ACTING FOR OTHERS ANNOUNCES

THE A4O AMBASSADORS

Acting for Others today announces new initiative, The A4O Ambassadors.

They are

Jenny Agutter, Annette Badland, Christopher Biggins, Samantha Bond, Richard Eyre, Ben Forster, Lesley Joseph, Carl Mullaney, David O’Reilly, John Partridge, Wendi Peters, Cleve September, Harriet Thorpe and Hannah Waddingham.

 

The A4O Ambassadors will play an important role in supporting Acting for Others in helping the theatre community through taking part in events, encouraging others in the industry to contribute to the charity’s work and most importantly, raising awareness of the need to raise funds so as to be able to offer support to those in need.

Dame Judi Dench, President of Acting for Others, said today, “Acting for Others is exactly what it means, being concerned about everyone working in the theatre.  I am proud to be associated with it and it is brilliant to welcome some of our supporters as Ambassadors. I congratulate everyone who has gone out of their way to contribute to its success.”

www.actingforothers.co.uk        Twitter: @ActingForOthers

 

With thanks to Rules for hosting The A4O Ambassadors launch on Thursday 13 September.

FULL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR

 

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

 

   STARRING THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED

RICHARD WINSOR

IN THE ICONIC ROLE OF ‘TONY MANERO’

 

 

Full casting for Bill Kenwright’s highly anticipated new production of Saturday Night Fever has been announced. Joining acclaimed dancer and actor Richard Winsor as Tony Manero, in his first leading role in a major musical, is: Kate Parr(Follies) in the role of Stephanie, Owen Broughton (Gus), Michael Cortez (Joey), Raphael Pace (Bobbie C) and Jared Thompson (Double Jay).

 

The cast is completed by: Philip Aiden (Frank Senior); Anna Campkin (Annette); Faizal Jaye (DJ Monty); Melody Jones (Flo Manero); Marios Nicolaides (Frank Junior); and the ensemble: Rhianne Alleyne, Javier Cid, Jess Ellen, Andrew Gordon Watkins, Olivia Kate Holding, Carly Miles, Aimee Moore, Nathan Ryles and Brett Shiels.

 

They are joined, for the first time, by the Bee Gees with Ed Handoll (Barry Gibb), Alastair Hill(Maurice Gibb) and Matt Faull (Robin Gibb) singing the hit soundtrack of the disco classics.

 

Ignite The Inferno. Feel The Fever. Like Never Before.

 

40 years since its famous UK cinema release, Saturday Night Fever is a reimagined and revitalised music and dance spectacular. Opening in London at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 30 August 2018, the nationwide tour includes Liverpool, Dublin, Birmingham, Bristol, Aylesbury, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Blackpool, Llandudno, Bradford and Cardiff.

 

Saturday Night Fever tells the story of Tony Manero, and his reckless, yet thrilling road to dancing success. The musical features the Bee Gees’ greatest hits including Stayin’ Alive, How Deep Is Your Love, Night Fever, Tragedy and More Than a Woman as well as 70’s favorites Boogie Shoes, Disco Inferno and for the first time will feature a group playing the Bee Gees live on stage.

 

The 70’s classic Paramount/RSO movie, with story by Nik Cohn, was an instant hit when it was released in cinemas. The album remains the best-selling movie soundtrack of all time.

Whilst paying homage to the movie, this new stage version promises more drama, more music and hot new choreography. It is directed and produced by Bill Kenwright, with choreography by Olivier Award winning Bill Deamer, designs by Gary McCaan, lighting by Nick Richings, and sound by Dan Samson. The stage adaptation is by Robert Stigwood in collaboration with Bill Oakes.

LISTINGS

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

UK TOUR

 

New Wimbledon Theatre 30 August – 8 September	atgtickets.com/newwimbledontheatre 0844 871 7646
Liverpool Empire Theatre 11 – 15 September	atgtickets.com/liverpoolempire 0844 871 3017
Dublin Bord Gáis Energy Theatre 18 – 22 September	Bordgaisenergytheatre.ie +353 (1) 677 7999
Birmingham Alexandra Theatre 25 – 29 September	atgtickets.com/newalexandratheatre 0844 871 3011
Bristol Hippodrome Theatre 2 – 6 October	atgtickets.com/bristolhippodrome 0844 871 3012
Aylesbury Waterside Theatre 9 – 13 October	atgtickets.com/aylesburywatersidetheatre 0844 871 7607
Glasgow Kings Theatre 16 – 20 October	atgtickets.com/kingstheatre 0844 871 7648
Edinburgh Playhouse Theatre 23 – 27 October	atgtickets.com/edinburghplayhouse 0844 871 3014
Blackpool Opera House 30 October – 3 November	wintergardensblackpool.co.uk 0844 856 1111
Llandudno Venue Cymru 13 – 17 November	venuecymru.co.uk 01492 872000
Bradford Alhambra Theatre 20 – 24 November	bradford-theatres.co.uk 01274 432 000
Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre 27 November – 1 December	wmc.org.uk 029 20636464
Dartford Orchard Theatre 8 – 12 January	orchardtheatre.co.uk 01322 220000
The Hawth Crawley Theatre 15 – 19 January	parkwoodtheatres.co.uk/The-Hawth 01293 553636
Manchester Palace Theatre 22 – 26 January	atgtickets.com/palacetheatremanchester 0844 871 3019
Hull New Theatre 29 January – 2 February	hulltheatres.co.uk 01482 300 306
Canterbury Marlowe Theatre 5 – 9 February	marlowetheatre.com 01227 787787
York Grand Opera House 12 – 16 February	atgtickets.com/grandoperahouseyork 0844 871 3024
Carlisle The Sands Centre 19 – 23 February	thesandscentre.co.uk 01228 633766
Sheffield Lyceum Theatre 26 February – 2 March	sheffieldtheatres.co.uk 0114 249 6000
Newcastle Theatre Royal 5 – 9 March	theatreroyal.co.uk 08448 11 21 21

Website: www.kenwright.com

Gerard Kearns to star in the premiere of Lizzie Nunnery’s new play To Have To Shoot Irishmen

Almanac Arts is delighted to announce full casting for the premiere of Lizzie Nunnery’s new play with songs To Have To Shoot Irishmen which will open at the Omnibus Theatre in London from 2-20 Oct and then tour till the 6 November.

Inspired by the true murder of Irish pacifist Francis Sheehy Skeffington by a British soldier during the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, the new play conjures the shattering impact of those events on his wife and feminist activist Hanna, on William the teenage soldier who guarded Frank, and on Vane the rebellious commander who bears the news of Frank’s death to Hanna.

Playing the role of Frank will be Gerard Kearns who is best known for playingIan Gallagher in Shameless and appearing in the BAFTA Award-Winning The Mark of Cain, both for Channel 4. His other credits include The Last Kingdom, BBC; Looking for Eric, Trespass Against Us and Mike Leigh’s forthcoming filmPeterloo, all Film 4 and onstage in The Accrington Pals and Much Ado About Nothing, Royal Exchange, Manchester.  Next year he will be seen in the HBO/Sky miniseries Chernobyl.

 

Joining Kearns will be Elinor Lawless (The End of Hope, Soho Theatre; King Charles III, Wyndham’s Theatre and Bakkhai, Almedia Theatre) as Hanna;Robbie O’Neill (Little Boy Blue, ITV and Jonathan Strange and Dr Norrell, BBC) as William and Russell Richardson (An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides and A View from the Bridge, Bolton Octagon) as Vane.

Writer Lizzie Nunnery is an award-winning playwright and celebrated singer-songwriter. Lizzie’s first play Intemperance (Liverpool Everyman, Sept 2007) was shortlisted for the Meyer-Whitworth Award. In 2016 she premiered Narvikat the Liverpool Playhouse, which went on to tour to great acclaim. The production was shortlisted for the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and won Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards 2017.

Directed by Gemma Kerr (Hitting Town, Southwark Playhouse) and produced by Almanac Arts and Claire Bigley, To Have to Shoot Irishmen will open at Omnibus Theatre from 2-20 October and will then tour until 6 November

• LISTINGS INFORMATION:

To Have to Shoot Irishmen

Tue 2 – Sat 20 October, 7pm. Sundays at 4pm. No performance on Mondays. See website for more details.

Tickets £16, £13 conc.

12+ years old

Box Office: Tel: 020 7498 4699, Email: [email protected]

Online: www.omnibus-clapham.org

Address: Omnibus Theatre, 1 Northside, Clapham Common, London, SW4 0QW

Twitter: @Omnibus_Theatre

Facebook: @OmnibusTheatre

Instagram: omnibus_theatre

• TOUR DATES –

Thursday 25 -Saturday 27th October at 7.30pm– Liverpool
Everyman Theatre (As part of Liverpool Irish Festival)

Tickets £10-£20

Box Office: Tel 0151 709 4776 / www.everymanplayhouse.com

Tuesday 30 October at 8pm
– Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury

Tickets £13.75, concessions TBC

Box Office: Tel 01227 787787 / www.marlowetheatre.com/

Thursday 1 & Friday 2 November at 8pm- Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury

Tickets £14.50, Concessions £12.50

Box Office: Tel 01743 281281 / www.theatresevern.co.uk/

Monday 5 November at 7.30pm- Mumford Theatre, Anglia Ruskin University,

Cambridge

Tickets £12.50 full price, £10.50 concessions, £8.50 student/child

Box Office: 01223 352932 / www.anglia.ac.uk/mumfordtheatre

Tuesday 6 November at 8pm – The Arts Centre at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk

Tickets £10, £8 concessions, free for Edge Hill University students

Box Office: 01695 584480 / www.edgehill.ac.uk/artscentre

COMMON ANNOUNCES COMMON: CONVERSATIONS WITH FIRST GUESTS JAMES GRAHAM AND JOSIE ROURKE

Artistic Director of COMMON, David Loumgair, today announces COMMON: CONVERSATIONS, a new initiative delivered in partnership with Digital Theatre, English Touring Theatre and Stage Directors UK. The inauguralCOMMON: CONVERSATIONS event will take place at Pleasance, London on Monday 17 September 2018, with guest speakers James Graham and Josie Rourke.

COMMON is an arts organisation which exists to support the UK theatre industry in achieving greater socio-economic diversity, and help make theatre more accessible to the working-class; whether they be artists, audiences or communities. COMMON: CONVERSATIONS is its brand-new series of live hosted conversations and audience Q&A events with the UK’s most revered artists from working-class backgrounds currently working in theatre, alongside high-profile allies of class diversity, openly and honestly discussing their personal relationships with class and the impact this had, or continues to have, on their careers. Further events in the series will be announced shortly.

To maximise the reach of COMMON: CONVERSATIONS, each live event will be filmed by Digital Theatre. Screenings will then be offered to regional theatres across the UK, featuring exclusive content, before being published on digitaltheatre.com and its multi award-winning education platform, digitaltheatreplus.com. Digital Theatre + reaches over 4 million students in secondary schools, colleges and universities in 65 countries.

All ticket buyers will also be offered a free month’s access to digitaltheatre.com.

In addition, the audience Q&A segments – which will include questions taken through social media platforms – will be released as a free-to-download COMMON podcast.

As part of its commitment to being inclusive and accessible, COMMON are introducing a Pay It Forward (PIF) ticket scheme. The Pay It Forward scheme, and the generosity of those with the ability to pay for a PIF ticket, will enable individuals who otherwise wouldn’t have the financial ability to engage with COMMON: CONVERSATIONS to attend the events.

David Loumgair, Artistic Director of COMMON, said today, “COMMON: CONVERSATIONS is an attempt to encourage the theatre industry to finally, once and for all, fully acknowledge the structural barriers to career progression and accessibility for working-class artists and communities.

We want to encourage the theatre industry to commit to creating real, infrastructural change to address these problems, and by hearing the stories and experiences of respected artists from working-class backgrounds who succeeded in forging sustainable careers, COMMON hope to reveal class diversity as a conscious, crucial part of our history and our future as an industry.”

Robert Delamere, Founder of Digital Theatre added, “We’re proud to partner with COMMON to shoot, screen and share their new initiative COMMON: CONVERSATIONS. It’s an initiative with real personal resonance for me. Access to performing arts content without limitation – whether for the audience, for the student or for the artist – is why Digital Theatre came to be.”

COMMON are grateful for the support of Digital Theatre, English Touring Theatre and Stage Directors UK

BAT OUT OF HELL – THE MUSICAL ANNOUNCES ANDREW POLEC’S DEPARTURE FROM LONDON

Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical‘s lead Andrew Polec, who plays the character of ‘forever young’ Strat, is leaving the West End production of the show. Polec, who won the ‘Joe Allen Best West End Debut’ in the Stage Debut Awards 2017 for his performance as Strat, has been involved in the show since the beginning. He commented: 

“Bat Out of Hell – The Musical has changed my life – it’s a true gift. I’ve never felt so warmly welcomed and loved by so many thoughtful, generous people who hold Jim Steinman and Meat’s music so close to their hearts. It’s been an honour being part of this show, and phenomenal to work with this amazing cast and team. Plus – I get to sing this brilliant music night after night for the best fans in the world!

“During the Dominion’s first preview, we were met with a full standing ovation. As I walked onto the stage, I thought the roof of the theatre was going to blow off. As Steinman says ‘I was lost, till you were found’. ‘For Crying Out Loud’, I love you all and I’ll miss you dearly. I’m eternally grateful, thank you. Keep rocking and loving – I will always carry you in my heart.” – Andrew Polec

Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical wowed critics and public alike when it played limited seasons at Manchester Opera House, London Coliseum and Toronto’s Ed Mirvish Theatre in 2017, and has been seen by over 650,000 people to date. It began previews at its latest home the legendary Dominion Theatre on Monday 2 April, with a gala performance on 19t April 2018. It is now booking through to 5 January 2019.

Andrew Polec’s final show starring in the UK version of the musical at The Dominion, London will be on Saturday 1 September 2018. Tickets are available here: https://batoutofhellmusical.com/london/tickets-london/ . More exciting news about Andrew will be announced shortly and his replacement will be announced in the coming days. 

Bat Out Of Hell became one of the best-selling albums in history, selling over 50 million copies worldwide.  16 years later, Steinman scored again with Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell, which contained the massive hit ‘I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’. For the stage musical, the legendary and award-winning Jim Steinman has incorporated iconic songs from the Bat Out Of Hell albums, including You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth, Bat Out Of Hell, I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) and Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad, as well as two previously unreleased songs, What Part of My Body Hurts the Most and Not Allowed to Love.

Jim Steinman’s Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical is a romantic adventure about rebellious youth and passionate love, set against the backdrop of a post-cataclysmic city adrift from the mainland.  Strat, the forever young leader of The Lost, has fallen for Raven, daughter of Falco, the tyrannical, ruler of Obsidian.  It scooped the ‘Evening Standard Radio 2 Audience Award’ for Best Musical in 2017. 

Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical has book, music and lyrics by Jim Steinman, direction by Jay Scheib, choreography by Emma Portner, with musical supervision and additional arrangements by Michael Reed, set design by Jon Bausor, costume design by Jon Bausor and Meentje Nielsen, video design by Finn Ross, lighting design by Patrick Woodroffe, sound design by Gareth Owen, orchestration by Steve Sidwell, casting by David Grindrod CDG, fight direction by Stuart Boother and musical direction by Robert Emery.

Jim Steinman’s Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical is produced by David Sonenberg, Michael Cohl, Randy Lennox & Tony Smith.

Website:  www.BatOutOfHellMusical.com

Twitter & Facebook:  @BatTheMusical

 

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Jim Steinman’s Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical

 

Dominion Theatre

268-269 Tottenham Court Road

London W1T 7AQ

Performances:  Mon-Sat at 7.30pm, Wed & Sat matinee at 2.30pm (N.B.  Performances will be at 2.00pm & 8.00pm on Saturday 8 September)

 

Tickets:  from £15.00

Box Office:  0845 200 7982

Current Booking Period:  to 5 January 2019

Running Time:  2 hours 40 minutes (including interval)

Christmas 2018/19 Performance Schedule

Mon 17 December – 7.30pm

Tue 18 December – 7.30pm

Wed 19 December – 2.30pm & 7.30pm

Thurs 20 December – 7.30pm

Fri 21 December – 7.30pm

Sat 22 December – 2.30pm & 7.30pm

 

Mon 24 December – No Show

Tue 25 December – No Show

Wed 26 December – 7.30pm

Thurs 27 December – 2.30pm & 7.30pm

Fri 28 December – 2.30pm & 7.30pm

Sat 29 December – 2.30pm & 7.30pm

 

Mon 31 December – 7.00pm

Tues 1 January – 7.30pm

Wed 2 January – 2.30pm & 7.30pm

Thurs 3 January – 2.30pm & 7.30pm

Fri 4 January – 7.30pm

Sat 5 January – 2.30pm & 7.30pm

HORRIBLE HISTORIES

Two Shows Live on Stage!

 

Grand Opera House York

Tuesday 30^th – Saturday 3^rd November

 

We all want to meet people from history. The trouble is everyone is dead!

 

The auditorium seems fit to combust spontaneously in an explosion of joy and excitement!
The Times * * * *

 

 

So it’s time to prepare yourselves for two amazing shows with Horrible Histories live on stage! Using actors and ground-breaking 3D special effects, these two astounding shows are guaranteed to thrill you and your children. Historical figures and events will come alive on stage and hover at your fingertips!

 

TERRIBLE TUDORS
From the horrible Henries to the end of evil Elizabeth, hear the legends (and the lies!) about the torturing Tudors. Find out the fate of Henry’s headless wives and his punch up with the Pope. Meet Bloody Mary and see Ed fall dead in his bed. Survive the Spanish Armada as it sails into the audience!

AWFUL EGYPTIANS

From the fascinating Pharaohs to the power of the pyramids, discover the foul facts of death and decay with the meanest mummies in Egypt. Are you ready to rumble with Ramesses the Great? Dare you enter through the Gates of the Afterlife? It’s the history of Egypt with the nasty bits left in!

 

Wholly accessible, educating, entertaining and enjoyable, HORRIBLE HISTORIES live on stage is a tour de force!

BBC.co.uk * * * * *

Tickets from £14

Box Office: 0844 871 3024

Online Booking: www.atgtickets.com/york

Sarah Keyworth wins renowned Herald
Angel Award

Sarah Keyworth has today been awarded a Herald Angel Award for her debut show Dark Horse. The Nottingham-born rising star’s new show at the Pleasance is a semi-autobiographical tale about discovering her own sexuality and gender identity.

Exploring how young girls are raised and the expectations placed on them, the show is an hour of honest hilarity and social interrogation. This refreshingly insightful journey about expectations, gender and self-acceptance makes her debut hour one of the most thought provoking and entertaining at the Fringe.

In her five star review of Sarah Keyworth’s show Dark Horse for The Herald, Gayle Anderson comments, Her debut hour, Dark Horse is a beautifully-crafted and exciting thing. All angst and angles, she hunches over the mic in the style of an asthmatic 1970’s social club MC. The material is fresh, razor-sharp and wonderfully off-kilter. […] Powerful, poignant and achingly funny stuff.

Sarah Keyworth says, I’m so proud and excited to have written a show about something I truly care about and it’s such a joy to have won a Herald Angel for that.

Director of Pleasance, Anthony Alderson adds, We’re over the moon that, not one, but two Pleasance shows have been acknowledged in this morning’s Herald Angel Awards. Teatr Biuro Podróży were awarded a Herald Archangel Award. And Sarah Keyworth has been awarded a Herald Angel for her new show Dark Horse. This may be her debut hour in Edinburgh but Sarah is certainly a familiar face from our screens. This poignant show talks about what it means to be a girl. This morning she spoke beautifully about the support network involved in the show and how
much this means to her. Huge congratulations from everyone at Pleasance to this very worthy recipient.

Since their inception in 1996, The Herald Angel Awards have been an integral part of the Edinburgh Festival scene, celebrating and rewarding the diverse range of talent from the various festivals including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Jazz & Blues Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Sarah’s deadpan wit has got her far on the comedy scene. After being a semi-finalist in both the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year and Amused Moose Laugh Off, a finalist in the Comedy Knights Fresh Comedian of the Year awards, first runner-up at the Funny Women Awards in 2015 and appearing in the BBC New Comedy Awards, Sarah has gone on to be the tour suppor for Kerry Godliman, Dane Baptiste, Tez Ilyas and Stewart Francis. She was also chosen to be a part of the CKP’s Lunchtime Special, showcasing some of the best upcoming comedians on the circuit. Sarah has also recorded The Big Questions and A Pie and a Pint for Comedy Central and can be heard on the new Helen Lederer BBC podcast Knock Knock.

Sarah Keyworth: Dark Horse performs at Bunker Two, Pleasance Courtyard until Sunday 26 August at 17:30.

Teatr Biuro Podróży win prestigious
Herald Archangel Award

In recognition of their sustained and valued connection with the Edinburgh Fringe, Teatr Biuro
Podróży have today been awarded the Herald Archangel Award. After first performing at the
Fringe in 1995 with Carmen Funebre, it is especially fitting that the award comes to the company
this year as they return with the piece to the Pleasance at EICC alongside its new partner piece
Silence.

Teatr Biuro Podróży have a sterling reputation for breath-taking and haunting large-scale
productions. Using pyrotechnics, stilt-walking and stunning physicality, they have created
extraordinary images of refugees caught up in a spiral of violence and their dreams of escape.

Teatr Biuro Podróży are at the Pleasance this summer with their spectacular outdoor double bill
which considers the refugee experience and the impact of war on civilian populations. The
multi-award-winning show Carmen Funebre will be staged for only four performances to
accompany the new sequel Silence which runs for the full festival.

In her five star review of Silence for The Herald, Mary Brennan comments, It’s twenty-three years since the Polish company, Teatr Biuro Podróży, unleashed the hectic fire, ear-splitting cacophony and Armageddon-on-stilts of Carmen Funebre on an awestruck Fringe. […] They provide a spectacular framework for a collage of evocative images that reach back into history – but are at their most harrowing when echoing our own conflicted times. […] Callous violence, valiant beauty and plaintive humanity over-lap and collide as history repeats in a fiercely physical Silence that asks troubling questions. A viscerally memorable experience for those who stand and watch.

Artistic Director Pawel Szkotak says, we are delighted to receive this award at this Festival, Edinburgh has always been special for us, it was here that we first performed in 1995, in the rain, to a tiny audience in a school playground and ended up winning a Fringe First and the Critics’ Award. Since then we have toured all over North America, India and Europe but we keep coming back here. Our Company is thirty years old this year and this is the most wonderful birthday present. We want to thank the Herald newspaper and especially its performance critic Mary Brennan, who’s seen our work from the beginning and is one of the most perceptive, intelligent and enlightened writers in the world. We also want to thank our first host Richard Demarco, our longstanding friend, and our manager for many years Jane Frere, and our friend and supporter Tomek Borkowy of Universal Arts. Thank you.

Director of Pleasance, Anthony Alderson adds, We’re so thrilled that Teatr Biuro Podróży have been awarded a Herald Archangel Award in recognition of their amazing work at the Fringe over the years. It’s fantastic having them as part of the Pleasance programme this year – not just with Silence but also reviving the inspirational Carmen Funebre. What a perfect tribute to an wonderfully bold company.

Since their inception in 1996, The Herald Angel Awards have been an integral part of the Edinburgh Festival scene, celebrating and rewarding the diverse range of talent from the various festivals including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Jazz & Blues Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Teatr Biuro Podróży performs Silence and Carmen Funebre at the Fringe in 2018, presented by Universal Arts in conjunction with Pleasance Theatre Trust and Assembly Festival. Silence runs until 26th August (not 16th – 19th) at Pleasance at EICC at 21:30; Carmen Funebre runs 16th – 19th August at Pleasance at EICC at 21:30.

Rehearsal images for the first revival of Alan Bennett’s THE HABIT OF ART, which opens at York Theatre Royal on 30 August 2018. The National Tour will then continue through to 1 December 2018

Starring Matthew Kelly as Fitz (W. H. Auden) and David Yelland as Henry (Benjamin Britten), the cast also includes Veronica Roberts as Kay, the Stage Manager, Robert Mountford as the Author, Neil, John Wark as Donald (Humphrey Carpenter), Alexandra Guelff as George, the Assistant Stage Manager and Benjamin Chandler as Tim (Stuart). 

Centered on a fictional meeting between poet W. H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten, THE HABIT OF ART is written as a play-within-a-play – actors Fitz, Henry, Tim and Donald are rehearsing a play called Caliban’s Day under the direction of stage manager, Kay, and in the presence of the playwright, Neil. In Caliban’s Day, a fictitious meeting occurs in 1973 in Auden’s (Fitz) rooms at Oxford not long before he dies. Britten (Henry) has been auditioning boys nearby for his opera Death in Venice, and arrives unexpectedly – their first meeting in 25 years after falling out over the failure of their opera Paul Bunyan.

THE HABIT OF ART is directed by Philip Franks and is produced by The Original Theatre Company, York Theatre Royal, and Ghost Light Productions

2018 TOUR SCHEDULE

30 August – 8 September Theatre Royal York 01904 623568 www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

11-15 September Theatre Royal Brighton 0844 871 7650 www.atgtickets.com/venues/theatre-royal-brighton

17-22 September Salisbury Playhouse 01722 320 333 www.salisburyplayhouse.com

24-29 September Oxford Playhouse 01865 305 300 www.oxfordplayhouse.com On sale soon

3-6 October Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford 01483 44 00 00 www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk On sale soon

8-13 October New Wolsey, Ipswich 01473 295900 www.wolseytheatre.co.uk

15-20 October Richmond Theatre 0844 871 7651 www.atgtickets.com/venues/richmond-theatre

23-27 October Liverpool Playhouse 0151 709 4776 www.everymanplayhouse.com

29 October – 3 November Cambridge Arts Theatre 01223 503333 www.cambridgeartstheatre.com On sale soon

6-10 November Belgrade Theatre, Coventry 024 7655 3055 www.belgrade.co.uk

12-17 November The Lowry, Salford 0843 208 6000 www.thelowry.com

19-24 November Palace Theatre, Southend 01702 351135 www.palacetheatresouthend.co.uk

27 November – 1 December Malvern Theatres 01684 892277 www.malvern-theatres.co.uk

Angry Alan wins Fringe First Award and
announces extra dates

Angry Alan, by multi-award winning playwright Penelope Skinner, has won a prestigious Scotsman Fringe First Award. Widely regarded as one of the UK’s most significant feminist playwrights, Skinner’s darkly comic and provocative new play explores masculinity in crisis

After stumbling across the Men’s Right’s Movement, Skinner began writing Angry Alan, a story about a man being radicalised online by an extremist movement. Searing, timely and achingly funny, this play explores how any extreme political viewpoint can take root in someone’s consciousness if they are vulnerable, and how those who propagate such extreme views aren’t necessarily all they are presenting themselves as

The Scotsman’s world-famous Fringe First awards have been recognising outstanding new writing premiered at the festival since 1973. In their review of Angry Alan, Tim Cornwell writes, Angry Alan marks playwright Penelope Skinner’s welcome return to the Fringe with a brand-new show after nearly a decade. Skinner discovered the Men’s Movement in 2016; her American
partner Donald Sage Mackay, playing Roger, lends an American verisimilitude to the piece. He is perfectly cast, adroitly capturing the character in the simplest staging, with YouTube videos on a screen behind, (the real thing, we’re told). …like the best work, helped by Mackay’s dead-straight portrayal, this piece asks plenty of questions

Having already sold out its Edinburgh run, extra shows will today go on sale for Monday 13th August at 14:00 and 15:20 and Tuesday 14th August at 16:40

Penelope Skinner comments, Making Angry Alan has been a joyful collaboration and audience reactions to the show have been amazing. We hope the play offers an opportunity to engage in conversation and action. We are so excited, pleased and grateful to receive a Fringe First, and to be here in Edinburgh telling this story

Angry Alan is at Underbelly Cowgate (Big Belly) every day until Sunday 26th August at 15:20. It is presented by Francesca Moody Productions and Popcorn Group in association with Underbelly and SEARED