The most famous speech in drama has reportedly been reinstated to its original place in the Barbican’s current production of Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Hamlet’s existential “To be or not to be” speech, which usually occurs in Act Three of Shakespeare’s play, was originally moved to the beginning of director Lyndsey Turner’s production, as reported by journalists who attended the first preview performance earlier this month.

Writing for The Times, Kate Maltby branded the decision “indefensible”, adding: “‘To be or not to be’ should be the character’s emotional low point: instead, five minutes in, he’s got nowhere further to go.”

But now, according to reports, the speech has returned to its original position ahead of Hamlet‘s official press night next week (25 August).

Directors often make big changes during preview periods and as such the reviews of the first preview performance of Hamlet have been widely condemned.

Writing for the Guardian, director John Tiffany said: “It’s not unusual for a journalist to completely redraft an article or review, so why should it be strange to do the same to a play? Theatre is a living organism. You only know if your show is working when you see it with an audience.”

Hamlet also made headlines earlier this month when its star pleaded with fans to resist the temptation to film his performance on their phones.

Special guests have been announced Willemijn Verkaik’s concert at the Ambassadors Theatre next week (25 August 2015).

Hosted by WhatsOnStage’s  features editor Ben Hewis, the evening will see Verkaik joined on stage by guests Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and James Fox.

Hamilton-Barritt’s recent stage credits include In The Heights at Southwark Playhouse and A Chorus Line at the London Palladium, while former Fame Academy star Fox has appeared in the UK tour of Jesus Christ Superstar and Let it Be on Broadway and in the West End.

Willemijn Verkaik is best known for playing the role of Elphaba inWicked, while her other stage credits include Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in the West End, and Mamma Mia!, Aidaand We Will Rock You in Germany.

Accompanied by a live band and joined by special guests, the concert will see her “take a journey through some of the greatest classic and contemporary musicals of all time, as well as celebrating some of the iconic songs that have defined her career so far.”

Rachel Tucker will return to Broadway later this year to play Elphaba in Wicked, a role she played for over 1,000 performances in the West End.

Tucker, who holds the record for the most consecutive performances of Elphaba in the West End, made her Broadway debut last year in Sting’s musical The Last Ship. She’ll start performances on 15 September.

Tucker said of her long-running stint as Elphaba in the West End: “I got tired, we all do, and had a few off shows, but every time I went on that stage I knew what a big deal it was and I never undervalued it.”

She’ll be joined by fellow newcomer Jonah Platt, who will be making his Broadway debut in the role of Fiyero.

They join a cast which currently includes Kara Lindsay as Glinda, Michele Lee as Madame Morrible, Fred Applegate as The Wizard, Robin De Jesús as Boq, Arielle Jacobs as Nessarose, and Timothy Britten Parker as Dr. Dillamond.

The roles of Elphaba and Fiyero are currently being played by Caroline Bowman and Matt Shingledecker.

The Win Bin is a new play at The Old Red Lion from the team behind the acclaimed Beckett Trilogy at the same theatre earlier in 2015.

Set in an alternate now – where six hopefuls are competing for the last paid job in the arts – how far will they go to get noticed by The Bench.

Bash, a comic book artist, has been shortlisted for the last paid job in the arts, competing against a Taxidermist, Choreographer, Photographer, Writer and Crafter. They claw their way into the brutal final round, a 12 hour assessment day that is monitored by The Bench who judge their every move. When the pressure is through the roof can Bash remember to be herself? How far will she go to be employed?

“When you say ‘sell yourself to us in thirty seconds’ – we are selling ourselves to you, ‘us’ is ‘you’, right? And is it ‘yourself’ as in who I am now in this lift, or all of me previous to being in this lift?”

Combining sketch and comedy The Win Bin might not be so far-fetched especially with the DCMS are modelling 40% funding cuts to the arts sector,

Sara Joyce (Off West End Award nominee) directs Kate Kennedy (Funny Women and Off West End Award nominee) who also wrote the piece. They are joined by Wilf Scolding ( Strange Interlude, National Theatre; Arcadia, English Touring Theatre).

THE WIN BIN
Created by Kate Kennedy and Sara Joyce
Written by Kate Kennedy
Directed by Sara Joyce
Designed by Bethany Wells
Lighting by Nic Farham
Sound by Paul Freeman
Produced in association with Robert F Bradish

Cast: Kate Kennedy & Wilf Scolding

Listings:
1st – 26th September 2015
Tuesday – Saturday at 7:30pm
Saturday matinees 2.30pm
Sunday matinees 3pm
Thursday matinee – 2.30pm 24th September only
http://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/

 

One of the world’s most famous venues launches its first ever late night comedy series from September 2015 – starting off with shows spotlighting the best of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Late Night Laughs, which starts on Friday 11th September, will see both established and up-and-coming comics taking part in unmissable double-headers at the Royal Albert Hall, with gigs hosted by top names from the world of comedy.

While it’s perhaps best-known for its rock, pop and classical shows, the Hall has hosted countless top comics in recent years, including John Bishop, Russell Howard and Russell Brand, while introducing new names in its 150-capacity Elgar Room.

Now that second space will become home to a regular programme of specially curated comedy shows compered by the likes of Richard Herring, Ray Peacock and Ed Gamble.

Mehdi Aoustin-Sellami, Head of Programming at the Royal Albert Hall, said: “We’re delighted to announce the first major comedy festival in our 144-year history. From Andy Zaltzman’s biting satire to Luisa Omeilan’s empowering comments on body image, there’s something for everyone, and even the biggest comedy nerds should find a new and exciting act to discover alongside the host of established names. The only thing these stand-ups have in common – they’re all ridiculously funny.”

Richard Herring said: “I am really looking forward to compering at the Royal Albert Hall’s Late Night Laughs shows and bringing my own cerebral brand of filth to the refined Elgar Room. I had to study Enigma Variations for my O-level, so see this as a fitting revenge. It’s a chance to see some great new young comedians before they become famous and at least one gnarled old comedian who will give them a bitter foretaste of where it’s all going to eventually lead.”

Ed Gamble is also looking forward to the shows – especially playing in these unusually plush surroundings. “I can’t wait to come back to the Elgar Room to perform. I don’t usually get to be in such nice rooms and hopefully the surroundings will add a touch of class to my nonsense,” he said.

After a launch night starring Chortle award winners Holly Walsh and Sofie Hagen, a week of shows commences on Sunday 20 September showcasing the Best of the Fest, with top Edinburgh acts Matt Forde, Felicity Ward and Marcel Lucont taking to the stage.

Then from Friday, October 2, when Alun Cochrane, Lloyd Griffith and host Richard Herring perform, the shows will be in a regular Friday night slot, kicking off at 9:45.

The opening night of the season is scheduled to coincide with the launch of the Night Tube, with the Underground set to run around the clock from South Kensington.

Tickets are £13.24 (£16.30 for Best of the Fest), including fees. For the full programme, go tohttp://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/series/comedy-and-cabaret/

Schedule:
Sunday 11 September
Holly Walsh, Sofie Hagen and host Ray Peacock

Monday 20 September (Best of the Fest)
Carl Donnelly & Phil Wang

Tuesday 21 September (Best of the Fest)
Marcel Lucont & Ed Gamble

Wednesday 22 September (Best of the Fest)
Liam Williams & Mark Cooper-Jones

Thursday 23 September (Best of the Fest)
Nish Kumar & Eric Lampaert

Friday 24 September (Best of the Fest)
Felicity Ward & John Robins

Saturday 25 September (Best of the Fest)
Bec Hill & Matt Forde

Sunday 26 September (Best of the Fest)
Robert Auton & Iain Stirling

Friday 2 October
Alun Cochrane, Lloyd Griffith and host Richard Herring

Friday 9 October
Phil Ellis, Julian Deane and host Ed Gamble

Friday 16 October
Dan Clark, Sean McLoughlin and host Richard Herring

Friday 23 October
Luisa Omielan, Fin Taylor and host Ed Gamble

Friday 30 October
David Trent, Adam Hess and host Richard Herring

Friday 20 November
Mike Wozniack, Steve Bugeja and host Richard Herring

Friday 27 November
Aisling Bea, Gareth Richardson and host Richard Herring

Friday 11 December
Andy Zaltzman, Phil Wang and host Richard Herring

Friday 18 December
Steve Hall, Mark Smith and host Richard Herring

www.royalalberthall.com

 

Theatre503 has announced the appointment of Anna Jordan and Jonathan O’Boyle as their new Associate Directors.

Anna Jordan is an award-winning playwright and director who has had a longstanding affiliation with Theatre503 having previously worked with them on productions including Freak, Vote of No Confidence and Only Human. Her awards include the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2013 for Yen, Best Fringe Production for Chicken Shop at Park Theatre (West End Frame Awards) and Overall Winner for Closer To God (Off Cut Festival).

Having recently directed the sell-out production of Sense of an Ending by Ken Urban at Theatre503, Jonathan O’Boyle is perfectly placed to be back as Associate Director. He was previously Resident Director at Sheffield Crucible and his direction credits include The Surplus (Young Vic), All The Ways To Say Goodbye (Young Vic, 5 Plays Project) and Bash Latterday Plays (Trafalgar Studios/Old Red Lion).

Paul Robinson, Artistic Director of Theatre503, comments, Theatre503’s autumn season has just recently been announced. The season stages four hugely diverse new plays, two of which are the winners of Theatre503’s inaugural Playwriting Award which presented an unprecedented opportunity for playwrights at all levels.

For more information about Theatre503, visit theatre503.com or follow @theatre503.

Rented Space Theatre Company presents the UK premiere of Merchant of Vembley by Shishir Kurup. A mordant and modern re-write of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice transported to the South Asian community of contemporary London.

“He hates me for precisely what I am
A rival businessman not of his faith
I’ll be damned for sure if I forgive that”

The UK premiere of Shishir Kurup’s socially topical and politically provocative Merchant of Vembley opens at the Cockpit Theatre on 6th October. Created by the Rented Space Theatre Company, the show runs until 25th October 2015.

In the ethnically diverse suburbs of North West London where, instead of Christians and Jews, Hindus and Muslims are grappling for power and revealing their prejudices, this wickedly funny and inventive re-write (in iambic pentameter!) of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice fuses music, blank verse, video and pop-references. The play explores forbidden love in multi-cultural societies and how majority groups marginalise the minority – issues that have existed from time immemorial, and are even more relevant and pertinent in today’s political climate.

Debuting to critical acclaim as Merchant on Venice in Chicago(set in Venice Beach, LA – ‘A bracing, ingenious pop-cult revamp.’ Time Out Chicago; ‘A big, new, risky, rumbunctious show’ Chicago Tribune) the play wove post 9/11 paranoia and Islamophobia into a tapestry of South Asian themes. Now relocated to a London inured to the daily news’ obsession with “Terror”, it retains the colour, language and context of the original along with its plea for tolerance and transformation. No punches are pulled and with no bows to political correctness, Kurup’s effervescent script fizzes and crackles on the stage – leaving little mercy but delivering plenty of dark belly-laughs.

Fallen Bollywood star Jitendra comes to London to try his luck with Pushpa, a young Gujarati heiress. In a bid to win her heart (and her late film-director father’s vast fortune – enough to bankroll his return to the silver screen), Jitendra uses his best friend, Devendra as a conduit to borrow money from Muslim money-lender, Sharuk. When Devender defaults, Sharuk claims a dangling ounce of flesh, a penalty that is just too much to bear. In a suitably Bolly-Shakespearean side plot involving arranged marriage, Pushpa must hope Jitendra chooses correctly from answers to a film-inspired test willed by her father on his deathbed.

Director, Ajay Chowdhury said: “I read the play a few years ago and was immediately bowled over by its ambition, wit and topicality as well as preparedness to deal with some pretty tough issues about the inter-personal relationships and prejudices within the South Asian community. Our last transposition of Shakespeare into India with Cymbeline was a huge hit and I’m very excited about doing the same for Merchant.” (‘Chowdhury’s decision to relocate the perennially perplexingCymbeline from Roman Britain to the tense potency of India under the British Raj shed new light on what can be a difficult play to interpret.’ What’s On, London).

Writer Shishir Kurup, explains “I always had a love hate relationship with Merchant of Venice. It is one of Shakespeare’s really flawed yet really beautiful plays yet within the darkness it offers up an interesting look at humanity. I wanted to deconstruct it and bring it into the modern era, so I pulled out all the language, kept the story line and then used the events – to tell story from modern and very particular point of view.”

A cast of eleven actors is headed by Emilio Doorgasingh as Sharuk (Dara, National Theatre; Eastenders), Aria Prasad as Pushpa (The Great Game, Tricycle) and Ishwar Maharaj as Tooranpoi (Rigoletto, Royal Opera House). The creative team includes Ajay Chowdhury, Director (Cymbeline, Etcetera; Half Way House, Tricycle), Sean Cavanagh, Designer (Tempest, Wyndham’s; Joseph & the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, New London), Ben Cracknell, Lighting Design (Beautiful Thing, West End; Saturday Night Fever, Theatre Royal) and Louise Rhoades Brown, Video Design (Aida, Royal Albert Hall).

The play has been funded by Arts Council England.

 

Listings information
Merchant of Vembley
6th – 25th October, Tuesdays –Saturdays 7.30pm, Sundays 2pm
Press Night Friday 9 October 7.30pm
Running time : Two hours and twenty minutes (including a twenty minute interval)
Tickets: £17.50 (£13.50 conc). Group & Student rates available.
For post show talks and events check website.

Swapping Venice for Wembley this irreverent adaption transposes the MOV into a free verse adaptation complete with profanities, prejudices and pentameter.

website: vembley.com
Twitter : @merchantvembley
Facebook: facebook.com/merchantwembley

Creative Team:
Directed by Ajay Chowdhury
Design by Sean Cavanagh
Lighting Design by Ben Cracknell
Video by Louise Rhoades-Brown

Cast
Jarreau Antoine as Armando (Lorenzo in Merchant of Venice)
Shamir Dawood as Jitendra (Bassanio)
Mikhael DeVille as Amithabha (Gratiano)
Emilio Doorgasingh as Sharuk (Shylock)
Vijay Doshi as Yogananda (Salarino)
Anil Goutam as Shivananda (Salanio)
Taj Kandula as Kavita (Nerissa)
Ishwar Maharaj as Tooranpoi (Lancelot Gobbo)
Aria Prasad as Pushpa (Portia)
Ambreen Razia as Noorani (Jessica)

 

A WINNING CELEBRATION:

TEN YEARS OF THE BRUNTWOOD PRIZE FOR PLAYWRITING

THIS YEAR’S WINNERS ANNOUNCED IN NOVEMBER

August is a time to celebrate the theatre; as the world’s largest festival of theatre kicks off in Edinburgh preparations are well and truly underway in Manchester to announce the winners of Europe’s largest playwriting competition, THE BRUNTWOOD PRIZE FOR PLAYWRITING. A partnership between Manchester family-owned business Bruntwood and the Royal Exchange Theatre, THE BRUNTWOOD PRIZE FOR PLAYWRITING will name its new winners on 17 November 2015 and also mark 10 exceptionally rewarding years of the competition.

With 1,938 entries this year an army of over 80 readers are currently reading each individual entry to create a long list of potential winners. In November a shortlist will be handed to this year’s panel of judges chaired by Nicholas Hytner and including journalist Miranda Sawyer, actor Meer Syal, and former Bruntwood Prize winner Vivienne Franzmann. Vivienne said of moving from entrant to judge…

‘Winning a Bruntwood prize completely changed my life. It gave me the chance to become a writer. I feel hugely honoured to be a judge for this year’s competition. It is a real privilege to read the work of other writers and be part of changing the life of someone else.’ Vivienne Franzmann

THE BRUNTWOOD PRIZE FOR PLAYWRITING has had a significant impact of the fabric of playwriting across the UK. Since launching in 2005 the prize has created 17 winners and awarded over £160,000 in prize money, we have developed 16 productions and partnered 30 UK theatres. Past winners includeDuncan Macmillan whose critically acclaimed adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 (Headlong/ Nottingham Playhouse/ Almeida) is currently playing in the West End before beginning an international tour, Alistair McDowall whose play POMONA was an instant hit and Anna Jordan, whose play YEN was a 2013 prize winner and gained exceptional reviews for its premiere earlier this year.

Suzanne Bell, The Royal Exchange’s Literary and New Writing Associate comments…

‘2015 has been an extraordinary year for entries and as our readers work though the scripts it is obvious that the quality is outstanding. Through this prize we have discovered some truly stunning and exceptionally talented writers who have gone on to make waves both here in the UK and internationally. I am sure that this year will be no exception. The longstanding  partnership between Bruntwood and the Exchange means we can support the winners both financially and with advice and mentoring allowing them to hone their craft and create brand new plays for British and international stages.’

Michael Oglesby, Chairman of Bruntwood, adds “Since we founded the Bruntwood Prize ten years ago it has grown into a prize of major significance. The writers who have won previously have gone on to great things and I hope we find more great talent this year.”

The 2015 BRUNTWOOD PRIZE FOR PLAYWRITING winners will be announced on 17 November at a ceremony at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

 

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is Europe’s biggest national competition for playwriting. It is the search for great new plays and great writers. We look for scripts that are original and unperformed, by writers of any experience. The Bruntwood Prize is a partnership between Bruntwood and the Royal Exchange Theatre, for more information visit www.writeaplay.co.uk

The 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting judging panel
Nicholas Hytner (former Artistic Director, National Theatre)
Sarah Frankcom (Artistic Director, Royal Exchange Theatre)
Vivienne Franzmann (playwright and former Bruntwood winner)
Ramin Gray (Artistic Director, Actors Touring Company)
Bryony Lavery (playwright)
Michael Oglesby CBE (Chairman, Bruntwood)
Miranda Sawyer (writer and broadcaster)
Meera Syal CBE (actor and writer).

 

Casting has been announced for the upcoming revival of TS Eliot’s The Cocktail Party, which opens at the Print Room next month.

Abbey Wright’s production will inaugurate the main auditorium at the Print Room’s new home the Coronet; the historic space was until recently used as a cinema and hasn’t housed theatre productions for over a century.

Running from 14 September to 10 October 2015, the production will see Helen Bradbury (Versailles, Top Girls) and Richard Dempsey (Damsel in Distress, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) star as Lavinia and Edward, a recently estranged couple who hold a cocktail party.

The cast also features: Hilton McRae (Unidentified Guest / Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly),Chloe Pirrie (Celia), Christopher Ravenscroft (Alex), John Wark (Peter) and Marcia Warren (Julia).

The 1949 verse drama was Eliot’s most popular play in his lifetime, but has only been occasionally revived since.

Abbey Wright’s most recent production is the West End revival of Richard Bean’s The Mentalists starring Stephen Merchant and Steffan Rhodri.