Inspired by a trip to Lourdes and the illness and death of a member of her cabaret group, Bryony Lavery’s play Last Easter is a funny and engaging exploration of life, death and friendship. After June, a theatrical lighting designer, is diagnosed with cancer, her three friends decide that an Easter road trip to France, which just happens to include a pilgrimage to Lourdes, is in order.
Golden Globe Award-winner Emma Corrin and Royal Television Society’s 2019 Breakthrough star Nabhaan Rizwan make their West End debuts in this searing tale of self-invention, determination, and deceit. ANNA X is a new play by Joseph Charlton, directed by Daniel Raggett which originally ran at the Vault Festival in 2019.
When Phoebe Waller-Bridge is galvanised by a new voice, expectations are likely to be high. The actor / writer enjoyed great success with her own one woman show Fleabag, which ran at Soho Theatre. As a judge for the 2020 Verity Bargate Award, Waller-Bridge and others, including Russell T Davies, deemed Amanda Wilkin’s monologue Shedding a Skin the winner. Now playing to standing ovations in that same venue, it isn’t hard to see why.
We have been to space; now it’s party time. Following Amy Berryman’s Walden, Sonia Friedman Productions’ RE:EMERGE season continues at the Harold Pinter Theatre with Yasmin Joseph’s J’Ouvert. Set in the annual Notting Hill Carnival in 2017, Joseph’s spirited debut play was first produced in 2019 at Theatre503, in a staging that also marked the directorial debut of actor Rebekah Murrell. In the play’s West End outing, Murrell is once again at the helm, and the result is a joyous, plucky work that thrusts us into a communal tradition as experienced by three young women.
Even when June, the lighting designer, is diagnosed with a devastating illness, the jokes don’t stop coming as a quartet of theatre friends career across France. They glug red wine and hope to find a miracle at Lourdes for June, a non-believer who thinks the only good thing about religion is the lighting. They’ll soon discover that miracles come in many different forms.
Rehearsal photos have been released for 'seven methods of killing kylie jenner', running at the Royal Court Theatre Wed 16 Jun - Tue 27 Jul. seven methods of killing kylie jenner explores cultural appropriation, queerness, friendship and the ownership of black bodies online and IRL.
The Mono Box has announcedRESET THE STAGE, a collection of 7 filmed monologues written by 7 emerging, ethnically diverse writers performed by established actors on the empty stages of 7 London theatres in lockdown will stream live online on Thursday 17th June at 7.30pm.
Yasmin Joseph’s J’Ouvert broadcasts on BBC Four this evening as part of the BBC’s Lights Up season, ahead of opening at the Harold Pinter Theatre as part of Sonia Friedman Productions RE:EMERGE season, which also includes Amy Berryman’s Walden and Joseph Charlton’s Anna X.
Artists and performers from around the world join National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) to celebrate Purim virtually from February 22-25, 2021. The Purim Celebration features a stellar, star-studded line-up of Yiddish music, Cabaret, and a special reading of the Megiles Ester (The Book of Ester) in Yiddish.
It is refreshing to see the Almeida come back with something a little different: a play with songs about loss and connection. Co-created by Chris Bush, Rebecca Frecknall, and the six-strong cast, Nine Lessons and Carols is far from your cosy festive treat, instead opting to address situations with black comedy and an air of gloom.
The latest interview between acclaimed director Ian Rickson and members of the arts community has just dropped. Russell Brand has been a frequently controversial public figure; a comedian, presenter, actor and now a podcast host and advocate for awareness about mental health.
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm penned the now three-time Olivier Award-winning play, Emilia, which tells her story. It premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2018 under the direction of Nicole Charles. The production then transferred to the West End and played the Vaudeville Theatre in 2019. An archive recording of the West End run is currently available to stream on a pay-what-you-can basis until 24 November.
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's groundbreaking piece Emilia gets another outing in online form after empowering audiences on the Southbank and in the West End last year. The show will be streamed on emilialive.com tonight and made available for two weeks on demand.
In the next episode of the podcast series What I Love, acclaimed director Ian Rickson meets international theatre producer Sonia Friedman, who chooses a favourite song, film and piece of writing to highlight what we are all in danger of losing. Friedman began in the theatre as a dresser, working as a stage manager and in an educational department before becoming a producer. After setting up her own company 20 years ago, she has produced nearly 200 shows, including Book of Mormon, Dreamgirls and Jerusalem.
This week, Storyglass released the first three episodes of their new podcast, What I Love, hosted by former artistic director of the Royal Court, Ian Rickson. In each episode, Rickson speaks with a different artist about three of their cultural treasures – a film, a poem, and a song. The interviews were recorded over the summer, taking place in empty theatres, against the poignant backdrop of their closure due to the coronavirus. Rickson adapts the Desert Island Discs premise, embodying a more therapeutic, creative and almost spiritual version of Kirsty Young, as he strives to see the world through his guest’s eyes.
What I Love is a brand new podcast series from Storyglass. Created and hosted by celebrated British theatre director Ian Rickson, interviews are conducted on the empty stages of some of Britain's most iconic theatres, shut down due to the pandemic. Here, he meets a variety of actors, performers and creatives to talk about their most-valued piece of writing, song and film to explore and highlight their meaning and what they reveal about people at a time when the arts are in such a precarious state.
NYT is presenting its latest instalment of MELT at new outdoor Sanctuary Theatre, a newly built outdoor earth amphitheatre in Shropshire. Set at dusk, The Last Harvest will take audiences on a fire-lit journey from the future to now in a dystopian outdoor promenade spectacle.
Audible has announced its latest Emerging Playwrights Fund class.
Sentinel Colorado has reported that The Aurora Fox and The Vintage Theatre are among the theaters planning to present their seasons come the fall.
With all theatres closed to the current pandemic, BroadwayWorld caught up with the Orange Tree Theatre's Artistic Director Paul Miller about the realities of closing the theatre and his thoughts and plans for the future.
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