Check out these rehearsal images from Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play, coming to Soho Theatre.
A coproduction with Soho Theatre and Belgrade Theatre in association with Landmark Theatres, the production will tour the UK this autumn, arriving in London from September 6-23.
Directed by co-artistic director Katie Posner, Battye’s Strategic Love Play takes place on an awkward first date, speaking uncomfortable truths about modern dating and romance with acid wit. Letty Thomas and Archie Backhouse star.
So they’ve both swiped right. Now they’re meeting for the first time. Facing each other. As if that’s a normal thing to do. But she’s being uncomfortable, and he’s a total bore. The vibe is horrific and the banter is even worse. But something is keeping them in their seats. Something is making them stay.
The production will feature set and costume design by Rhys Jarman, lighting design by Rajiv Pattani, sound design by Beth Duke, intimacy direction by Robbie Taylor Hunt, movement direction by Gabrielle Nimo, dramaturgy by Gillian Greer and the casting director is Jacob Sparrow. The production manager will be Josephine Tremelling and the company stage manager will be Simon Perkins.
Here’s the cast line-up for And Then There Were None, a production of Agatha Christie’s classic thriller coming to Richmond Theatre later this year.
Bob Barrett (Holby City) will play Doctor Armstrong, with Joseph Beattie (Hex ) as Philip Lombard, Oliver Clayton (The Play That Goes Wrong) as Anthony Marston, Jeffery Kissoon (National Theatre) as General Mackenzie, Andrew Lancel (Coronation Street) as William Blore, Nicola May-Taylor (Rutherford And Son) as Jane Pinchbeck, Louise McNulty as understudy, Katy Stephens (RSC) as Emily Brent, Lucy Tregear (The Country Wife) as Georgina Rogers, Sophie Walter (The Girl On The Train) as Vera Claythorne, Matt Weyland (Witness For The Prosecution) as Narracott/understudy and David Yelland (Poirot) as Judge Wargrave.
And Then There Were None will open in Northampton on September 7 before embarking on a UK and Ireland tour. It will run at Richmond Theatre between October 31 – November 4, 2023.
This brand-new production has been reinvented for the 21st century, directed by Lucy Bailey (Witness for the Prosecution).
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.
Bailey directs with set and costume designer Mike Britton, lighting designer Chris Davey and sound designer and composer Elizabeth Purnell. Casting is by Ellie Collyer-Bristow, the assistant director will be Victoria Gartner, fight direction by Renny Krupinski and movement direction by Ayse Tashkiran.
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.
It is a production from Fiery Angel, Royal & Derngate, Northampton and ROYO production.
Andrew LancelBob BarrettDavid YellandJeffrey KissoonJoseph BeattieKaty StephensLouise McNultyLucy TregearMatt WeylandNicola May-TaylorOliver ClaytonSophie Walter
Frankie Bridge will make her West End debut after joining the cast of 2:22 – A Ghost Story.
Bridge will play Lauren after Sophia Bush withdrew from the production due to illness. Bridge will perform from August until the end of the show’s run at the Apollo Theatre on September 17.
Producers Runway Entertainment said: “Due to illness, Sophia Bush has unfortunately had to withdraw from the production. We are delighted to welcome Frankie Bridge to the 2:22 family. Our talented understudies Gemma Yates and Allie Dart have been covering the role of Lauren on rotation. We are hugely grateful to them for stepping up so brilliantly. They will continue until Frankie begins.”
Former The Saturdays star Bridge joins the fifth West End transfer of Danny Robins’ supernatural thriller, which moved to the Apollo in May after a run at The Lyric Theatre and two successful seasons at the Criterion.
The production began its life in the summer of 2021 at the Noel Coward Theatre starring Lily Allen, Julia Chan, Hadley Fraser and Jake Wood. It then transferred to the Gielgud Theatre for 10 weeks starring Stephanie Beatriz, James Buckley, Elliot Cowan and Giovanna Fletcher.
The show then moved to the Criterion Theatre with the cast featuring Tom Felton, Mandip Gill, Beatriz Romilly, Sam Swainsbury; the second cast at the Criterion Theatre featured Tamsin Carroll as Lauren, Felix Scott as Sam, Matt Willis as Ben and Laura Whitmore as Jenny. The show then transferred to the Lyric where Cheryl, Jake Wood, Louise Ford and Scott Karim ended their run on 23 April.
The US premiere of 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, opened on October 29 and ended its run on December 4, 2022. The show has also recently opened in Australia.
2.22 – A Ghost Story is written by Robins (The Battersea Poltergeist) and it is directed by Matthew Dunster. Described as intriguing, funny and scary, it takes audiences into one adrenaline-fueled night where secrets will emerge and ghosts may appear….What do you believe? And do you dare to discover the truth?
Jenny believes her new home is haunted, but her husband Sam isn’t having any of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and her new partner Ben. Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and that something is getting closer, so they are going to stay up… until 2.22am… and then they will know.
2:22 – A Ghost Story features set design by Anna Fleischle, costume design by Cindy Lin, lighting design by Lucy Carter, sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph Sound, casting by Matilda James, illusions by Chris Fisher, and co-direction by Gabriel Vega Weissmanl.
It is produced by Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons for Runaway Entertainment, Isobel David and Kater Gordon.
Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss are bringing The Unfriend back to the West End this year.
The show, from Playful Productions, will open in previews at Wyndhams’ Theatre on December 16 and will run until March 9, 2024.
Comedian and actor Lee Mack (Not Going Out) will take the lead as Peter, while Sarah Alexander (Jonathan Creek) will play Peter’s wife Debbie and Nick Sampson (Witness for the Prosecution) will play The Neighbour. Frances Barber (Silk) returns as serial killer Elsa Jean Krakowski.
While on holiday Peter and Debbie befriend Elsa: a lusty, Trump-loving widow from Denver, USA. She’s less than woke but kind of wonderful, so they agree to stay in touch – because no one ever really does, do they?
When Elsa invites herself to stay with the family a few months later, they decide to look her up online. But it’s too late: on learning the truth about Elsa Jean Krakowski, the deadly danger is already on a flight to London. What began as a casual holiday friendship is suddenly a threat to all their lives.
Peter and Debbie now face the ultimate challenge of the modern world – how do you protect all that you love from mortal peril without seeming a bit impolite?
Because guess who’s coming… to murder…
Director Gatiss said: “You can’t keep a good serial killer down! I’m absolutely delighted that Elsa Jean Krakowski has found a home at the beautiful Wyndham’s theatre and very much look forward to bringing Steven’s hilarious play back to the West End.”
Writer Moffat added: “It’s a real thrill to welcome a couple of comedy legends on board The Unfriend, for our new run at the Wyndhams Theatre. Lee Mack is one of the funniest men in the country and someone I’ve been wanting to work with for years. And Sarah Alexander is not just brilliant and hilarious, she’s an old friend from our days together on Coupling. Can’t wait to get started all over again.”
The Unfriend is designed by Robert Jones, with lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by Ella Wahlström, video design by Andrzej Goulding and casting by Charlotte Sutton. The Unfriend by Steven Moffat was originally developed by Playful Productions.
Catherine Tate and David Threlfall will star in The Enfield Haunting, a new play based on one of the most famous poltergeist events in the world.
Written by Paul Unwin and directed by Angus Jackson, The Enfield Haunting will play at Brighton Theatre Royal and Richmond Theatre – where it plays from Tuesday, November 21 to Saturday, November 25, 2023 – before moving to the Ambassadors Theatre in London for a limited West End season from November 30, 2023 until March 2, 2024.
Tate (Doctor Who) will play Peggy Hodgson, a single mother who tries to protect her three children from something that is incomprehensible and deeply disturbing.
Threlfall (Shameless) plays ghost hunter Maurice Grosse.
The Hodgson’s had no idea what a poltergeist was when, in the summer of 1977, furniture and toys started moving of their own accord. They were an ordinary, working-class family, who lived in a North London council house at 284 Green Street, Enfield, but for the next 18 months became the centre of one of the most famous poltergeist events in the world.
Janet, the possessed 16-year-old, was nearly pulled out of a window. The local ‘lolly pop lady’ saw her floating six feet in the air in an upstairs room and Janet was found fast asleep in a neighbours’ bed. There are tapes of Janet growling for hours in a voice that doctors said would destroy a sixteen-year-old girl’s vocal cords after a few minutes.
Unwin’s play is the story of one night in the spring of 1978 when events were approaching a climax. Based on the first-hand accounts of one the one the ghost hunters, The Enfield Haunting is the true story of what happened when Peggy Hodgson tries to protect her three children from something that is incomprehensible, deeply disturbing and is hurtling to a terrifying conclusion.
Maurice Grosse was one of the ghost hunters. A kind and protective man, he was determined to help the Hodgson’s but as the night unfolds it slowly becomes clear that he is searching for something that he is convinced that only Janet can help him find.
Further cast and creatives will be announced in due course.
Hackney Empire will host a special performance of V’s The Vagina Monologues to mark International Sign Language Day 2023.
Directed by Paula Garfield for Deafinitely Theatre, the event will see the show performed in British Sign Language (BSL) and Spoken English by a mix of 20 deaf and hearing women and non-binary people from all walks of life.
The one-off performance aims to raise money for the charity Deaf-initely Women, which provides essential services to make sure all deaf women are able to live free from abuse. This performance takes place on Saturday, September 23 at 7:30pm.
Written almost 20 years ago, The Vagina Monologues is based on writer V’s Vagina Interviews, conducted with 100 women all around the world. This collection of funny, lively and emotional monologues represents the untold experiences of women in a powerful theatrical experience presented for the first time in a BSL performance at this scale; an unmissable celebration of womanhood and sexuality.
The proceeds will support Deaf-initely Women to find and train more deaf people to become qualified Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVA), a specialist professional who works closely with domestic abuse survivors. The UK desperately need more IDVAs as there are only 10 deaf IDVAs to cover the whole of the British Isles.
Kiln Theatre has announced the full cast for the UK premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Mlima’s Tale ahead of its debut in September.
Gabrielle Brooks (Githinji), Pui Fan Lee (Gouxi), Brandon Grace (Andrew), Natey Jones (Geedi) and Ira Mandela Siobhan (Mlima) will appear in the production, which is directed by Miranda Cromwell.
Described as a powerful and unforgettable story of the ivory trade, the story centres on the one they call Mlima, the mountain. Killed for his magnificent tusks, killed for greed, killed for ivory, his spirit journeys through the ivory trade market, marking those complicit in his barbaric death.
It opens on September 21, with previews from September 14, and runs until October 21.
Brandon GraceGabrielle BrooksIra Mandela SiobhanNatey JonesPui Fan Lee
The Importance of Being… Earnest? will play at the Beck Theatre in Hayes as part of its forthcoming UK tour.
After a critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe run in 2022, and a previous London Fringe theatre run, the production will have a full run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2023 before embarking on a 37-week tour, beginning in September and running until July 2024.
It will run at the Beck Theatre from October 12-14, 2023.
In this riotous twist on a much-loved classic the show opens to looming disaster; the actor playing Ernest in Oscar Wilde’s famed farce fails to arrive on cue. In a monumental effort to ‘save the show’, a real audience member is quickly cast in the lead role.
But this impetuous recasting sets off a hilarious chain of events that, one-by-one, renders the rest of the cast unable to continue their performances.
As more audience members are encouraged to step into the spotlight, led backstage for costume and make-up, impromptu auditions, the painting of portraits, the chanting of mantras; doing whatever’s needed to help the show go on, an absurd controlled madness ensues – until it feels as if there are almost as many audience members in the cast as there are in the … audience.
Developed alongside the company’s flagship open-rehearsal initiative, where audiences are invited into the rehearsal room to participate in the creative process, the show is written by Josh King, Simon Paris and Say It Again, Sorry?, and is directed by Simon Paris.
Fray, a hip-hop theatre show from CandyBomber Productions and choreographer Sisco Gomez, is heading to London’s Wilton’s Music Hall.
Frayfuses world-class dance, music and digital visuals to tell a story about two deeply bonded brothers navigating competing passions for Hip Hop dancing and for the shared world of adventure they discover inside of video games as over time, their bond frays when the older brother is lured away by dark forces.
Written and directed by Kate Duhamel, it is produced and choreographed by Gomez.
Large screen visuals portray the games that first light up the brothers’ young imaginations with colourful landscapes and imaginary characters who inspire and challenge them, much like the people they meet in the real world outside.
As their story plays out across the years, a video game they build together becomes the singular world in which Tullio can hold a connection to his older brother, Ziya, who is being lured away by perilous influences. Tullio finds himself in a real-life quest in which there is no analog “game controller” for real people, and steering his brother away from the dark forces that attract him can’t be programmed into a computer. Tullio must dig deep to find within himself a power mighty enough to turn fear into hope for them both.
The cast includes Elijah Smith, Jamai Robinson, Alex Chambers, Jost Karlin, Ken Nguye, Ola Papior and Marie Spieldenner.
Fray comes to Wilton’s Music Hall from July 24-26.
Doctor Who and Dreamland star Freema Agyeman will star in the revival of Yasmina Reza’s savagely dark comedy God of Carnage.
Agyeman will play Veronique Vallon in the play when it opens at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, directed by Nicholai La Barrie.
Also joining the production is Ariyon Bakare (His Dark Materials) playing Alain Reille, Dinita Gohil (The Father and the Assassin) takes on the role of Annette Reille and Martin Hutson (Small Island) plays Michel Vallon.
When 11-year-old Ferdinand knocked 11-year-old Bruno’s two front teeth out, their parents meet up to have a civil conversation about the misdemeanours of their children in a suitably calm and rational way… what can go wrong? As night falls chaos ensues with explosive tantrums, name-calling and tears.
Reza’s comedy, translated by Christopher Hampton, is designed is by Lily Arnold. The lighting design is by Richard Howell, sound design and composition by Asaf Zohar and casting by Heather Basten.
Agyeman said: “I am beyond thrilled to be returning to the London stage, and where better than the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, with its incredible history and tradition – a space where consistently solid, inclusive and high calibre work is created and shared. I’m also happy to be staying in the genre of dark comedy post Dreamland – God of Carnage made me gasp and guffaw in equal measure! I look forward to performing in this play alongside the fantastic cast and am very excited to be working with director Nicholai La Barrie whose enthusiasm is infectious!”
