Ben Hales News

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced its Summer Season, running from April – October 2024. Learn more about the full season here!

Shakespeare’s Globe has announced the Summer Season, running from April – October 2023.  Learn more about the lineup here!

Whether you’re bored by the Bard or a dedicated groundling, taking children to see Shakespeare is a daunting prospect. But be not afeard; for this summer the Globe premieres its first full-scale production for families. And it’s an absolute dream.

Shakespeare’s Globe has released photos of Midsummer Mechanicals in rehearsal, which opens in Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 28 July, running until 21 August.

Shakespeare's Globe has announced the cast and company for Midsummer Mechanicals opening in Sam Wanamaker Playhouse 28 July – 21 August.

Shakespeare's Globe has announced the Summer Season 2022 full of pomp, pageantry, politics, and power.

The Sleeping Trees are doing it all. After their phenomenal first online lockdown panto from last year, they’re back not only with an in-person takeover of Battersea Arts Centre, but with an incredible on-demand show too. Catering for all types of audiences and their needs, Sleeping Beauty and the Beast (at the theatre) and Puss in Moon Boots (in living rooms everywhere) couldn’t be more different, but they both share Sleeping Trees’ perfectly brilliant Christmas spirit. Unlikely heroes and evil villains lead to adventures like no others in their utterly unexpected and captivating mash-ups.

Comedy trio Sleeping Trees bring Christmas to Battersea Arts Centre with their latest fairy-tale mash-up. After Cinderella and the Beanstalk and Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves, James Dunnell-Smith, Joshua George Smith, and John Woodburn venture into Wonderland in classic Sleeping Trees style. Goldilocks and the Three Musketeers is rambunctious and properly laugh-out-loud funny.

After a run of sold out previews, Stantonbury Theatre's second in-house pantomime opens for the festive season tonight. Directed by Stantonbury artistic director Lucy Cuthbertson and written by Kerry Frampton and Ben Hales, the show takes a fresh look at the well-known tale of Red Riding Hood in what is becoming a recognisably Stantonbury style - rejecting expectations, challenging the stereotypes of classic fairy tales, foregrounding female protagonists and genuinely offering something for every generation.

BWW speaks to Sleeping Trees about bringing Sleeping Trees At The Movies to the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Award-winning physical theatre company Gecko's new show The Wedding focuses on personal and political marriage. With a performing company of nine, this is Gecko's most ambitious show to date and visits Manchester's HOME for a limited run (12-16 September). 

Theatre503 sees the world premiere of Sleeping Trees' new pantomime, Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves. After the huge success of Cinderella and the Beanstalk, the award-winning trio comes back with a brand new, original, muscles-aching-from-laughter show.

After the sell-out successes of Cinderella and the Beanstalk, award-winning Sleeping Trees return to Theatre503 with the world premiere of Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves - a glorious cocktail of everyone's favourite pantomimes, directed by highly acclaimed Simon Evans (The Dazzle, Bug, Silence of the Sea).

After the sell-out successes of Cinderella and the Beanstalk, award-winning Sleeping Trees return to Theatre503 with the world premiere of Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves - a glorious cocktail of everyone's favourite pantomimes, directed by highly acclaimed Simon Evans (The Dazzle, Bug, Silence of the Sea).

After the sell-out successes of Cinderella and the Beanstalk, award-winning Sleeping Trees return to Theatre503 with the world premiere of Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves - a glorious cocktail of everyone's favourite pantomimes, directed by highly acclaimed Simon Evans (The Dazzle, Bug, Silence of the Sea).

SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD delivered an engaging 85 minutes of musical theatre, managing to explore a clear thesis while doing so. Like some of the musicals presented at the Student Arts Festival over the past few years, it raised the bar of what can be accomplished on this platform in this genre.

FRESH FROM FEST is a theatre festival showcasing the Western Cape's best student theatre, fresh off the Grahamstown National Arts Festival circuit. Each institution prepares a production for Grahamstown, and FRESH FROM FEST is Cape Town's opportunity to see the students' work. Five outstanding productions will be hosted by UCT at this year's festival.

Gary Naylor sees two contrasting plays united in a desire to foster youth theatre.