Battersea Arts Centre News

Artistic Directors of Paines Plough James Grieve and George Perrin today announced the company's full Programme 2018.

The magical world of artist Marc Chagall and his wife Bella will be tenderly brought to life onstage at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis) next month in director Emma Rice's production of Daniel Jamieson's The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk.  Partners in life and on canvas, Marc and Bella are immortalized as the picture of romance. On the painter's canvas they flew, but in real life they walked through some of the most challenging times in 20th Century history-navigating the devastation of war, the Russian Revolution and each other. Following the artistic heights of Brief Encounter and 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, Kneehigh and Rice return to The Wallis with a production that combines the visuals of Chagall's paintings with the music and dance of the Russian-Jewish tradition. Performances begin February 23 and run through Sunday, March 11, 2018 with opening night set for Saturday, February 24 at 7:30pm. The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk is made possible in part by the generous support of Camille and Arnon Adar. Theater @ The Wallis Series is sponsored by Montage Beverly Hills and Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills.

'SCREAMING SECRETS', written by writer and philosopher Alexander Matthews, forms part of Matthews' debut two-play season at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden. The first play, 'Screaming Secrets' is set in 1975, in a world of free love, flared trousers, and deep thinking.

Shortlisted organisations for the first Fantastic for Families awards have been announced, recognising excellence in arts and cultural provision for families. Winning organisations will be awarded at a ceremony on 1st March in Leeds.

Shoreditch Town Hall today announces further productions in the venue's spring programme, which brings together work exploring the themes of identity, time and place. This June sees the UK premiere of ANU & CoisCeim Dance Theatre's These Rooms, an intense, immersive blend of theatre, dance and visual art by David Bolger, Owen Boss and Louise Lowe. The work is co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK's official arts programme for the First World War centenary, LIFT and Shoreditch Town Hall, and tells the story of 15 civilian men who were killed in house-to-house raids by British soldiers on a single Dublin street on 28 April 1916, five days into the Easter Rising. Prior to this, acclaimed theatre-maker Christopher Brett Bailey returns to Shoreditch Town Hall, where he previously performed in Wedding, with a new solo show, Suicide Notes… The Spoken Word of Christopher Brett Bailey; Hackney-based Access All Areas presents MADHOUSE: re:exit, an underground adventure by five learning disabled artists; and the critically acclaimed magician Vincent Gambini performs a work-in-progress of his new piece, The Chore of Enchantment.

In a Fringe First award-winning show about trying to communicate something unknowable, writer Chris Thorpe weaves together director Rachel Bagshaw's personal experiences of living with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) with a fictional narrative about a love affair. Using sound, light and video alongside fully integrated captioning and audio description, The Shape of the Pain attempts to explain what Rachel's chronic pain sounds like, looks like and feels like. The production was made in consultation with Rachel's doctor, a consultant in pain at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, as well as other clinical professionals, and debuted at Summerhall at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017.

The Offies 2018 finalists were announced live on Twitter & Facebook at 1pm today by OffWestEnd Panel Judge & Critic for The Stage Mark Shenton.

LOST DOG, run by Artistic Director Ben Duke, presents 'Juliet and Romeo - A Guide to Long Life and Happy Marriage', broadly based on Shakespeare's deeply pessimistic teenage love story, and performed by Ben Duke and Sol ne Weinachter.

The Quantum Physics of My Heart is a new autobiographical solo show written and performed by Amy Tobias. Scratched at the Battersea Arts Centre and developed with support from JW3, it will receive it's first full length production at the VAULT Festival 2018.

Karena Johnson, Artistic Director of Hoxton Hall today announces its spring 2018 season, Female Parts.

The Wilma Theater, in association with Evamere Entertainment, presents Stew and Heidi Rodewald's Tony Award-winning musical in this major Philadelphia revival.

After a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe as part of Northern Stage's programme at Summerhall in 2016 and a UK tour in Autumn 2017 visiting venues including Battersea Arts Centre London, Old Fire Station Oxford and Attenborough Arts Centre Leicester, The DH (Deaf & Hearing) Ensemble are taking People of the Eye to further venues in Spring 2018.

Bunbury Banter and Dumfries Theatre Royal are gearing up for Freckle, the third groundbreaking Play, Poet & Pastry event. A Perthshire playwright and Dumfries poet are joining forces for a groundbreaking performing arts initiative at Scotland's oldest working theatre.

Pilot Theatre and York Theatre Royal announce full casting for their forthcoming touring production of Bryony Lavery's new adaptation of Graham Greene's iconic novel Brighton Rock.

Peter Groom is an actor, dancer and choreographer, originally from Newcastle. Since graduating from Guildford School of Acting in 2013 he has gone on to work both in the UK and internationally, with credits including Schaubuhne, Berlin and Aquilla Theatre, New York. Alongside this he began to create his own devised work, and then in 2016 started working as a drag performer, with performances at Battersea Arts Centre, The Glory and Royal Vauxhall Tavern. His new show Dietrich: Natural Duty has its world premiere at the VAULT Festival later this month. I had the pleasure of meeting up with Peter. We talked about inspirations, politics, queer history, visibility and so much more. Here's how it went.

Ferris & Sylvester have released a brand new song 'London's Blues', the new track is taken from their forthcoming EP Made In Streatham, out February 2nd. 'London's Blues' has been launched today with strong support from Spotify who feature it prominently in their 'New Music Friday' playlist and Napster in the 'New & Good' playlist.

Theatre Ad Infinitum's wordless tale of life, death and enduring love returns to tour the UK following years of extensive international touring amassing nine awards. Original performers George Mann and Deborah Pugh are joined by Sophie Crawford to retell, with precise gesture and touches of humour, the story of widower William who escapes to a comforting world of fantasy and memories rather than confront his grief. From beyond the grave, his wife Rose returns to help him let go. This poignant, life-affirming tale uses intricate and lifelike hand-held masks created by Madame Tussaud's senior sculptor Victoria Beaton to travel back and forth through William and Rose's relationship, wordlessly conveying a lifetime of memories in 75 minutes.

The playwright and philosopher Alexander Matthews presents the debut of his two witty social dramas at Covent Garden's Tristan Bates Theatre in spring 2018. 'Screaming Secrets' and 'Glass Roots' will have back-to-back runs and will form the first Alexander Matthews Season in the UK. Both plays are directed by Evan Keele with production design by Nancy Surman.

The New Group has announced today that Terrence Mann and Will Swenson will star in the company's Off-Broadway premiere of Jerry Springer - The Opera, as 'Jerry Springer' and 'Warm-Up / Satan,' respectively.

Originally seen as a staged reading as part of Vibrant 2017 A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, the world premiere of Imaginationship by Sue Healy runs at the Finborough Theatre, playingSunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees from Sunday, 7 January 2018 (Press Night:Monday, 8 January 2018 at 7.30pm).