Paul T Davies shines a spotlight on Colchester’s Headgate Theatre and their Spring season for 2022.
At the heart of Colchester’s thriving arts and theatre scene is the Headgate Theatre, a small venue with big ambitions. It’s the beating heart of amateur theatre in the town, but it’s much more than that. The theatre welcomes touring and professional companies and was one of the hosts of the first Colchester Fringe, which brought a new audience to the venue and enjoyed multiple sell-out performances. It’s a real gem, and there are come productions coming up that audiences will love!
In a major coup for the theatre, a Colchester Fringe encore is Horse Country, directed by Mark Bell, who directed the classic The Play That Goes Wrong. It garnered rave reviews during its London run and comes to the Headgate from February 15th-19th. Two clowns shoot the breeze, play cards, and not so much wait for Godot but wait for the audience to catch up! It’s been described as a high-octane comedy, Beckett via Tarantino, and performers Daniel Llewellyn-Williams and Michael Edwards are well worth catching live!
Entering the theatre through a cat-flap of comedy comes How To Live A Jellicle Life: Life Lessons from the 2019 Hit Movie Musical Cats. Even the title is enough to get attention! It sounds camp, silly and great fun, and a one-man show that like Horse Country has been lavished with five-star reviews in previous performances. It plays on February 9th, so get booking quick!
In March Headgate Productions itself stage their first-ever musical- I Love You Because which has a huge fan base. It is a modern-day twist on Pride and Prejudice and features an excellent cast of local talent. It plays March 2nd-5th and, as it is a show not staged regularly, is likely to be much in demand, so don’t leave it too late to book! I’m intrigued by Chinese Boxing, a new solo play written and performed by Mark Kitto, telling the siege of the Boxer Uprising from the Chinese perspective, (March 15th), comedy thriller My Other Half on April 13th, and there is so much more.
Fancy an evening celebrating the music of Sondheim? An evening of clairvoyance? How about workshops for young people right up to Act V, the hugely successful and popular group for older theatre-makers? It’s all there in a packed programme from this gem of a theatre, which made a great impression on Sir Ian McKellen when he visited during his 80th birthday tour. Colchester Fringe brought many visitors from London and the rest of the UK to the venue, it’s only an hour from London! Browse the season, and get booking!
