Laura Hanna

Following the release of GUISE’s debut album Youngest Daughter earlier this year, the folk fourtet are confirming its long-awaited release on vinyl this Friday. Commemorating the release, the band are delighted to present a new tour video for Youngest Daughter’s magnificent opening track: ‘The Boy & The Thief’. Plus, check out upcoming tour dates!

Set in Tunisia in 1942, this new play sparkles with wit, but its exploration of the undercurrent of antisemitism that flows through even the most cosmopolitan of societies tells us much about today.

We chat to Yasmin Paige about how she’s coped over the last 18 months, her career highlights and what drew her to take part in Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied Tunisia.

The Almeida Theatre has announced the full cast for the world premiere of Josh Azouz’s Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied Tunisia. Eleanor Rhode directs Adrian Edmondson, Laura Hanna, Ethan Kai, Pierro Niel-Mee, Yasmin Paige and Daniel Rainford in the production which runs from Saturday 21 August – Saturday 18 September.

Shubbak 2021 invites you to witness the creativity, responsiveness and imaginative power of Arab artists to speak to our times. Born out of the rupture across Arab countries ten years ago, the festival programme reflects our fundamental desire to connect to people and ideas across borders in an unsettled world.

The Friday Hangout talk series at the Arab British Centre is back in partnership with MENA Arts UK, the organisation of arts professionals from the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding areas who have been gathering on an informal basis to discuss their work and answer live questions from the public. Guests this year have included the filmmaker Sally El Hosaini and playwright Abi Zakaria; the British Egyptian actor Amir El-Masry is up next and sets his appearance in context below.

The audio play of A History of Water in the Middle East by Sabrina Mahfouz directed by Stef O'Driscoll is available to listen to now until Saturday 30 January 2021 via the Royal Court Theatre's podcast channel.

Papatango Theatre Company today announced the ten winning monologues from their Isolated But Open - Voices From Across The Shutdown initiative. Filmed performances of the monologues are available now for free on Papatango's website (https://papatango.co.uk/isolated-but-open/), alongside the publication of each monologue as a free online PDF by Nick Hern Books.

For Takeover week 6, Sabrina Mahfouz (A History of Water in the Middle East, Royal Court) will use The Bunker as a platform for conversation with this double bill of works exploring issues around abortion, miscarriage, surrogacy, still-birth, infertility and shame. Hoping that this celebration of womxn's bodies will encourage people to speak out, there will be a counsellor available post-show for anyone who feels a need to talk after seeing the performances.

Today, GUISE can reveal plans of their debut release with Xtra Mile Recordings: 'The Fun Part', an enchanting 4-track EP, set for release on 6 March 2020. 

Sabrina Mahfouz has created a lecture/music gig about the history of water in the Middle East.

Laura Hanna and David Mumeni have been cast alongside musician Kareem Samara and Sabrina Mahfouz in the world premiere of her new play A History of Water in the Middle East directed by Stef O'Driscoll. With design by Khadija Raza, lighting design by Prema Mehta, composition by Kareem Samara (performed live on stage), and sound design by Dominic Kennedy. It will run in the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Thursday 10 October 2019 a?" Saturday 16 November 2019 with press night on Monday 14 October 2019, 7pm.

Gary Naylor sees a play that may not fully realise all its characters, but raises interesting questions and provides a shocking denouement.

Directed by Daniel Burgess. Designed by Alex Marker. Lighting by Paul Comerford. Sound by Edward Lewis. Produced by Ian Melding. Presented by Announcement Productions and Raise Dark Theatre Company in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.

Part of the Finborough Theatre's Celebrating British Music Theatre series Blue Shale Theatre in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre by arrangement with Samuel French Limited presents PERCHANCE TO DREAM 'A Musical Romance' Devised, Written and Composed by Ivor Novello. Directed by Max Pappenheim. Musical Direction by Ross Leadbeater. Designed by Gregor Donnelly. Sound by Edward Lewis. Cast: Taube Brahms. Michael Burgen. Clare Louise Connolly. Laura Hanna. Amanda Hootman. Annabel Leventon. James Marchant. Rachael McCormick. Martin Milnes. Kelly Price. Claire Redcliffe. Robert Rees. James Russell. Gemma Sandzer. Katy Treharne. Details of the cast for PERCHANCE TO DREAM are below. Please also note the correct date for the press night of LULLABIES OF BROADMOOR which also plays during September. The press night is Venus At Broadmoor and The Demon Box - FRIDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2011 AT 3.00PM The Murder Club and Wilderness - FRIDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2011 AT 7.30PM and not Friday 1st September as previously stated. The Finborough Theatre's acclaimed 'Celebrating British Music Theatre' series continues with Ivor Novello's most romantic musical, Perchance to Dream, opening at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of eight Sunday and Monday performances on Sunday, 4 September 2011 (Press Night: Monday, 5 September 2011 at 7.30pm). This rediscovery is the first professional London production in more than 25 years, and also commemorates the 60th anniversary of the death of composer Ivor Novello. Spanning the Regency, Victorian and post-war eras, and featuring a score filled with some of Novello's most ravishing songs including Love is My Reason, When I Curtsied to the King, A Woman's Heart and the classic We'll Gather Lilacs, Perchance to Dream is a classic Novello musical - an escapist 'musical romance' whose original 1945 run in the West End played for 1,022 performances. In 1818, Sir Graham Rodney, an impoverished womaniser, is the owner of Huntersmoon, a magnificent old country house, but seeks relief from his life of leisure by masquerading as the dread highwayman "Frenchy". Just at the moment when he finally finds love, the law runs him to ground with tragic results. A generation later, his estate has passed to the wrong side of the family and tragedy strikes a second time. More than a century must go by before the ghosts of Huntersmoon can finally be laid to rest... Welsh-born composer, author and actor Ivor Novello (1893-1951) was one of the most eminent British entertainers of the 20th century. As a composer, he trained in Cardiff, Gloucester (alongside eminent British composers - Ivor Gurney and Herbert Howells) and at Magdalen College School, Oxford. His musicals include Glamorous Night, Careless Rapture, Crest of the Wave, The Dancing Years, Gay's the Word and King's Rhapsody; his more than 250 songs include Keep the Home Fires Burning, I Can Give You the Starlight, Waltz of My Heart, And Her Mother Came Too, The Land of Might-Have-Been, Why Isn't It You and Primrose. His plays include Symphony in Two Flats, I Lived With You and The Truth Game. As an actor, he was one of Britain's first major film stars, appearing in over twenty films including The Call of the Blood and playing the title role in the original silent version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger; while his long stage career included many of his own plays and musicals. Novello's musical legacy is commemorated in the Ivor Novello Awards, established in 1955 to honour excellence in British music writing. This production commemorates the 60th anniversary of his death. Director Max Pappenheim recently assisted on Beating Heart Cadaver and The Goodnight Bird at the Finborough Theatre. Directing includes The Charmed Life (King's Head Theatre), An Evening With Opera (Southwark Cathedral), Arcadia and Sweeney Todd (Rugby School), and, as Musical Director for Open Door Opera, The Enchanted Child (Edinburgh Festival and St John's, Smith Square). The cast includes Taube Brahms Kindertransport, The Way Of The World, Redemption Over Hammersmith Broadway, A Woman Of No Importance (LAMDA); Michael Burgen All Male Iolanthe (Union Theatre and Wilton's Music Hall), Alice in Wonderland (Erasmus International Theatre), Zaide (Sadler's Wells), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (New Vic Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Union Theatre); Clare Louise Connolly Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Next Door's Baby (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), Six Characters In Search Of An Author (Headlong), The Crimson Petal And The White; Laura Hanna A Short History of the Royal Court (Royal Court Theatre), Into the Woods, Hedda Gabler, Romeo and Juliet (LAMDA); Amanda Hootman Epsom Downs, Her Naked Skin (Guildford School of Acting); Annabel Leventon The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night (Royal Shakespeare Company), Pillars Of The Community (National Theatre), Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (Old Vic and Apollo Theatre), New Tricks; James Marchant The Same...But Different (Pleasance Islington), The Straits (Paines Plough), Waking The Dead (BBC); Rachael McCormick Oliver! (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane); Martin Milnes Utopia Limited (Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Festival, Buxton), The Yeoman Of The Guard (Tower of London), Promises And Lies (Birmingham Rep), The Andrew Marr Show (BBC); Kelly Price Zack (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), The Misanthrope (Ambassadors Theatre), A Little Night Music (Menier Chocolate Factory and Garrick Theatre), Chicago (Cambridge Theatre), Guys and Dolls (Donmar Warehouse and Piccadilly Theatre), Desperately Seeking Susan (Novello Theatre), Waterloo Road, Doctors; Claire Redcliffe When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre), Great Expectations, Tom's Midnight Garden (Library Theatre, Manchester), Question Time (Arcola Theatre), EastEnders (BBC); Robert Rees Peter Pan (New Wimbledon Theatre), All the Fun of the Fair (Garrick Theatre), State Fair (Finborough Theatre and Trafalgar Studios), Shakespeare Sonnet Walk (Shakespeare's Globe); James Russell Namaskar, Quality Street, Miss Lily Gets Boned (Finborough Theatre), Lewis (ITV); Gemma Sandzer Les Miserables (Palace Theatre), HMS Pinafore (King's Head Theatre), Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone; Katy Treharne The Phantom Of The Opera (Her Majesty's Theatre). The Celebrating British Music Theatre series at the Finborough Theatre In 2006, the Finborough Theatre began the Celebrating British Music Theatre series with a sell-out production of Leslie Stuart's Florodora. Productions since then have included sell-our rediscoveries of Lionel Monckton's Our Miss Gibbs, Harold Fraser-Simson's operetta The Maid of the Mountains, A 'Gilbert and Sullivan' Double Bill featuring Gilbert's play Sweethearts and Sullivan's opera The Zoo, Dame Ethel Smyth's opera The Boatswain's Mate, Sandy Wilson's The Buccaneer, Oscar Asche's Chu Chin Chow, and Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley's The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd.

Germany's 'Next Top Model Finals' were held June 10, 2010 at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany.