The Old Laundry Theatre Announces Autumn Season
By: Nora Dominick Jul. 26, 2016
GRIFF RHYS JONES says: "The theatre is in the most beautiful location in Britain. An entrancing new season is planned and seriously what an incredible and distinguished calendar The Old Laundry is cramming in. Go if you've never been. Return if you have. The Lakes are so fortunate to have this exciting venue on its shores, and I am excited to be coming back this autumn." In his brand new comedy performance Jones And Smith, complete with previously unseen footage, GRIFF will be airing stories, anecdotes and reminiscences from his long career with his much missed comedy partner Mel Smith. GRIFF is a Patron of The Old Laundry Theatre and his exclusive performance on Saturday 29 October at 7.30pm will be a fundraiser for the independently run theatre.
The Old Laundry Theatre's autumn season opens with a new adaptation of Eric Pringle's play Meeting Bea on Friday 16 September - Sunday 9 October (Press performances Saturday 17/9 @ 2.30pm & 7.30pm and Sunday 18/9 at 4.30pm). It is 1927, and children's author, Beatrix Potter is living the life of a recluse as Mrs. William Heelis, a successful Lakeland farmer. Arriving unannounced at her Lake District home is an American publisher and an admiring Lancashire Mill-girl, sparking painful memories of an appalling childhood and youth..... Award winning television and radio writer Eric Pringle (The Pretenders, BBC R4 play Hymus Paradisi - Sony Award) adapts his radio play Meeting Bea (broadcast in 1993 starring Stephanie Cole and Clive Swift) into a visually theatrical insight of Potter's lonely world. The cast includes Veronica Roberts (Housewife 49) and directed by the acclaimed theatre director Peter James CBE.
Another highlight in The Old Laundry Theatre's season, is the annual two week residency of The Stephen Joseph Theatre Company, with Alan Ayckbourn's award winning Henceforward from Tuesday 1 November - Saturday 12 November, prior to its national tour. Directed by Ayckbourn, this is the first major revival of the classic comedy about man versus mechanical women. The set is designed by Ayckbourn's long term collaborator theatre designer Roger Glossop, who also proudly owns The Old Laundry Theatre.
The Autumn season includes an extraordinary breadth of plays, comedy and music including: a mini classical music festival, curated by and featuring the world class pianist Martin Roscoe - the highlight being Messiaen's powerful and life-enhancing Quartet For The End Of Time; a chance to see the acting stars of tomorrow in LAMDA student company's productions of Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, Julian Mitchell's Another Country and a translation of Alexander Galin's dark ladies of the night tragi comedy Stars In The Morning Sky; Jaybird Production's family show The Owl And The Pussycat; North Country Theatre's tongue-in-cheek adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's story of obsessive love The Wish House; the spellbinding band and Glastonbury Festival favourites Sheelanagig; the hot six-piece Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra who coined the phrase "North-Eastern Swing" and Jamie Smith's exhilarating Interceltic/world/roots band MABON - to mention a few!
Then there's The Old Laundry Theatre's new studio venue The Laundrama which will host Comedy Nights, Ceilidh Nights and the new Beatrix Potter Victorian Magic Lantern Show.
And, as the Lake District's independently funded creative hub, The Old Laundry Theatre hosts the Cumbria Short Film Competition 2016 showcasing the work of short film makers, making films with a Cumbrian connection - and as part of the prize all the short listed and winning films will be screened on a premiere Gala Night on Friday 18 November
The Old Laundry Theatre - an explosive Autumn Season for everyone.
Meeting Bea Press performances: Saturday 17 September at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, and Sunday 18 September at 4.30pm
Bowness Theatre Festival presents
MEETING BEA by Eric Pringle
Friday 16 September - Saturdday 8 October
Evenings 7.30pm, Matinees 2.30pm Sunday Matinees 4.30pm
Adults £22.50 Seniors £21 Children £7 (Matinees £20)
Press performances: Saturday 17/9 at 2.30pm & 7.30pm and Sunday 18/9 at 4.30pm
The Lake District in 1927 and Beatrix Potter, now Mrs William Heelis, is a successful Lake District farmer, her children's books have been left far behind in a past which she never willingly revisits but which haunts her still.... One day her life is turned upside down by the arrival of a girl from Lancashire who is seeking a different life and an American publisher who just won't take 'no' for an answer! The action takes place at Castle Cottage, Hill Top, the Tower Bank Arms, Hawkshead Village Hall, Troutbeck and Moss Eccles Tarn.
Bowness Theatre Festival presents
MARTIN ROSCOE & FRIENDS
Friday 14 - Sunday 16 October
Adults £22 | Fool discount £2 | Children £7 | Weekend Ticket £50
Friday 14 October, 7.30pm
Solo piano concert by Martin Roscoe
Mozart Sonata in F K332
Brahms Sonata in F minor Op.5
Ravel Sonatine
Messiaen 2 Preludes
Faure Nocturne No.4 in E flat Op.36
Debussy Suite: Pour Le Piano
Saturday 15 October, 7.30pm
Benjamin Nabarro (violin), Moray Welsh (cello), John Bradbury (clarinet) Martin Roscoe (piano)
Ravel Violin Sonata
Faure Elegie for cello and piano Op.24
Debussy Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano
Messiaen Quartet for the end of time
Sunday 16 October, 2.30pm
Benjamin Nabarro (violin), Moray Welsh (cello), Graham Oppenheimer (viola), Martin Roscoe (piano)
Mozart Piano Quartet in E flat K.493
Brahms Piano Quartet in C minor Op.60
Faure Piano Quartet in G minor Op.45
LAMDA: OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Thursday 20 October, 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Adults £12 | Students £7
Australia, 1789. Ambitious young lieutenant, RalpH Clark, is tasked with directing newly arrived convicts in the Restoration comedy The Recruiting Officer. With only two scripts, a reluctant cast and a leading lady who faces the gallows, Australia's first theatre production is in trouble from the start. The true story of the first convict colony, Our Country's Good is based on The Playmaker, a novel by Thomas Keneally who also wrote Schindler's Ark (adapted as Schindler's List).
LAMDA: STARS IN THE MORNING SKY by Alexander Galin
Thursday 21 October, 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Adults £12 | Students £7
Moscow 1980. The Summer Olympic games are about to begin and the international visitors are arriving. The city's prostitutes are rounded up and sent away until the Olympics are over. Suddenly, a small village, 100 miles outside Moscow, is inundated with ladies of the night... Hilarious, sad, rich in humanity and understanding, moving personal stories unfold over one night, with the coming of the Olympic flame as a patriotic backdrop.
LAMDA: ANOTHER COUNTRY by Julian Mitchell
Saturday 22 October, 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Adults £12 | Students £7
Set in an English public school in the early 1930s where future leaders are being prepared for their roles in the ruling class. Two of the central characters are outsiders: Guy Bennett is coming to terms with homosexuality and Tommy Judd is a committed Marxist. Judd wants to abolish the whole system of British life; Bennett wants a successful career within it. The school and the system have traditional ways of dealing with rebels. Another Country had a 19-month West End run following its Greenwich Theatre premiere. It was SWET Play of the Year 1982 and subsequently a successful film starring Kenneth Branagh and Rupert Everett.
The Rotary Club of Windermere presents
THE ALLURE OF THE ARCTIC NORTH with Rob Caskie
Wednesday 26 October, 7.30pm
Adults £15 | Children £7
A charity fundraising event in aid of Wateraid & North West Air Ambulance. Rob Caskie has enthralled and educated audiences with stories of Zulu Wars and Shackleton's exploits in the Antarctic. Now he has turned his attention to Sir John Franklin and The North West Passage. Who would have thought that the North West Passage would claim Franklin and 128 of Britain's finest mariners along with their ships? In 2014, with the receding ice, one of those ships - The Erebus was found, renewing interest in Arctic history. Amundsen was the first through the fabled passage but soon turned his attention south when Cook and Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole. Along with Nansen you will find the history and the intrigue of the Arctic region spellbinding.
EAT THE FILM! 2 Films, 2 menus...Tickets £35
BABETTE'S FEAST
Thursday 27 October, 7pm
CHOCOLAT
Saturday 19 November, 7pm
JayBiRD Productions presents
OWL & PUSS
Thursday 27 October, 11.30am & 2.30pm
All tickets £8
"The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea...'
A great show for all the family! Step on board a pea-green boat and be whisked away on an action-packed adventure, to the mystical land of bong trees and quince; see the sights and breathe the strange, new air. Full of funny characters, songs and silliness, this new production puts a brilliant, fresh spin on the age-old tale. You've heard the poem, now embrace the journey!
Theatre presents
North Country Theatre presents
THE WISH HOUSE based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling. Adapted by Nobby Dimon. Directed by Vivienne Garnett
Friday 28 October, 7.30pm
Adults £16 | Children £7
A story of fierce, insane, possessive love... (and dark goings-on down on The Farm!). Grace Ashcroft might be seen by some as "a dear old soul", but the tale she tells of her younger days as a lusty farm girl and the strange sacrifice she made to keep "her" man is by turns hilarious and chilling. This comedy of rural superstition and urban myth is brought to the stage by the company celebrating their 20th anniversary year whose adaptations have brought us the hilarious The 39 Steps to the scary The Rocking Horse Winner, and most recently the poetic and thought-provoking The Gift of Stones. Cold Comfort Farm meets Chaucer's Wife of Bath meets A Picture of DorIan Gray in a tongue-in cheek version of Kipling's story of obsessive love.
Griff Rhys Jones: Jones & Smith
Saturday 29 October at 7:30 pm
Tickets £20
Griff Rhys Jones is a Trustee of the Old Laundry Theatre and we are delighted to be welcoming him to Bowness on his tour. Griff will be airing some thoughts - stories, anecdotes, reminiscences and half-remembered events from a long career with his much missed comedy partner Mel Smith. It's a ramble through a relationship. Join him in this brand new comedy performance, complete with previously unseen footage.
Cumbria Short Film Competition 2016
Friday 18 November, 7.30pm
Tickets £8
The Cumbria Short Film Competition is back for its 4th year. This special movie evening showcases a selection of the best short films judged as part of the 2016 competition. Relax, enjoy a glass of mulled wine and popcorn (included in your ticket) and settle down to a fabulous selection of films including animations, documentaries, dramas and comedies on the big screen, all with a CumBrian Link. At the end of the evening, the winners and runners up of the film competition will be announced, and there will also be an 'audience prize', where the audience will vote live for their favourite film of the evening.
The Stephen Joseph Theatre Company present
Henceforward by Alan Ayckbourn
Tuesday 1 - Saturday 12 November. Evenings 7.30pm, Matinees 2.30pm
Adults £24.50/ £20 | Children £7
All alone, high up in an isolated, derelict suburban tower block, avant garde composer Jerome struggles vainly to complete his life's masterwork about love. With the help of a deranged android childminder, Jerome hatches a cunning plan to retrieve his source of artistic inspiration, his beloved daughter Geain, from her mother, his hostile estranged ex-wife. A new revival directed by the author, Alan Ayckbourn's classic comedy was first produced in Scarborough in 1987 and subsequently at the Vaudeville Theatre, London in 1988, starring Ian McKellen and Jane Asher, where it won the Evening Standard Best Comedy award.
Lyon Events presents
Sheelanagig
Friday 25 November, 7.30pm
Adults £15, Children £7
Having caused dancefloor mayhem from the Scottish Islands to the South of Italy, Sheelanagig are probably the most fun you can have with a fiddle, flute, guitar, double-bass and drums. They are as physically relentless on stage as their music is - playing a unique and energetic blend of Folk, Jazz and World Music. Festival favourites at Glastonbury and Green Man, their live show encompasses street theatre, elements of storytelling and acrobatics, and is sure to provoke a reaction - frenzied dancing and stage invasions are hazards on a really good night. Truly spellbinding.
Lyon Events presents
Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra
Saturday 26 November, 7.30pm
Adults £15, Children £7
Based in Newcastle-upon- Tyne, Rob Heron & the Tea Pad Orchestra play their own brand of Western Swing, Blues, Gypsy Jazz and Country, or "North Eastern Swing" as they've coined it. Their style is more eclectic than most, influenced by early 20th century American music, with the addition of "razor-sharp" solos, great arrangements and original songs; their music harks back to a golden age whilst staying perfectly modern. Rob Heron's songs are full of character, satire, and good old fashion hollerin'. The band, a hot six-piece, features Ben Fitzgerald (guitar), Tom Cronin (mandolin), Colin Nicholson (accordion), Ted Harbot (double bass) and Paul Archibald (drums). The best way to experience Rob Heron & the Tea Pad Orchestra is at a live show.
Lyon Events presents
Jamie Smith's MABON
Sunday 27 November, 4pm
Adults £15, Children £7
One of the most highly accomplished and critically acclaimed Interceltic/ World/Roots bands in Britain today, JSM have built their reputation on their energy and dynamism, outstanding original compositions and virtuoso performances. MABON's distinctive, infectious and multi-award winning music is acclaimed as "exhilarating, just exhilarating - music performed with such enjoyment, excitement, style and wit". They are rightly hailed as one of Britain's 'must see' live acts, their music travelling beyond borders to explore the forms and styles of the Celtic traditions and work them anew.
Faulty Towers the Dining Experience
Friday 16, Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 December, 7.30pm
Tickets £45 including 3 course set dinner
Basil, Sybil and Manuel revisit The Old Laundry Theatre one last time, bringing with them a 'two-hour eat, drink and laugh sensation' (Daily Telegraph) that's 'outstanding' (FringeReview). This pitch perfect tribute to Fawlty Towers starts as the audience waits to be seated then hurtles along for two hours of fully immersive, highly improvised and site-specific comedy theatre. With only a third of the show scripted, everything stays fresh as Basil, Sybil and Manuel serve some madcap mayhem and a three-course meal (thankfully made by our Bistro team) - with the audience playing the part of their restaurant diners.
For further information, photography, and REVIEW TICKETS please contact:
Sarah Melhuish at The Old Laundry Theatre: marketing@hop-skip-jump.com
or Deborah Goodman Publicity: publicity@dgpr.co.uk
Deborah Goodman Publicity
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