Josie Lawrence News

By their very nature, improvised shows will have good nights and not so good nights

The Comedy Store Players have announced that they will be joined by a new core member for the first time in almost thirty years. Ruth Bratt will join the World famous team from Sunday, 3rd March for their weekly show at London’s iconic Comedy Store.

Actor, producer and director Martin Jarvis OBE (Just William, The Forsyte Saga, Eastenders, Doctor Who) has won the BBC Audio Drama award for Lifetime Achievement, presented at Broadcasting House’s Radio Theatre.

In Richard Vergette's one-man play, war veteran Jimmy Vandenberg feels ignored and alienated by the country he has faithfully served, and finds a home for his simmering resentment in Trump's slogan 'Make America Great Again'. In the wake of Trump and Brexit, Leaving Vietnam explores how the disillusioned and overlooked are attracted to the politics of populism.

The finalists in the 2023 BBC Audio Drama Awards have today been announced, with a wealth of talent such as Toby Jones, Danielle Vitalis and Ken Cheng all in the running for the top spots.

Writers behind some of the most critically acclaimed works over the last year were honoured at the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards 2023 ceremony, including Aamina Ahmad, David Edgar, Vivienne Franzmann, Rebecca Hall, Katie Hims, Adam Kay, Neil McKay, and Ben Power.

Improbable have announced the full cast and creative team for An Improbable Musical, a Royal and Derngate Northampton and Improbable production. Following its critically acclaimed premiere in Northampton this February, An Improbable Musical will open at the Exeter Northcott on 27 September before a limited London run at Hackney Empire from 21 October. It will then tour the UK in spring 2023, including Gulbenkian Theatre (13 – 15 April), with further tour dates to be announced.

As Hackney Empire celebrates 120 years at the heart of the local community, Artistic Director Yamin Choudury and the whole team have announced details of the autumn 2022 season, running from September to December.

Improbable is presenting An Improbable Musical, a Royal and Derngate Northampton and Improbable production. Following its critically acclaimed premiere in Northampton this February, An Improbable Musical will open at the Exeter Northcott on 26 September before a limited London run at Hackney Empire from 21 October. It will then tour the UK in spring 2023, including Gulbenkian Theatre (13 – 15 April), with further tour dates to be announced.

Royal & Derngate will present An Improbable Musical as part of its Made in Northampton 2021/22 season. With a brand-new show created at each performance, An Improbable Musical sees world renowned theatre company Improbable take to the Royal stage in Northampton from Friday 25 February to Saturday 5 March, ahead of an autumn tour. 

Royal & Derngate today announced four further productions to complete its 2021/22 Made in Northampton season. A new production of Joe Penhall's biting contemporary satire Blue/Orange is brought to the stage this autumn by the producing team behind Ralph Fiennes' hugely successful Four Quartets which is soon to transfer to the West End.

Theatre innovators New Perspectives are launching a new festival that shuns the digital world and places emphasis wholly on the tangible and the tactile. Taking place all around Nottingham over one weekend, this new festival will expand the idea of 'theatre' to encompass any live experience that unearths a sense of drama.

New Perspectives will be releasing a debut audiobook of the first novel from celebrated comic book writer Alan Moore to mark the publication’s 25th anniversary year. Set in the writers’ hometown of Northampton, the twelve chapters will each be read by a stellar cast including Mark Gatiss, Maxine Peake, Toby Jones, Pamela Nomvete, and more.

Following their hugely successful postcard drama Love From Cleethorpes, which was mailed to 26 countries worldwide, New Perspectives return with a new spin on the format, taking the postcards out of the seaside town of Cleethorpes and into the wild and thrilling world of Alton Towers.

New Perspectives and The Brighton Festival present House Mother Normal, a digital installation telling of the lives of eight characters in a nursing home under the watchful eye of House Mother. Directed by Tim Crouch, the production, which can be viewed online or at 6 Dukes Lane, Brighton, merges the individual chapters of B.S. Johnson’s novel.

In their latest series playing with form and experimenting how intimate theatre can exist in lockdown, New Perspectives are presenting a series of short telephone performances for Valentine’s weekend. The short, love-themed dramas have been created to be performed live to an audience of just one at a time. 

For December and the new year, New Perspectives will be presenting a versatile series of theatre in different mediums: a radio play, a Zoom play, a postcard drama, a Whatsapp drama, and a series of reimagined Christmas cards. 

An exciting programme of productions is being officially launched this autumn with a specially filmed version of the multi award-winning Berkoff's Women, compiled and performed by stage and screen actress Linda Marlowe and directed by Josie Lawrence.

In collaboration with six renowned UK theatre makers, New Perspectives are producing six limited edition Christmas cards, each reimagining traditional yuletide messages. The artists have each designed the front and inside of a card to create a handheld piece of artwork which can be kept as a curio or given as a gift. The cards can be bought singly, as a pack of three or a pack of six. 

Stay Safe is part of Signal Fires a nationwide project inspired by one of the original forms of theatre – storytelling around the fire.