Monday, June 22

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This Little World – The Living Record Festival
REVIEWS

This Little World – The Living Record Festival

This Little World is a solo adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry II, adapted by Owen Corey and Matthew Windham. Performed by Corey and directed by Windham, the piece utilises original body puppetry under the direction of Essie Windham to tell this story of isolation, desperation and the absolute loss of everything someone holds dear, whether that’s friends and family or the throne of England itself. Opening with Corey, playing Richard II, huddled up in his bare and dusty cell, wearing a torn tracksuit, we see him firstly engaging in desperate attempts to escape before scrawling desperately into a notebook. He pulls the camera towards him, a subtle push against the fourth wall, as he begins his first soliloquy. Using Shakespeare’s original text, Corey essentially tells the story to the a...
Ain’t No Female Romeo – The Living Record Festival
REVIEWS

Ain’t No Female Romeo – The Living Record Festival

Ain’t No Female Romeo, created and performed by Lita Doolan, is a surreal and disconcerting story of social media, the relationships they create and how reliant people can become on both posting and consuming content on it, and, more importantly, receiving responses, particularly “likes”. Combining snippets of poetry, selfie videos, images, quotes and hashtags, the piece exposes social technology, as Doolan travels the world looking for Peter, someone she knows through Instagram, but how well is never made clear. It’s possible that she and Peter have exchanged messages and comments, but the more disturbing possibility is that their only interaction has been liking each other’s posts. The images, quotes and hashtags which flash up on screen from time to time are often very quick, crea...
Shook by Samuel Bailey –  Papatango
REVIEWS

Shook by Samuel Bailey – Papatango

Samuel Bailey’s Shook, directed by George Turvey in collaboration with James Bobin, tells the story of three young new or soon to be fathers, who are all in prison. The play won the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize and shows the characters proceed through a series of parenting classes. The set shows a bleak, simply furnished room, with obviously faded paintwork and fold-up furniture. The play opens with Jonjo (Josef Davies) sitting on one of the fold-up chairs, with his head down as he tries to avoid Cain (Josh Finan), a loud Scouser who knows everything about everyone else and goes to great pains to maintain his own reputation. The play makes good use of the online format by including snippets of black and white CCTV recordings, emphasising the prison environment and giving the piece a...
Leeds Playhouse announce new community engagement programme
NEWS

Leeds Playhouse announce new community engagement programme

Leeds Playhouse have announced an extension to their Creative Engagement programme aimed at engaging with people who might feel an increased sense of isolation or vulnerability during the current lockdown.   The new Playhouse Connect programme builds on work already carried out and aims to address four specific areas which are particularly critical in the current circumstances: •         Isolation and Loneliness •         Mental Health and Wellbeing •         Reconnection and Recovery •         Skills and Training for Young People  All activities included in the programme are free and aimed at boosti...
Typical Film – World premiere on Soho Theatre on demand
NEWS

Typical Film – World premiere on Soho Theatre on demand

Soho Theatre and Nouveau Riche announce the World Premiere of Typical, the film version of the hit stage play, released exclusively on Soho Theatre On Demand from 24th February 2021. A powerful exploration of racism and how British society stereotypes Black masculinity, this urgent and important new drama is created by award-winning creative movement Nouveau Riche and Soho Theatre, London’s most vibrant producer of new theatre, comedy and cabaret. Written by award-winning playwright Ryan Calais Cameron and directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, Typical uncovers the man and the humanity behind the tragic true-life events of Black British ex-serviceman Christopher Alder and the injustice that still remains twenty years since his story emerged. Inspired to write this story following his...
HOTLINE – A new play by phone
NEWS

HOTLINE – A new play by phone

HOTLINE is a new kind of theatre for a world in the midst of a pandemic where isolation is imposed, and theatres are closed. It is a playful adaptation of the first phone call to the moon with a mission to bring ‘peace and tranquillity to the earth’ using the intimacy of a phone call. Your host is Oxmo, played by Hannah Jarrett-Scott. LAPS (Ladies As Pimps) Cass Ezeji & Alicia Matthews play the All Powerful Moon Bitch, the moon herself. All other parts are played by Leonie Rae Gasson, Melanie Frances, Meghan Tyler, Nima Séne. The cast also includes teenagers and octogenarians from Platform. HOTLINE is an interactive theatre piece inspired by the legendary phone call from the White House to the moon between Richard Nixon, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. HOTLINE uses the structure ...
Songs For A New World on stream.theatre from 21st February
NEWS

Songs For A New World on stream.theatre from 21st February

Lambert Jackson Productions today announces its online lockdown production of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World which will stream on stream.theatre for one week from 21st February. Filmed during the first UK lockdown, entirely in isolation and on the artists smart phones, Séimí Campbell directs Rachel John (Hamilton), Ramin Karimloo (Phantom of The Opera), Cedric Neal (Motown) and Rachel Tucker (Come From Away), and introducing Shem Omari James, with musical supervision by Adam Hoskins, musical direction from Josh Winstone and video editing by Danny Kaan. “It's about one moment. It's about hitting the wall and having to make a choice… or take a stand… or turn around and go back.” Written by Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown and sitting between musical and son...
New production by Creation Theatre goes online this month
NEWS

New production by Creation Theatre goes online this month

This month, Creation Theatre announces Grimm Tales For Fragile Times And Broken People, the first in a series of productions by its new online Repertory Company. Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, a collection of familiar and lesser-known tales such as The Juniper Tree, The Moon, Godfather Death, Hansel and Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin, have been re-invented for an online show which places powerful storytelling at its very heart. This atmospheric and haunting production for adults will be available to stream from 24th February to 13th March. Set in a beautifully distorted and broken-down world with woodlands which cast creepy shadows in the moonlight, five storytellers confined within their own mini-theatre sets, beckon audiences to listen to their spellbinding and macabre narratives. The...
Live Theatre Is Set To Return As By The Waters Of Liverpool Announces The Continuation Of Its UK Tour
NEWS

Live Theatre Is Set To Return As By The Waters Of Liverpool Announces The Continuation Of Its UK Tour

The acclaimed stage production of Helen Forrester’s, By The Waters Of Liverpool was cut short last March after just three venues into a seventeen venue tour; but now producers have announced the continuation of their UK tour in Autumn 2021. Writer and Co-producer Rob Fennah said: “When we launched By The Waters Of Liverpool last year the response was so overwhelming we were determined not to let the pandemic get the better of us. We have a mantra when things get tough, ‘don’t give up – don’t give in!’ “By The Waters is not only returning to the stage in September, it is going to be bigger, bolder and more glorious than ever. Co-producer Bill Elms added: “With the vaccine roll-out going so well, we can now see the light at the end of a dark tunnel for the theatre industry and we ju...
Winners announced for the inaugural Box of Tricks & Sky Studios Screen/Play Award
NEWS

Winners announced for the inaugural Box of Tricks & Sky Studios Screen/Play Award

Conway McDermott and Sarah Tarbit beat off competition from nearly 350 entries from underrepresented talent from across the North of England to win the Box of Tricks and Sky Studios inaugural Screen/Play Award. Both will be awarded £10,250 to write a 70-minute stage play, and a 20-minute screenplay inspired by a single central idea to be developed with support from the two partners throughout 2021. Conway McDermott is a trans non-binary writer from Liverpool. They describe their work as genre fiction, using fantasy, history, sci-fi and mysticism to “create a fuller landscape of worlds and stories for weird working-class queers to inhabit”. For Screen/Play, Conway will develop The Priestess, a trans coming of age story that crashes into a psychosexual horror full of dark humour. ...