Transport Theatre presents
THE EDGE
Devised and Directed by Douglas Rintoul
Designed by James Button
Music Composed by Raymond Yiu
Sound by Helen Atkinson
Lighting by Matt Haskins
Projection by Will Duke

Co-produced with New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
14+

From 8 October to 14 November, Transport, the critically acclaimed Folkstone-based theatre company behind Invisible, 1001 Nights and Elegy will present a brand new devised production, The Edge, with original music composed by award-winning Raymond Yiu. Inspired by real life narratives taken from the south coast of England and the Sundabans in India and developed in collaboration with leading lecturer in coastal oceanography Dr Ivan Haigh, The Edge is an extensive exploration of climate change and migration. Based on an encounter between two people from different cultures that encompasses myths from the sea, the history of human migration, the formation of rivers and seas, the piece will be devised and directed by Douglas Rintoul and the creative team behind Elegy.

A woman steps into the English Channel. A man is swept up by a great storm in West Bengal. Two decades later their children meet on a beach by an English town that’s been abandoned to the sea. She’s training to swim the Channel. He’s a climate change refugee.

Powerful and poetic, The Edge is a love story between two people from different continents and cultures, connected by weather patterns and the shared experience of a radically changing world.Douglas Rintoul, Artistic Director of Transport Theatre was awarded the British Council Connections through Culture Award to visit the Sundarbans in West Bengal India where he worked with the Kolkata based theatre company Ranan, drawing real life narratives from an area directly on the frontline of climate change. The company also worked with young adults in Folkestone, developing an audio and visual work exploring narratives from the Kent Coast. Combining this quantative research from two different continents, Rintoul’s production questions what it really means to live on the geographical edge and explores the universal issue of climate change.

Developed in collaboration with leading lecturer in coastal oceanography Dr Ivan Haigh, with music by award-winning composer Raymond Yiu, The Edge will fuse text, movement, music and projection to transport its audience between continents, exploring the place where the sea meets the land.

In partnership with Kent Libraries, the tour will include a three day site specific run at Folkestone Library, Grace Hill. The production will be filmed in this creative venue and then released digitally to the public for National Library Day 2016.

Douglas Rintoul is Artistic Director of Transport and the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch. He has directed for the Barbican, Hampstead Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Watermill Theatre, Trafalgar Studios, Dundee Rep Theatre, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, National Theatre Studio, Salisbury Playhouse, New Wolsey Theatre, Ice&Fire and Creation and is a long-standing associate director to Complicite and was an assistant and associate director to Deborah Warner. He recently received the Royal National Theatre Foundation Playwright Award for his production Elegy.

Raymond Yiu is the winner of a BASCA British Composer Award, and three times previous nominee. His early work received the advocacy of American composer-pianist-conductor Lukas Foss and he has worked with ensembles and artists including BBC Singers, BBCSO, Chroma, Concorde Ensemble (Ireland), Ensemble 10/10, London Sinfonietta, Lontano, LSO and Andrew Watts. The Original Chinese Conjuror, with libretto by Lee Warren, was commissioned by Aldeburgh Production for the 2006 Aldeburgh Almeida Opera Season. Maomao Yü, a quintet for piano and traditional Chinese instruments was commissioned by LSO for Lang Lang and the Silk String Quartet. The Earth and Every Common Sight, for soprano and piano, won the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize 2010. In April 2013, Teatro Barroco of Vienna mounted a new production of The Original Chinese Conjuror, directed by Bernd Bienert.

TRANSPORT is an internationally minded arts company based in Folkestone. Positioned on a geographical border, the company’s focus is rooted in the near and far looking towards the channel and beyond.

 

 

The Michael Grandage Company has today announced the full company for the UK première of Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51. Nicole Kidman who leads the company as Rosalind Franklin is joined by Will Attenborough (James Watson), Edward Bennett (Francis Crick), Stephen Campbell Moore (Maurice Wilkins), Patrick Kennedy (Don Caspar) and Joshua Silver (Ray Gosling). Photograph 51 opens at the Noel Coward Theatre on 14th September, with previews from 5th September, and runs until 21st November, 2015.

Photograph 51 also sees the return of Michael Grandage Company to the West End following their immensely successful season in 2013/14, also at the Noel Coward Theatre. The company is committed to reaching as wide an audience as possible through accessible ticket prices across their theatre work, and are offering over 20,000 tickets at £10 (including booking fee and restoration levy), which is 25% of the tickets for the entire run, across all levels of the auditorium. In addition, the company will stage access performances – with both captioned and audio described performances.

“The instant I saw the photograph my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race”
Does Rosalind Franklin know how precious her photograph is? In the race to unlock the secret of life it could be the one to hold the key. With rival scientists looking everywhere for the answer, who will be first to see it and more importantly, understand it? Anna Ziegler’s extraordinary play looks at the woman who cracked DNA and asks what is sacrificed in the pursuit of science, love and a place in history.

Nicole Kidman makes her hugely anticipated return to the London stage in the role of Rosalind Franklin, the woman who discovered the secret to Life, in the UK première of Anna Ziegler’s award-winning play. The production reunites Kidman and Grandage following their recent collaboration on the forthcoming feature film Genius.

Will Attenborough plays James Watson. For theatre, his work includes Another Country (Chichester Festival Theatre and Trafalgar Studios) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cambridge Arts Theatre). For television, his credits includes War and Peace, Midwinter of the Spirit, Apocalypse Slough, Home Fires, Father Brown, In the Flesh, Utopia and The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Parts 1 & 2.

Edward Bennett plays Francis Crick. His theatre work includes Love’s Labour’s Lost, Love’s Labour’s Won, Hamlet (RSC) Things We Do For Love, School For Scandal, In The Next Room, Pygmalion, Little Nell, Habeas Corpus and Measure for Measure (Theatre Royal Bath), One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre Tour), Lovesong (Frantic Assembly), 3 Farces, Nan, Skin Game, Diana of Dobsons (Orange Tree Theatre), Plenty (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), The Tempest and As You Like It (BAM/Tour/The Old Vic), Hay Fever (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Othello (Donmar Warehouse). For television, his work includes Miranda, The Scum Also Rises, Above Suspicion and After You’ve Gone; and for film, Skyfall, War Horse, Hamlet and Friends Just United.

Stephen Campbell Moore plays Maurice Wilkins. His theatre work includes Chimerica (Almeida Theatre and Harold Pinter Theatre), Berenice (Donmar Warehouse), Clybourne Park (Royal Court and Wyndham’s Theatre), All My Sons (Apollo Theatre), The History Boys (National Theatre and Broadway), Much Ado About Nothing and Anthony and Cleopatra (RSC), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Albery Theatre), and Richard II and Coriolanus (Almeida at Gainsborough Studio). For television, his credits include Stag, The Wrong Mans, The Go Between, Our Zoo, Hunted, Just Henry, Titanic, Sleepyhead, Pulse, Ben Hur, Larkrise to Candleford, A Short Stay in Switzerland, Ashes to Ashes, Rough Crossings, Hustle, Wallis and Edward, He Knew He Was Right and Byron; and for film, The Lady in the Van, The Ones Below, Adam Jones, Moonwalkers, Man Up, Complicit, Johnny English Reborn, Season of the Witch, Sea Wolf, The Day, The Bank Job, Amazing Grace, The History Boys, A Good Woman and Bright Young Things.

Patrick Kennedy plays Don Caspar. For theatre, his work includes No Quarter (Royal Court), The Glass Menagerie (Shared Experience), Measure for Measure (Plymouth Theatre Royal and tour) Therese Raquin (National Theatre), Everything is Illuminated (Hampstead Theatre), Suddenly Last Summer (Sheffield Lyceum and Albery Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Bristol Old Vic). For television, his work includes Churchill’s Secret, The Money, Downton Abbey, Murder on the Home Front, Boardwalk Empire, Peep Show, Parade’s End, Black Mirror: The National Anthem, Married Single Other, The 39 Steps, Consuming Passions, Einstein and Eddington, The Somme, Bleak House and Cambridge Spies; and for film London Has Fallen, Mr Holmes, November Man, War Horse, The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Last Station, Me and Orson Welles, Atonement, In Transit, A Good Year, Munich, The Tulse Luper Suitcases and Nine Lives.

Nicole Kidman plays Rosalind Franklin. Her theatre work includes The Blue Room (Donmar Warehouse and Cort Theatre, Broadway – Evening Standard Award, Olivier Award nomination). For television, her work includes Hemingway & Gellhorn (Emmy nomination, Golden Globe nomination); and her extensive film work includes To Die For (Golden Globe for Best Actress), Days of Thunder, Moulin Rouge! (Academy Award nomination, Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical), The Others (Golden Globe nomination, Saturn Award), The Hours (Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe for Best Actress and Berlin Silver Bear), Cold Mountain, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, Stoker, Rabbit Hole (Golden Globe for Best Actress, Academy Award nomination), The Paperboy and Paddington. Upcoming films include Strangerland, Queen of the Desert, Genius, Lion and Secret in Their Eyes.

Joshua Silver plays Ray Gosling. For theatre, his work includes Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies (Aldwych Theatre/Winter Garden Theater, Broadway), A Tale of Two Cities (Royal and Derngate), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Blue Stockings (Shakespeare’s Globe), Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (Donmar Warehouse) and The Hotel Plays (Grange Hotel).

Anna Ziegler’s plays include The Last Match (upcoming at The Old Globe in San Diego, CA and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA), A Delicate Ship (upcoming in New York City at The Playwrights Realm; previously produced at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Dov and Ali (Theatre503), Another Way Home (upcoming in Washington DC at Theater J; previously produced at Magic Theatre, San Francisco, CA), and BFF (WET Productions at the DR2 Theatre, New York City). She has been commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Virginia Stage Company and New Georges. Her plays have been developed at The Sundance Theatre Lab, The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, The Araca Group, Old Vic New Voices, and Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab, among many others.

Michael Grandage is Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company in London which he set up with Producer James Bierman in 2012. For the company he directed Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Peter and Alice and Privates on Parade as part of the season at the Noel Coward Theatre, Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes (national tour and West End run at the Vaudeville Theatre later this year) and the forthcoming feature film Genius. He was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse (2002–2012) and Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres (2000–05). He is the recipient of Tony, Drama Desk, Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle and South Bank Awards. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of London, Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam University and is President of Central School of Speech and Drama. He was appointed CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2011. His book, A Decade At The Donmar, was published by Constable & Robins in 2012. His work for the Donmar Warehouse included Richard II with Eddie Redmayne, Luise Miller with Felicity Jones, King Lear with Derek Jacobi, Red with Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne (also New York, Tony and Drama Desk Awards Best Director), Hamlet with Jude Law (also Elsinore and New York), Ivanov with Kenneth Branagh (Evening Standard and Critics Circle Award Best Director), Madame de Sade with Judi Dench and Rosamund Pyke, The Chalk Garden with Penelope Wilton (Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards Best Director), Frost/Nixon with Michael Sheen and Frank Langella (also Gielgud, New York, USA tour, Tony Nomination Award for Best Director), Othello with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor (Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Director), The Wild Duck (Critics’ Circle Award Best Director), Guys and Dolls (Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production), Grand Hotel (Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production and Evening Standard Award Best Director), Caligula (Olivier Award Best Director), Merrily We Roll Along (Evening Standard Award Best Director. For Sheffield Theatres he directed many productions including Don Carlos with Derek Jacobi (Evening Standard Award Best Director).

Director: Michael Grandage; Set and Costume Designer: Christopher Oram
Lighting Designer: Neil Austin; Composer and Sound Designer: Adam Cork

tutti frutti and York Theatre Royal present

SNOW CHILD

Written by Emma Reeves (Hetty Feather, Vaudeville Theatre)

Inspired by Arthur Ransome’s adaptation of The Little Daughter of the Snow

Directed by Wendy Harris Designed by Kate Bunce

Movement by Joanne Bernard Music by Oliver Birch

Cast: Mei Mac, Lizzie Franks and Mark Pearce

TOUR DATES: UK tour from 3 October 2015 – 5 March 2016

 

tutti frutti and York Theatre Royal are delighted to announce that they will be teaming up with Olivier award nominated playwright Emma Reeves to stage the enchanting Snow Child, a new play inspired by Arthur Ransome’s adaptation of The Little Daughter of the Snow.

Due to York Theatre Royal’s closure for its major development, the tutti frutti & York Theatre Royal production will premiere at Arc, Stockton Arts Centre on 3rd October 2015 and then tour the UK until 5 March 2016 including dates at York Theatre Royal, The Lowry, Salford Quays, The Gulbenkian, as well as several London venues. The production will also tour to Hong Kong and Singapore.

As autumn leaves fall and the foxes, wolves and bears hide among the trees, tutti frutti will tell you a magical story about family, love and the power of dreams. The first snow falls. Watching the village children play, a lonely couple yearn for a child of their own. They build a small figure from the ice and snow, and wish very, very hard… until the strength of their longing brings the magical snow child to life before their eyes! She’s a girl like no other. As she dances in the wild landscape and talks with the animals, she brings joy, fun and laughter to the whole village. But it’s not easy, bringing up a wild daughter of the blizzards and the wind. As the seasons turn, and winter gives way to spring and summer, will the Snow Child and her parents find their “happily ever after”? With direction by tutti frutti’s artistic director Wendy Harris, atmospheric music by Ollie Birch, beautiful movement by Joanne Bernard and an inspired design brought to you by Kate Bunce, Snow Child promises to be a winter wonderland of poignant, inventive storytelling to enchant children and families.

Last year playwright Emma Reeves adapted Jacqueline Wilson’s Hetty Feather for the stage and was subsequently nominated in the Best Entertainment & Family category at the 2015 Olivier Awards. Emma has also written some episodes for the forthcoming television version of Hetty Feather. Her other stage adaptations include Carrie’s War, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and Cool Hand Luke. She co-created and wrote the hit CBBC series Eve. Other TV credits include The Dumping Ground, Tracy Beaker Returns, Young Dracula and Sadie J. She has twice been nominated for Writers’ Guild Awards.

Emma said about the new version, “Wendy Harris approached me with her plans for adapting the old Russian tale, “The Snow Child” and I was instantly intrigued and could see how it could form the basis of a show which addressed fundamental questions about parents and children and, generally, what it means to be human. Like all the best legends, there are many versions available, some of which end happily, others not so much. But the central story is always there – two parents who yearn for a child so much that their very love and desperation wills her into being, and a child who loves her parents but doesn’t understand them – and vice versa. I want to write a story about unconditional love, and how we (wittingly or unwittingly) test the people we love – and how we try to forgive them when they fail.

Above all, I thought it was a magical story. I want our audience to love the character of the Snow Child as much as I do. I want them to feel they’ve been transported to a world where anything is possible, and met an irresistible heroine – who feels the same as they do about parents: they can be an incredible nuisance sometimes, but in the end you have to feel sorry for them – and even love them – after all, maybe – just maybe – you need them as much as they need you…?

It’s a story with a winter setting, which uses all the magic of winter – but ultimately I want it to be heart- warming.

This is my first collaboration with tutti frutti and the company has made me feel incredibly welcome. I’m excited to work with this creative team and can’t wait to collaborate on this exciting new show!”

tutti frutti productions are a national touring company creating high quality work for children and their families to enjoy. Based in Leeds, tutti frutti has been delighting children aged 3 and above since 1991. The company tour nationally and internationally to schools, venues, arts centres and village halls through the rural touring schemes. Whether it is a commission or an adaptation of a book, tutti frutti aims to work with the best artists and actors to create a unique and special experience for all who attend. Previous tutti frutti and York Theatre Royal co-productions have included, When We Lived in Uncle’s Hat, Hare and Tortoise, Rapunzel, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and last year The Princess and the Pea.

York Theatre Royal is the oldest continuously running theatre outside London and is currently under-going a £4.1million redevelopment to its front of house and auditorium areas. An Arts Award Good Practice Centres for 2014-15, the theatre is nationally recognised as an inspiring centre for children and young people participating in the arts and as a specialist in creating highly original and engaging theatre for families that has helped to grow audiences for theatre regionally and nationally. Through forging strong artistic partnerships with other theatre companies, like tutti frutti and Pilot Theatre, they continue to create a significant body of work that has regional and national impact.

Snow Child opens at Arc, Stockton-on-Tees on the 3rd October and will then tour until 5th March 2016. The tour will include dates at Arts Centre Washington (30 Nov-5 Dec), Gulbenkian Theatre (8-20 Dec), The Lowry Salford Quays (22 Dec-3 Jan) and York Theatre Royal (23 Feb-7 Mar).

Snow Child is suitable for everyone aged over 3.

 

 

Townsend Productions in association with the Official Shrewsbury 24 Campaign, Harrogate Theatre and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre present

UNITED WE STAND

By Neil Gore

Director Louise Townsend Designer: Amy Yardley

Lighting Designer: Brian O’Carroll

Music Director: John Kirkpatrick

Cast: Neil Gore and William Fox

NATIONAL PRESS NIGHT:

Monday 2 November at 7.30pm -The CLF Art Café, Block A, Bussey Building, Peckham

A Q+A with Ricky Tomlinson and Tom Watson will follow the performance.

After a successful national tour last year, a new play based on the story of the “Shrewsbury 24” when 24 building workers were accused and three jailed for violent picketing and intimidating workers in Shropshire in 1973, is set to open in London this November.

United We Stand, by Neil Gore, will open at The Bussey Building in Peckham from 2-14 November.

In the 1960s and 70s the UK’s building companies were making millions re-building the country, but building workers faced the most dangerous working conditions and poorest wages of any trade. In the summer of ’72, for twelve weeks, 300,000 building workers launched their industry’s first national all-out strike to end cash “lump” wages and seek better pay by using the controversial tactic of ‘Flying Pickets’. The partial success of the strike, and the methods used, enraged the construction industry and government, and culminated in the arrest of 24 builders in North Wales who were charged with offences including conspiracy to intimidate and affray. The “24” were prosecuted at Shrewsbury Crown Court in 1973 and three were jailed, including building workers Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson.

Sharp and humorous, United We Stand tells the story behind the compelling dispute and dispels the myth, put about at the time, that the pickets were a criminally violent rather than ordinary working men seeking a better life for themselves and their fellow workers.

Combining Townsend Productions’ trademark cast of two playing multiple roles, grand theatrical style and wit with popular and political songs about the strike, arranged by re-nowned folk musician John Kirkpatrick and Ricky Tomlinson’s poems from his time in prison, the production aims to bring the full story of the compelling dispute to life in a powerful and thought-provoking new play.

The events surrounding the strike are still making headlines to this day, and 42 years on, the high-profile Shrewsbury 24 Campaign, led by picket turned actor Ricky Tomlinson is still seeking to overturn the unjust prosecution of the 24 building workers.

Ricky Tomlinson said about the play:

“I am delighted Townsend Productions are presenting a play about the 1972 building workers strike, and the plight of the Shrewsbury 24 building worker pickets. It is 41 years since I, together with Des Warren and John McKinsie Jones were charged with conspiracy and jailed.

We were charged with conspiracy, but we believe the real conspiracy was between the government, the building contractors and the judiciary. They wanted the prison sentences to act as a deterrent, to prevent workers from taking strike action.

Every worker should know what happened to us so as to ensure it does not happen again.”

United We Stand is directed by Louise Townsend and will be designed by Amy Yardley, with lighting by Brian O’Carroll and music by John Kirkpatrick, one of most prolific figures on the English folk scene. The various roles will be played by Neil Gore and William Fox.

Throughout the run there will be post show discussions on the play and its relevance to to-day’s society with amongst others Ricky Tomlinson, Tom Smith MP, Matt Wrack (General Secretary FBU) and Dave Smith (Black Listing Campaign).

The production is produced in association with Harrogate Theatre and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre and sponsored by Southwark Socialists, part of the Independent Socialist Network and has the backing of the unions UNITE, NUT, Unison, RMT, GMB, Amiel melburn & Unity Theatre Trust.

United We Stand will run at The CLF Art Café, Block A, Bussey Building from 2-14 November

For more info visit www.townsendproductions.co.uk

 

LISTINGS

Dates: Monday 2- Saturday 14 November at 7.30pm

Venue: The CLF Art Café, Block A, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, Peckham, SE15 4ST

Ticket prices: £12 (Concessions £10; Mondays all tickets £5)

Box office details: 07812 063 409 or online at http://www.clfartcafe.org

 

Townsend Productions in association with Harrogate Theatre and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

By Stephen Lowe, based on the book by Robert Tressell

Adapted for two-hander by Neil Gore

Directed by Louise Townsend

Musical Director of arrangement of songs: John Kirkpatrick

Designer: Fine Time Fontayne

Lighting Design: Brian O’Carroll

Cast: Neil Gore and Jonathan Markwood

NATIONAL PRESS NIGHT:

Monday 12th October at 7.30pm -The CLF Art Café, Block A, Bussey Building, Peckham

Followed by a Q&A with playwright Stephen Lowe and actor Johnny Vegas (subject to availability)

Townsend Productions is delighted to announce that it will be staging their acclaimed two hander production of Stephen Lowe’s version of Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at the Bussey Building in Peckham from 5-31 October at 7.30pm.

The production, which is produced in association with Harrogate Theatre and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre, is the first part of a double bill of political plays to be performed at the Bussey Building throughout October and November. From 2-14 November the company will be staging their latest production United We Stand, which tells the story of the controversial Shrewsbury 24 and the imprisonment of Ricky Tomlinson and Des Warren.

Using instrumentation, songs of the period, movement, physicalisation, comedy and characterisation to create the spirit and clarity of the political message, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists shares with its audience a year in the life of a group of painters and decorators, as they renovate a three-storey town house for Mayor Sweater. It traces their struggle for survival in a complacent and stagnating Edwardian England. These workers are the “philanthropists” who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.

Combining Townsend Productions’ trademark cast of two playing multiple roles, grand theatrical style and wit with popular and political songs arranged by renowned folk musician John Kirkpatrick , the production, remains as vivid and as relevant as when it was written almost a century ago.

Stephen Lowe’s version of the story was first seen in 1978, when Joint Stock Theatre Company toured the country playing to packed houses. The play was revived at the Half Moon Theatre, London in 1983 and again for a touring production by the Birmingham Rep in 1991. Stephen’s plays have been staged at London’s Royal Court (Tibetan Inroads, Moving Pictures and Body and Soul) Royal Shakespeare Company, (Divine Gossip/ Ostrovsky’s The Storm) Hampstead Theatre (Revelations) as well as premieres at most of the leading repertory theatres. His work has been staged by directors/ producers including Alan Ayckbourn, Richard Eyre, Steven Daldry, Danny Boyle, Jonathan Church, Annie Castledine, and Thaddeus O’Sullivan. His television work includes his BBC-2 adaptation of Stendhal’s Scarlet and Black starring staring Ewan McGregor and Rachel Weisz, and the four-part BBC2 psycho-thriller Tell-Tale Hearts starring Bill Patterson Stephen also written over 100 episodes of Coronation Street.

Lowe said about the production, “After 30 years involvement with ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ since my original version with Joint Stock in 1978, I’ve seen many productions from Alabama to Perth, Cape Town to Nottingham, and each time performers and audiences alike have felt the piece to be totally relevant and ‘of the time’. This new two handed version follows that tradition and speaks out to the present economic and political

reality in a clear, uncompromising but hugely entertaining way, through the energetic and brilliant performances of the two performers and storytellers.”

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ excellent cast features Neil Gore (Song of Singapore, Chichester Festival Theatre and the West end) and Jonathan Markwood (Return to the Forbidden Planet, National Tour).

The production is directed by Louise Townsend, designed by Fine Time Fontayne, lighting by Brian O’Carroll and features music by John Kirkpatrick, one of the most prolific and acclaimed figures on the English folk scene.

Throughout the run there will be post show discussions on the play and it’s relevance to today’s society with amongst others playwright Stephen Lowe, Megan Dobney (General Secretary of SERTUC), actors Johnny Vegas and Liz Carr, Christine Blower (NUT) and Doug Nichols (Gen Sec GFTU)

The production is produced in association with Harrogate Theatre and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre and sponsored by Southwark Socialists, part of the Independent Socialist Network and has the backing of the unions UNITE, NUT, Unison, RMT, GMB and Amiel Melburn trust.

For more info visit www.townsendproductions.org.uk

 

LISTINGS

Dates: Monday 5- Saturday 31 October at 7.30pm

Venue: The CLF Art Café, Block A, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, Peckham, SE15 4ST

Ticket prices: £12 (Concessions £10; Mondays all tickets £5)

Box office details: 07812 063 409 or online at http://www.clfartcafe.org

 

Freedom Studios present the world premiere of

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS AT BRADFORD INTERCHANGE

A new play by Rav Sanghera

Director: Tom Wright Set Designer: Emma Williams

Dates: 6-10 October -Bradford Interchange Train and Bus Station

From Freedom Studios, the producers of the acclaimed Home Sweet Home and The Mill – The City of Dreams comes Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange, a new site- specific promenade production inspired by the people who work and travel through Bradford’s iconic Interchange station.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange will run at the Bradford Interchange from the 6-10 October.

Directed by Tom Wright (The Container, Young Vic and Home Sweet Home, Freedom Studios) the debut play by Sheffield playwright Rav Sanghera will take the audience through familiar and hidden parts of the Bradford Interchange train and bus station celebrating the city’s warmth, welcome, humour and grit in a series of intertwining stories.

From the cleaner who is always there to listen, to the asylum seeker who sits outside the station asking for help, Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange tells five powerful stories where cultures collide and connect, love blooms in different places and everyday people interact, meet, work, start and end journeys.

To research the play, playwright Rav Sanghera has spent time absorbing the comings and goings at Bradford Interchange, interviewing bus and train station staff, people who work in the shops and its many passengers. He has also talked to organisations which support people new to the city and individuals about their experiences of arriving in Bradford

Director Tom Wright said

“When I started out as Freedom Studios’ Associate Director three years ago, I encountered Bradford for the first time, as an outsider. As I met Bradfordians from across the City’s many different communities, they all told me the same thing; they were fiercely proud of being part of such a diverse city, a city which embraced

difference. Here, they could be part of a community based on their background, but also part of the wider city, without having to compromise on either.

When Rav approached us with the idea of using Bradford Interchange; the meeting point of trains, buses, taxis, rental bikes and pedestrians, and so the potential meeting point of people from dozens of different backgrounds, to celebrate everything which makes Bradford special, it made sense that this would be the perfect location to stage a theatrical celebration of the city. “

Bradford-based Freedom Studios is an award-winning intercultural theatre company, which connects different people and communities through story-telling and making theatre. Engagement is intrinsic to their work, and communities are at the heart of what they do.

The production will be designed by Emma Williams (Refugee Boy, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Touring). The cast will be announced in the coming weeks.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange will run at the Bradford Interchange from the 6-10 October.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange is supported by the Arts Council Bradford Metropolitan District Council and is part of the Shine Festival 2015

For more info visit www.freedomstudios.co.uk

 

LISTINGS

Dates: Tuesday 6 – Sat 10 October 2015

Address: Bradford Interchange Bus and Train station, Bridge Street, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 1GY

Performances:1:45pm, 2:05pm, 2:25pm, 7pm, 7.20pm, 7.40pm, 8pm and 8.20pm

Running time: 1hr

Audience Numbers: 12

Ticket Prices:

Adults £10/Concessions and under 16s £5 Tickets available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/93797

Please note that Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange is a promenade performance.

The production is supported by the Arts Council of England and Bradford Metropolitan District Council

 

A new play aimed at young children is set to give a delightful new twist on a traditional fairy tale as well as tackle the issue of homophobic bullying by spreading a positive message about diversity and acceptance.

Devised by the critically acclaimed Action Transport Theatre, Happily Ever After is inspired by the Dutch children’s book King and King by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland – banned and challenged in some countries – which tells the story of two princes who fall in love and live happily ever after. The new play will premiere at the Unity Theatre from 17-19 September as part of Homoptia 2015 and then do a short tour in the North West.

Happily Ever After uses Action Transport Theatre’s trade-mark highly visual, wordless storytelling and comedy clowning to engage children in high quality art. The production, which successfully toured to eight primary schools in Cheshire in 2014, will be supported by expert wrap-around activities which have been created in collaboration with LGBT Youth North West and will enable parents and schools to tackle homophobia whilst promoting mutual respect, equality and diversity amongst primary school children

Directed by Action Transport Theatre’s artistic director Nina Hajiyianni and featuring a cast of international actors, Happily Ever After aims to help raise awareness amongst primary school children around homophobia, gender expectations and ‘difference’, promoting respect and understanding, and equipping children, parents and teachers with a vocabulary around same sex relationships.

Nina Hajiyianni said about the new play, ’There is an absence of gay identities in theatre and wider culture for young children at primary school age yet homophobic bullying in secondary school is still rife, and more and more families now include same sex adult parents or carers or have other family members who are gay. Where are those children’s lives validated or represented in art? Not to mention for younger children who identify as gay themselves. The play powerfully but unintentionally addresses this and the subject of same-sex marriage but not in a heavy handed preachy way.

The production simply and expertly plays with the conventions and symbols associated with ‘the fairytale’ and gently subverts the assumed norm, which usually involves a prince and princess. The show is a word-less production which fuses clowning, physical theatre and dance, drawn from European theatre trends.”

Through the production and working with LGBT Youth North West we hope it will introduce children to the concept of diversity at a young age and also help to reduce the negative experience of “coming out” that most lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people experience during school years.”

In May a teacher and an assistant principal at a North Carolina elementary school resigned after the teacher’s decision to read his class King and King was met with a parental backlash.

Almost two thirds of young people have experienced direct homophobic bullying in schools according to a recent survey by charity Stonewall. Nine in ten secondary school teachers and more than two in five primary school teachers say homophobic bullying occurs in their school with the word ‘gay’ often being used as an insult.

Action Transport Theatre exists to put new writing and young people at the heart of UK Theatre. Based in Ellesmere Port, Action Transport Theatre is the only specialist new writing and dedicated young people’s theatre company in Cheshire. The company is driven by its mission to present theatre that is innovative, surprising, challenging and, most importantly, by, for and with young people.

LGBT Youth North West is a regional organisation that seeks to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people in the North West of England. LGBT North West do this by offering Services for Young People across the region as well as Training and Consultancy opportunities from workshops for young people through to bespoke training for professionals working in the youth sector.

Happily Ever After will open at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre from 17-19 September and then tour to Z-Arts in Manchester (25-26 September) and Ellesmere Port’s Whitby Hall Studio Theatre (2-3 October). The production will tour nationally in 2016 and 2017.

Happily Ever After is aimed at children aged 5+

For further information on Action Transport and LGBT Youth North West visit www.actiontransporttheatre.org and www.lgbtyouthnorthwest.org.uk respectively.

 

CREATIVE TEAM

Director – Nina Hajiyianni

Devised by Action Transport Theatre

Designer –Rebecca Palmer

Cast – Ady Thompson, Paul Curley, Eve Shotton and Bruno Mendes

Listings

17-19 September (17th at 6pm, 18th at 1.30pm and 19th at 11am & 2pm) -Unity Theatre, Liverpool

Tickets: £6 Box Office: 0151 7094988 or www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk

25-26 September (25th at 10am and 26th at 2.30pm) -Z-Arts, Manchester

Tickets: £8 (£6 concessions) Box Office: 0161 2326089 or www.z-arts.org

2-3 October (2nd at 1pm & 3rd at 2pm) -Whitby Hall, Ellesmere Port

Tickets: £6 Adults, £4, £18 family ticket Box Office: 0151 3572120 www.actionstransporttheatre.org/whitby-hall/whats-on

Northern Broadsides present

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER

By Oliver Goldsmith

Director: Conrad Nelson

Designer: Jessica Worrall

Lighting Designer: Mark Howland

Musical Director/arranger: Rebekah Hughes

Cast: Jon Trenchard, Lauryn Redding; Guy Lewis, Alan Mcmahon, Howard Chadwick, Gilly Tompkins, Oliver Gomm, Andrew Price, Hannah Edwards, Andrew Whitehead and Robert Took.

Touring: Friday 29 August-Saturday13 December 2014

Fresh from the critical acclaim of An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides are set to take to road again this autumn to stage Oliver Goldsmith’s much loved 18th century comedy of manners She Stoops To Conquer.

Directed by Northern Broadsides’ Resident Director Conrad Nelson, the production will open at the Viaduct Theatre, Halifax from the 29 Aug to 6 September and then tour the UK until 13 December.

Relocated, in true Northern Broadsides style, from the West Country to the North of England, Goldsmith’s 1773 play is a celebrated story of class, courtship and dysfunctional families. Tongue-tied, uptight Charles Marlow needs a lesson in the art of love. He longs for a wife, but finds it easier to have a bit on the side. Barmaid Kate seems fair game – but there’s more to her than meets the eye.

Set against the increasingly chaotic proceedings of one very long night, She Stoops to Conquer is filled with ludicrous misunderstandings, larger than life characters, outrageous frocks and wigs and plenty of mischief and mayhem.

Designer Jessica Worrall said about the look of the production- “I want to create something that emphasises the constraining nature of the play’s rural society setting but avoids over literal representation. 18th Century folding screens concealed a multitude of mostly unsavoury activities- two giants versions of these will function as the ‘walls’ of the piece and frame the action, creating an almost chamber piece atmosphere. The screens, covered with enlarged digital prints of Gainsborough landscapes, will bring the exterior world inside. The rural setting of the piece and its ’distance’ from London, still deemed to be the centre of society, is a really important element in the design and the over-scaled landscaped walls of ‘Raleigh Hall’ drip with the heads of stuffed animals.

I’ve taken this heightened realism into the costumes. Using references from noted 18th century satirical cartoonists such as Gilray and Rowlandson traditional costume design has been combined with vivid contemporary colours and fabrics to create a world where Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth meet Vivienne Westwood with a large amount of taxidermy thrown in for good measure.”

Directed by Conrad Nelson, the She Stoops to Conquer cast will feature Jon Trenchard (A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Swallows and Amazons, Bristol Old Vic and A Government Inspector, Northern Broadsides); Lauryn Redding (An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides); Guy Lewis ( Twelfth Night, Regent’s Park); Alan Mcmahon (Wind in the Willows, Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Howard Chadwick (A Government Inspector, Northern Broadsides ); Gilly Tompkins (Brassed Off, York Theatre Royal, Octagon Theatre and the Touring Theatre Consortium and Rutherford and Son, Northern Broadsides); Oliver Gomm (The School for Scheming, Orange Tree Theatre); Andrew Price (1984, Northern Broadsides); Hannah Edwards (Inherit the Wind, New Vic, Stoke); Andrew Whitehead (An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides) and Robert Took (Don’t Shoot The Messenger, Mikron Theatre).

The production will feature designs by Jessica Worrall (We are Three Sisters and Wars of the Roses, Northern Broadsides), lighting by Mark Howland (An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides) and music by Rebekah Hughes (The Grand Gesture, Northern Broadsides).

Northern Broadsides is a unique theatre company with a true Northern voice. Their work is characterised by a high degree of theatrical inventiveness and robust performances from a large ensemble cast of multi-talented and charismatic northern actors who all perform in their natural voices. For the past 22 years, they have delighted audiences here and abroad with a growing classic repertoire which has won them many awards and a loyal following worldwide.

She Stoops to Conquer will open at The Viaduct Theatre, Halifax from 29 August to 6 September and then tour to Lancaster, Kingston, Oxford, Harrogate, Cheltenham, Winchester, Scarborough, Leeds, Stoke, Liverpool, York, Huddersfield and Salford Quays. Tickets will be on sale for most venues in the coming months.

For more info visit www.northern-broadsides.co.uk

 

LISTINGS

Fri 29 Aug – Sat 6 Sep at 7.30pm (Mat: 6 Sep at 2.30pm)

Viaduct Theatre, Dean Clough, Halifax -Box Office 01422 255 266 or www.deanclough.com

NATIONAL TOUR DATES

Tue 9-Sat 13 Sep Dukes Theatre, Lancaster

Tue 16-Sat 20 Sep Rose Theatre, Kingston

Tue 23 – Thu 27 Sep Oxford Playhouse

Tue 30 Sept -4 Oct Harrogate Theatre

Tue 7 – Sat 11 Oct – Everyman Cheltenham

Tue 14- Sat 18 Oct – Theatre Royal Winchester

Tue 21 – Sat 25 Oct – Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough

Tue 28 – Sat 2 Nov – West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

Tue 4 – Sat 14 Nov – New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme

Tue 18 -Sat 22 Nov – Liverpool Playhouse

Tue 25-29 Nov – York Theatre Royal

Tue 2 – Sat 6 Dec – Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield

Tue 9 – Sat 13 Dec – The Lowry, Salford Quays

Monkeywood Theatre in association with The Lowry presents the world premiere of

BY FAR THE GREATEST TEAM

Four new stories by Ian Kershaw, Sarah McDonald Hughes, Andrew Sheridan and Lindsay Williams

Director: Martin Gibbons

Designer: Lois Maskell

Music: Ben Almond

Dramaturg: Suzanne Bell

“One City. Two Teams”

This September, Manchester’s award winning Monkeywood Theatre, in association with The Lowry, are set to stage the world premiere of By Far The Greatest Team, four new Manchester stories by four outstanding writers exploring and celebrating what it means to be a football fan in Manchester.

By Far The Greatest Team will kick off at The Lowry, Salford Quays, from the 17-20 September.

Told in a game of two halves, the production tells four new stories about Manchester City, Manchester United, identity, community, and belonging and gets to the heart of why the beautiful game has such an impact on our lives, season after season.

Each new play will be rooted in the truth about people’s lives and will challenge the usual stereotypes about football.

The imaginative new production will see the Quays Theatre at The Lowry, where Monkeywood Theatre are Associate Artists, transformed into a football stadium, recreating the atmosphere of a match day in the city.

The four new plays will be written by Manchester City fans Ian Kershaw (Murder in the Mist, Oldham Coliseum and Channel 4’s Shameless) and Sarah McDonald Hughes (Flesh, Royal Exchange and Once in a House on Fire, The Lowry, Maine Road, BBC Radio 4) and Manchester United fans Andrew Sheridan (Award winning Winterlong, Royal Exchange and Soho Theatre) and Lindsay Williams (Dreamers, Oldham Coliseum, Eastenders and Emmerdale). The production will be directed by Monkeywood Theatre’s Co-Artistic Director Martin Gibbons.

Martin Gibbons said about the new production

“I love football and I love theatre; I love the experience of watching football, the live, immediate, communal experience. Thousands of people holding their breath or celebrating a last minute goal…I want theatre to evoke that pure, emotional, in-the-moment response too.

Manchester is a football city, two clubs and thousands of fans, stories, histories. The BFTGT plays are four separate stories, but we have woven them together so that, I hope, the experience of watching them mirrors the experience of a massive football match – light and dark, tragedy and comedy, life and death. More than that, I hope that the audience feel that they are part of something, a community of people all going through this emotional, visceral experience together.”

Alongside the production and with support from The Lowry, The National Football Museum, Manchester City Football Club and Manchester United Museum and Tour Centre, there will be an exciting programme of creative engagement activities in the city, including an art installation based on the themes of the play, opening at the National Football Museum in September.

Monkeywood Theatre is a Manchester theatre company making and touring innovative, accessible and high quality new plays. Monkeywood Theatre makes plays that are rooted in their Mancunian community and increasingly they work collaboratively with artists and audiences to make their work. A key focus of their work is in attracting, engaging and retaining audiences who do not usually attend theatre. The company are Associate Artists of The Lowry and four times Manchester Theatre Award nominees.

Casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

By Far The Greatest Team is supported with funding from Arts Council England through Grants for the Arts and in partnership with The Lowry and the National Football Museum.

 

Listings

Venue: The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, M50 3AZ

Dates: 17-20 September

Times: 8pm, Mat: 3pm 19 & 20 September

Tickets & Box Office Details

Tickets: £17 (includes £2 booking fee)

Concessions: £2off

Box Office: 0843 2086010

Group Bookings: 0843 2086003 Website: www.lowry.com

The production is supported by Arts Council of England and The National Football Museum

This October Watford Palace Theatre will be producing the world premiere of Coming Up, Neil D’Souza’s evocative, playful and magical new play about family ties, and how quickly we can become disconnected from ourselves. The play was commissioned by Watford Palace Theatre (WPT) and will be directed by Artistic Director Brigid Larmour.

Coming Up tells the story of Alan, who returns to Mumbai on business after more than 30 years. Between meetings and expense account dinners, he visits the Aunt and Cousin he used to know, and makes an unexpected discovery.

The play is one man’s odyssey in search of his Father and ultimately, himself, against the backdrop of a changing world, where old power structures are shifting, and a once third world country is beginning to stand tall.

WPT Artistic Director Brigid Larmour said about the play:

“Like everything we do at Watford Palace it is an original piece, seeking to reflect the diversity and complexity of our identities in contemporary Britain. It is an ensemble storytelling piece, marrying text-based new writing with physical theatre – part of an ongoing collaboration with Movement Director Shona Morris, a Watford Palace Theatre Creative Associate. Five actors will transform into a rich range of characters – from vicars to 7 year olds to Aunties to tigers – on a magical journey between present day Mumbai and a Mangalore village in the 1940s, from upscale restaurants to a lonely clearing in the jungle.”

Neil D’Souza added:

“In ‘Coming Up’ I wanted to explore my own complex relationship with India – a country I am bonded to by blood, yet with which, like many British Asians, I have had a distant, somewhat fractured connection with over the years.

The play itself partly grew out of its title – as, growing up, I would often hear Indians visiting us, say ’India is coming up’. Today you see it in the hyper-modern airports, the hyper-chic shopping Malls, and in the expectations of its people sniffing prosperity on the wind.

I also wanted to write about the Indian Catholics – a small, yet significant minority in India whose stories remain largely untold. I hope that by using 5 actors to portray more than 25 diverse, sometimes fantastical, characters, we can borrow the ‘magic of theatre’ to bring some of the ’magic of India’ on stage.”

Coming Up’s cast will feature the play’s playwright D’Souza’s (How to Hold Your Breath and Khandan (Royal Court; The Man of Mode,(National Theatre) and Tintin, Watford Palace Theatre/West End);Ravin J. Ganatra (A Passage to India, Shared Experience ); Clara Indrani (The Deranged Marriage, Watford Palace Theatre); Goldy Notay (Happy Birthday Sunita, Watford Palace Theatre and the film It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, directed by Gurinder Chadha, Bend it Films) and Mitesh Soni (The Good Person of Sichuan, Mercury Theatre).

Movement Direction is by WPT Creative Associate Shona Morris, whose previous collaborations with Brigid Larmour include Love Me Do by Marks and Gran, and Jefferson’s Garden by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

The production is designed by Rebecca Brower, Associate Designer on Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith) and Peter Pan (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), and designer of Heartbreak Beautiful Hertfordshire County Youth Theatre at WPT).Lighting is by Prema Mehta (Jefferson’s Garden and Fourteen (WPT), Now this is Not the End (Arcola Theatre) and Music is by Arun Ghosh. (The Deranged Marriage, Rifco and WPT).

Casting for Coming Up will be announced in the coming weeks.

Coming Up will premiere at Watford Palace Theatre from Saturday 10 – Saturday 24 October 2015

* Listings

Performance times Saturday 10 – Saturday 24 October, 7.30pm (except Wednesday 14 October, 7pm) Matinees: Saturday 17, Wednesday 21, Saturday 24 October, 2.30pm Running time: 120 minutes (including interval)

Q+A: Monday 19 October

Captioned: 22 Oct

Audio described: 24 Oct at 2.30pm Tickets: Previews Saturday 10 – Tuesday 13 October: £12 Monday to Thursday & Matinees: £20, £17.50 and £11.50 Friday & Saturday: £22.50, £19.50, £15 and £12 Concessions – £4 off Mon-Thu £2 off

Rumour/16-25 – £5

Senior Citizens: £10 on matinees Box Office: 01923 225671 and www.watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk