Paul Minx and the So and So Arts Club present:
starring Imogen Stubbs and Michael Brandon
12 January – 30 January 2016
After a successful first outing as part of the So and So Arts Club’s Hopefull Rep season at the Hope Theatre last August, Paul Minx’s Offie-nominated drama The Long Road South transfers to the King’s Head Theatre in January, starring Imogen Stubbs (famous for her work with the RSC, as well as a wide-ranging and prolific theatrical career) and Michael Brandon (Episodes, Gallivant).
“a serious, deeply satisfying 90 minutes” The Stage
Set in Indiana 1965 during the long, hot summer of the civil rights movement, the world and that of the Price family is about to change. Their two domestic workers, Grace and Andre, intend to collect their wages and head South to join the voting rights marches. And the Price family — Jake, Carol Ann and their teenage Lolita — are each determined to make them stay.
Laced with wit and bitter irony, The Long Road South tells the story of how a man is forced to confront his demons and go to the lengths of his being to find out who he is and get what’s rightly his.
“an arresting, potent watch with a lot of bold statements to make” The Upcoming
Writer Paul Minx says “The play tells the story of an African-American man who helped raised me. He was gentle, religious and angry – all at the same time. He wanted to be part of the American civil rights movement but never found the personal courage to march or get involved. He didn’t think he was good enough. He was brought down by the ‘day-to-day racism’ – the constant reminders African-Americans received that they weren’t as good as whites. This is the hardest prejudice to fight and it ate away at his soul. I wrote the play as a testament to him.”
The cast also includes Krissi Bohn (Coronation Street, The Bogus Woman), Cornelius McCarthy (Out Of Joint’s Our Country’s Good) and Lydea Perkins (She Stoops To Conquer, Theatre Royal Bath). The show will be directed by Sarah Berger, who founded the So and So Arts Club; a collective of 1200 artists from nine countries, cross-generational and cross-discipline, who have come together to generate paid work. The play was cast by Kate Plantin CDG.
After a bombastic, exciting and innovative 45th year, the King’s Head continues its new artistic policy of being a crucible of new writing and critical rediscoveries, whilst also welcoming the much-anticipated return of pub opera, with the aim of being the best pub theatre in London. The King’s Head offers an unashamedly broad church of programming including theatre, musical theatre and opera, transfers to and from the biggest arts festivals in the world, and a trail-blazing policy of ethical employment on the fringe – if it’s on here, you won’t see it anywhere else.