The Wardrobe Ensemble's 1972: THE FUTURE OF SEX to Launch UK Tour This March

Award-winning theatre company The Wardrobe Ensemble will take their production 1972: THE FUTURE OF SEX on tour across the UK this spring. The production, which won the Stage Award for Acting Excellence in 2015, will begin its UK tour at the Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol where it will play as part of Tobacco Factory Theatres BEYOND from 8 - 26 March. The production will then tour to eight venues across the UK, including a two-week residency at Shoreditch Town Hall.

1972: THE FUTURE OF SEX is the latest offering from The Wardrobe Ensemble. Devised by the company, the show uses The Wardrobe Ensemble's trademark inventive theatricality, irreverent humour and spectacular ensemble moments to tell the story of 3 couples having sex for the first time on the night that David Bowie first appeared as Ziggy Stardust on Top of the Pops.

Directors of 1972: THE FUTURE OF SEX Tom Brennan and Jesse Jones said: "We're thrilled to take 1972: THE FUTURE OF SEX on the road to some of our favourite venues across the UK and to see it grow and develop in front of lots of different audiences. Originally, we wanted to make a show about sex because it's something we all have opinions on and experience of. However, once we started rehearsals it became clear that a conversation about shagging is also a conversation about a whole host of other prickly subjects: power, gender, choice, representation, equality, identity and oppression just to name a few. We decided to use the lens of the seventies to examine the topic because as well as being a pivotal moment in sexual history (a seemingly consequence-free era post-the pill and pre-AIDS) it also gave us the distance to comment on sex and sexuality today. It also gave us a really great soundtrack."

The Wardrobe Ensemble is a group of theatre artists from Bristol working together to make new plays that dissect the twenty-first century experience. Their previous plays include RIOT, 33, Eliza and the Wild Swans, Edgar and the Land of Lost, Eloise and the Curse of the Golden Whisk and The Star Seekers. They have toured nationally and internationally to venues including the National Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Bristol Old Vic, Salisbury Playhouse and Jack, Brooklyn. The full cast for the production includes: Tom Crosley-Thorne, Tom England, Emily Greenslade, Kerry Lovell, Jesse Meadows, Helena Middleton, James Newton and Ben Vardy.

1972: THE FUTURE OF SEX is commissioned by Shoreditch Town Hall. Supported by Arts Council England, Bristol Ferment, the Kevin Spacey Foundation and Tobacco Factory Theatres Artist Development Fund.

IF YOU GO:

1972: THE FUTURE OF SEX

Co-directed by Tom Brennan and Jesse Jones
Design by Georgia Coleman
Lighting design by Rachael Duthie
Dramaturg Edythe Woolley
Composer and musician Tom Crosley-Thorne
Producer Hannah Smith

Anton - James Newton
Anna - Jesse Meadows
Tessa - Emily Greenslade
Christine - Kerry Lovell
Rich - Ben Vardy
Penny - Helena Middleton
Martin - Tom England

TOUR DATES:

The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol
8 - 26 March
Press Night: 10 March
www.thewardrobetheatre.com

The Bikeshead Theatre, Exeter
29 March - 9 April
www.bikeshedtheatre.co.uk

Shoreditch Town Hall, London
12 - 23 April
Press Night: 13 April
www.shoreditchtownhall.com

The Marlowe Studio, Canterbury
2 May
www.marlowetheatre.com

The Hub, Leeds
8 May
www.slunglow.org

The Lowry, Manchester
20 May
www.thelowry.com

South Hill Park, Bracknell
25 May
www.southhillpark.org.uk

The Old Market, Brighton
27 - 28 May
www.theoldmarket.com

The Drum, Theatre Royal Plymouth
14 - 18 June
www.theatreroyal.com

The Wardrobe Ensemble are an emerging group of theatre artists working together to make new plays that dissect the twenty-first century experience. We consist of nine core members, one producer and a constantly growing community of associate artists. We are based in Bristol.

Flashy, rough, silly and serious, we explore the big ideas of our time through intimate human stories. We are usually energetic, often irreverent and dedicated to finding the place where the intellectual and the emotional collide.

The Wardrobe Ensemble is an emerging theatre company of 9 actors, musicians and devisors. Formed in 2011, their first show, RIOT, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2013 RIOT was part of the Limited Editions season at The Shed at the NT, alongside artists Dan Canham and Little Bulb.

The company's second show, 33, was developed on residency at the Berkshire Fringe in Massachusetts, the National Theatre Studio and Bristol Ferment and premiered at Bristol Old Vic in July 2013. RIOT and 33 have toured nationally and internationally to venues including Battersea Arts Centre, Salisbury Playhouse and Northern Stage, and have been seen by over 5000 people. 1972: THE FUTURE OF SEX is their third full company show.

The company have also made three Christmas shows for families in co-production with the Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter; Eliza and the Wild Swans, Edgar and the Land of Lost and Eloise and The Curse of The Golden Whisk. Also in their repertoire is a show for ages 3-8, The Star Seekers, a co-production with The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol. We have an eclectic mix of shows at the heart of which is a desire to tell a compelling story in a visually engaging and inventive way.

The Tobacco Factory Theatres BEYOND off-site season sees Tobacco Factory Theatres working with new and existing partners to present work in fascinating venues all over Bristol, bringing its matchless spirit to new people and championing epic theatre in intimate and unusual spaces. The programme includes Mark Bruce Company's The Odyssey at Circomedia (Wed 10 - Sun 14 February), Wardrobe Ensemble's 1972: THE FUTURE OF SEXat the new Wardrobe Theatre in Old Market (Tue 08 - Sat 26 March), In Your Face and King's Head Theatre's Trainspotting (Wed 06 - Sun 17 April), Walrus' Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons at The Greenbank in Easton (Tue 19 - Sat 23 April) and a new a Play a Pie and a Pint produced by Tobacco Factory theatres in association with Òran Mór - The Love I Feel Is Red - at Zion Community Space, Bishopsworth (Wed 04 - Sat 07 May).

Tobacco Factory Theatres produces and presents excellent art in unique, intimate spaces in Bristol, as well as off site in Bristol and in venues across the country. It presents a jam-packed programme of diverse and exciting shows, workshops and events, from classic and contemporary theatre, to theatre for families, comedy, dance, music, opera and puppetry. It also runs an expanding programme of engagement, learning and participation opportunities for audiences, artists and young people. Find out more about Tobacco Factory Theatres BEYOND here.

A vibrant destination space in East London, sitting at the heart of one of the most exciting areas of London, Shoreditch Town Hall was for over 100 years one of the grandest Vestry Halls in the city. Having ceased to be a home for local government during the 1960s it was restored and reopened as an independent venue in 2005. Now the Town Hall is a home to original and adventurous arts and artists as well as a distinctive contemporary performance and events programme. Recent renovations in 2014-15 have brought the magnificent Victorian grandeur of the Assembly Hall and Council Chamber and the warren of untouched, atmospheric basement spaces to the forefront of the 21stcentury, including an increase in seated audience capacity and a state of the art hydraulic technical rig in the Assembly Hall. www.shoreditchtownhall.com @ShoreditchTH