NEWS Archives - Page 71 of 81 - North West End UK

One-Man Comedy By Jonathan Harvey To Tour Starring Andrew Lancel

19Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

One-Man Comedy By Jonathan Harvey To Tour Starring Andrew Lancel

Following its critically acclaimed sell-out premiere at Liverpool Theatre Festival in September, Swan Song, a revised comedy by acclaimed playwright Jonathan Harvey, will commence a short tour this year playing at venues opening to socially distanced audiences. Swan Song, a one-man play starring TV and stage actor Andrew Lancel, is directed by BAFTA award-winning director Noreen Kershaw and produced by Bill Elms. The play will open at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre for four performances over two nights, this will be the first live indoor performance at the theatre since closing in March. The show then moves on to Dukes Lancaster, Alty Fringe at the Garrick Playhouse in Altrincham, The Cresset in Peterborough and the Belgrade in Coventry. More dates are to be confirmed soon. Swan Song w...

Barrie Rutter performs a charity gig for Slung Low

19Oct

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Barrie Rutter performs a charity gig for Slung Low

There are very few actors who you recognise just by their surname but Barrie Rutter is one of them. Rutter founded Halifax based Northern Broadsides as a vehicle for actors from across the north to perform Shakespeare classics and new work in their own accents working in non-traditional spaces. Rutter's socially distanced appearance at the Holbeck Working Men's Club on Saturday 7th November is his first performance since recovering from throat cancer as he talks about his life on the boards and performs excerpts from plays in his infamously unapologetic northern dialect. After being given a part in a school play because his teacher said the Hull fishmonger's son had ‘the gob for it' and he discovered a love of performing. He went onto the National Youth Theatre the...

Red Ladder are back with My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored

19Oct

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Red Ladder are back with My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored

Radical theatre company Red Ladder are back with a new touring production My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored. It’s the debut work by 29-year-old Ghanian-English writer Nana-Kofi Kufuor interrogating black identity and posing a big question for our troubled times: if you see something you do not agree with, do you intervene? What happens if you’re a teacher, and the issue is with your student? What happens if you're outside of work, and see them stopped and searched and manhandled by the police? Do you run over and stop the act, or do you watch, and wait to find out all the facts? That’s the dilemma for Gillian Akwasi, a black twenty-something teacher who watches while her student, Reece Ofori, is roughly accosted by the police. The next day, he confronts her before locking them...

18Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Imaginarium – Dazed New World Festival

This imaginatively named theatre is part of the Dazed New World Festival, put together by Applecarts Arts, based in East London. The festival will explore other themes of social injustice and mental health. A festival that aims to explore some of the more difficult conversations we’re having with narratives that challenge you to think out of the box and try to make sense of the current climate which is giving live theatre some of the biggest difficulties it ever has. It’s live streamed on Vimeo, and apart from a series of instructions received preshow there’s no indication of what to expect from tonight’s performance. Although it does say your bedroom will be transformed into a new playground which sounds very enticing. The creatives behind Imaginarium are Out of the Blue Thea...

A Christmas Carol announced at the Liverpool Playhouse this winter

18Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

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A Christmas Carol announced at the Liverpool Playhouse this winter

Christmas is coming…and the Liverpool Playhouse is set to stage a festive treat for Liverpool audiences this winter, with an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ festive classic A Christmas Carol from 4th – 24th December. A small cast of actors will perform in Patrick Barlow’s (The 39 Steps) witty and joyous adaptation of the 19th century story, directed by Gemma Bodinetz in her final production as Artistic Director of the theatres. Featuring carols and songs, the production is a warm, witty and inventive gift for Liverpool audiences. Making the short trip down from the Everyman, Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto favourite Adam Keast swaps his flares for a nightcap and the Everyman stage for the Playhouse stage, to play Ebenezer Scrooge. Adam will perform alongside other local actors, maintaining social...

Tamsin Greig joins the stars performing Talking Heads in Yorkshire

18Oct

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Tamsin Greig joins the stars performing Talking Heads in Yorkshire

Tamsin Greig is the latest big name to perform one of Alan Bennett’s classic Talking Heads monologues in Leeds and Sheffield. Tamsin will perform the dark Nights in the Gardens of Spain, directed by Marianne Elliott, joining Imelda Staunton and Maxine Peake who also be performing their monologies at Leeds Playhouse and Sheffield Crucible. “I’m thrilled to be invited to perform Alan Bennett’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain at Sheffield Crucible and Leeds Playhouse after a very happy run at the Bridge Theatre,” says Tamsin Greig. Photographer: Zac Nicholson “It’s wonderful to be able to support and enjoy regional theatres especially during these extraordinary times for live performance venues. And how fantastic to perform these Bennett words in their region of origin.” In line...

Slung Low launches scheme to give every kid in their area a free book

18Oct

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Slung Low launches scheme to give every kid in their area a free book

Theatre innovators Slung Low run a members club/performance space in the Leeds area of Holbeck and have launched a scheme to give every local child in Holbeck a free book. The company is renowned for both its theatre work and the work it does with its local community in South Leeds. During the pandemic they have been operating a food bank, co-ordinating a cultural community college, and managing the country’s oldest working men’s club. A part of their community work three of the Slung Low team spent a week at Holbeck’s Ingram Road Primary School reading their new book Emergency Story Penguin to the pupils ending the sessions by giving all 340 of them a copy. Emergency Story Penguin follows Lady Grace Thompson and her crew on an adventure around the secret underground tunnels t...

Leeds Playhouse is back with a new season and free ticket offer for NHS workers

17Oct

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Leeds Playhouse is back with a new season and free ticket offer for NHS workers

Working with COVID-19 safety guidelines Leeds Playhouse have launched their Autumn/Winter season and are giving away 1000 free tickets to NHS workers for the revival of their critically acclaimed seasonal show A Christmas Carol. This time round playwright Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of the Dickens festive classic is upgraded to the flagship Quarry Theatre after recreating a warts and all Victorian England during their 2028 Pop-Up Season in 2018. Once again directed by Playhouse Associate Director Amy Leach it runs from 3rd December – 9th January and it will sell out. Another returning work is poet and playwright Zodwa Nyoni’s Nine Lives which debuted at the theatre in 2014. Presented by Leeds Studio this timely and intimate single hander combines humour and humanity in a deep...

Box of Tricks and Sky Studios launch inaugural Screen/Play Award

10Oct

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Box of Tricks and Sky Studios launch inaugural Screen/Play Award

Box of Tricks and Sky Studios’ Innovation Hub based in Leeds have teamed up to announce the launch of the Screen/Play Award to discover exceptional writers from the North of England. The project is focussed on finding talent from communities currently underrepresented on stage and screen offering two writers with no TV writing experience a bursary to write a new play for Box of Tricks, and to open doors to the world of screenwriting by forging a development partnership with Sky Studios throughout 2021. The award is open to Northern writers, aged over 18, with no professional TV experience, from the following communities: D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent writers, LGBTQ+ writers, writers of colour, first generation migrant writers and writers from a low socioeconomic background.&nbs...

10Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Blackpool Grand Announces PANTOMONIUM

Blackpool Grand Theatre has announced that with the generous support of producer Martin Dodd of UK Productions, panto legend, BBC Radio Lancashire presenter, and Britain’s Got Talent ‘finalist’ Steve Royle, and special guest West End and TV’s Tom Lister a condensed and COVID-safe pantomime fundraiser will ensure Christmas isn’t cancelled this year at Blackpool’s Grand! The Christmas production Pantomonium! will run with strict COVID safeguards for a limited time and for a limited period – a sell-out is guaranteed! Created by Jon Monie (winner of Best Script at The Great British Pantomime Awards 2019 for ‘Beauty & the Beast’), Pantomonium! is a specially written, one-act pantomime about pantomime. When the beloved panto character, Fairy Tales, is kidnapped by the villainous Kil...