bouvier Beale.

Joining the previously announced Olivier Award-winning West End stars, Sheila Hancock and Jenna Russell are: Billy Boyle, who has just finished two years playing Grandpa George in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, is a veteran of the West End stage having played leading roles in over 15 hit shows from his big break in Maggie May in 1964 to Barnaby in Hello, Dolly! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Maurice in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Dirty Dancing.

Aaron Sidwell joins the cast direct from starring as Johnny in Green Day’s American Idiot at the Arts Theatre. His other starring roles include the original West End cast of Loserville (Garrick Theatre) the lead in Cool Rider (Duchess Theatre) and Carl Bruner in Ghost The Musical. He played Steven Beale in over 100 episodes of EastEnders.

Jeremy Legat most recently played Camille in Thérèse Raquin at Finborough Theatre and Park Theatre.

Ako Mitchell’s West End roles include Mufasa in The Lion King, Sweaty Eddie in Sister Act, Gabriel in Fences and Mitch in Jamie Lloyd’s première of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Donmar Warehouse

Rachel Anne Rayham has just played Louisa in The Sound of Music. This is her London professional debut.

The rest of the cast are child actors Alana Hinge, Grace Jenkins, Rebecca Nardin and Eleanor Waldron.

The full creative team are: Director Thom Southerland, Musical Supervisor Simon Lee, Musical Director Michael Bradley, Choreographer Lee Proud, Set Designer Tom Rogers, Lighting Designer Howard Hudson, Sound Designer Andrew Johnson, Costume Designer Jonathan Lipman, Producer/Casting Director Danielle Tarento.

Grey Gardens, with Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie, is produced by Danielle Tarento and directed by Thom Southerland, the award-winning team behind Grand Hotel, Titanic, Parade and Mack & Mabel.

It will open for a 6-week season in The Large at Southwark Playhouse from Saturday 2 January, 2016. Press night is Thursday 7 January at 7.30pm.

Starting in 1941 at an engagement party at Grey Gardens, the Bouvier’s mansion in East Hampton, Long Island, the musical tracks the progression of the two women’s lives from American aristocrats to reclusive social outcasts living in such squalid conditions, in a home overrun by cats, that the Health Department deemed the mansion ‘unfit for human habitation’.

LISTINGS INFORMATION
Danielle Tarento presents the European Premiére of GREY GARDENS
Book by Doug Wright Music by Scott Frankel
Lyrics by Michael Korie
Based on the film Grey Gardens by
David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Mayer and Susan Froemke
Presented by arrangement with
JOSEF WEINBERGER LIMITED

Southwark Playhouse
The Large
77-85 Newington Causeway
London, SE1 6BD
Box Office: 020 7407 0234
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Saturday 2 January – Saturday 6 February 2016

MAUREEN NOLAN JOINS THE CAST OF

FOOTLOOSE: THE MUSICAL

RETURNING IN A BRAND NEW PRODUCTION

TOURING THE UK FROM JANUARY 2016

 

Full casting is announced today for worldwide smash hit musical Footloose: The Musical, which will burst back onto the stage in 2016, touring the UK from January. Full tour schedule attached.

 

Joining the previously announced Gareth Gates as Willard will be Maureen Nolan as Vi Moore.

 

Maureen Nolan has been singing with her sisters since she was nine years old, when they became one of Europe’s first girl bands, The Nolans. Best known for their smash hit single I’m in the Mood for Dancing, The Nolans enjoyed phenomenal record sales worldwide, and worked with some of the world’s most respected artists including Frank Sinatra. On stage, Maureen has played Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers in the West End and on tour to critical acclaim. She was the fourth Nolan sister to play the role, earning them entry into the Guinness Book of World Records. Other credits include Sadie in Girl’s Behind, Jill in Mum’s the Word and Sarah in The Naked Truth.

 

Gareth Gates will play Willard from 29 January until 16 April, returning to the show from 20 June 2016. Gareth rose to fame through the inaugural series of Pop Idol in 2001, going on to sell over 5 million records worldwide and have hits across the globe. His version of Unchained Melody sold over a million copies in the UK and is the 3rd best-selling single of the Noughties. Gareth is also the youngest ever-male solo artist to debut at number 1.  More recently Gareth has enjoyed a successful career on stage, with credits including Les Misérables, Legally Blonde and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. In 2014 Gareth appeared in the final series ofDancing on Ice, and joined boyband 5^th Story as part of ITV’s second series of The Big Reunion, touring arenas with bands including Blue and Five.

 

Luke Baker will play Ren McCormack, the role immortalised on screen by Kevin Bacon. Luke is about to finish playing Theo in Green Day’s American Idiot in the West End, with other West End credits including the Olivier Award-winning Sunny Afternoon, Beautiful Thing and I Can’t Sing.

The cast also features Hannah Price as Ariel Moore, Nigel Lister as Reverend Shaw Moore, Nicky Swift as Ethel McCormack, Joanna Sawyer as Rusty, Matthew Tomlinson as Chuck, Natasha Brown as Wendy-Jo,Miracle Chance as Urleen and Scott Haining as Bickie. The cast also includes Lauren Storer, Natalie Morton-Graham, Luke Thornton and Alex Marshall.

 

Based on the 1984 screen sensation starring Kevin Bacon, Footloose: The Musical tells the story of city boy Ren, who has to move to a rural backwater in America where dancing is banned. All hell breaks out as Ren breaks loose and soon has the whole town up on its feet. Featuring classic 80s hits including Holding Out for a Hero, Almost Paradise, Let’s Hear it for the Boy and the unforgettable title track, Footloose: The Musical is set to take the world by storm once again in this brand new production, bursting with youthful spirit, dazzling dance and electrifying music.

 

When the film was released in 1984, it became the highest-grossing February release in US film history.  The soundtrack album ended the year-long reign of Michael Jackson’s Thriller at number one and went on to top album charts all over the world, eventually selling in excess of 17 million copies.  Footloose was nominated for a Golden Globe, and both the title song and Let’s Hear It for the Boy received Academy Award nominations.Footloose: The Musical first opened on Broadway in 1998 where it ran for 709 performances, with a London production following in 2006, opening at the Novello Theatre following a UK Tour.

 

Footloose: The Musical has music by Tom Snow and lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and is adapted for the stage by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie. It is based on the original screenplay by Dean Pitchford. It is directed by Racky Plews (American Idiot, West End) with choreography by Matthew Cole, design by Sara Perks and musical supervision by Mark Crossland. It is produced by David Hutchinson and Phillip Rowntree for Sell A Door Theatre Company and Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons for Runaway Entertainment. It is presented by arrangement with R&H Theatricals Europe.

 

www.footloose-musical.com

@FootlooseTour

 

2016 UK TOUR

 

Friday 29 January – Saturday 6 February 2016

BRIDLINGTON Spa

Box Office www.thespabridlington.com | 01262 678258

Monday 8 – Saturday 13 February 2016

DARTFORD Orchard Theatre

Box Office www.orchardtheatre.co.uk | 01322 220000

 

Tuesday 16 – Saturday 20 February 2016

EDINBURGH Festival Theatre

Box Office www.edtheatres.com | 0131 529 6000

 

Monday 22 – Saturday 27 February 2016

LOWESTOFT Marina Theatre

Box Office www.marinatheatre.co.uk | 01502 533200

Monday 29 February – Saturday 5 March 2016

CARDIFF New Theatre

Box Office www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk | 029 2087 8889

Monday 14 – Saturday 19 March 2016

MANCHESTER Palace Theatre

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/palace-theatre-manchester | 0161 245 6600

 

Monday 21 – Saturday 26 March 2016

CARLISLE Sands Theatre

Box Office www.thesandscentre.co.uk | 01228 633766

 

Monday 28 March – Saturday 2 April 2016

PORTSMOUTH King’s Theatre

Box Office www.kingsportsmouth.co.uk | 023 9282 8282

Tuesday 12 – Saturday 16 April 2016

BOURNEMOUTH Pavilion Theatre

Box Office www.bournemouthpavilion.co.uk | 0844 576 3000

 

Tuesday 19- Saturday 23 April 2016

OXFORD New Theatre

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-theatre-oxford | 0844 871 3020

 

Monday 25 – Saturday 30 April 2016

WESTON-SUPER-MARE Playhouse

Box Office www.parkwoodtheatres.co.uk/theplayhouse | 01934 645544

 

Monday 2 – Saturday 7 May 2016

WIMBLEDON New Theatre

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-wimbledon-theatre | 020 8545 7900

 

Monday 9 – Saturday 14 May 2016

LIVERPOOL Empire

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/liverpool-empire | 0151 702 7320

Tuesday 17 – Saturday 23 May 2016

WATFORD COLOSSEUM

Box Office www.watfordcolosseum.co.uk | 01923 571102

 

Tuesday 31 May – Saturday 4 June 2016

DERRY Millennium Forum

Box Office www.millenniumforum.co.uk | 028 7126 4455

Monday 6 – Saturday 11 June 2016

TORQUAY Princess Theatre

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/princess-theatre-torquay | 0844 871 3023

Monday 13 – Saturday 18 June 2016

GLASGOW King’s Theatre

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/kings-theatre | 0844 871 7648

 

Monday 20 – Saturday 25 June 2016

ABERDEEN His Majesty’s Theatre

Box Office www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/venues/his-majestys-theatre | 01224 641122

Monday 4 – Saturday 9 July 2016

BIRMINGHAM Alexandra Theatre

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-alexandra-theatre-birmingham | 0844 871 3011

 

Tuesday 12 – Saturday 16 July 2016

NEWCASTLE Opera House

Box Office www.tynetheatreandoperahouse.uk | 0191 243 1171

 

Monday 18 – Saturday 23 July 2016

WOKING New Victoria Theatre

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-victoria-theatre | 0844 871 7645

 

Monday 25 – Saturday 30 July 2016

BRIGHTON Theatre Royal

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/theatre-royal-brighton | 0844 871 7627

 

Monday 1 August – Saturday 6 August 2016

BRISTOL Hippodrome

Box Office www.atgtickets.com/venues/bristol-hippodrome | 0844 871 3012

 

The UK’s longest established contemporary dance powerhouse, Rambert are back in Newcastle next year with a brand new show celebrating the dual forces of nature and art.  Thought provoking, visually stunning, and featuring Tyneside-born dancer Adam Park, the new tour is set to blow audiences away at Newcastle Theatre Royal 2 – 4 Feb ‘16.

 

The tour programme features two new pieces – the Picasso-inspired The 3 Dancers and Frames, which takes us into a choreographer’s world, and a third piece, which was one of the huge successes of 2014 – The Strange Charm of Mother Nature.

 

The 3 Dancers is inspired by the tragic love triangle behind Picasso’s masterpiece of the same name.  A new work from former Rambert dancer Didy Veldman, it will explore the eternal themes of the painter’s work: love, desire and death. An internationally-renowned choreographer, Veldman uses a total of six dancers, three dressed in white and three as their shadows or darker selves in order to delve into the social, psychological and human elements of Picasso’s work.

 

Veldman, well known for her theatrical style and earthy choreography, reveals how Cubism can be applied to movement to create the fragmented world which is so characteristic of Picasso’s work. The 3 Dancers features an original score by Australia’s leading composer Elena Kats-Chernin.

 

Frames is a new work from another Rambert alumni, Alexander Whitley, which lays bare the process of making a dance performance. Twelve performers assemble and dismantle the set, move lighting and change angles, constantly creating new spaces and playing with what’s revealed and what’s hidden in their sequences of highly technical dancing.

 

This thought-provoking work, which sees dancers create a stage within a stage, is a continuation of Whitley’s collaboration with award-winning visual artists Tuur Van Balen and Revital Cohen and is accompanied by a new score from Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason.

 

The Strange Charm of Mother Nature, which premiered in September 2014, is inspired by particle physics and the recent discovery of the Higgs boson ‘God Particle’. Continuing choreographer Mark Baldwin’s fascination with science which has seen previous pieces inspired by the theories of Einstein and Darwin, the show sees dancers fizz with the energy of the miniscule building blocks that created life, the universe and everything. The work is set to a musical score of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.3, Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks and a new piece by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

 

This season, the company once again features north-east born dancer Adam Park, aged 24, of Jesmond who trained at Dame Allan’s and Dance City and has been in the company for four years.  Adam last performed with Rambert at Newcastle Theatre Royal in 2012 as part of the Seven for a Secret tour.

Rambert appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tue 2 – Thu 4 February 2016 (Evenings: 7.30pm, Matinee: Thursday 2pm). Tickets are from £12.00

(pay less online) and can be purchased at www.theatreroyal.co.uk or from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge).

 

As part of their season Play On, the Barbican have announced they will be screening a series of filmed productions of Shakespeare plays in January.

To mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death next year, audiences will be given the chance to see highlights from 50 years of the RSC’s filmed productions. Curated by RSC director of screen productions John Wyver, Shakespeare on Screen will feature nine titles from the RSC’s back catalogue.

Trevor Nunn’s 1979 production of Macbeth, which starred Ian McKellen and Judi Dench will be shown alongside Peter Hall’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream from 1959, with Charles Laughton as Bottom. Greg Doran’s 2009 production of Hamlet, which was filmed in an abandoned seminary and released for TV, with David Tennant in the title role, will also be part of the line up.

Alongside this, there will also be Shakespeare on the Silent Screen which will include a screening of Hamlet directed by Sven Gade from 1920, with a new original score composed and performed by Robin Harris and Laura Anstee. A silent version of The Merchant of Venice from 1923 will also be shown.

Elsewhere at the theatre, the Barbican will feature their already announced Shakespeare programme, which includes Forced Entertainment’s playful Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare where Shakespeare’s 36 plays are created through everyday objects.

Ivo van Hove’s Kings of War will open in April and the RSC brings back its heralded performances of Henry IV Part I and II,Henry V and Richard II from this year.

For more information head to www.barbican.org.uk.

To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Shakespeare’s Globe have announced The Complete Walk, a series of specially created short films of each of Shakespeare’s plays.

The films, which will run over the weekend of 23 to 24 April 2016, will be shown for free on screens along the banks of the Thames and will extend from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge.

Produced with the Mayor of London and the British Council, as part of its 2016 Shakespeare Lives programme, The Complete Walk will be filmed on location and feature well-known UK actors. The series will be directed by a selection of young filmmakers and will include new material alongside Globe on Screen titles, footage from the BFI’s Silent Shakespeare films and newly created animation.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, commented how delighted he was to support the project, adding, “Four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare is a titanic figure, whose work still resonates with people of all ages and backgrounds. That is an incredible feat and one that will be rightly celebrated across the world next year.”

The anniversary weekend will also mark the return of the award-winning two year world tour of Hamlet, which will play on the Globe stage for four final performances.

Throughout 2016, the project will be presented in cities across the UK and internationally, after which the films will be accessible on Globe Player.

Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “Shakespeare spent half his life in London, wrote all his plays there, and presented them all beside the Thames…We think it is suitable and fitting that the huge range of his work should be celebrated 400 years after his death in a big free public event, utilising the very latest technology, along a public walkway beside the same dirty old river, so rich with history.”

The Royal Court today announced that Kim Cattrall will not be appearing in the theatre’s upcoming production of Linda.

The theatre tweeted a message confirming that Cattrall will withdraw from Linda and will be replaced by Noma Dumezweni.

According to information on the Royal Court website, the actress has pulled out of the show due to medical reasons. It said: “Yesterday evening (Wednesday) on the advice of her doctors Kim Cattrall withdrew from the Royal Court Theatre’s production of Linda.”

Dumezweni has stepped into the role, and will start in rehearsals from Friday. Cattrall made this statement: “With great sadness and at the advice of my doctors, I will not be able to continue with the Royal Court’s production of Linda. I appreciate all the support I have received from the theatre and cannot thank them enough for allowing me to put my health first.”

Dumezweni’s previous credits include Belong at the Royal Court and Carmen Disruption at the Almeida and ”’Tis Pity She’s a Whore at Shakespeare’s Globe. She won an Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for her turn in A Raisin in the Sun”.

Royal Court artistic director Vicky Featherstone said: “We are all deeply sorry that Kim is unable to continue with the production and she has our warmest wishes. We are extremely grateful and also thrilled that Noma Dumezweni, one of our most brilliant actors, has agreed to take on this challenge at such short notice.”

Linda is a play by Penelope Skinner about a 55-year-old woman embarking on ambitious plans to save the world. The play runs from 25 November to 9 Jan.