Carl Grose News

We all know an Ubu. Impossibly greedy, unstoppably crude, inexorably hell-bent on making our country great again! Sound familiar?

'Bring it down, bring it all down' is the anarchic cry from Macheath in Kneehigh's take on The Beggar's Opera. John Gray's original is given the full Kneehigh treatment- the original is not a constraint but a jumping off point. Perhaps the slide in the middle of Michael Vale's set is the physical manifestation of Kneehigh's ever playful nature.

This autumn will see Matthew Xia's inaugural production as artistic director of Actors Touring Company. The UK premiere of Amsterdam by Maya Arad Yasur will open the Orange Tree Theatre's Autumn season before embarking on a tour beginning at Theatre Royal Plymouth in February 2020.

"Bring it down. Bring it all down and start again!" An unexpected European election day in the UK and anticipation of Theresa May's resignation formed the backdrop for Kneehigh's London press night for Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs), making its presence more vital than ever - and its message more potent. Carl Grose and Charles Hazlewood's show, which was first performed in 2014, is based on John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, taking the characters and hurling them into the present day.

We at Kneehigh aren't the first to refashion a Beggar's Opera for our times. And I'm betting we won't be the last. The enduring power of John Gay's extraordinary musical mash-up of high and low art, first unleashed in 1726, made an explosive impression on popular culture then and continues to do so now.

Opera isn't dead. In fact, it's alive and kicking off thanks to Kneehigh's reimagining of John Gay's The Beggars Opera, which takes on the new and riotous form of Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs).

Mayor Goodman has been assassinated. And so has his dog. Contract killer Macheath has just married Pretty Polly Peachum and Mr and Mrs Peachum aren't happy. Not one bit.

On International Women's Day, Kneehigh is has announced the appointment of Michelle Carwardine-Palmer as the company's new Executive Director who will take up the position in April. The company is also announcing that Hedda Archbold will succeed Professor Alan Livingston as Chair of Trustees with immediate effect.

Mayor Goodman has been assassinated. And so has his dog. Contract killer Macheath has just married Pretty Polly Peachum and Mr and Mrs Peachum aren't happy. Not one bit.

Shoreditch Town Hall today announces its 2019 programme which opens with the 2018 Fringe First Award-winning dressed. by ThisEgg in collaboration with Made My Wardrobe and co-presented with Battersea Arts Centre. In May, the award-winning Barely Methodical Troupe present their explosive circus show, SHIFT. curious directive return to Shoreditch Town Hall with Gastronomic; a unique, multi-sensory combination of theatre, gastronomy and technology. Kneehigh close the year in December with their deliriously unhinged improvised promenade musical Kneehigh's Ubu - a singalong satire.

Deafinitely Youth Company today announces Carl Grose's Gargantua as their youth production, which will run twice on 23February. Directed by Rachael Merry, the production will be open to Deafinitely Youth Company family members.

Kneehigh today announced that Carl Grose will be become Deputy Artistic Director for the company working alongside Artistic Director and Founder Mike Shepherd.

Following the huge success of Ubu Karaoke, indisputably this summer's most raucous and audience centric musical, and with Fup about to open at the Asylum ahead of a UK tour, Kneehigh is on a roll and thrilled to announce the return of their trail-blazing and much celebrated theatrical tour-de-force, Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs).

In our new series, BroadwayWorld UK writers nominate the shows they'd love to see revived!

London's critically acclaimed new British musical The Grinning Man, now playing at the Trafalgar Studios, has today announced a final extended three week booking period until 5 May.

Kneehigh's Asylum is back in a Festival of Pandemonium. Summer's most joyously subversive festival of theatre returns from 2 August to 22 September with three thrillingly inventive shows, all staged in the company's award-winning purpose built tent, situated in the beautiful surroundings of the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall.

Acclaimed new musical The Grinning Man is playing at London's Trafalgar Studios, now booking until 14 April. Book tickets here from £25!

Kneehigh founder and owner of the world's most malleable face David Mynne brings his extraordinary one-man portrayal of Charles Dickens's Great Expectationsto the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis) for six performances only in February. With just a suitcase, bowler hat, tiny forge, candlestick, mirror and some cloth, Mynne tells the gothic tale of Pip's journey through life and his great expectations at the hands of a mystery benefactor. Directed by fellow Kneehigh colleague Simon Harvey, Great Expectations will be performed in the Lovelace Studio Theater from Thursday, February 8 through Sunday, February 11.

London's new smash hit musical The Grinning Man, now playing at the Trafalgar Studios, has today announced a new extended booking period until 14 April.

The critically acclaimed Shakespeare's Globe production of Farinelli and the King, a new play by Claire van Kempen, starring three-time Tony and Academy Award-winner Mark Rylance, opened this week at Broadway's Belasco Theatre.