Wednesday, May 1

Tag: Leeds Playhouse

Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters have their say at Leeds Playhouse
28May By Paul ClarkeNo Comments
NEWS

Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters have their say at Leeds Playhouse

Fairy tales are always ripe for retellings of the original story and this time it is Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters who get to tell their side of the story at Leeds Playhouse. The Not So Ugly Sisters, created by Leeds-based theatre company Wrongsemble in co-production with Leeds Playhouse and Red Ladder Theatre Company, is a family friendly show where there are always two sides to every story.    Dolly is resting on her broom counting the passers-by outside the salon window, while her sister Barb watches the phone that never rings. It’s the morning of Cindy and Prince Smarming’s big royal wedding – but Dolly and Barb are not invited – and Hell hath no fury like a hairdresser scorned. Photography by Anthony Jones Leeds actors Daisy Ann Fletcher and Lucy Rafton star as the ...
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Decades: 1970s/1980s/2000s – Leeds Playhouse
26May By Paul ClarkeNo Comments
Yorkshire & Humber

Decades: 1970s/1980s/2000s – Leeds Playhouse

To kick off their delayed 50th birthday celebrations the Playhouse team commissioned both experienced and newer creatives to create short monologues boldly trying to meld the history of Leeds and events across the north over six decades since they opened their doors.. They are offering all six as the King Lear of monologues, or two lots of three like tonight’s offering spanning three decades.  There may be some obscure artistic reasoning behind this but it seems odd to run them out of sequence as doing so might have added to their power. As a veteran of the eighties Leeds anarchist and squat scene it must have tempting for Alice Nutter to offer a sugar-coated version of that scene, but typically in Nicer Than Orange Squash she offers an often funny indictment of the hypocrisy a...
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Decades: Stories From The City 1990s/2010s/2020s – Leeds Playhouse
21May By Paul ClarkeNo Comments
Yorkshire & Humber

Decades: Stories From The City 1990s/2010s/2020s – Leeds Playhouse

There is always a hum in any theatre before the lights go down, but tonight as creatives and an audience make that unique communion after months apart it feels like the air of expectation is off the scale as we uncomfortably sit in our masks. Typically, the Playhouse have not made it easy for themselves by offering returning theatre lovers six monologues that attempt to meld events from the seventies right through to lockdown with a potted social history of Leeds For me monologues are biggest of all challenge for the writers, performers and this audience who are just relived to be sat in a dark space at last.  It is like stand up with a script as there is no place to go if goes wrong, no-one to bounce off and if the writing is even marginally off it can be torture for all conce...
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Amanda Huxtable talks about directing Decades which reopens Leeds Playhouse
13May By Paul ClarkeNo Comments
Interviews

Amanda Huxtable talks about directing Decades which reopens Leeds Playhouse

Leeds Playhouse kick off their 50th anniversary celebrations and reopen the doors with six short monologues written by a mix of new and experienced writers. Decades: Stories From The City takes a particular decade from across the Playhouse’s lifespan covering the 1970s to the 2020s, tracing how their home city has changed over that time.  As this is their first set of shows after lockdown the Playhouse have also recruited a strong cast of directors, including Leeds Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining who is joined in the rehearsal spaces by Associate Director Amy Leach and RTYDS Resident Assistant Director Sameena Hussain, Evie Manning of Common Wealth Theatre and Theatre State’s Tess Seddon. The hugely experienced Amanda Huxtable directs Leanna Benjamin’s The Unknow...
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Casting announced for Decades: Stories from the city at Leeds Playhouse
10May By Paul ClarkeNo Comments
NEWS

Casting announced for Decades: Stories from the city at Leeds Playhouse

Leeds Playhouse has announced the six actors who will perform in their Decades: Stories from the city season as they reopen their doors for their 50th anniversary celebrations.    They will perform short monologues by a heavyweight group of writers including Poet Laureate Simon Armitage who will be joined by Leanna Benjamin, Kamal Kaan, Alice Nutter, Maxine Peake and Stan Owens.  All the writers have strong connections to the Playhouse, so have each taken a particular decade from across the Playhouse’s lifespan covering the 1970s to the 2020s tracing the city’s changes over that time.  Isobel Coward will star in Alice Nutter’s Nicer Than Orange Squash, Eva Scott is in Maxine Peake’s Don’t You Know It’s Going To Be Alright and Cassie Layton performs Kamal ...
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Leeds Playhouse announce summer season and their big festive show
30Apr By Paul DownhamNo Comments
NEWS

Leeds Playhouse announce summer season and their big festive show

As part of its 50th anniversary year Leeds Playhouse has announced a bold summer season and Wendy & Peter Pan will be the theatre’s now traditional festive blockbuster. The festive are now part of the city’s winter theatrical experience and this year family audiences are off to Neverland with Ella Hickson’s Wendy & Peter Pan. This adaptation of the J M Barrie classic uniquely retells the story from the viewpoint of Wendy Darling, with plenty of flying, laughs and even some Japanese video anime artistry blended with a reinvigorated classic British story. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be returning to Wendy & Peter Pan,” said co-director Jonathan Munby. “The new version will be created by an international team of artists including those from the UK and Japan. I’m overjoyed to...
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Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Maxine Peake pen monologues for new season at Leeds Playhouse
15Apr By Paul ClarkeNo Comments
NEWS

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Maxine Peake pen monologues for new season at Leeds Playhouse

Yorkshire’s Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Maxine Peake have written brand new monologues as part of Leeds Playhouse’s 50th anniversary celebrations. The Playhouse will be welcoming audiences back next month for the first time since November with monologues written by six writers offering their own perspectives on Leeds and the north playing in the Courtyard Theatre as Decades: Stories from the city. Leanna Benjamin, Kamal Kaan, Alice Nutter, Stan Owens, Peake and Armitage have each taken a particular decade from across the Playhouse’s lifespan covering the 1970s to today offering a diverse collection of stories firmly rooted in the North. Leeds Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining, Associate Director Amy Leach and RTYDS Resident Assistant Director Sameena Hussain will b...
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Self-taught Warda Abbasi is the new Resident Designer at Leeds Playhouse
3Apr By Paul DownhamNo Comments
NEWS

Self-taught Warda Abbasi is the new Resident Designer at Leeds Playhouse

Set designer and miniature model-maker Warda Abbasi isthe new Resident Designer at Leeds Playhouse in partnership with Leeds-based theatre company tutti frutti, supported by the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries programme. There’s not many self-taught set designers, but Bradford-based Warda used her time in the box office at Halifax’s Square Chapel to to watch lots of theatre and horn model-making skills in her spare time. That led to a spot as Assistant Designer on tutti frutti’s Sweet Dreams about the joys of sleeping and dreaming written by Mike Kenny. When this production was developed into an audio play due to covid restrictions Warda was employed as a Craft Creator for tutti frutti’s digital Storytime project. Forty people applied for the Resident Design...
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Orpheus In the Record Shop wins BBC Lights Up slot
12Mar By Paul DownhamNo Comments
NEWS

Orpheus In the Record Shop wins BBC Lights Up slot

Leeds Playhouse and Opera North’s innovative co-production of beatboxer Testament’s Orpheus in The Record Shop has won a slot in the BBC Lights up programme. Orpheus In the Record Store was originally staged at Leeds Playhouse in October 2020 as part of the Connected Voices co-production season with Opera North fusing classic and contemporary theatre on the themes of isolation, connection, resilience and reflection. Leeds-based rapper, writer and world record holding beatboxer Testament was commissioned to explore the power of the solo voice, within a communal space and the relationship between performer and audience. Testament’s beatboxing weaved round musicians from the Orchestra of Opera North that gave the Greek myth of Orpheus a contemporary Yorkshire twist. There was someth...
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Leeds Playhouse announce free theatre space offer for local creatives
25Feb By Paul DownhamNo Comments
NEWS

Leeds Playhouse announce free theatre space offer for local creatives

Leeds Playhouse today has announced the use of free theatre space and guaranteed technical support for local artists in their intimate Bramall Rock Void space. The free use of the recently refurbed theatre is being offered as part of Playhouse Connect which their ongoing response to the pandemic supporting reconnection and recovery within the City. “The Playhouse is a community resource used by many different people throughout the year,” says Artistic Director James Brining. “We’re very conscious that throughout the pandemic, despite the brilliant work we have undertaken engaging with vulnerable and isolated people through our Playhouse Connect programme, apart from 5 weeks in the autumn, the building itself has been under used. “I’m delighted that we have put the safety proto...
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