Articles

FIRST LOOK: And Then There Were None on road to Richmond Theatre

Here are photos from And Then There Were None, the Agatha Christie thriller embarking on a UK and Ireland tour that will visit Richmond Theatre.

Ten strangers are lured to a solitary mansion off the coast of Devon. When a terrible storm cuts them off from the mainland, and with their hosts mysteriously absent, the true reason for their presence on the island becomes horribly clear, as secrets from their past come back to haunt each and every one of them.

Produced by Fiery Angel, Royal & Derngate, Northampton and ROYO, the cast includes Bob Barrett as Doctor Armstrong, Joseph Beattie as Philip Lombard, Oliver Clayton as Anthony Marston, Jeffery Kissoon as General Mackenzie, Andrew Lancel as William Blore, Nicola May-Taylor as Jane Pinchbeck, Louise McNulty as Understudy, Katy Stephens as Emily Brent, Lucy Tregear as Georgina Rogers, Sophie Walter as Vera Claythorne, Matt Weyland as Narracott/Understudy and David Yelland as Judge Wargrave.

This brand-new production has been reinvented for the 21st century, directed by Lucy Bailey (Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution.

Bailey returns with set and costume designer Mike Britton, lighting designer Chris Davey, sound designer and composer Elizabeth Purnell and movement direction by Ayse Tashkiran. Casting is by Ellie Collyer-Bristow, fight direction by Renny Krupinski and the assistant director will be Victoria Gartner.

General Management for the tour is by Rich Jones with Production Management by Setting Line Production Management. The stage management team will be Sian Wiggins, William Buckenham, Sara-Jayne Smith and Lewis Mote with wardrobe headed by Natasha Hancock.

And Then There Were None plays at Richmond theatre from October 31-November 4.

Deafinitely Theatre makes Promise with Lyric Hammersmith

Deafinitely Theatre is bringing its latest production, The Promise, to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.

Coproduced by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the show is co-written and directed by Deafinitely’s artistic director Paula Garfield and written with journalist Melissa Mostyn.

It will be performed at the Lyric Hammersmith from April 30 – May 11.

Rita is really confused. She can’t understand why the deaf education system she’s tirelessly championed throughout her teaching career is getting worse and worse, or why there is only one care home in the whole of England that looks after people in her language. On the Isle of Wight.  

She’s also confused about where her family is, and why she can’t remember where the milk goes…  

Performed in spoken English and British Sign Language (BSL) with captions, The Promise is set to address how dementia affects those in the deaf community and their families.

Influencer play FLIP! heads to Soho Theatre

Casting has been announced for FLIP! The play comes to Soho Theatre from November 7-25.

Meet Carleen and Crystal. The influencers with cultural commentary that will have you in stitches! Love them or hate them, there’s no stopping their fast-growing online following.

Offline, Carleen has her reservations about their cyber personas, but she idolises Crystal and would follow her anywhere…even to FLIP!, the new social media giant that has everyone hooked – and Carleen and Crystal are no exception; especially when it seems that their videos could make them famous.

Superstardom, followers, fame, influence, money: it’s all just one click away. FLIP! is the answer to everything they’ve ever dreamed of. But is it too good to be true?

Leah St Luce (9 to 5 The Musical) will play Carleen, with Jadesola Odunjo (School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play) as Crystal.

Writer Racheal Ofori and director Emily Aboud will be joined by set and costume designer Anna Robinson, sound designer Eliyana Evans, movement director Aline David and lighting designer KJ.

The play is produced by Fuel in association with Alphabetti Theatre.

Cinderella cast set for Lyric Hammersmith Theatre panto

Tilly La Belle Yengo will star as Cinderella in this year’s Lyric Hammersmith Theatre pantomime.

Cinderella is a bonafide boss-lady who runs her own business at Shepherd’s Bush Market. One day the most handsome Prince Henry, who dreams of a life less spare, wears a disguise to the Market and falls instantly in love with Cinderella. With the paparazzi in hot pursuit the Prince is forced to flee. And so begins the quest to unite the unlikeliest of likely romances, Cinderella and the hapless Prince. But will Cinderella’s step-sisters Muffy and Gusset and step-mother Lady Jelly Bottom get in the way of their happily ever after? Of course they will, it’s panto.

Written by Vikki Stone and directed by Tonderai Munyevu, Yengo is joined by Emmanuel Akwafo playing Lady Jelly-Bottom and Jodie Jacobs who will play the Fairy.

Charlie Cameron plays Muffy, Damien James plays Prince Henry, Meghan Treadway plays Gusset and Maya De Faria, Jerome Lincoln and Bella Macdonald join the Ensemble.

Set and costume designer is Good Teeth, with choreographer Arielle Smith, lighting designer Ciarán Cunningham, composer and arranger Corin Buckeridge, sound designer Nick Manning, musical director Adam Gerber, casting director Sophie Parrott and assistant director Mo Korede.

Cinderella is running from November 18, 2023 to January 6, 2024.

There will be further festivities with the return of Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas, adapted by Pins and Needles, which runs from Wednesday, November 22 to Saturday, December 30. Directed by Emma Earle, the family production is filled with live music and puppetry.

New cast unveiled for Palace Theatre’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

David Ricardo-Pearce, Polly Frame and Ellis Rae will lead the new cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, with the new company’s first performance set for this October at the Palace Theatre.

Ricardo-Pearce will play Harry Potter, with Frame as Ginny Potter and Rae as their son Albus Potter. 

Thomas Aldridge continues as Ron Weasley with Jade Ogugua joining the cast to play Hermione Granger along with Taneetrah Porter as their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley. Steve John Shepherd will play Draco Malfoy, with Harry Acklowe as his son Scorpius Malfoy. 

They are joined by Ishmail Aaron, David Annen, Nairn Archer, Darrell Brockis, Sabina Cameron, Robert Curtis, Toby De Salis, Odelia Dizel-Cubuca, Rory Fraser, Jemma Geanaus, Harry Goodson-Bevan, Jemma Gould, Kelton Hoyland, David Ijiti, Chris Jarman, Sally Jayne Hind, Emma Louise Jones, Kathryn Meisle, Ian Redford, Abigail Rosser, Clancy Ryan, Tonny Shim, Adam Slynn, Sara Stewart, Benjamin Stratton, Maia Tamrakar, Alex Tomkins, Jake Tuesley, Sam Varley, Jess Vickers, Wreh-asha Walton, Katie Wimpenny. Benedict Archer, Jonah Haas, Honor Hastings, Delilah O’Riordan, Jude Parry, Jojo Perez Hoadley and Isabella Woodman will alternate two children’s roles, completing the 47-strong company.

Nineteen years after Harry, Ron, and Hermione saved the wizarding world, they’re back on a most extraordinary new adventure – this time, joined by a brave new generation that has only just arrived at the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Prepare for spectacular spells, a mind-blowing race through time, and an epic battle to stop mysterious forces, all while the future hangs in the balance.

Last month Harry Potter and the Cursed Child celebrated seven years at the Palace Theatre, home of the original production, where it has been seen by more than 1.5 million patrons.

Based on an original new story by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is by Jack Thorne and directed by John Tiffany, with movement by Steven Hoggett, set by Christine Jones, costumes by Katrina Lindsay, music & arrangements by Imogen Heap, lighting by Neil Austin, sound by Gareth Fry, illusions & magic by Jamie Harrison, music supervision & arrangements by Martin Lowe, and casting by Julia Horan and Lotte Hines. 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions.

The Potters

London Coliseum set to welcome Studio Ghibli stage adaptation Spirited Away

Tickets are set to go on sale for Spirited Away, which opens at the London Coliseum next year.

Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, created by legendary animator and director Hayao Miyazaki, has been re-imagined for the stage by Toho Theatrical Department and Olivier and Tony Award-winning director John Caird (Les Misérables).

It tells the enchanting tale of Chihiro who while traveling to a new home with her family, stumbles into a world of fantastic spirits ruled over by the sorceress Yubaba. When her parents are turned into pigs and she is put to work in a magical bathhouse, Chihiro must use her wits to survive in this strange new place, find a way to free her parents, and return to the normal world.

Following a sell-out tour of Japan in 2022, the original Japanese cast including Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi, who play Chihiro, will perform this spectacular production for a strictly limited London season, marking the production’s European premiere.

The show will be presented in the original Japanese, with English captions, and brought to life with a live orchestra playing the film score by Joe Hisaishi, arranged by Brad Haak (Mary Poppins), set design by Jon Bausor (Bat Out of Hell), imaginative puppets designed by Toby Olié (Pinocchio), choreography by Shigehiro Ide and costumes by Sachiko Nakahara.

It is adapted by John Caird, co-adapted by Maoko Imai, associate music supervision, orchestrations and ableton programming by Conor Keelan, lighting design by Jiro Katsushiba, sound design by Koichi Yamamoto, costume design by Sachiko Nakahara, hair and make-up design by Hiroaki Miyauchi and projection design by Satoshi Kuriyama.

The stage manager is Takashi Hoji, assistant to the director is Maoko Imai, associate director is Makoto Nagai, co-producer is Iain Gillie and the producer is Haruka Ogi.

From Toho Co and PW Productions, Spirited Away opens at the London Coliseum on April 30, 2024 and runs until July 20, 2024.

 A 48-hour priority booking period will begin for those who have signed up at www.spiritedawayuk.com from 10am on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, followed by a general on sale from Thursday, September 7 2023 at 10am, with tickets available from £30.

Luca Rutherford brings You Heard Me to Battersea Arts Centre

Luca Rutherford (Learning to Die) is bringing her performance piece You Heard Me to Battersea Arts Centre, ahead of an autumn tour.

Exploring the complex and messy ways in which we connect to our internal power, Luca’s story of resilience and self-discovery empowers audiences to honour themselves by taking up space and finding their own voice.

You Heard Me is a true story that celebrates a single moment of noise that
allowed creator and performer Rutherford to escape an attack. This moment made her understand what it means to occupy space, to heal and be part of something much bigger than herself.

A theatrical experience about refusing to be silenced and the power to re-make, re-mould and disrupt, You Heard Me follows one woman’s journey to reclaiming the space she occupies.

This production is co-commissioned by The Albany, Battersea Arts Centre, Cambridge Junction, Northern Stage and Theatre in the Mill.

All performances will be relaxed – audiences are invited to move around if they need to, and if they need to leave the performance, they will be allowed to return when you feel ready.

The director is Maria Crocker, with dramaturg by Tanuja Amarasuriya, composer Melanie Wilson, designer Bethany Wells, movement director Linzy Na Nakorn, BSL interpreter Vinessa Brant, and initial movement by Steph McMann and Jenni Jackson.

Theatre503 to tackle Rachel Bellman’s These Demons

Coming to London’s Theatre503, thrilling comedy-horror These Demons marks the debut play from Rachel Bellman.

Exploring family ties, sisterhood and Jewish demonology, the family drama is set in modern-day Britain and aims to rethink the mainstream narrative around Jewish stories, as well as tackling themes of antisemitism, sexism and the stigma of the ‘village witch.’

When an incident puts her aunt Mirah in hospital, 17-year-old Leah takes it upon herself to find the perpetrator and exact revenge. But as she puts together her plan, the lines of reality become blurred. Her search for answers becomes a search for demons – metaphorical and… not.

Despite what her sister Danielle tells her, the shadows in their aunt’s remote cottage seem to move. Surrounded by books about Jewish exorcisms, the two sisters fight the sinking suspicion that they’re not alone.

Rachel Bellman

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, These Demons delves into what it means to feel ‘other’, whether through culture, age, or willingness to conform. It weaves together different types of demons from historical texts and sources in ways that can be interpreted literally and metaphorically as well as mythologically.

The play is directed by Jasmine Teo (The Bevin Boys) and produced by Tanya Truman (Pickle).

These Demons runs at Theatre503 from September 26 – October 14, 2023.

Tickets here.

James Graham’s Dear England scores West End transfer to Prince Edward Theatre

James Graham’s Dear England will transfer from the National Theatre to the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End, where it will have a strictly 14-week run.

Directed by Rupert Goold, the play tells the story of the England men’s football team under manager Gareth Southgate.

It’s time to change the game. The country that gave the world football has since delivered a painful pattern of loss. Why can’t England’s men win at their own game? With the worst track record for penalties in the world, England manager Gareth Southgate knows he needs to open his mind and face up to the years of hurt to take team and country back to the promised land.

Joseph Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale) will reprise his role as Gareth Southgate, with further casting to be announced.

Goold is joined by set designer Es Devlin, costume designer Evie Gurney, lighting designer Jon Clark, movement directors Ellen Kane and Hannes Langolf, sound designers Dan Balfour and Tom Gibbons and video designer Ash J Woodward.  Casting is by Bryony Jarvis Taylor, dialect coach is Richard Ryder and associate director is Elin Schofield.

Commissioned by the National Theatre, Dear England was developed with the theatre’s New Work department and had its world premiere in the Olivier theatre on June 20, 2023.

Dear England will run at the Prince Edward Theatre from October 9.

Ghost Stories by Candlelight to light up Shakespeare’s Globe

Shakespeare’s Globe is one of 12 new venues to host Ghost Stories by Candlelight, as part of the show’s East of England tour.

Gather close for a candlelit evening of chilling, contemporary tales, and haunting new folk music from the ‘Witch Counties’ of East Anglia. What happens when the ghosts of the past creep up on us today?

Producer HighTide’s first tour under new artistic director Clare Slater, the London run will take place at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe from November 23 – 25.

A HighTide production, in association with Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Harlow Playhouse and Shakespeare’s Globe, the show is written by Kelly Jones, Shamser Sinha and Nicola Werenowska, with music and songs by Georgia Shackleton. It is directed by Elayce Ismail.

Information: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/