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The first ever Arabic language adaptation of Oliver!, starring a cast comprised of Syrian refugees and under-privileged Jordanian children, will premiere next month.

The production, which will run at a local community centre in Amman in Jordan, has been spearheaded by journalist and filmmaker Charlotte Eager and William Sterling, of Refuge Drama Productions.

Producer and Oliver! rights-holder Cameron Mackintosh said: “I couldn’t imagine a better way of presenting the story of Oliver Twist’s contemporary relevance than this exciting and imaginative production performed by refugees and children who have had an even harder start to life than Oliver himself.”

The production’s director Khaled Abol Naga, who is a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, added: “We are aiming for an outcome that transforms the refugee and under-privileged children so they become a pride for society.”

Featuring a cast of 36 children, Oliver! opens on 1 September.

Absurdist comic Sam Simmons has won this year’s Forster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award with his show Spaghetti for Breakfast.

Simmons topped a shortlist that also included four-time nominee James Acaster, as well as Joseph Morpurgo, Kieran Hodgson, Nish Kumar, Sarah Kendall, Seymour Mace and Trygve Wakenshaw.

Awards producer Nica Burns said: “Sam Simmons has funny bones. He is a complete original, combining physical comedy with great verbal jokes and a unique take on life.

“His 2015 Edinburgh show is outstanding. This is a comedian at the top of his craft who has grown substantially since his two earlier nominations.”

The Best Newcomer prize went to Sofie Hagen, who Burns described as “a young comic with an effortless engaging style”.

The discretionary panel prize was given to Gilded Balloon founder and artistic director Karen Koren, who is stepping down after a 30-year tenure.

Sky’s head of comedy Lucy Lumsden, who chaired this year’s panel, said: “Karen Koren encapsulates the true spirit of the fringe in so many ways. Entrepreneurial, warm-hearted, a great survivor and a huge supporter and spotter of new talent.”

Simmons takes home a prize of £10,000, while Hagen and Koren win £5,000 each.

Dawn French is reprising her solo show 30 Million Minutes later this year and has announced new dates ahead of its West End run.

The new dates are at the Liverpool Empire (3 November), Fairfield Halls in Croydon (5 November), Worthing Pavilion Theatre (6 November) and Swan Theatre in High Wycombe (8 November).

As previously announced, 30 Million Minutes will run at the Vaudeville Theatre from 11 November to 5 December.

French said: “Look, it’s not a play, it’s not stand up, it’s not a monologue, it’s not a slide show, but it’s something a bit like all of those with some alarming extreme striptease thrown in.”

Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes is directed by Michael Grandage, with set and costume design by Lez Brotherston and lighting design by Willie Williams.

Stars of the UK’s fastest-selling panto, Danny Adams and Clive Webb met with Heart North East Breakfast show presenters Justin and Kelly as it was announced that Heart will be the media partner of the Newcastle Theatre Royal panto, Dick Whittington this year.

 

Father and son team Danny and Clive, were given a tour of the brand new Heart North East studios at Gallowgate, right in the heart of the city centre, as well as a few minutes on the mic for the comedy duo.

 

Hearth North East’s media partnership means the station will be supporting the famous show all the way – in the run up to opening on the Tuesday 24 November 2015, right through until the final curtain on Sun 17 January 2016.

 

Dick Whittington – The Magical Panto Adventure! stars Danny Adams as Dick Whittington , Clive Webb as Councillor Fitzfenwick, and Geordie favourite Chris Hayward as the lovable Dame Rita Fitzfenwick and this year added sparkle and glitter will be showered over the stage by Spirit of the Tyne, played by much-loved North East actress and former Emmerdale star Charlie Hardwick.

 

Year after year the Theatre Royal’s panto continues to be the fastest selling in the country and owes its enduring popularity to the massive talent of its three main stars, visionary producer Michael Harrison and amazing special effects produced by The Twins FX.

 

Father and son duo, Danny and Clive, will feature on Heart’s competition campaign, and local drive presenters Justin and Kelly will lend their voices to the Theatre’s digital panto game.  The Theatre is also providing 400 tickets to Heart North East who will split them across their three chosen charities so that disadvantaged children from across the North East can come and take a sneak peak at the panto during the dress rehearsal.

 

The Newcastle Theatre Royal panto attracts audiences of over 90,000 every year, and this year 60,000 tickets have already been sold a staggering 12 weeks before opening night.

 

Dick Whittington appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tue 24 Nov 2015 – Sun 17 Jan 2016. Tickets are from £12.50 (save 50p per ticket when you book online) and can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge) or book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk

 

Photographs from the press night of McQueen at Theatre Royal Haymarket, which was last night 27 August. The after show party was at The Club at the Hotel Café Royal.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

A MAJOR NEW STAGE PRODUCTION

 

OPENS NEXT WEEK AT LEEDS GRAND THEATRE

 

STARRING

 

IAN KELSEY AS ANDY DUFRESNE

 

PATRICK ROBINSON AS ELLIS ‘RED’ REDDING

 

On announcing he was to bring to an end his role as practice manager Howard Bellamy in BBC One’s Doctors, there was immediate speculation as to what would be next for Ian Kelsey – now, the Yorkshire-born actor is heading back North to star in The Shawshank Redemption at Leeds Grand Theatre next week.

Ian leaves his starring role in a closely guarded story line this November to play Andy Dufresne, a banker who, having been handed a double life sentence for the brutal murder of his wife and her lover, finds himself incarcerated in the notorious Shawshank penitentiary.

 

Joining Ian is television’s Patrick Robinson whose impressive TV career has spanned more than two decades. Patrick is best known for his role as staff nurse-turned-consultant Martin ‘Ash’ Ashford in BBC’s Casualty.

Unflinching in his protests of innocence, Andy strikes up an unlikely friendship with the prison fixer Red, played by Robinson, and things take a slight turn for the better. However, when Warden Stammas decides to bully Andy into subservience and exploit his talents for accountancy, a desperate plan is quietly hatched.

Based on the 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by celebrated author Stephen King, the playexamines desperation, injustice, friendship and hope behind the claustrophobic bars of a maximum security facility.

The 1994 feature film, regularly voted the number one all-time movie, starred Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne andMorgan Freeman as Ellis ‘Red’ Redding and was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Freeman.

The Shawshank Redemption is at Leeds Grand Theatre from Monday August 31^st to Saturday September 5^th.

Tickets are on sale now priced from £18.50 to £35.

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

TOURING CONSORTIUM THEATRE COMPANY AND ROYAL & DERNGATE NORTHAMPTON PRESENT

THE WORLD PREMIERE OF A NEW STAGE ADAPTATION OF

ALDOUS HUXLEY’S DYSTOPIAN MASTERPIECE

BRAVE NEW WORLD

BY DAWN KING

DIRECTED BY JAMES DACRE

WITH ORIGINAL MUSIC BY THESE NEW PURITANS

OPENING IN NORTHAMPTON FOLLOWED BY A UK TOUR

 

I don’t want comfort. I want danger. I want freedom. I want sin.

 

Brave New World, widely considered to be one of the finest and most prophetic dystopian novels of the twentieth century, bursts into life on stage in an adaptation by award-winning playwright Dawn King, directed by James Dacre and designed by Naomi Dawson, with an original new music by the ground breaking British band These New Puritans.

Sophie Ward, whose extensive screen credits include TV series Land Girls, Heartbeat and Holby City, and films including Jane Eyre,Wuthering Heights and Young Sherlock, will play ‘Margaret Mond’, the Regional World Controller for Western Europe (a character that was the male ‘Mustapha Mond’ in the original novel),. Her theatre work includes One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Go Back For Murder and Private Lives. Olivier Award-winning Abigail McKern, last seen in Northampton in A Tale of Two Cities and fresh fromShakespeare in Love in the West End, takes the role of ‘Linda’. The ensemble cast also includes Olivia Morgan (Macbeth, West End,The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare’s Globe), William Postlethwaite (King Lear, Bath Theatre Royal, Collaborators, National Theatre) as John the Savage, Scott Karim (The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s Globe, Great Britain, National Theatre) as Helmholtz Watson, and Gruffudd Glyn (Three Sisters, Young Vic, Hamlet, RSC) as Bernard. The cast also includes Theo Ogundipe as Benito, Samantha Pearl as Polly, James Howard as the Director and David Burnett as Henry.

Theatre Royal Haymarket 27 August – 7 November. Reviewed by Claire Roderick

McQueen gives us a glimpse into legendary designer Alexander McQueen’s visionary imagination.

Writer James Phillips and director John Caird have created a darkly magical experience which begins with Stephen Wight, as McQueen, wandering around the stage almost unnoticed as the audience enters the theatre. Whilst most of the audience is chatting or checking phones, Wight is compelling as he silently searches for inspiration for his next collection.

The play covers a single night, with a girl, Dahlia, who has watched McQueen’s house from a tree for 11 days, breaking in to steal a dress. She believes that the dress will make her someone special. Instead of calling the police, a tormented McQueen takes her on a journey through his London, revisiting significant places and people from his life. Their visit to the tailors where he apprenticed is myth busting yet also enhances the legend of his cutting skills. Once Dahlia has her dress her true motives are revealed, and the dynamic of the relationship changes – now who is saving whom? And will they make it through the night?

Carly Bawden’s Dahlia is spiky and funny, but heartbreaking as she gradually unveils the darkness within her character.

Isabella Blow is an ever present figure in McQueen’s life, drifting on and off stage silently until their eventual confrontation. Tracy-Ann Oberman is a hoot as Blow – quipping acidly with McQueen but with an undercurrent of anger and despair. When she finally lets her mask slip, Blow’s pain and fear are palpable.

Stephen Wight is magnificent as McQueen – he is on stage constantly and gives a captivating performance. From the nervous gestures, the angry rants, suicidal thoughts and philosophical questioning to instances of complete stillness when he “sees” his next creation, Wight makes every moment of this dark fairytale believable.

The set and lighting design enhance the otherworldly feel of the play, even when McQueen is on a rooftop in Stratford. Music from McQueen’s shows is used sensitively throughout – with a fantastic nod to Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Seamless set changes are produced by dancers dressed as McQueen models in routines echoing his fashion shows. A standout routine involves a twisted version of a ballerina music box – a 21st century Truly Scrumptious moment.

The idea that we can be transformed into the people we really want to be by the clothes we wear seems shallow, but McQueen’s explanations of what he sees when he looks at a person, and what his clothes could represent to them for an ephemeral moment, are incisive and enthralling. The play asks big questions about the vacuity of art and the meaning of beauty, love and talent. It tackles guilt, depression and suicide unflinchingly, but still manages to be very funny. When McQueen makes it through the night, the final scene is triumphant, but, as we know his eventual fate, bittersweet.

This is a must-see for all lovers of McQueen’s designs – and for lovers of damn fine theatre. Just like “the stuff” Alexander McQueen made, this play is a challenging, uplifting, disturbing and beguiling thing of beauty… whatever that may be.

A Tyneside groom is following in his great grandfather’s footsteps when he treads the boards of Newcastle Theatre Royal on Saturday, but his won’t be any ordinary performance – the only line he needs to deliver is ‘I do’ !

 

Brett Devenish will marry his fiancée Kerry Drew on Saturday, on the stage of the beautiful Theatre Royal in Newcastle’s Grey Street. And he recently discovered that he won’t be the only family member to have trodden the famous boards.

 

Brett explained: “We found an old photo of my great grandfather helping someone into a costume and on the back of it was the caption ‘Joseph Armstrong dressing Abanazar, 1920s’ the picture is of him working as a dresser at the Theatre Royal and we did a bit of research on the internet and we think that the photo was taken in 1927 when the Wylie-Tate pantomime Aladdin was playing at the Theatre Royal.”

So Brett will be furthering the family connection with the Theatre on Saturday when he takes to the stage in front of over 100 audience members made up of family and friends and marries his fiancée Kerry. Bride-to-be Kerry said: “We wanted to get married somewhere a bit different, we didn’t want the usual hotel wedding and we were looking online and saw that you could get married at the Theatre Royal. We kept it in mind and then a little later we saw an article in the newspaper about a couple who’d held their ceremony at the theatre last year. We both thought that it looked so unusual so we started making enquiries and as soon as we saw how unique it would be we booked our wedding.”

 

The Cullercoats couple are one of two couples getting married during Newcastle Theatre Royal’s wedding week this summer, which takes advantage of the traditional ‘dark’ period at the theatre when no performances are scheduled.

 

But Brett says this will probably be the only time he gets up on stage: “I’m no performer” he said “but we do love going to the Theatre and I think this will be really special for my mum whose grandfather worked here, she thinks it’s really fitting.”

 

Brett and Kerry will marry in a private ceremony on the stage before sharing their evening reception with family and friends in the beautiful public spaces of Newcastle Theatre Royal including the decadent upper circle bar and stylish Olivier Suite.

The groom-to-be added: “We are so excited about getting married at the Theatre Royal on Saturday and can’t wait for people to share the day with us in this distinctive way. People were surprised when they got their invitations and if I had a pound for every time someone has said to me they didn’t know you could get married at the theatre then I could probably have paid for the wedding! But that’s exactly why we chose it – we wanted our wedding to be unique!”

 

For more information about hiring Newcastle Theatre Royal please visit www.theatreroyal.co.uk/hospitality or contact  the development team on [email protected] or 0191 244 2599.

 

McQUEEN

OPENS TONIGHT

THURSDAY 27 AUGUST

AT THE THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET

McQUEEN, which received its world premiere in May at St. James Theatre, where it broke box office records, opens tonight, Thursday 27 August, in London’s West End, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, for a strictly limited season until 7 November.

Written by James Phillips and directed by John Caird, the production stars award-winning actor Stephen Wight in the title role. Janet McQueen, one of Lee Alexander McQueen’s sisters, said of the play and the production at St. James Theatre, “It was as though the play and Stephen’s performance brought Lee back to me again. I felt as though he was real again for me.” Gary McQueen, Lee’s nephew, added, “It does really hit something in your heart.”

Joining Stephen in the West End run will be Carly Bawden in the role of Dahlia. The role was originated by Dianna Agron who is not participating in the transfer due to filming commitments. Reprising their roles as Isabella Blow and Arabella will be Tracy-Ann Oberman and Laura Rees respectively. Michael Bertenshaw will be joining the cast as Mr Hitchcock. Also in the cast will be Harry Alexander, Sophie Apollonia, Amber Doyle, George Hill, Eloise Hymas, Amelia Jackson, Rachel Louisa Maybank, Jessica Buckby and Andrei Teodor Iliescu.

For the transfer to the West End, scenes have been rewritten and an interval has been added. James Phillips said, “I’m so delighted to have McQueen in the West End, and to take this opportunity to refine some things from the original production. For me, it’s also thrilling that we’re going into the Theatre Royal Haymarket, as it was in this theatre that I had my first ever professional job, a few months after leaving college. I was a peasant – a silent role! – in Miss Julie starring Christopher Eccleston, Aisling O’Sullivan and Maxine Peake that Thelma Holt produced. It really is one of the most beautiful theatres I’ve ever been in.”

McQUEEN is a journey into the visionary imagination and dream world of Alexander McQueen, fashion’s greatest contemporary artist. Set on a single London night, it is more than a bio-play. It is stepping into the fairy story landscape of McQueen’s mind, the landscape seen in his immortal shows, where with a dress an urchin can become an Amazon, where beauty might just help us survive the night. A girl has watched McQueen’s Mayfair house for eleven consecutive days. Tonight she climbs down from her watching tree and breaks into his house, to steal a dress, to become someone special. He catches her, but, instead of calling the police, they embark together on a journey through London and into his heart.

Lee Alexander McQueen died on 11 February 2010 aged 40. Born in Lewisham and raised in Stratford, East London, at 16 he served an apprenticeship with Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard. Later, he studied at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design and his graduation collection was bought in its entirety by influential fashion stylist Isabella Blow. He was appointed head designer at Givenchy in 1996, where he remained until 2001. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label, and the Gucci Group acquired 51% of his company in 2000, with McQueen serving as Creative Director. McQueen achieved the title British Designer of the Year four times between 1996 and 2003, and was also awarded the CBE and named International Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers in 2003. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a posthumous exhibition of McQueen’s work in 2011 titled Savage Beauty. The exhibition is currently being shown at the V&A until 2 August.

Stephen Wight was named Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Awards for his performances in Michael Grandage’s production of Don Juan in Soho and Samuel West’s production of Dealer’s Choice. Other theatre includes Nicholas Hytner’s production of The Habit of Art at the National and Sean Foley’s production of The Ladykillers in the West End. On television, he has played Simon in Bluestone 42 (BBC 3), Sam in The Paradise (BBC 1), Mitch in Threesome (Comedy Central), Fletcher in Sherlock and Charles in the BBC mini-series Fingersmith. His films include Wilderness, Highlander: The Source, Weekender with Jack O’Connell, Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Zawe Ashton and Ashes with Jim Sturgess and Ray Winstone.

Carly Bawden’s theatre credits include Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory), Dead Dog in a Suitcase, Tristan & Yseult and The Beggar’s Opera for Kneehigh, My Fair Lady with Dominic West (Sheffield Crucible), Pippin (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Leicester Curve and Gielgud Theatre), and the tours of Whistle Down the Wind and Evita, for which she was nominated for TMA Award for Best Supporting Actress 2009.

Tracy-Ann Oberman played Chrissie in EastEnders, Yvonne Hartman in Doctor Who, Lizzie Clapham in Monroe, Aunty Val in Friday Night Dinner, Mrs Purchase in Toast of London and Diana in the film Filth starring James McAvoy and Jamie Bell. In theatre, she has acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National, including playing opposite Kenneth Branagh in Edmond.

Laura Rees’s theatre credits include Ophelia in Ninagawa’s Hamlet at the Barbican, Christopher Luscombe’s Comedy of Errors, Lucy Bailey’s Titus Andronicus and Kathryn Hunter’s Pericles at Shakespeare’s Globe, and Rupert Gould’s Macbeth and Philip Franks’s Twelfth Night at Chichester.

Michael Bertenshaw’s recent theatre credits include The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well and Anne Boleyn, all for Shakespeare’s Globe. His many television credits include playing Ralph Miliband in the documentary drama Miliband of Brothers, two three-part thrillers Murderland and Oktober, and regular appearances in the drama series Seaforth and in the children’s drama series C.A.B..

James Phillips’s first staged play, The Little Fir Tree, was commissioned by and performed, under his direction, at the Sheffield Crucible in 2004. He wrote and directed The Rubinstein Kiss at Hampstead Theatre in 2005. His most recent plays were Hidden in the Sand, which opened at the Trafalgar Studios in 2013, and City Stories, which was staged at the St. James Theatre Studio during the run of McQueen.

John Caird is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his work includes over 20 productions of classic and new plays including co-productions with Trevor Nunn of Nicholas Nickleby, Peter Pan and Les Misérables. His National Theatre productions include Hamlet and Humble Boy, both with Simon Russell Beale, Stanley with Antony Sher, and his own new version of Bernstein’s Candide for which he won a Laurence Olivier Award.

McQUEEN has production design by David Farley, choreography by Christopher Marney, video design by Tim Bird, lighting design by David Howe, sound design by John Leonard, wigs designed by Linda McKnight and casting by Kate Plantin CDG & Jayne Collins CDG.

McQUEEN is produced at the Theatre Royal Haymarket by Robert Mackintosh, AMIR Ltd, Hilary A. Williams, Deborah Negri, Dead Posh Productions, with Julian Stoneman as executive producer, for and on behalf of McQ Productions Ltd.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

24 August to 7 November 2015

Theatre Royal Haymarket

18 Suffolk Street

London SW1Y 4HT

Box Office: 020 7930 8800

Performances: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm* (no performance on Monday 31 August), Thursdays and Saturdays at 3.00pm**

*7.00pm on Thursday 27 August

**No 3.00pm performance Thursday 27 August

Ticket Prices: £15 – £65 (including booking fees); Premium Seats £85; Previews: £15 – £45

Running Time: 2 hours 10 minutes, including interval Website: www.mcqueentheplay.com

Facebook: facebook.com/McQueenThePlay

Twitter: @McQueenThePlay