SHOREDITCH TOWN HALL TO BEGIN FIRST PHASE OF CAPITAL AND BUILDING DEVELOPMENT PROJECT WITH FAÇADE CLEAN –
AHEAD OF THEATRE REOPENING FOR AUDIENCES IN JUNE 2021
With the successful interactive audio adventure for children and families Curse of the Crackles!currently available online, Shoreditch Town Hall today announces it will begin its three-phase capital and building development project with a large scale clean of the Grade II listed building’s façade, ahead of audiences returning to the building in June. The East London venue will reopen for audiences with the London première of Wayward Productions’ adaptation of Christie Watson’s bestselling memoir, The Language of Kindness, based on her 20 years of experience working as a nurse for the NHS and adapted for the stage and directed by Sasha Milavic Davies and James Yeatman.
The external clean is the first in the building’s 155-year history, and marks the start of the previously announced three-phase capital and building development project that focuses on opening up the building, improving appearance, and removing physical and psychological barriers to better engage with visitors, strengthening the organisation’s civic responsibility for communities in Shoreditch and beyond.
Generously supported by Backstage Trust and managed by Reed Watts Architects, the external clean of the Town Hall’s 48,000sqft building will begin today, Monday 19 April, and will continue until 26 April, delivered by leading scaffold-free façade cleaning experts Thomann-Hanry.
The Language of Kindness runs at Shoreditch Town Hall from 3 – 12 June 2021 concluding its UK tour, produced byWayward Productions, Assembly Hall Theatre Tunbridge Wells, Complicité and Warwick Arts Centre, in association with Shoreditch Town Hall and Guy Chapman. The production will be staged in a Covid safe environment following government guidelines.
James Pidgeon, Director & Chief Executive of Shoreditch Town Hall, today said: “It has long been an ambition of ours to properly clean and give some attention to the façade of our much-loved landmark building, and so I’m delighted that we’re now able to start these works ahead of welcoming audiences back to our building for The Language of Kindness. The clean will no doubt have a transformative impact on the public’s perception of the Town Hall, and is a fitting and timely reminder of our presence and future ambition as we fully emerge from the horror of the last 12 months and continue to serve artistic and local communities in Shoreditch, Hackney and beyond.”
Whilst closed to live audiences, Shoreditch Town Hall has continued to support their local community, offering free workspace and resources for artists through the Made in Shoreditch: Artist Workspace initiative, and providing a series of creative digital workshops for young people as part of the RE(Connect) programme supported by Hackney Council’s Discover Young Hackney programme
Wayward Productions, Assembly Hall Theatre Tunbridge Wells, Complicité and Warwick Arts Centre
in association with Shoreditch Town Hall and Guy Chapman present
THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS
By Christie Watson
Adapted and directed by Sasha Milavic Davies and James Yeatman
Set and Costume Design: Zoë Hurwitz; Lighting Design: Jess Bernberg; Sound Design: Gareth Fry
Video Design: Hayley Egan
Cast: Tina Chiang, Etta Fusi, Tamzin Griffin, Keziah Joseph, Clive Mendus and Harriet Webb
3 – 12 June 2021
Tuesday 8 June: Post Show Q&A with author Christie Watson and members of the cast and creative team.
Wednesday 9 June: BSL Interpreted performance
A new work for a new performance world.
Based on Christie Watson’s bestselling memoir of her twenty years as a nurse, The Language of Kindness is an ensemble-style piece of dance theatre: a joy-filled celebration of nurses and front-line healthcare workers which will resonate with audiences everywhere following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Language of Kindness brings to life the realities, the challenges, heartbreaks and incomparable joys of working for the NHS and supporting families as they face their best and worst moments.
A socially distanced production about the tactile work of nurses where the company never touch.
With support from Arts Council England.
Christie Watson is an award-winning, bestselling writer. She was a nurse for twenty years and is currently Professor of Medical and Health Humanities at the University of East Anglia and Patron of the Royal College of Nursing Foundation. Her first novel, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away, won the Costa First Novel and Waverton Good Read Awards and her second novel, Where Women Are Kings, also achieved international critical acclaim. Her non-fiction, The Language of Kindness, was published in 2018 and was a number one The Sunday Times bestseller, spending five months in the top ten. It was a Book of the Year in the Evening Standard, New Statesman, The Times, Guardian and The Sunday Times and has been translated into twenty-three languages. Her latest memoir on nursing, The Courage to Care was published in 2020 and the paperback edition is published on 10 June 2021.
Sasha Milavic Davies is a Director and Choreographer. Her directing credits include The Antipodes with Annie Baker (National Theatre), She Ventures, She Wins (Young Vic); and as an assistant director,The Weimar Republic (LA Phil). She has worked with Akram Khan, Complicité and was a founding member of The Yard Theatre.
James Yeatman is a director, writer and co-founder of theatre company, Kandinsky for which his credits include A Light that Never Goes Out (Royal Exchange Theatre), Dinomania (New Diorama Theatre) and Trap Street (New Diorama Theatre/Schaubühne, Berlin)). As an assistant director his credits include Beware of Pity (Schaubühne, Berlin) and The Kid Stays in the Picture (Royal Court Theatre).
SHOREDITCH TOWN HALL
LISTINGS
380 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT
Box Office: www.shoreditchtownhall.com / 0207 739 6176
Wayward Productions with Assembly Hall Theatre Tunbridge Wells, Complicité and Warwick Arts Centre in association with Shoreditch Town Hall and Guy Chapman
THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS
3 – 12 June 2021
Tickets: £20 (£15 concessions and NHS staff)
SEE IT SAFELY
All tour venues have been granted the use of Society of London Theatre & UK Theatre’s See It Safely mark. The mark certifies that they are complying with the latest Government and industry COVID-19 guidelines, to ensure the safety of their staff and audiences. Ticket holders can find out more here [https://officiallondontheatre.com/see-it-safely/] about the measures that have been put in place ahead of their visit, and what they will need to know beforehand.
