David Edgar News

PTPNYC (Potomac Theatre Project), in association with Middlebury College, presents its 33rd repertory season, its 13th consecutive in New York City. Previews begin tonight for a July 16 opening, running through August 4 in a limited Off-Broadway engagement at The Atlantic Stage 2, located at 330 West 16th Street.

The new Autumn Winter season at Omnibus Theatre sees nine productions featuring new writing, four of which are returning companies.

In a unique collaboration, a wide-ranging group of arts organisations and human rights charities commissioned Ai Weiwei to design a new flag in response to the real and present dangers of a world changing at break-neck speed and a community that has forgotten why human rights are so important, to offer hope and to educate generations to come about the absolute importance of universal human rights. Everyone across the country is invited to Fly The Flag for Human Rights between 24 and 30 June 2019 in events around the UK, with over 150 organisations involved.

PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project), in association with Middlebury College, presents its 33rd repertory season, its 13th consecutive in New York City, running July 9 - August 4, 2019 in a limited Off-Broadway engagement at The Atlantic Stage 2, located at 330 West 16th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

Today the full programme of events has been announced around Fly The Flag, a major new project marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and brand new images of Ai Weiwei with young people have been released.

Prolific playwright David Edgar is directed in his professional performance debut by triple Fringe First Award-winner Christopher Haydon in a solo show considering the legacy of the events of 1968. In 1968, playwright David Edgar was 20 years old. It was also the year of some of the most important and formative events in modern history, including the Paris student revolt, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech, and the ongoing war in Vietnam. Trying It On is a new play written and performed by David Edgar, which reflects on the legacy of this momentous year, drawing on first-person interviews with some of the leading political figures of the time, as well as contemporary activists. The performance also marks David's first professional stage performance in this autobiographical one-man play.

When Chris Thorpe performed his one-man show Status at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe, he claimed, provocatively, it wasn't about Brexit. Now, as the withdrawal date fluctuates, the Fringe First-winning, globe-spanning show about how we acquire our national identity, and what happens when we try to escape it, confronts head on the guilt, alienation and identity crisis experienced in response to the biggest political upheaval of the Century.

Jonathan Church, Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Bath's Summer Season 2019 today announces further casting for its upcoming programme of eight plays.

Tobacco Factory Theatres is proud to announce its programme for May - Dec 2019, which features a diverse range of in-house productions and some of the best touring work around, all curated especially for communities in Bristol.  With a renewed mission and vision, Tobacco Factory Theatres aims to provide a welcoming home for audiences to experience incredible theatre and opportunities to learn and exchange ideas.

 In what could turn out to be the largest murder case on British soil, ADOLF ISLAND sees forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls (Professor of Conflict Archaeology and Genocide Investigation at Staffordshire University) go in search of a Nazi SS camp constructed in secrecy on the British Channel island of Alderney during World War II. Years of research and forensic investigation have led Sturdy Colls to examine remnants of concentration and labor camps on the quiet island, and to official SS archives in Germany, where clues emerge that lead Caroline to suspect that Alderney was the scene of Nazi mass murders. However, when local officials attempt to stop the investigation, the search for the final resting place of the victims is imperiled. ADOLF ISLAND will premiere on Sunday, June 23 at 10 PM ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel.

Theatre Royal Bath today announces four additional productions - Vienna 1934-Munich 1938, The Life I Lead, Trying It On and The Man in the White Suit, to complete its Summer Season 2019 programme and further casting with Katherine Parkinson, Janie Dee as well as Vanessa Redgrave, Miles Jupp and David Edgar among the stars set to take to the stage in both treasured classics and acclaimed new works.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced the full cast for the world premiere of Kiss My Aztec! John Leguizamo teams up with Artistic Director Tony Taccone for this musical comedy, following their collaboration on the hit one-man show Latin History for Morons, which received its world premiere at Berkeley Rep before heading to Broadway. Leguizamo will serve as co-writer and co-lyricist only for Kiss My Aztec! - 11 other talented actors will perform in this production. Taccone will also direct.

Fly The Flag is a major new project marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a unique collaboration, a wide-ranging group of arts organisations and human rights charities commissioned Ai Weiwei to design a new flag in response to the real and present dangers of a world changing at break-neck speed, to offer hope and to educate generations to come about the absolute importance of universal human rights.

When Chris Thorpe performed his one-man show Status at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe, he claimed, provocatively, it wasn't about Brexit. Now, as the withdrawal date draws ever nearer, the Fringe First-winning, globe-spanning show about how we acquire our national identity, and what happens when we try to escape it, confronts head on the guilt, alienation and identity crisis experienced in response to the biggest political upheaval of the Century.

Shakespeare for a new generation and plenty to get you thinking: China Plate present Spring 2019

Independent theatre producers China Plate and foremost theatre education company Contender Charlie will be touring theatres with a new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for upper KS2 and lower KS3 pupils, their teachers and their families. Narrated by the Friar speaking in modern English, Romeo and Juliet - Mad Blood Stirring will include striking visual effects and live music.

Midlands-based independent producing studio China Plate today announces the shows and festivals it will present during Spring 2019. From award-winning Edinburgh Fringe hits, through a new Shakespeare adaptation for young people, to opportunities for artists to develop new work, it's going to be a busy start to the year…

Having recently worked on a number of musicals (including the acclaimed Half a Sixpence), Rachel Kavanaugh returns to the RSC for a play which has some ghosts of the past and present. Sharing some of her earliest experiences with theatre, Rachel reveals what it's like to work alongside a figure from then, and what audiences can expect from this show now.

Jasmyn Banks and Tom England will join the previously announced Caroline Langrishe, Aden Gillett, James Sutton and Elizabeth Boag in the 2019 national tour of Torben Betts's biting comedy, CAROLINE'S KITCHEN, beginning on 24 January 2019 at Derby Theatre, running through to 13 April 2019 at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. This will be followed by an off-Broadway season in New York Spring 2019. There will be a national press night at Cambridge Arts Theatre on Tuesday 29 January 2019.

What makes a good play? A musical can hook you with a snappy showstopper, but a play, on the other hand, is all about the language, rhythm, and story. And some of the best contemporary plays I've seen of late are more character-driven than plot-driven and an exploration into the daily life of the everyman, muddling through just like the rest of us, trying to find himself or reconcile with his inner demons. I suppose it is the fine art of storytelling, as well as the astute observation of the ordinary while skating between the supernatural and the mundane, that makes Burning Coal's current production of Conor McPherson's THE WEIR so engrossing.