Max Pappenheim News

OffWestEnd has announced 86 finalists for its Offies awards 2022. The Offies recognise and celebrate the excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent, fringe and alternative theatres across London, helping to raise their profiles and rewarding the new talent that they nurture, which is essential for the future of the theatre industry.

Originally commissioned for BBC Radio 4 and winner of the BBC Audio Drama Award 2018 for Best Single Drama, Marcus Brigstocke's compelling drama of family and addiction is based on his own recovery. The 2019 stage production had acclaimed runs at Omnibus Theatre and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 

Igor Memic's Papatango Award winner introduces us to four compelling characters and reminds us of the brutality of war

On November 25, Michael Pennington will pick up his staff and books and don his robes once more, to return to the Jermyn Street Theatre stage to play Prospero in this critically hailed production of Shakespeare’s final play. 

Laurie and Adam famously starred as husband and wife Ian and Jane Beale in BBC's EastEnders. The rest of the cast of “LOOKING GOOD DEAD” includes Harry Long as Roy Grace, Ian Houghton as Jonas, Leon Stewart as Branson, Gemma Stroyan as Bella, Luke Ward-Wilkinson as Max Bryce, Mylo McDonald as Mick and Natalie Boakye as Janie.

Award-winning new playwright Mufaro Makubika leads us from Nottingham to Zimbabwe in a tale of mothers, daughters, and spiritual ancestors.

Set in a world where all the fish have inexplicably vanished, Yellowfin is a deep dive into a dystopian future. The play offers a timely insight into our sense of citizenship and responsibility to the planet, as we too navigate our own ‘new normal’. The worldwide premiere will be directed by Ed Madden (A Table Tennis Play; Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons).

Peter James and producer Joshua Andrews have announced full casting for the World Premiere stage production of the Peter James bestselling novel Looking Good Dead. 

Have you ever wondered what happened to the lovable rogue at the end of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice? Well now's your chance to find out. From Thurs 30 Sept - Sat 2 Oct, the Original Theatre Company present Being Mr Wickham at the Belgrade Theatre.

 Written by Adrian Lukis and Catherine Curzon, this one-man play about one of Jane Austen's most charmingly roguish characters, is directed by Guy Unsworth and designed by Libby Watson. 

The worldwide premiere at Southwark Playhouse marks a new collaboration between two rising stars, writer Marek Horn (Wild Swimming) and director Ed Madden (A Table Tennis Play; Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons).

Shelagh Stephenson's Olivier Award-winning play The Memory of Water will run from 3 September until 16 October 2021. The World Premiere of Malindadzimu by Mufaro Makubika will also run from 17 September until 30 October 2021 at Hampstead Downstairs. 

Hours after picking up a USB memory stick, left behind on a train seat, Tom Bryce inadvertently becomes a witness to a vicious murder. Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences, placing him and his family in grave danger. When Detective Superintendent Roy Grace becomes involved, he has his own demons to contend with while he tries to crack the case in time to save the Bryce family's lives.

In this drama, inspired by real characters and events, it is only as the three former agents depart for London in a taxi – for “a cold supper behind Harrods” – that the disturbing truth finally emerges.

As rehearsals begin this week, Peter James and producer Joshua Andrews have announced full casting for the World Premiere stage production of the Peter James best-selling novel “LOOKING GOOD DEAD”. 

I must admit, my first reaction was not wholly positive: some time in January this year, the producer Alastair Whatley rang me to say that he proposed to go ahead with rehearsing my new play, A Splinter of Ice, in March, despite the national lockdown. But since it was now impossible to invite an audience to see it at the Everyman Theatre Cheltenham (where it had been due to open), he’d instead like to film it onstage in the empty auditorium and release it online. I felt like I’d written a knife that would now be judged as a spoon.

Karen Ascoe will be joining the previously announced Oliver Ford Davies (Graham Greene) and Stephen Boxer (Kim Philby) as Rufa Philby. 

New dates have been added to Original Theatre Company's first live stage production since March 2020.  The UK Tour of Ben Brown's new political drama, A SPLINTER OF ICE, will open on 8 June in Malvern and will tour until 31 July, with extra dates in York and Cambridge.

Written and performed by Jack Holden (War Horse, West End; Ink, Almeida Theatre), CRUISE  is an urgent, moving and inspirational new play with live music and spoken word. Bringing to life 1980’s Soho, this one-man show is a celebration of queer culture; a kaleidoscopic musical and spoken word tribute to the veterans of the AIDs crisis.

Brand new family theatre show, Dragons and Mythical Beasts, written by Derek Bond, today announces casting for its forthcoming UK Tour and summer season at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London.