Month: June 2017

Stars head to Essex for Frinton Summer Theatre season

News, Regional
Frinton Summer Theatre line up

Stella Gonet, Pamela Miles, Matilda Ziegler, Flora Montgomery and Ben Stock are among actors lined up for this year’s Frinton Summer Theatre. Known as the UK’s oldest remaining repertory theatre, it is returning for its 78th season, with seven productions running from July 11 to August 27 under producer Clive Brill at The McGrigor Hall in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. The programme opens with Strangers on a Train, adapted from the classic Patricia Highsmith thriller by Craig Warner – the dramatisation used in the award-winning 2013 production in London’s West End. Directed by Jonathan Tafler, it stars Abram Rooney, whose most recent roles include Christopher in A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in the West End and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet at the Union Theatre, who plays the sociopathic Charles Bruno alongside Christopher Weeks as Guy Haines and Molly Chesworth as Anne with Nesba Crenshaw, Kieron Jecchinis, William Meredith … Read more

Last Chance Saloon brings Curse Of The Mummy To Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Fringe
Curse Of The Mummy at Edinburgh Festival

From the creators of smash hits, Dracula: Sex, Sucking and Stardom and Frankenstein: UnBolted, comes Curse Of The Mummy – a tale from the darkest depths of Ancient Egypt. Unwitting hero, Montana Jones, is on a quest for archaeological eminence; however a love-cursed Mummy and a Nazi spy threaten to destroy everything he hopes for! This ancient legend is unwrapped, revitalised and whipped up with mischievous musical mash-ups and outrageous humour in a frenetic hour of riotous theatre comedy. Last Chance Saloon is a collaborative comic theatre company who specialise in twisting classic tales, whilst infusing them with their unique brand of character-baed comedy. Giving a nod to the golden age of British humour, mixed with farcical physical comedy and quirky musical parody, their aim is to allow audiences to escape from the doom and gloom of everyday life into a world of pure unadulterated enjoyment. Using both shockingly catchy … Read more

Circa bring new show to Edinburgh Festival 2017

Edinburgh Fringe
Circa Humans comes to Edinburgh Festival

After taking Sydney Festival by storm earlier this year, the world-renowned Circa (Beyond, Wunderkammer, Closer) return to the Edinburgh Fringe with a striking new show – a stirring journey of what it means to be human, and how our bodies, connections and aspirations all form part of who we are. Here, ten acrobats question how much we can take as humans, exploring the physical limits of their bodies as they are pushed to the extreme. How much weight can we carry? Who can we trust to support our load? They lead us to reflect on our lives, our loved ones, the burdens we carry and the physical and emotional strength it takes to overcome them. Created by Circa’s Artistic Director, Yaron Lifschitz, the stage is stripped bare as the vulnerability of a team of highly skilled acrobats is exposed. Circa’s reputation for fearless, boundary-pushing new circus is borne out in … Read more

Brutal Cessation brings relationship violence to the Edinburgh stage

Edinburgh Fringe
Milly ThomasBrutal Cessation Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Milly Thomas’s savage new play Brital Cessation explores the violence in relationships, expectations of gender and what happens when we;re no longer in love but refuse to let go. Following the story of a rotting relationship and the purgatory that follows, the shows asks: Is having no reason to stay a reason to leave? Laced with dark humour, Brutal Cessation is a unique exploration of traditional power play as the actors swap roles throughout the sixty minute show, offering a refreshing perspective into both men and women’s experience of victimhood as their reality becomes emotionally and physically unsafe. Brutal Cessation explores how violence, suggested or actualised, can so easily pervade our everyday lives, sometimes without us even realising it. Offie-nominated Lydia Larson (Skin A Cat, Vault Festival and The Bunker) and Alan Mahon (If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You – Old Red … Read more

Bruce the yellow block of foam returns to Edinburgh

Edinburgh Fringe
Bruce at the Edinburgh Festival

Following success at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe, lo-fi puppetry spectacular Bruce is Back! Keeping you on the edge of your seat, Bruce will sweep you away on an epic adventure of love and revenge, as he sets out to prove he has a heart of pure gold. Bruce takes the audience on an action packed, hilarious adventure, narrating his story as a self-proclaimed hero-cop turned novelist-astronaut. Bruce is a loveable screw-up, he’s got onle last shot at redemption but, with a lifetime of regrets hunting him down, he’s running out of spacetime. This side-splitting story is unapologetic in it minimal approach. Wearing black on a dark stage Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd and Tim Watts invisibly manipulate their bodies to create Bruce, moving and intertwining their limbs so that their white gloves become hands and feet. Fusing mime and puppetry, Bruce is a non-stop rollercoaster of action, adventure and nostalgia. Bruce comes from … Read more

Gillian Beak is subject of character comedy Beak Speaks

Edinburgh Fringe
Beak Speak Edinburgh Fringe Festival

After over 30 years of working in, under and around the British Fringe Theatre Circuit, Gillian Beak finally bares all and shares a lifetime of theatrical insights and anecdotes. Beak Speaks is a character comedy based on the life and times of Gillian Beak. Accompany the doyenne of the Fringe as she takes you through her masterclass, reminiscing about the infamous techniques that shaped her young protégée, how it all went wrong with one frightfully well connected man as well as one young upstart who she claims she taught everything he knows. Beak Speaks is staged by kind permission of Sarah Thom, heard frequently as Joan on Radio 4’s Clare in the Community. Finally, Beak speaks… Underbelly Cowgate (White Belly) from 3rd August at 16:00 (not 14th, 21st). BOOK TICKETS FOR BEAK SPEAKS

This House UK Tour

Touring
James Graham's This House UK Tour

Following its acclaimed run at the National Theatre and in the West End, James Graham’s political drama This House will begin a UK national tour at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on 22 February 2018. 1974.  The UK faces economic crisis and a hung parliament.  In a culture hostile to cooperation, it’s a period when votes are won or lost by one, when there are fist fights in the bars and when sick MPs are carried through the lobby to register their vote.  It’s a time when a staggering number of politicians die, and the building creaks under idiosyncrasies and arcane traditions. Set in the engine rooms of Westminster, This House strips politics down to the practical realities of those behind the scenes; the whips who roll up their sleeves and on occasion bend the rules to shepherd and coerce a diverse chorus of MPs within the Mother of all Parliaments. … Read more

Jake Orr joins Theatre503 as Producer

News, Off West End
Jake Orr joins Theatre503 as a producer

Former theatre blogger, freelance producer and programmer Jake Orr will join South London’s Theatre503 as an in-house Producer commencing on 3rd July 2017. In 2009 Jake founded A Younger Theatre, an organisation that supports and nurtures young people through journalism training. It has since supported over 500 young writers and partnered with organisations including the Guardian, Royal Opera House, The Globe and the English National Opera. In 2014 Jake co-founded Incoming Festival with New Diorama Theatre, a festival that supports emerging theatre companies. To date the festival has presented the work of over 100 companies to 4000 audiences. Jake is co-director of producing company Making Room working with artists across the UK. As Associate Producer his credits include The Bombing of the Grand Hotel (Cockpit Theatre and Tour), Mouse Plague (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, BAC and Tour) and The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, BAC and Tour). … Read more