NORTHERN SOUL Kicks Off Soho Theatre's Summer Season in London, July 11

Soho Theatre has announced a full summer season of theatre, comedy and cabaret to be presented both at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in London. In theatre, the group presents new work from Phil Porter, Will Eno and Joel Horwood. In Edinburgh and in London Soho presents acts from across the globe, including Barry Award Winner Doctor Brown and the joint Best Newcomer Winners from the Melbourne Comedy Festival Matt Okine and Ronny Chieng. Plus the return of the Soho Literary Festival.

THEATRE

Northern Soul
By Victoria Melody
Performed & Devised by Victoria Melody | Directed by Ursula Martinez
A FARNHAM MALTINGS COMMISSION
Soho Upstairs, London: Tonight, 11 – Saturday 15 July, 9.15pm
Tickets: £10 - £12.50

Northern Soul is a bit about northern soul, its’ also a bit about pigeons, but mainly it’s about - me.

Directed by international phenomenon Ursula Martinez. Northern Soul is a hilarious one-woman show about Victoria’s attempts at joining in. Victoria, an untrained dancer, has been travelling the dance halls and living rooms of England being taught to dance by Northern Soul’s ex-champions. Northern Soul draws on those investigations and explores the ‘soul of the north’ using film and original Northern Soul dance moves. Victoria Melody is a performer and filmmaker with a curiosity for other people’s passions. Part artist, part ethnographer she gives audiences brief glimpses into the worlds of people they would not normally meet or experience.

School of Night
A STICKING PLACE PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH SEABRIGHT PRODUCTIONS
Soho Upstairs, London: Wednesday 18 – Sunday 22 July, 8pm
Tickets: £10 - £12.50

The School Of Night was an underground sect of artists, scientists and philosophers, who may have secretly written Shakespeare’s plays. Revived by theatrical maverick Ken Campbell and musical improv geniuses The Showstoppers, they return to Soho Theatre for more high-wire literary and theatrical mayhem.

This fearless troupe will take on any challenge as they improvise their way from Plato to Pinter and from Marlowe to Mamet, culminating in the creation of an authentic, hilarious Shakespearean masterpiece from audience suggestions.

Blink
By Phil Porter
Directed by Joe Murphy | Designed by HannaH Clark | Starring Harry McEntire & Rosie Wyatt
A SOHO THEATRE & NABOKOV CO-PRODUCTION
Traverse 2, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh: Tuesday 02 – Sunday 26 August (Times vary)
Press performance: Friday 03 August
Soho Upstairs, London: Wednesday 29 August – Saturday 22 September, 7.15pm
Press performance: Tuesday 04 September, 7.15pm
Tickets: £10 - £15

Blink is the tale of Jonah, Sophie, and a fox called Scruffilitis. It’s a love story. A dysfunctional, voyeuristic and darkly funny love story, but a love story all the same. Written by Phil Porter, winner of the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize for Cracks in my Skin and the Arts Council’s Children Award for Smashed Eggs (Pentabus Theatre, Sulis Theatre & Theatre Royal, Northampton). Porter’s other recent plays include Alice in Wonderland (Royal & Derngate); The Tempest (adaptation co-written with Peter Glanville for the RSC) and Beauty & the Beast (Unicorn Theatre).

Blink stars the exciting young actors Harry McEntire (Punk Rock Royal Exchange, Manchester/Lyric Hammersmith and Winterlong Soho Theatre/Royal Exchange, Manchester) and Rosie Wyatt (Bunny UK Tour/Soho Theatre/59E59 New York Brits Off Broadway Season '11 and Mogadishu UK Tour/Lyric Hammersmith).

Oh, the Humanity and other Good Intentions
By Will Eno
Directed by Erica Whyman | Designed by Andrew Stephenson | Lighting Design by Kevin Tweedy | Composition by Leif Jordanssen | Starring Lucy Ellinson, Tony Bell & John Kirk
A NORTHERN STAGE PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH SOHO THEATRE
Northern Stage at St Stephens, Edinburgh: Thursday 09 – Friday 25 August (Times vary)
Soho Main House, London: Wednesday 12 September - Saturday 13 October, 7.30pm
Press performance: Monday 17 September, 7.30pm
Tickets: £10 - £20

We'd like you to meet a bunch of people with something on their mind. A coach with an awkward confession to make. A spokeswoman who doesn't know what to say. A man and a woman who want to fall in love, but aren't sure how. Oh, and these people want to take your picture, so just act natural, ok?

Sharp, witty and playful, these five short New York plays by award-winning playwright Will Eno and directed by Erica Whyman reveal the terrible hope, and hilarious uncertainty of being alive.

American playwright Will Eno previous plays include Tragedy: a tragedy, The Flu Season: a problem play, an adapatation of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt titled Gnit and the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Drama finalist Thom Pain (based on nothing); which was produced by Soho Theatre before transferring for a critically acclaimed run off-Broadway. Eno is a Helen Merril Playwriting Fellow, a recipient of the coveted Guggenheim Fellowship and an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow.

I © Peterborough
By Joel Horwood
Directed by Ivan Cutting & Joel Horwood
AN EASTERN ANGLES IN ASSOCIATION WITH KEY THEATRE PETERBOROUGH PRODUCTION
Pleasance 2, Venue 33, Edinburgh: Wednesday 01 – Sunday 27 August, 5.35pm
Soho Upstairs, London: Tuesday 09 - Saturday 20 October, 7.15pm
Press performance: Thursday 11 October, 7.15pm
Tickets: £10 - £15

I © Peterborough is a no holds barred depiction of ‘growing up gay’ in a provincial city complete with skinheads, biro tattoos, wedgies in the school bogs and heavy petting at the lido! Joel Horwood’s darkly comic seventy-minute show is fronted by Lulu a big bloke with a dodgy wig, six-inch heels and delusions of celebrity.

Lulu is backed by his son Hew a talented musician who both loves and loathes his father. The dysfunctional duo are born and brought up in Peterborough, a largely overlooked city best known for its brickworks, railway station and passport office. As the father and son double-act attempt to perform a cabaret version of their family story, the relationship starts to unravel.

Joel Horwood burst on to the Edinburgh scene in 2005 with the musical Mikey the Pikey which won a Cameron Mackintosh Award. The following year, Food, about a troubled celebrity chef, won a Fringe First Award. His bittersweet depiction of East Anglian teenagers, I Caught Crabs At Walberswick (an Eastern Angles/Hightide co-production) was a 2008 hit at the Bush Theatre. Joel’s adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo opened at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2010. He is currently under commission to Paines Plough, Northampton Royal and Derngate and Cowboy Films/Channel 4 and co-writes Christmas shows for the Lyric Hammersmith.

Big Hits
Conceived and Devised by GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN
Soho Upstairs, London: Tuesday 18 September - Saturday 22 September, 9pm
Press performance: Tuesday 18 September, 9pm
Tickets: £8 - £10

Hello, Welcome, You look very nice. We’re Big Hits and we’re on a mission. You’ll learn

SELF-IMPROVEMENT here with us tonight and you will COMPLETELY improve yourself. That way you can be better in the world. Are you ready? Because if you’re not you’re running out of TIME. We’re going to blast our hearts RIGHT OUT for you right here for you. Do you feel FREE? This one’s for you.

Big Hits rises up in the space between live art and theatre, looking for a good time – and staring hard at censorship, propriety, and the violence that can erupt when noise is stifled. An Unruly Voice is at large; the music’s turned up high.

COMEDY + CABARET

Chat Show Roulette
Soho Upstairs, London: Tuesday 26 - Thursday 28 June, 9.15pm
Tickets: £12.50

A whole new take on improvised character comedy. A traditional chat show. One Host – three guests – a studio audience. However the guests are all comedy performers who don’t know who they will be playing until literally seconds before they appear. That's because their names, occupations and key character traits are chosen randomly from glass bowls filled with suggestions from the audience. Hosted by Justin Edwards. Guests include Matt Lucas, Julia Davis, Adam Riches, Simon Day, David Schneider, Katy Brand, Humphrey Ker and Marc Wootton.

Beginning Middle End
By Lawrence Leung
A SOHO THEATRE AND AUSTRALIAN COMEDY MANAGEMENT PRODUCTION
Soho Main House, London: Monday 02 July – Saturday 14 July, 9.30pm
Tickets: £10 - £15

Launching our summer season of Australian comedians is Lawrence Leung, returning to Soho Theatre following last year’s hugely popular Lawrence Wants A Jetpack. This year he brings his critically acclaimed new Melbourne Comedy Festival Show Beginning Middle End. After finding bizarre and disturbing erotic fan fiction about himself and one of the stars of Neighbours, Lawrence Realises that everyone has a story to tell. But when it comes to his own life, has he lost the plot? Beginning Middle End is a show about storytelling, friendship zones, accidental fist-fights, Colin Firth and whales. Lawrence Leung is a multi-award winning stand-up comic and creator of the Australian TV shows Choose Your Own Adventure (nominated for an AFI Award for Best TV Comedy) and Unbelievable. His previous shows include Lawrence Wants A Jetpack and Lawrence Learns to Breakdance (Winner Age Critics’ Award, Melbourne International Comedy Festival).

Alternative Comedy Memorial Society
Soho Downstairs, London: Monday 02 July, 8pm
Tickets: £10

Fresh from its destruction of a tent in Dalston, a speakeasy in Shepherd’s Bush and a barge on the Thames, fearless comedy night #ACMS marches on a fancy cellar in Soho to boldly experiment and nobly fail. Life-risking comedy hosted by Thom Tuck and John-Luke Roberts, with Boardmembers Bridget Christie, Isy Suttie, Josie Long, Sara Pascoe, Nadia Kamil, Alexis Dubus, Tom Bell and Ben Target. PLUS Robin Ince, Waen Shepherd, Cariad Lloyd and more! If we were to sum it up in one word, it would be “Overambitious”. If we were to sum it up in two words: “Overly ambitious”. Basically, if it’s your sort of thing, you’ll love it.

So Comedy
Soho Downstairs, London: Tuesday 03 July & Tuesday 07 August, 8pm
Tickets: £10

The producers of The Graham Norton Show and The Sarah Millican Television Programme return bringing you their monthly evening of the very best in stand up and sketch comedy.

Bennett Arron - Jewelsh
Soho Upstairs, London: Friday 06 July, 9.15pm
Tickets: £12.50 (£10)

Bennett Arron is both Jewish and Welsh, no joke – although it is the starting point for jokes. And being Jewish and Welsh means Bennett is never quite sure why he’s being beaten up. Following his sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Festival and having supported Ricky Gervais on some of his tour dates, Bennett brings his critically acclaimed show to Soho Theatre – for One Night Only.

Andy Zaltzman - Political Animal
Soho Downstairs, London: Monday 09 July, Monday 23 July & Monday 06 August, 7.45pm
Tickets: £10

Political Animal, the nation’s only and probably best political stand up gig triumphantly returns to Soho Theatre fortnightly, to harangue and cajole a very naughty planet. Hosted by the undisputed, sporadically acclaimed, Andy Zaltzman (half of Times Online’s hit podcast, The Bugle and star of Andy Zaltzman’s History of the Third Millennium, Series 1 of 100 for Radio 4) and featuring outstanding bills of top-class comedians, this show leaves no hot potato unbuttered.

Blast Off
Soho Downstairs, London: Tuesday 10 July, 7pm
Tickets: £10

A long time ago in a theatre far, far away…The galaxy’s only science fiction theatre night returns!

Fresh from its first sell out show, the latest episode of Blast Off brings together a brand new line up of science-fiction plays by five of the best new writers in theatre. Curated by sci-fi nerd Jonathan Brittain and theatre nerds Lucy Jackson and Claire Turner, Blast Off features work by award winning writers Gabriel Bisset-Smith, Sara Pascoe and Joshua Conkel, as well as comedy from John Luke Roberts. Blast Off, boldly going where no show has gone before.

Pros from Dover
Soho Downstairs, London: Friday 13 & Saturday 14 July, 7.45pm
Tickets: £12.50 (£10)

The Morecambe, Costello and slightly funnier Chuckle Brother of Sketch Comedy. Sean Garrett, Richard Glover and Phil Whelans are Pros from Dover. Sketch Comedy has never been more like this than this is. Pros From Dover were resident sketch team on BBC Radio 4’s Sony Award-winning science-based comedy show The Infinite Monkey Cage and appeared for exactly one minute on the same station’s 28 Acts in 28 Minutes. They’ve performed at Comedy Festivals in Edinburgh, San Francisco, Glasgow, Brighton, Bath, Leicester and London.

HAHN-BIN — The Renaissance of Classical Music
Soho Downstairs, London: Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 July, 9.30pm & Sunday 22 July, 4pm + 7.30pm
Tickets: 18 July £10, then £15 (£12.50)

In the two short years following his groundbreaking Carnegie Hall debut, the avant-pop classical violinist HAHN-BIN has become a revolutionary force in music with his dazzling performances of classical music as performance art. At just 24, this prodigiously talented violinist brings the quarantined musical genre into mainstream culture, leaving audiences mesmerized. In March 2011, HAHN-BIN — who made his international debut at the Grammy Awards at just 12 years of age eliciting a standing ovation from the legendary Isaac Stern — became the first solo classical musician to hold a series of performances at The Museum of Modern Art with his Soliloquy for Andy Warhol. The virtuoso’s main stage debut at Carnegie Hall held the same month, received national coverage on the Today Show as well as the front page of MSNBC.com. In spring 2012, following the premiere of his Tchaikovsky ViolinConcerto performance with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall and his London debut at the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, HAHN-BIN became the first classical artist to grace the cover of the fashion bible i-D Magazine.

The Horne Section – Work in Progress
Soho Main House, London: Monday 23 & Tuesday 24 July, 7.30pm
Tickets: £10

Exciting work in progress shows from the jazz-infused, spontaneous stand up and spectacularly outlandish musical talent The Horne Section.

Martyn Jacques - The Criminal Castrati
Soho Downstairs, London: Wednesday 25 – Saturday 28 July & Wednesday 01 – Saturday 04 August, 7.30pm
Tickets: Wed + Thu £15 (£12.50), Fri + Sat £17.50 (£15)

Olivier award winner Martyn Jacques, the founding member and front man of the Grammy nominated punk-cabaret band The Tiger Lillies, presents his first ever solo shows. Martyn trained himself as an opera singer with a castrati style voice of heartbreaking beauty, whilst living alone above a strip joint in Soho for seven years. He founded The Tiger Lillies and, accompanied by drummer Adrian Huge and double bass player Adrian Stout. Ken Campbell has described him as "the criminal castrati", and with his Dickensian style of dress, long pigtail and bowler hat, his corrosive lyrics and his astonishing voice, all the while singing with his eyes closed, he makes an indelible impression.

Shappi Khorsandi – Work in Progress
Soho Downstairs, London: Monday 16 July & Tuesday 24 July, 7.45pm
Tickets: £10

Join Shappi, star of Live At The Apollo, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, and Have I Got News for You, as she brings her new work in progress show to Soho Theatre.

Slow Clap - Truth
Soho Upstairs, London: Thursday 26 – Saturday 28 July, 9.30pm
Tickets: £10

Truthis the highly anticipated show from Melbourne’s hottest experimental comedy/art makers Slow Clap. In this follow-up to last year’s smash hit, the heart-warming alternative comedy The Hermitude of Angus, Ecstatic, Slow Clap present another full-throttle mix of storytelling, charac­ter comedy and dance. Truthis a collection of hyperbolic characters, second-hand costumes and professional dance moves all strung together with a true story. Employing his signature style of dance and character-based narrative comedy, multi-award win­ning performer Vachel Spirason stars in this new devised production that sits somewhere be­tween yarn-spinning, comedy and theatre. Co-Created by multi-award winning theatre-maker Stephanie Brotchie, Truthis the latest offering from Slow Clap, two of Australia's most exciting artists.

Doctor Brown - BEFRDFGTH
A SOHO THEATRE AND THE MASON SISTERS @PBJ PRODUCTION
Underbelly Cowgate, Edinburgh: Tuesday 02 – Saturday 26 August, 9.05pm
Soho Theatre dates to be announced shortly
WINNER BARRY AWARD MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2012

Rapidly becoming an international comedy sensation, 2011 Total Theatre Award nominee and 2012 Melbourne Comedy festival winner Doctor Brown goes back to Edinburgh with a brand new hour of absurd visual humour.

Bourgeois & Maurice - SUGARTITS
A SOHO THEATRE PRODUCTION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH Tim WhiteHEAD
Underbelly Cowgate, Edinburgh: Tuesday 02 – Saturday 26 August, 10.15pm
Soho Theatre dates to be announced shortly

Award-winning cabaret stars Bourgeois & Maurice are a musical-duo with style as sharp as their wit. Twisting modern life into some of the catchiest, most peculiar pop songs you'll hear, this brand new show brings their unrivalled mix of social commentary, musical comedy and fashion so high you'll wonder what you've taken.

Matt Okine - Being Black N Chicken N Shit
Soho Downstairs, London: Monday 13 – Saturday 25 August, 7.30pm
Tickets: 13 – 16 Aug £10, then £15 (£12.50)
WINNER BEST NEWCOMER MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2012

Award-winning Australian Comedian & Actor, Matt Okine, is one of the most exciting up and coming comedians on the scene, making his London debut directly after winning the Best Newcomer Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Okine’s Being Black N Chicken N Shit, at the Sydney Comedy Festival, was nominated for Time Out's Local Comedy Show of the Year, and he was also nominated for Time Out's 2011 Sydney Comedian of the Year. In 2012, Being Black N Chicken N Shit had a sell-out season at the Brisbane Comedy Festival.

Ronny Chieng - The Ron Way
Soho Downstairs, London: Monday 13 – Saturday 25 August, 9.15pm
Tickets: 13 – 16 Aug £10, then £15 (£12.50)
WINNER BEST NEWCOMER MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2012

Ronny doesn’t want to be liked. His bold, matter-of-fact comic stance is a breath of fresh air among a newer generation of comics who just want you to love them. But Ronny will get you on side with his hilarious determination to show he has the comic skills, academic brilliance and all-round credentials to make you laugh. A lot. Plus, he’ll prove once and for all that being Chinese is really cool. Ronny’s The Ron Way scooped the Melbourne Best Newcomer Award this year, and the buzz around his show has led him to play to sell out audiences in Australia and beyond.

Paul Sinha - Last Christmas
Soho Upstairs, London: Thursday 16 – Saturday 18 August, 7.45pm
Tickets: 16 August £10, then £15 (£12.50)

Last Christmas Paul Sinha, stand up comedian and star of The Chase, found himself more terrified than he has ever been. There’s nothing like a horrifyingly misjudged trip to the Himalayas to make you reassess it all, the curious, serendipitous incidents that have shaped Paul's path from reluctant doctor to globetrotting comic to ITV tea-time crusher of dreams. Paul’s second full length solo show Saint or Sinha received widespread critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was nominated for the if.comedy award (formerly the Perrier). Since then Paul has been in great demand, whether on TV shows or his numerous contributions to radio.

SOHO LITERARY FESTIVAL

Presented by The Oldie I Sponsored by Noble Caledonia
Soho Theatre, London: Friday 28 – Sunday 30 September, various times
Tickets: From £8

Fired up by the success of last year’s inaugural event and with a full Soho wind in its tail, the Soho Literary Festival returns to the Soho Theatre once again, this year from Thursday 27 to Sunday 30 September.

Early highlights to look out for include a star turn by Pam Ayres, another by Craig Brown, a third by Virginia Ironside; plus appearances by Prue Leith, being interviewed by her nephew Sam Leith; Colin Thubron being interviewed by Eland Books’ Barnaby Rogerson; the Oldie magazine’s Richard Ingrams discussing 20 years at the helm of one of the country’s favourite monthly reads; Channel 4 News reporter Lindsey Hilsum, talking on Libya; and back by popular request, PD James and Ruth Rendell doing their Crime Hour. For the lighter of heart, there will be a Latin Quiz – when were you last tested on your genitives? And one or two late-night cabaret acts.

For bookings, call 020 7478 0100. For more information, visit www.sohotheatre.com.

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