The King’s Head Theatre present their October season:
NOBODY’S BUSINESS
30 September – 24 October, 7pm Tues-Sat
5 GUYS CHILLIN’
1 October – 24 October, 9.30pm Tues-Sat (3pm and 7pm Sun)
Ex-Doctor Who assistant Katy Manning stars in new play Nobody’s Business, directed by John Adams, founding Artistic Director of Paines Plough.
Sybil, much-married caretaker of a business centre, is full of ideas for escaping from her situation. When Hugo, a manipulative adventurer, launches a new business, she inveigles her way in, getting herself appointed director of a company set up for Perkins, an inventor, along with Hugo’s long-suffering artist girlfriend Imogen and Howard, the manager of the centre, whose significant other is his dog. With a woman in a kangaroo suit trying to sell an uncontrollable invention and a dog on the company board, what happens next is nobody’s business.
Katy Manning (Sybil) is probably most famous for her TV work (including a three year stint as Doctor Who’s assistant), but has also performed numerous stage roles, ranging from work at Sydney Opera House through to the Young Vic.
Playwright Sylvia Freedman has had a wide-ranging, critically acclaimed career, and has presented new work at Watford Palace Theatre, the Orange Tree, Lyric Hammersmith and the King’s Head Theatre.
Director John Adams co-founded Paines Plough, Britain’s leading independent new writing company, with the writer David Pownall, being its Artistic Director for 6 years. John has since been Artistic Director of three regional theatre companies: the Octagon Bolton, the Birmingham Rep, and the Haymarket Basingstoke. He has directed first productions of plays by Anthony Minghella, Stephen Jeffreys, Terry Johnson, David Lodge and Derek Lister, and new musical Tomorrowland at the Noviy Opera in Moscow. Other musical productions include Sylvia Freedman’s Rough Music at the King’s Head, Carmen for Clonter Opera, and Wallop Mrs Cox at the Birmingham Hippodrome.
He says: “Directing any good comedy is a challenge and a joy – fun for the actors, and for the audience. But to direct a new comedy (and a very funny one too) as part of the richly diverse King’s Head programme in what is now one of Britain’s most exciting and dynamic theatre spaces is an absolute delight.”
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Alongside, Em-Lou Productions present Peter Darney’s 5 Guys Chillin’: a graphic, gripping, funny and frank verbatim drama exposing the gay Chill-Out scene.
“Wanna pair of shorts? Shot of G? Line of Meth?”
From surgeons to students, couples to kink; guys that love it and lost guys longing to be loved. An original look into a drug-fuelled, hedonistic, highly secret world of Chem-Sex, Grindr and instant gratification.
Taken from over 50 hours of interviews from guys found through Grindr and other social media, this is an important look at the relatively new scene that social media apps have been fundamental in creating. 5 Guys Chillin’ looks at changing attitudes to sex, relationships, dating, HIV and to our perception of what sexual relations can and should be. 5 Guys Chillin’ come direct from its sell-out run at this year’s Brighton Fringe.
***** “Interesting and complex; it’s certainly not preachy and shows the thrills and the rush of modern sex parties” G-Scene
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Now in its 45th year, The King’s Head Theatre is celebrating this anniversary with an exciting new artistic policy after the departure of OperaUpClose, becoming a crucible for new writing and critical rediscoveries. Work from Irvine Welsh, Richard Cameron, Richard O’Brien and Arthur Miller, as well as Mike Bradwell directing for the first time since the 1970s, guarantees that if it’s on here, you won’t see it anywhere else. Led by Adam Spreadbury-Maher, second artistic director following Dan Crawford (who set up the King’s Head as the first pub theatre in 1970), the theatre is the first unfunded venue to have an Equity agreement to pay theatre-makers fair wages since 2011, and continues to do so despite receiving no public funding.
kingsheadtheatre.com / Box Office 0207 193 7845 / @KingsHeadThtr