#alison skilbeck

[mariocki]

Doctor Who: Frontios (21.3, BBC, 1984)

"It's, um, very good of you to help us, Mr..."

"I'm not helping, officially. And if anyone happens to ask whether I made any material difference to the welfare of this planet, you can tell them I came and went like a summer cloud."

#doctor who #frontios #classic doctor who #bbc #1984 #five #christopher h. bidmead #ron jones #peter davison #janet fielding #mark strickson #jeff rawle #peter gilmore #lesley dunlop #william lucas #maurice o'connell #alison skilbeck #john gillett #richard ashley #raymond murtagh #continuing to catch up on those DW eps that somehow passed me by as a nipper; in this case I really don't know what happened‚ bc it was #certainly available on video and uk gold would have shown it. i just missed it somehow? i certainly remember reading the target novel which #painted a very disturbing vision... some of which is surprisingly well realised now I can finally see the episodes! the production design‚ #sets and yes even the tractators are all really quite impressive when you consider the budget Who was working on (and the sudden death of #the original designer‚ shortly before production began). there's quite an apocalyptic feel to the first two eps in particular‚ and the plot #is typically intelligent and sciencey for Bidmead. it does feel a little rough around the edges; editing is quite hectic in places and #there's some general handwaving (not least restoring the tardis...). nice to see Bill Lucas playing quite against type as a fuddy old #science type (another last minute replacement‚ after Peter Arne's murder) and Gilmore is fun in a baying military kind of way #some fun amongst the gloom too‚ particularly Five passing off poor Tegan as a robot and pretending to yuk it up with the Gravis #have there been any follow up stories in the dweu? both frontios and the gravis feel like prime material for revisiting mr rtd...

[yamy-brett]

Jeremy Brett, Gayle Hunnicut (Irene Adler), Barbara Wilshere (Violet Smith), Rosalyn Landor (Helen Stoner), Alison Skilbeck (Annie Harrison), and Betsy Brantley (Elsie Cubitt)

#granada holmes #jeremy brett #unnecessarily handsome

[pixeldinostorytelling]

i just love the (happy, not mob) crowd scenes in wovercoats. i can always single out felix trench and alison skilbeck doing their little noises <3

#wooden overcoats #joy in stored in felix's little waheyyy #and everything we can barely hear from alison in the background make me remember #'he's not going to sing is he? oh god' #from the to be an undertaker liveshow clip #and remembering to be an undertaker is always good #the pale imitation of an original thought

[muchtohope]

Granada Holmes gif series - The Naval Treaty - The Goodness of Providence

#granada holmes #sherlock holmes #naval treaty #jeremy brett #david burke #david gwillim #alison skilbeck #honestly don't even look at me #I could scream about this speech for the rest of my life

[thesjt]

My SJT: Alison Skilbeck

Scarborough Memories 

Actor Alison Skilbeck was a regular at the SJT in the 1970s and ‘80s, and discovered how the company became part of the fabric of the town… 

I joined the company on the Sunday before August Bank Holiday 1975. It was the end of what had been a pretty good summer, but little did we know we were in store for the amazing summer of ’76, when pallid holidaymakers became attractively tanned, and even the local ladies left their cardies at home of an evening; little did I know either that I would stay with the company for nearly five years, perform in world premieres of six of Alan’s glorious plays, tour the UK and Northern Europe (where he was compared to Beckett and Arrabal), get my teeth into Chekhov, Miller, Anouilh, Pinter; would direct (The Guv’nor), and be encouraged to write. The SJT, and above all Alan, have had an enormous influence on my life. I returned in two plays in ’89, and then since 2007 I’ve been back with two of my own one-person shows: Are There More of You? and Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London. 

Sisterly Feelings: Judy Bridgland, and Alison Skilbeck in that suit!

I joined on the same day as Malcolm Hebden. We sat together at the old Library Theatre to watch the play that was in repertoire, Bedroom Farce, starring, well, the whole cast: Chris Godwin, Bob Eaton, the late lamented Stephen Mallatratt, who became such a terrific writer, Janet (Lucy) Dale, and Polly Warren. Malcolm and I turned to each other at the interval: “Oh God – they’re good!” I think we both debated taking the next train home. Our first Ayckbourn original experience was that classic of ‘Ayckbourn Bleak’, Just Between Ourselves. The script was due just before Xmas, and finally came through the door of my digs with a covering note from Alan: “Here it is – should break up many a happy home!” As my own first marriage was then teetering, and finally tottered the next year, life certainly imitated art. Alan challenged and delighted me by casting me as the disgruntled, negative wife, Pam. Over 20 years later I played the traumatised wife Vera at Salisbury. I only have the horrendous Marjorie left! There was a particularly glorious moment of audience involvement one night, after Denis (Chris G), the ultimate in unreconstructed husbands, is warning his guests ‘not to laugh’ if Vera does anything silly, falls over, or drops stuff at the current outdoor tea-party; of course the dour Pam and dyspeptic husband Neil have forgotten even how to smile, and it is Denis, when Vera predictably upsets the sugar and drops the teapot (in one tightly choreographed comic sweep) who finds it all hilarious and walks away from the devastated table, convulsed. At this point on that memorable evening, it was a man – unusual that – who leant from his front row seat and plucked Chris by the arm, saying: “Don’t do that, she’s really upset.” 

But the Oscar for best audience intervention has to go to a Scarborough lady. It was that summer of ’76, a matinee at the Library, and on stage, at a white-draped table in Bob Eaton’s musical adaptation of Moliere’s Bourgeois Gentilhomme, All The Best People, were Malcolm Hebden, as our hero, Stephen Mallatratt as the Marquis, both with dewlap wigs, and yours truly as the Marchioness, complete with high wobbly lacy headress. Enter chorus of cooks and flunkeys, all in white, bearing wobbly dishes of jelly, spoons, tureens, all singing and dancing. Notable in the line-up were the late Diane Bull, sadly missed, in her first job, Chris Godwin, writer Stephen Lowe, and a very young Nigel Le Vaillant having a pre-university gap summer on the boards. All singing and dancing like billy-oh. I think now there must have been a break in the music, and into that break, a comfortable Scarborough matron, second row up, centre, let out a delicate but totally audible fart. The chorus lurched on, half of them no longer singing, and all of us at the table wobbled and shook but just about coped. But then, another break in the music, and she saw her chance to make amends, with a gracious and well-projected: “Ooh – sorry!” Most of the chorus scarpered, only consummate pros Godwin and Bull staggered on, Malcolm actually disappeared under the table, Stephen hid in his wig, and I think I wept into my lacy napkin. Unforgettable. 

It was just a magic time. Even that’s a quote, from Joking Apart, I think. It was a time when actors stayed long enough for the town to feel they owned you, and we in our turn felt we belonged: family. One last postcard from that time: I always loved shopping for costume with the designer (often the brilliant Michael Holt), though it could be embarrassing when we found some (to us) awful-but-right garment, and enthused in the shop: “It’s ghastly! Wonderful!” I treasure the memory of an entrance of my character Abigail in Sisterly Feelings in the sort of smart lady outfit I would never have been seen dead in: costly yellow fine wool dress’n’jacket with black piping, and 4-inch patent stilettos. Scarborough ladies had different ideas. I swear it was two or three of them in a Yorkshire chorus who declared before I could open my mouth: “Eeh, doesn’t Alison look lovely in that suit!” 

Scarborough remains part of my inner landscape: the castle above a boiling sea, the Grand Hotel etched against a sunset, the deafening seagulls, and a few times, when I lived in the old town, the sound of the lifeboatmen clattering down the cobbles in answer to the warning maroons. 

Thank you Scarborough, thank you SJT, thank you, Alan, for the ‘time of my life’. 

Alison Skilbeck was a regular member of our company throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, peforming in Brontës, An Englishman's Home, What The Devil! Charlie's Christmas Countdown and The Chimes in 1975; Just Between Ourselves, All The Best People and Robin Hood And The Enchanted Forest in 1976; Dear Liar, Relatively Speaking, Fallen Angels, Ten Times Table, Westwood Coronation Day Street Party, The Rehearsal, Pygmalion, A Man For All Seasons and Hindle Wakes in 1977; Joking Apart, Plaza Suite, Travelling Hopefully, Rookery Nook, Barnstable and Patriotic Bunting in 1978; Sisterly Feelings, The Seagull, Taking Steps, Kidstuff, Saint Trixie, Old Times, The Crucible and The Golden Pathway Annual in 1979; Suburban Strains in 1980, and Wolf At The Door and Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1989.

#Alison Skilbeck #theatre #Scarborough #Theatre in the Round #Alan Ayckbourn #Scarborough memories #UK theatre #actor #acting #plays

[granada-brett-crumbs]

Awesome female character » Annie Harrison in The Naval Treaty

“...What did you think of Miss Harrison?" “A girl of strong character." “Yes, but she is a good sort, or I am mistaken.”

#annie harrison #the naval treaty #acd canon #granada holmes #alison skilbeck #awesome female characters #i did this//

[oots-digitalmedia]

Queer Rep in Wooden Overcoats

Title: Wooden Overcoats

    Status: Complete

    Cast: Belinda Lang, Felix Trench, Beth Eyre, Ciara Baxendale, Tom Crowley, Andy Secombe, Steve Hodson, Sean Baker, Alison Skilbeck, Elle Mcalpine, Paul Putner, Alana Rooss

    Queer Creators: Unknown

    Accessibility: Scripts available

Summary: RUDYARD FUNN runs a funeral home on the island of piffling.

It used to be the only one. It isn't anymore.

Rudyard Funn and his equally miserable sister Antigone run their family’s failing funeral parlour, where they get the body in the coffin in the ground on time. But one day they find everyone enjoying themselves at the funerals of a new competitor – the impossibly perfect Eric Chapman! With their dogsbody Georgie, and a mouse called Madeleine, the Funns are taking drastic steps to stay in business…

Tags: mlm couple, multiple wlw characters, queer character, asexual character, most characters bisexual,

More details and/or spoilers under the break.

Check out our other queer podcast recommendations here.

ID tags: Mayor Desmond Desmond: gay, Reverend Nigel Wavering: gay, Georgie: queer, Rudyard Funn: asexual, Georgie Crusoe: wlw, Jennifer Delacroix: wlw, Marlene Magdalena: wlw, Lady Templar: wlw

Details and/or Spoilers: Mayor Desmond Desmond and Reverend Nigel Wavering are a couple, wlw characters enter relationships, creator considers most characters bisexual

#queerdigitalmedia #queerpodcastrecommendations #queerpodcast #queerpodcastrecommendation #wooden overcoats #wooden overcoats podcast #wooden overcoats pod #mayor desmond desmond #reverend nigel wavering #comedy #comedy podcast #fiction #fiction podcast

[vileart]

More Dramatury: Alison Skilbeck @ Edfringe 2018

HINT OF LIME PRESENTS ARE THERE MORE OF YOU?Written and Performed By Alison Skilbeck Directed by Jeremy Stockwell August 1 – 27 11.10 (70 mins) ASSEMBLY HALL If you lay yourself open, people will jump in with both feet, won’t they?

Claire, Sophia, Sara and Sam.  Four women, linked by a shared postcode, each moving through transitions in their lives.  Four women in search of happiness.  Four women on the verge of a nervous breakthrough.  Claire, always the loyal and dutiful wife, has been abandoned by her husband on the eve of his retirement.  Sophia loves opera.  She juggles her time between her big project of opening an Italian trattoria with singing, the daytime job of running a café and the stresses and strains of caring for her sick mother.  

Sara is a spirit weaver, sorting out people’s lives, untangling the threads and putting them back together but what about the twists and knots in her own life?  And then there’s Sam, a tough no-nonsense business-woman who through the course of an evening and with the help of a few drinks, reveals a more fragile vulnerability and the need of a friend. In turns touching scary, funny, warm and embracing, Are There More of You? tells the often untold stories of women of a certain age.  Women going through personal transitions, adapting to new circumstances, in search of love and happiness and discovering new things about themselves and the world around them.   

What was the inspiration for this performance? I wanted to write monologues for me, as an older actress. I started to write, and my four characters started to connect: hence ARE THERE MORE OF YOU? - four wildly different ladies linked only by a postcode. Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?  Yes indeed; though I think it works best when indirect, e.g CRUCIBLE for the McCarthy witch hunts. But times change, and STUFF HAPPENS was remarkable, also many plays recently about refugees.  When  I have Q and As after my shows, people are eager to engage. Theatre makes us see ourselves. But to be realistic, political plays rarely reach other than the converted. How did you become interested in making performance? I have been an actress, a performer, all my life; if by this you mean creating my own work by writing it, the negative reason is because there were increasingly fewer parts for women, and women of my age! On the positive side, many people had encouraged me to write, so I sat down and did it. People read and heard the script, and my director , Jeremy Stockwell ( KEN,  and A SOCK FULL OF CUSTARD Ed Fringe 2018) helped me get it on, oringinally some years ago. And audiences responded. Is there any particular approach to the making of the show? No. It's a while since I did write it, but - I wrote it, re-wrote it, honed and shaped it with my director who helped me find the different voices and bodies of the characters; we decided to have minimum set, costume, lx and sound ; to celebrate acting and the power of story - two planks and a passion - speaking directly to an audience. Does the show fit with your usual productions? In that they involve me alone on a stage - yes.  My two subsequent shows are different only in this: - MRS ROOSEVELT FLIES TO LONDON ( Edinburgh 2016) About a real, much admired person. I wrote after extensive research; there is more set and costume; a soundscape, and a lot of lighting. -THE POWER BEHIND THE CRONE ( Edinburgh 2017) is me plus Shakespeare! it is ultra-simple - no lx or sound - I play a very enthusiastic lecturer, Prof Artemis Turret, playing and talking about 7 older women in Shakespeare. Once again serious, but funny; like Shakespeare himself! What do you hope that the audience will experience? I hope they will have fun; laugh, cry, see themselves and people they know, and think about older women, their resilience and infinite variety. And I hope they'll be struck by what live theatre can do - how you can turn on a sixpence to become 'other'. Alison Skilbeck returns to The Edinburgh Fringe following her 5 star shows Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London, 2016, and The Power Behind The Crone, 2017.  Her enormously varied stage career has taken her to the West End and all over the UK and Europe, and to the USA with Shakespeare: early on she created roles in six Ayckbourn premieres at Scarborough.  Alison's television work includes Sherlock Homes, The Beiderbecke Affair, Miss Marple, Head Over Heels, Doctor Who, Soldier Soldier, Midsomer Murders, and Call The Midwife. Amongst her radio roles is Polly Perks in The Archers, until the character was killed off! Two recent projects have been Wimpole Street, the award winning web series, and the pod cast sitcom seriesWooden Overcoats. Alison has directed extensively thoughout her career, notably Shakespeare at RADA, where she has been an Associate Teacher for over 20 years. Alison also directs A Substitute For Life by Simon Brett, starring Tim Hardy, which also runs at Assembly throughout August. Jeremy Stockwell has directed, written, and devised new work in the U.K. for, among others, the National and BAC. His current touring productions are; Angelos & Barry: The New Power Generation (tour & West End run), Pemberton & Hague's Theatre Circus and The Very Perry Show, with Kate Perry (tour and New York run).  He directs extensively in theatres all over Europe. Also in Edinburgh this August, as an actor, Jeremy is playing Ken Campbell, in Terry Johnson's KEN, and Spike Milligan in A Sockful of Custard, which he co-wrote with Chris Larner, both at The Pleasance Courtyard. Jeremy has been a member of the RADA teaching and directing faculty for over twenty years. He is also Performance Coach for the BBC; his series include: How do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, Faking It, The Speaker, and Strictly Come Dancing. Edinburgh Fringe Theatre ARE THERE MORE OF YOU? Written and Performed By Alison Skilbeck Directed Jeremy Stockwell August 2 – 27 11.10 (70 mins) ASSEMBLY HALL http://www.assemblyfestival.com  0131 623 3030  August 2 to 3 £6 (previews) August 4, 5, 8, 9, 14 - 16, 20 -23 & 27 £11(£9) August 6, 7, 10 -12, 17 – 19, 24 – 26 £12.50 (£10.50) Day off  August 13 from the vileblog https://ift.tt/2mGx3La

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

[londontheatre]

Tickets go on sale for Rufus Norris’ Macbeth, with Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff, part of the Travelex Season with thousands of tickets available at £15

Cast announced for world premiere of The Great Wave, a co-production with the Tricycle Theatre, directed by Indhu Rubasingham

Full cast announced for UK premiere of Annie Baker’s John, directed by James Macdonald

30 years after the play’s rediscovery, Absolute Hell returns to the National in a new production directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins

Further cast announced for the revival of Amadeus

Tickets on sale for Justin Audibert’s new production of The Winter’s Tale for primary schools

National Theatre Jan 2015 – photo by Philip Vile

Olivier Theatre MACBETH by William Shakespeare Previews from 26 February, press night 6 March, on sale until 12 May with further performances to be announced The ruined aftermath of a bloody civil war. Ruthlessly fighting to survive, the Macbeths are propelled towards the crown by forces of elemental darkness. Shakespeare’s most intense and terrifying tragedy is directed by Rufus Norris 25 years after his last Shakespeare production. Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Set design by Rae Smith, costume design by Moritz Junge, lighting design by James Farncombe and sound design by Paul Arditti. Hundreds of Travelex tickets available for every performance at £15. Broadcast live as part of NT Live to cinemas worldwide on 10 May.

Lyttelton Theatre ABSOLUTE HELL by Rodney Ackland Previews from 18 April, press night 25 April, on sale until 23 May with further performances to be announced Bomb-blasted London. A Soho den in the hangover from World War II, where members drink into the darkness, night after night. Lying, fighting and seducing, these lost souls and bruised lovers struggle from the rubble of war towards an unknown future. Rodney Ackland’s extraordinarily provocative play was condemned as ‘a libel on the British people’ when first performed in 1952. Now it emerges as an intoxicating plunge into post-war Soho; full of despair and longing. Joe Hill-Gibbins returns to the NT to direct a large ensemble in this new production. Set design by Lizzie Clachan, with costumes designed by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting by Jon Clark, movement by Jenny Ogilvie, sound by Paul Arditti and the music director is Harvey Brough.

Dorfman Theatre JOHN by Annie Baker Previews from 17 January, press night 24 January in repertoire until 3 March The week after Thanksgiving. A bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful host welcomes a young couple struggling to salvage their relationship, while thousands of inanimate objects look on. An uncanny new play by Annie Baker, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning The Flick had a sold-out run at the National in 2016. James Macdonald directs the European premiere. Full cast includes Marylouise Burke, Tom Mothersdale, Anneika Rose and June Watson. Design by Chloe Lamford, lighting design by Peter Mumford and sound design by Christopher Shutt. Marylouise Burke is appearing with the support of UK Equity, incorporating the Variety Artistes’ Federation, pursuant to an exchange programme between American Equity and UK Equity. New American Work programme supported by The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Lawton W Fitt & James I McLaren Foundation, Kathleen J Yoh and Time Warner Foundation, Inc.

THE GREAT WAVE a new play by Francis Turnly a co-production with the Tricycle Theatre Previews from 10 March, press night 19 March, playing until 14 April On a Japanese beach, teenage sisters Hanako and Reiko are caught up in a storm. Reiko survives while Hanako is lost to the sea. Their mother, however, can’t shake the feeling that her missing daughter is still alive, and soon family tragedy takes on a global political dimension. Set in Japan and North Korea, Francis Turnly’s epic new thriller is directed by Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre Indhu Rubasingham in a co-production with the Tricycle Theatre. Cast includes Kae Alexander, Rosalind Chao, Tuyen Do, Vincent Lai, Kwong Loke, Frances Mayli McCann, Kirsty Rider, Leo Wan and David Yip. Design by Tom Piper, video design by Luke Halls, lighting design by Oliver Fenwick, music by David Shrubsole, sound design by Alex Caplen, movement direction by Polly Bennett and fight direction by Kev McCurdy. Rosalind Chao is appearing with the support of UK Equity, incorporating the Variety Artistes’ Federation, pursuant to an exchange programme between American Equity and UK Equity.

NINE NIGHT a new play by Natasha Gordon Previews from 21 April, press night 30 April, playing until 25 May Gloria is gravely sick. When her time comes, the celebration begins; the traditional Jamaican Nine Night Wake. But for Gloria’s children and grandchildren, marking her death with a party that lasts over a week is a test. Nine nights of music, food, sharing stories – and an endless parade of mourners. Natasha Gordon’s debut play Nine Night is a touching and very funny exploration of the rituals of family. Roy Alexander Weise directs a cast including Franc Ashman, Oliver Alvin-Wilson, Rebekah Murrell and Cecilia Noble, with further casting to be announced. Design by Rajha Shakiry. Unallocated seating now available, more tickets released in January. New productions on sale to public from 21 November Updates on productions currently on sale Olivier theatre

FOLLIES, book by James Goldman, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim In the repertoire until 3 January 2018 New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. Including such classic songs as ‘Broadway Baby’, ‘I’m Still Here’ and ‘Losing My Mind’, Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the NT. Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, the production is directed by Dominic Cooke (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).

The cast includes Julie Armstrong, Norma Atallah, Josephine Barstow, Jeremy Batt, Tracie Bennett, Di Botcher, Billy Boyle, Janie Dee, Anouska Eaton, Liz Ewing, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Forbes, Emily Goodenough, Bruce Graham, Adrian Grove, Fred Haig, Aimee Hodnett, Dawn Hope, Liz Izen, Alison Langer, Emily Langham, Sarah-Marie Maxwell, Ian McLarnon, Leisha Mollyneaux, Gemma Page, Kate Parr, Philip Quast, Edwin Ray, Gary Raymond, Adam Rhys-Charles, Jordan Shaw, Imelda Staunton, Zizi Strallen, Barnaby Thompson, Christine Tucker, Michael Vinsen and Alex Young.

Design by Vicki Mortimer, choreography by Bill Deamer, music supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, additional orchestrations by Josh Clayton, music director Nigel Lilley, lighting design by Paule Constable and sound design by Paul Groothuis. Follies is sold out but tickets are available via Friday Rush, Day Tickets and possible returns. Follies is supported by Swarovski and by the Follies production syndicate. Broadcast Live to cinemas worldwide on 16 November.

SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON a new play by Rory Mullarkey In the repertoire until 2 December A village. A dragon. A damsel in distress. Into the story walks George: wandering knight, freedom fighter, enemy of tyrants the world over. One epic battle later and a nation is born. As the village grows into a town, and the town into a city, the myth of Saint George, which once brought a people together, threatens to divide them. John Heffernan plays Saint George with Julian Bleach as the Dragon. The cast also includes Suzanne Ahmet, Jason Barnett, Luke Brady, Paul Brennen, Joe Caffrey, Paul Cawley, Richard Goulding, Gawn Grainger, Tamzin Griffin, Ravel Guzman, Stephanie Jacob, Lewin Lloyd, Olwen May, Victoria Moseley, Conor Neaves, Amaka Okafor, Sharita Oomeer, Jeff Rawle, Kirsty Rider and Grace Saif.

Rory Mullarkey creates a new folk tale for an uneasy nation. Directed by Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire), with design by Rae Smith, choreography by Lynne Page, lighting design by Bruno Poet, music by Grant Olding, sound design by Christopher Shutt, projection design by Betsy Dadd and fight direction by Bret Yount. Hundreds of Travelex tickets at £15 available per performance. This play is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Plays Award.

AMADEUS by Peter Shaffer Previews from 11 January, press night 18 January, playing until 24 April Following a sell-out run last year, Amadeus returns to the Olivier in 2018. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a rowdy young prodigy, arrives in Vienna determined to make a splash. Awestruck by his genius, court composer Antonio Salieri has the power to promote his talent or destroy it. Seized by obsessive jealousy he begins a war with Mozart, with music and, ultimately, with God. Michael Longhurst’s acclaimed production of Peter Shaffer’s iconic play features live orchestral accompaniment by Southbank Sinfonia. Adam Gillen and Lucian Msamati reprise the roles of Mozart and Salieri. Cast also includes Sarah Amankwah, Fleur de Bray, Wendy Dawn Thompson, Nicholas Gerard-Martin, Christopher Godwin, Matthew Hargreaves, Adelle Leonce, Michael Lyle, Andrew Macbean, Alexandra Mathie, Eamonn Mulhall, Ekow Quartey, Hugh Sachs, Matthew Spencer, Everal A Walsh and Peter Willcock. Amadeus is directed by Michael Longhurst with design by Chloe Lamford, music direction and additional music by Simon Slater, choreography by Imogen Knight, lighting design by Jon Clark and sound design by Paul Arditti. Amadeus is produced in association with Southbank Sinfonia, and supported by the Amadeus production syndicate.

Lyttelton NETWORK, adapted by Lee Hall, based on the Paddy Chayefsky film Previews from 4 November, press night 13 November, continuing in the repertoire until 24 March Howard Beale, news anchor-man, isn’t pulling in the viewers. In his final broadcast he unravels live on screen. But when the ratings soar, the network seizes on their new found populist prophet, and Howard becomes the biggest thing on TV. Network depicts a dystopian media landscape where opinion trumps fact. Hilarious and horrifying by turns, the iconic film by Paddy Chayefsky won four Academy Awards in 1976. Now, Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) and director Ivo van Hove (Hedda Gabler) bring Chayefsky’s masterwork to the stage for the first time, with Bryan Cranston (All the Way, for which he won the Tony for Best Actor, Breaking Bad and Trumbo for which he was nominated for an Oscar) in the role of Howard Beale.

The cast also includes Charles Babalola, Tobi Bamtefa, Ed Begley, Alex Bonney, Tom Challenger, Richard Cordery, Isabel Della-Porta, Michelle Dockery, Kit Downes, Ian Drysdale, Michael Elwyn, Caroline Faber, Robert Gilbert, Pete Harden, Douglas Henshall, Tom Hodgkins, Tunji Kasim, Andrew Lewis, Beverley Longhurst, Evan Milton, Stuart Nunn, Rebecca Omogbehin, Patrick Poletti, Danny Szam, Paksie Vernon and Matthew Wright. Set and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld, video design by Tal Yarden, costume design by An D’Huys, music and sound by Eric Sleichim and creative associate Krystian Lada.

A very limited number of additional on-stage seats are now available for Foodwork – an immersive on-stage dining experience.

Network is produced in association with Patrick Myles, David Luff, Ros Povey and Lee Menzies. Production supported by Marcia Grand in memory of Richard Grand and by Kors Le Pere Theatricals LLC

PINOCCHIO by Dennis Kelly, adapted by Martin Lowe With songs and score from the Walt Disney film by Leigh Harline, Ned Washington and Paul J Smith Previews from 1 December, press night 13 December, on sale until 7 April On a quest to be truly alive, Pinocchio leaves Geppetto’s workshop with Jiminy Cricket in tow. Their electrifying adventure takes them from alpine forests to Pleasure Island to the bottom of the ocean. This spectacular new production brings together the director of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the writer of Matilda the Musical.

For the first time on stage, featuring unforgettable music and songs from the Walt Disney film including ‘I’ve Got No Strings’, ‘Give a Little Whistle’ and ‘When You Wish upon a Star’ in dazzling new arrangements, Pinocchio comes to life as never before.

Cast includes Joe Idris-Roberts (Pinocchio), Audrey Brisson (Jiminy Cricket), Annette McLaughlin (Blue Lady), Mark Hadfield (Gepetto), David Langham (The Fox), David Kirkbride (Coachman), Dawn Sievewright (Lampy), Gershwyn Eustache Jnr (Stromboli), together with Stuart Angell, Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge, Stephanie Bron, James Charlton, Rebecca Jayne-Davies, Sarah Kameela Impey, Anabel Kutay, Michael Lin, Jack North, Clemmie Sveaas, Michael Taibi, Scarlet Wilderink and Jack Wolfe.

John Tiffany directs Pinocchio by Dennis Kelly, with songs and score from the Walt Disney film by Leigh Harline, Ned Washington and Paul J Smith newly adapted by Martin Lowe. Design and puppet co-design by Bob Crowley, lighting design by Paule Constable, music supervision and orchestrations by Martin Lowe, music direction by Tom Brady, movement direction by Steven Hoggett, puppetry and puppet co-design by Toby Olié, sound design by Simon Baker and illusions by Jamie Harrison.

Half-price tickets for under-18s are available for all performances (excluding £15 tickets). There will be a relaxed performance of Pinocchio on 17 March at 1.30pm Presented by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions. Sponsored by American Express.

Dorfman Theatre BEGINNING a new play by David Eldridge Playing until 14 November It’s the early hours of the morning and Danny’s the last straggler at Laura’s party. The flat’s in a mess. And so are they. One more drink? Polly Findlay directs this new play by David Eldridge (Market Boy, Under the Blue Sky, In Basildon). Tender and funny, it’s an intimate look at the first fragile moments of risking your heart and taking a chance. Justine Mitchell plays Laura, Sam Troughton plays Danny. Design by Fly Davis, lighting design by Jack Knowles, sound design by Paul Arditti and movement direction by Naomi Said.

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES by Inua Ellams a co-production with Fuel and West Yorkshire Playhouse Previews from 20 November, playing until the 9 January Following critically acclaimed seasons at the National Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse, Barber Shop Chronicles returns to the National Theatre this November.

Inua Ellams’ dynamic new play leaps from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra. Newsroom, political platform, local hot spot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling.

The cast includes Fisayo Akinade, Hammed Animashaun, Peter Bankolé, Maynard Eziashi, Simon Manyonda, Patrice Naiambana, Cyril Nri, Kwami Odoom, Sule Rimi, Abdul Salis, David Webber, and Anthony Welsh all returning to reprise their roles.

Directed by Bijan Sheibani, with design by Rae Smith, lighting design by Jack Knowles, movement direction by Aline David sound design by Gareth Fry, music direction by Michael Henry and fight direction by Kev McCurdy. Barber Shop Chronicles is a co-production with Fuel and West Yorkshire Playhouse. Barber Shop Chronicles is co-commissioned by Fuel and the National Theatre. Development funded by Arts Council England with the support of Fuel, National Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Binks Trust, British Council ZA, Òran Mór and A Play, a Pie and a Pint.

At the Young Vic THE JUNGLE by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson a Young Vic and National Theatre co-production with Good Chance Theatre, commissioned by the National Theatre Previews from 7 December, press night 15 December playing until 6 January 2018 This is the place people suffered and dreamed. Okot wants nothing more than to get to the UK. Beth, wants nothing more than to help him. Meet the hopeful, resilient residents of ‘The Jungle’ – just across the Channel, right on our doorstep. Join refugees and volunteers from around the world over fresh-baked naan and sweet milky chai at the Afghan Café.

From Good Chance Theatre, a new play where worlds collide. In the worst places, you meet the best people. The Jungle by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson of Good Chance Theatre tells stories of loss, fear, community and hope. Europe’s largest unofficial refugee camp, the Calais ‘Jungle’ became a temporary home for more than 10,000 people at its peak – many desperate to find a way to enter the UK.

Commissioned by the NT in a co-production with the Young Vic The Jungle is directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, set design by Miriam Buether, costume design by Catherine Kodicek, sound design by Paul Arditti and lighting by Jon Clark. Opening at the Young Vic in December, cast to be announced. Generously supported by Glenn and Phyllida Earle, Clive and Sally Sherling, and The Aziz Foundation Shakespeare for younger audiences

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare a new version for young audiences by Justin Audibert and the company Opening 14 February 2018 Justin Audibert directs a new production of The Winter’s Tale for primary schools and families, opening in the Dorfman theatre in February 2018 and touring to primary schools across London accompanied by a creative learning programme. This exciting new version of the play, adapted by Justin and the company, is the perfect introduction to Shakespeare for younger audiences, designed by Lucy Sierra with music by Jonathan Girling. Family workshops are available in February half-term. Supported by The Ingram Trust, Archie Sherman Charitable Trust, Behrens Foundation, Jill and David Leuw, St Olave’s Foundation Fund The National Theatre’s Partner for Learning is Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

In the West End OSLO a new play by J. T. Rogers The Lincoln Center Theatre Production at the Harold Pinter Theatre Direct from a multi-award-winning season on Broadway and a critically acclaimed, sold-out run at the National Theatre, Bartlett Sher’s production of J.T. Rogers’ gripping political thriller Oslo in now playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 30 December 2017.

Oslo tells the true story of how two maverick Norwegian diplomats Terje Rød-Larsen, (Toby Stephens – Black Sails, Private Lives) and Mona Juul, (Lydia Leonard – Wolf Hall, Life in Squares) planned and orchestrated top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords. OsloThePlay.com In association with Ambassador Theatre Group / Gavin Kalin Productions / Glass Half Full Productions. The National Theatre on tour The NT will tour to 40 venues in 36 towns and cities across the UK, for a total of 115 playing weeks, until March 2019

WAR HORSE based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, adapted by Nick Stafford, in association with the award-winning Handspring Puppet Company. The unforgettable theatrical event based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel is now on a 10th anniversary UK tour. Nick Stafford’s adaptation of this remarkable story of courage, loyalty and friendship features ground-breaking puppetry by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, which brings breathing, galloping horses to life on stage. War Horse is directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, designed by Rae Smith, with puppet direction, design and fabrication by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler for Handspring Puppet Company, lighting by Paule Constable, movement and horse choreography by Toby Sedgwick, video design by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer for 59 Productions, songmaker John Tams, music by Adrian Sutton and sound by Christopher Shutt. Katie Henry is the revival director and Craig Leo is the associate puppetry director. The resident puppetry director is Matthew Forbes and resident director, Charlotte Peters.

For tour venues and dates, visit warhorseonstage.co.uk. War Horse in Salford and Sunderland is supported by The Garfield Weston Foundation.

HEDDA GABLER by Henrik Ibsen, in a new version by Patrick Marber Following a sold-out run at the National Theatre earlier this year, Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, in a new version by Patrick Marber, directed by Ivo van Hove, is now touring the UK and Ireland visiting Leicester, Salford, Norwich, Hull, Aberdeen, Northampton, Glasgow, Wolverhampton, Woking, Nottingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York, Milton Keynes and Dublin. Set and lighting design for Hedda Gabler is by Jan Versweyveld, with costume design by An D’Huys and sound by Tom Gibbons. The associate directors are Jeff James and Rachel Lincoln. For tour venues and dates, visit heddagableronstage.com

Hedda Gabler in Salford and Wolverhampton is supported by The Garfield Weston Foundation.

PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS by Duncan Macmillan a co-production with Headlong Following a critically-acclaimed, sold-out season at the National Theatre and in London’s West End, People, Places & Things is now on a major UK tour for Headlong in a co-production with the National Theatre, HOME and Exeter Northcott Theatre. People, Places & Things is written by Duncan Macmillan, and directed by Jeremy Herrin with Holly Race Roughan. The play features set designs by Bunny Christie, costumes by Christina Cunningham, lighting by James Farncombe, music by Matthew Herbert, sound by Tom Gibbons and video design by Andrzej Goulding. Touring to Bristol, Exeter, Southampton, Liverpool and Cambridge for dates, visit the website.

THIS HOUSE by James Graham Jonathan Church Productions and Headlong present the National Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre production of This House, produced in the West End by Nica Burns, Neal Street Productions and Headlong. James Graham’s smash-hit political drama examining the 1974 hung parliament tours the UK for the first time. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the production is designed by Rae Smith, with lighting design by Paule Constable, music by Stephen Warbeck, choreography by Scott Ambler and sound by Ian Dickinson. UK tour begins in February 2018 and tours to Leeds, Cambridge, Bath, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Birmingham, Salford, Plymouth, Norwich, Malvern, Guildford and Sheffield for dates, visit the website.

International PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS by Duncan Macmillan produced in New York by the National Theatre, St Ann’s Warehouse, Bryan Singer Productions and Headlong People, Places & Things is currently playing at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn until 3 December following a sold-out season at the National Theatre and in London’s West End. Denise Gough reprises her Olivier award-winning role in the American premiere of People, Places & Things at St. Ann’s Warehouse – a raw, heartbreaking and truthful performance about life spinning recklessly out of control. This American premiere marks the first collaboration between St. Ann’s Warehouse and the National Theatre. For more information visit the website.

ANGELS IN AMERICA: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner The great work returns to Broadway from February 2018. Angels in America will open at the Neil Simon Theater on 25 March. The NT production of Tony Kushner’s epic masterwork, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, returns to Broadway for the first time since its now-legendary original production opened in 1993. Starring two-time Tony Award® winner Nathan Lane and Academy Award® and Tony Award nominee Andrew Garfield, the cast of Angels in America will also feature Susan Brown, Denise Gough, Amanda Lawrence, James McArdle, Lee Pace and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. Angels in America is directed by Marianne Elliott. Set design by Ian MacNeil, costume design by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting design by Paule Constable, music by Adrian Sutton, sound design by Ian Dickinson, puppetry design is by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell (also Puppetry Director and Movement), movement direction by Robby Graham, and illusions by Chris Fisher. Angels in America is produced by NT America, Jujamcyn Theaters and Elliott & Harper Productions. For more information visit angelsbroadway.com

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME based on the novel by Mark Haddon, adapted by Simon Stephens The NT’s Olivier and Tony Award®-winning production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is now on an international tour, visiting the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, with further international dates to be announced. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time recently completed a North American tour which took in 30 cities across the USA at a 25-date UK and Ireland tour. The play is adapted by Simon Stephens from Mark Haddon’s best-selling book, and directed by Marianne Elliott. The production is designed by Bunny Christie, with lighting design by Paule Constable, video design by Finn Ross, movement by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett for Frantic Assembly, music by Adrian Sutton and sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph. For more information visit http://ift.tt/2fGhLCS

National Theatre Live

NT Live currently screens to 60 countries across the globe.

Stephen Sondheim’s Follies directed by Dominic Cooke features a cast of 37 including, Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton. Broadcast live on 16 November.

Rory Kinnear plays Marx and Oliver Chris plays Engels in Young Marx directed by Nicholas Hytner and broadcast live from the Bridge Theatre on 7 December.

Benedict Andrews directs Sienna Miller and Jack O’Connell in The Young Vic production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Captured during its West End run and broadcast on 22 February 2018.

Nicholas Hytner directs Ben Whishaw, Michelle Fairley, David Calder and David Morrissey in Julius Caesar. Broadcast from the Bridge Theatre on 22 March 2018.

Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff appear in a new production of Macbeth, directed by Rufus Norris. Broadcast live from the National Theatre on 10 May.

Simon Godwin’s production of Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo will be broadcast live from the National Theatre. Date tbc.

Sky Arts is the sponsor of NT Live in the UK nationaltheatre.org.uk

http://ift.tt/2wkVHn9 London Theatre 1

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[muchtohope]

Granada Holmes gif series - The Naval Treaty - The Darkest Case

#granada holmes #sherlock holmes #naval treaty #jeremy brett #alison skilbeck #john malcolm #love that bottom left #even in a mad rush you still gotta take your hat off #it's only polite

[londontheatre]

A deliberately rundown-looking set leaves little to the audience’s imagination in Follies, which, in a nutshell, is about a bunch of performers, who used to act in an annual interwar musical revue, attending a reunion in 1971. It wouldn’t happen today – the venue, in such a state of disrepair, would fail a risk assessment. The National Theatre has put on a lavish production: to quote Cabaret, “even the orchestra is beautiful”, producing the sort of majestic and beautiful symphonic sound (here, led by Nigel Lilley) rarely heard in live theatre these days. That, I’d say, is reason enough to see this show.

The attention to detail within this large cast is a sight to behold. Occasionally, particularly during the larger ensemble numbers, the staging comes close to being overwhelming, as there is so much going on at the same time. The lighting (Paule Constable) helps to focus attention predominantly where it ought to be focused, though cleverly leaves just enough visibility to see what is happening on the stage as a whole. Follies is to be broadcast by National Theatre Live on Thursday 16 November 2017: whether the cameras will be able to capture sufficiently what it is like to see it in the NT’s Olivier auditorium remains to be seen.

It’s some moments into the musical before anyone actually sings anything, but once Roscoe (Bruce Graham) launches into ‘Beautiful Girls’, the musical numbers just keep on coming, to the point where from time to time it felt as though this were a song cycle rather than a musical theatre production. in some respects, the storyline is not much to write home about: do audiences really need a show to tell them that young love does not necessarily develop into a perennially joyful and lifelong relationship?

That, mind you, is not the only thing to be taken away from Follies, which has a mixture of gentle and acid-tongued moments of humour, and some truly wonderful songs, though I concede it’s not going to win over anyone not already a fan of musical theatre. By Stephen Sondheim’s standards, the songs are, overall, not as wordy and rapidly paced as some of his other material. That said, the penultimate number, ‘The Story of Lucy and Jessie’, is a bit of a tongue-twister, though Phyllis Rogers Stone (Janie Dee) makes it come across as effortless.

The songs retain the sort of depth and wit found elsewhere in the Sondheim repertoire. For instance, ‘I’m Still Here’, sung by Carlotta Campion (Tracie Bennett, retaining a borderline bass vocal that served her well in the lead role in the 2016 West End production of Mrs Henderson Presents), has so many references to the era in which Dimitri Weismann (Gary Raymond) held his Follies shows that it is difficult to keep up with them all.

Some fancy footwork, courtesy of Bill Deamer’s choreography, permeates through the evening’s proceedings. Adherence to Sondheim’s preference for the show to run without an interval makes little, if any, difference to the show’s intensity. But this production nonetheless felt much shorter than its 2 hours 18 minutes running time.

[See image gallery at http://ift.tt/1FpwFUw]

  Sometimes when there’s a cast of this magnitude and talent, having so many top performers who have a long history of playing principal roles collectively sound a tad jarring when singing in harmony. Not here. The solo numbers are as splendid as the group ones. Sally Durant Plummer (Imelda Staunton) goes through a broad range of human emotions, demonstrated in the spoken dialogue as well as two of the songs, ‘In Buddy’s Eyes’ and then the famous ‘Losing My Mind’, respectively almost deliriously happy and almost unequivocally devastating. Philip Quast as Benjamin Stone is consummately convincing in ‘Live, Laugh, Love’. I could have listened to Quast and Staunton sing together all night. I had to settle for just the one number, ‘Too Many Mornings’.

Probably the standout moment for me, however, was ‘One More Kiss’, sung so poignantly and sublimely by Dame Josephine Barstow’s Heidi Schiller and Alison Langer’s Young Heidi. All things considered, this is an impressive production, tremendous, thrilling and truly terrific.

Review by Chris Omaweng

New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves.

Including such classic songs as Broadway Baby, I’m Still Here and Losing My Mind, Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the National Theatre.

The cast includes Julie Armstrong, Norma Atallah, Josephine Barstow, Jeremy Batt, Tracie Bennett, Di Botcher, Billy Boyle, Janie Dee, Anouska Eaton, Liz Ewing, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Forbes, Emily Goodenough, Bruce Graham, Adrian Grove, Fred Haig, Aimee Hodnett , Dawn Hope, Liz Izen, Alison Langer, Emily Langham, Sarah-Marie Maxwell, Ian McLarnon, Leisha Mollyneaux, Gemma Page, Kate Parr, Philip Quast, Edwin Ray, Gary Raymond, Adam Rhys-Charles, Jordan Shaw, Imelda Staunton, Zizi Strallen, Barnaby Thompson, Christine Tucker, Michael Vinsen and Alex Young.

Follies will be broadcast by NT Live to cinemas in the UK and internationally on Thursday 16th November. 

Production team Director – Dominic Cooke Designer – Vicki Mortimer Choreographer – Bill Deamer Music Supervisor – Nicholas Skilbeck Orchestrations – Jonathan Tunick Music Director – Nigel Lilley Lighting Designer – Paule Constable Sound Designer – Paul Groothuis

Follies book by James Goldman music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Now playing – best availability from 6 Nov Running Time: Approx. 2 hours 10 mins no interval Olivier Theatre http://ift.tt/1jCfKAV

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[londontheatre]

1971, New York. There’s a party on the stage of the Weissman Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. Including such classic songs as Broadway Baby, I’m Still Here and Losing My Mind, Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the NT. Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, the production is directed by Dominic Cooke (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).

Winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Olivier awards, Sondheim’s previous work at the NT includes A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.

The cast includes Julie Armstrong, Norma Atallah, Josephine Barstow, Jeremy Batt, Tracie Bennett, Di Botcher, Billy Boyle, Janie Dee, Anouska Eaton, Liz Ewing, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Forbes, Emily Goodenough, Bruce Graham, Adrian Grove, Fred Haig, Aimee Hodnett , Dawn Hope, Liz Izen, Alison Langer, Emily Langham, Sarah-Marie Maxwell, Ian McLarnon, Leisha Mollyneaux, Gemma Page, Kate Parr, Philip Quast, Edwin Ray, Gary Raymond, Adam Rhys-Charles, Jordan Shaw, Imelda Staunton, Zizi Strallen, Barnaby Thompson, Christine Tucker, Michael Vinsen and Alex Young.

[See image gallery at http://ift.tt/1FpwFUw]

  Follies is designed by Vicki Mortimer, with choreography by Bill Deamer, musical supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, additional orchestrations by Josh Clayton, musical director Nigel Lilley, lighting design by Paule Constable and sound designer by Paul Groothuis.

The original production of Follies premiered on Broadway in 1971, where it was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, and won seven. The show premiered in London in 1987, and has been revived around the world many times to great acclaim. This 2017 staging will be the first time the musical has been performed at the National Theatre.

Book by James Goldman, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Directed by Dominic Cooke Olivier Theatre Press Night 6 September, last performance 3 January

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[londontheatre]

Rehearsal images have been released for Follies – Book by James Goldman, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Directed by Dominic Cooke at the Olivier Theatre. Previews from 22nd August, Press Night 6th September 2017. Now booking until 3rd January 2018 – NT Live Broadcast: Thursday 16th November 2017.

1971, New York. There’s a party on the stage of the Weissman Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. Including such classic songs as Broadway Baby, I’m Still Here and Losing My Mind, Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the NT. Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production.

Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, the production is directed by Dominic Cooke (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom). Winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Olivier awards, Sondheim’s previous work at the NT includes A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.

The cast includes Julie Armstrong, Norma Atallah, Josephine Barstow, Jeremy Batt, Tracie Bennett, Di Botcher, Billy Boyle, Janie Dee, Anouska Eaton, Liz Ewing, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Forbes, Emily Goodenough, Bruce Graham, Adrian Grove, Fred Haig, Aimee Hodnett , Dawn Hope, Liz Izen, Alison Langer, Emily Langham, Sarah-Marie Maxwell, Ian McLarnon, Leisha Mollyneaux, Gemma Page, Kate Parr, Philip Quast, Edwin Ray, Gary Raymond, Adam Rhys-Charles, Jordan Shaw, Imelda Staunton, Zizi Strallen, Barnaby Thompson, Christine Tucker, Michael Vinsen and Alex Young.

[See image gallery at http://ift.tt/1FpwFUw]

  Follies is designed by Vicki Mortimer, with choreography by Bill Deamer, musical supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, additional orchestrations by Josh Clayton, musical director Nigel Lilley, lighting design by Paule Constable and sound designer by Paul Groothuis.

The original production of Follies premiered on Broadway in 1971, where it was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, and won seven. The show premiered in London in 1987, and has been revived around the world many times to great acclaim. This 2017 staging will be the first time the musical has been performed at the National Theatre.

Supported by the Follies production syndicate.

Follies book by James Goldman music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim From 22 August to 3rd January 2018 http://ift.tt/2u8Elgb

http://ift.tt/2rIxdVX LondonTheatre1.com

#IFTTT #LondonTheatre1.com

[vileart]

The Dramaturgy behind the Crone: Alison Skilbeck @ Edfringe 2017

Jacqui Garbett for Hint of LIME Productions Presents THE POWER BEHIND THE CRONEA play celebrating Shakespeare's older women written & performed by Alison Skilbeck ASSEMBLY GEORGE SQUARE 3 – 28 August 12pm (60mins) " One of the inequities of Shakespeare is once you get to my age there are few great women's roles,"Dame Helen Mirren 1983

Professor Artemis Turret thinks otherwise. The enthusiastic Shakespearean scholar is on a mission to correct the assumption that women of a certain age are not served well by The Bard. As she embarks on her final illustrated lecture to Enfield U3A, the professor hopes against hope that her old chum national treasure Dame Bunti Smart will make her entrance to perform the characters and help her prove her point.

What was the inspiration for this performance?I think Helen Mirren said 'there are no good parts in Shakespeare for older women', and I thought I'd see if I could refute that. I know that suddenly women, quite rightly, are taking the men's roles - the wonderful all-female company led by Harriet Walter, Glenda J doing Lear, Tamsin Greig, 'Malvolia', Gillian Bevan, Cymbeline - but I wanted to look at the actual older female roles.  Which of course were played by men! Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? Well yes; but I think there's a distinction to be made between more openly polemical theatre and theatre where ideas creep in; you might suddenly realise you've seen a play with only women in it , but no-one was tub-thumping.  My play certainly isn't a 'public discussion'... you make of it what you will, in terms of ideas...

But the theatre does have a vital role, maybe particularly now, and is unique as a present-moment experience and place where people come together, to tell and hear stories. How did you become interested in making performance?I'm not sure what this terminology means. I have been an actor for over 40 years; I have also directed, particularly students at many drama schools, and latterly I have written too. This play is directed by Tim Hardy, and between us I suppose we've 'made performance'. 

If you mean the joy of creating something from scratch, well,  I set myself a challenge to write 4 linked monologues some years ago with my first one-woman show 'Are There More Of You?', and I have sort of gone on from there, with an amazing real-life character in 'Mrs Roosevelt Flies To London' ( Edinburgh 2016 and still touring) and now 'The Power Behind The Crone'. Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?I did the research, deciding which Shakespearean characters - older ladies - most appealed; in this case I also hit on the idea of a framing character, Prof Artemis Turret, passionate academic and one-time student actress, and blended the two.  

Then I learnt the lines. And got directed - remembering that less is more all the time. And the speeches got cut a bit, and shaped, and I decided how to play the main women and also the people they are talking to, if need be... It grows, and then you prune. You cut some of the jokes..! Does the show fit with your usual productions?It is simpler than 'Mrs Roosevelt'; I have deliberately kept the production to a minimum - hardy any lighting and sound effects, and only such 'costume' as the Professor would have with her, when her chum, Dame Bunti Smart, who was supposed to come along and do all the speeches in her lecture, lets her down. 

Obviously it's similar, in that it's just me and I play lots of people, turning on a sixpence to do so: in my first show, 4 characters, in Mrs Roosevelt about 27 as well as her!...It's different obviously in that half of it is Shakespeare's words. Oh, and it's just a bit shorter, an hour. What do you hope that the audience will experience?Oh - the sheer brilliance of Shakespeare: the way the words show us who people are; the way he can mix comedy and tragedy in an instant, the way the words tell an actor how to do it...

I'd also love them to see that theatre, at best, IS 'two planks and a passion' and that all you need is the actor and the writer's words -  and that to create character you do not have to go away and look at your navel in a cupboard, but can, as I say 'turn on a sixpence', using the words, and your body, voice, and imagination in an instant, in full view. 

Also I hope they'll laugh, cry, and in particular have fun with Artemis and the imagined group she's talking to - the keen students of the U3A..  What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience? I am not sure what this means - sounds like plotting! If any 'strategy' I suppose - creating the frame of Artemis and the evening class..but that emerged anyway, as I said, and was not a conscious ploy.  

There is one tiny technical, theatrical trick, which I won't give away here, which I have permitted myself..but even that is not essential to the whole. I really want people to make up their own minds, and hearts. The Power Behind The Crone is a new solo show written and performed by acclaimed actress Alison Skilbeck. Taking the audience on an often comic but always absorbing adventure through some of the best roles for older women in classic drama, Alison illuminates and celebrates seven of Shakespeare’s older women characters, from the vengeful Queen Margaret in Richard III, to the outrageous Mistress Quickly in Henry IV and V, and the outspoken Paulina in The Winter's Tale. Drawing upon her experience both as an actress touring Shakespeare in the USA with Actors From the London Stage, and as a director specialising in Shakespeare as an Associate Teacher at RADA, Silbeck sets out to show that, for women, there is often ‘the benefit of seniory’ when it comes to The Bard.  

"A consummate performer weaving her way effortlessly through her own finely woven web of fascinating material." Alan Ayckbourn

Alison Skilbeck's enormously varied stage career has taken her to the West End and all over the UK, and on tour to the USA and Europe: early on she created roles in six Ayckbourn premieres at Scarborough. Her solo play Are There More of You? received 5 star reviews, and has been acclaimed in Ireland, Sri Lanka and the US. Alison's television work includes Sherlock Homes, The Beiderbecke Affair, Miss Marple, Head Over Heels, Doctor Who, Soldier Soldier, New Tricks, and Midsomer Murders. On radio she has worked with Simon Brett, the late Don Taylor, and Ellen Dryden. She was also Polly Perks in The Archers, until the character was killed off! Two recent projects have been Wimpole Street, the award winning web series, and the pod cast sitcom series Wooden Overcoats. She completed an extremely successful run of her acclaimed production Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London at Assembly on the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe, and will tour it this year. Director Tim Hardy trained at RADA, where he has been an Associate Teacher for 20 years, directing Shakespeare on summer courses and on courses for American actors, and serving on the audition panel. He has directed extensively for the English Theatres in Vienna and Frankfurt, and at many American universities, notably Notre Dame and Illinois Wesleyan. 

His long and varied acting career includes seasons at the RSC, including Peter Brook's Marat/Sade in London and New York, Simon Gray'sMelon at the Haymarket Theatre, and Peter Hall's Lysistrata in the West End and Athens, as well as many tours of the US in Shakespeare with Actors From The London Stage. His two one-man shows, The Trials of Galileo by Nic Young, and At the Mountains of Madness by H.P Lovecraft tour extensively throughout the UK, Eire, and America. His TV work includes Jesus in The Son of Man for American television, Galileo in Days that Shook The World, Eastenders, Midsomer Murders, and Casualty 1909. Films include Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Edinburgh Fringe THEATRETHE POWER BEHIND THE CRONEA play celebrating Shakespeare's older women Written & performed by Alison Skilbeck VenueASSEMBLY GEORGE SQUARE STUDIO 4 Dates3 – 28 August (not 14th) Time12pm (60mins) TicketsPreview £6.00(full) Weekday £10.00(full) / £9.00(conc) Weekend £12.00(full) / £11.00(conc)

from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2eTOSG7

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

[londontheatre]

Tickets go on sale for Network, with Bryan Cranston making his UK stage debut

John Tiffany directs Pinocchio, with half-price tickets available for under-18s

Casting announced for world premieres of Pinocchio, Saint George and the Dragon and Beginning

Tony Award-winning play Oslo opens in the Lyttelton

Following its current sold out run Barber Shop Chronicles returns to the Dorfman in November

Five new NT Live broadcasts in 700 venues across the UK and 60 countries around the world

Download the pdf

NT entrance Feb 2015 photo by Philip Vile

OLIVIER THEATRE FOLLIES book by James Goldman music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Previews from 22 August, press night 6 September, continuing in the repertoire until 3 January 2018

New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. Including such classic songs as Broadway Baby, I’m Still Here and Losing My Mind, Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the NT. Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, the production is directed by Dominic Cooke (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).

The cast includes Julie Armstrong (Christine Donovan), Norma Atallah (Emily Whitman), Josephine Barstow (Heidi Schiller), Jeremy Batt (Chorus Boy) Tracie Bennett (Carlotta Campion), Di Botcher (Hattie Walker), Billy Boyle (Theodore Whitman), Janie Dee (Phyllis Rogers Stone), Anouska Eaton (Young Emily), Liz Ewing (Company), Geraldine Fitzgerald (Solange LaFitte), Peter Forbes (Buddy Plummer), Emily Goodenough (Showgirl), Bruce Graham (Roscoe), Adrian Grove (Sam Deems), Fred Haig (Young Buddy), Aimee Hodnett (Young Hattie), Dawn Hope (Stella Deems), Liz Izen (DeeDee West), Alison Langer (Young Heidi), Emily Langham (Young Carlotta), Sarah-Marie Maxwell (Young Solange), Ian McLarnon (Company), Leisha Mollyneaux (Young Stella), Gemma Page (Sandra Crane), Kate Parr (Young Sandra), Philip Quast (Ben Stone), Edwin Ray (Chorus Boy), Gary Raymond (Dimitri Weismann), Adam Rhys-Charles (Young Ben), Jordan Shaw (Kevin), Imelda Staunton (Sally Durant Plummer), Zizi Strallen (Young Phyllis), Barnaby Thompson (Chorus Boy), Christine Tucker (Young DeeDee), Michael Vinsen (Chorus Boy) and Alex Young (Young Sally). Design by Vicki Mortimer, choreography by Bill Deamer, musical supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, additional orchestrations by Josh Clayton, musical direction by Nigel Lilley, lighting design by Paule Constable and sound design by Paul Groothuis. Supported by the Follies production syndicate.

SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON a new play by Rory Mullarkey Previews from 4 October, press night 11 October, continuing in the repertoire until 2 December A village. A dragon. A damsel in distress. Into the story walks George: wandering knight, freedom fighter, enemy of tyrants the world over. One epic battle later and a nation is born. As the village grows into a town, and the town into a city, the myth of Saint George, which once brought a people together, threatens to divide them. John Heffernan plays Saint George; the cast also includes Paul Brennen, Richard Goulding, Tamzin Griffin, Conor Neaves, Amaka Okafor, Daniel Ryan and Grace Saif.

Making his National Theatre debut, Rory Mullarkey creates a new folk tale for an uneasy nation. Directed by Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire), with design by Rae Smith, choreography by Lynne Page, lighting design by Bruno Poet, music by Grant Olding, sound design by Christopher Shutt and fight direction by Bret Yount. Hundreds of Travelex tickets at £15 available per performance.

AMADEUS by Peter Shaffer Previews from 11 January, press night 18 January. On sale up to 17 February, further dates to be announced Following a sell-out run last year, Amadeus returns to the Olivier in 2018.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a rowdy young prodigy, arrives in Vienna determined to make a splash. Awestruck by his genius, court composer Antonio Salieri has the power to promote his talent or destroy it. Seized by obsessive jealousy he begins a war with Mozart, with music and, ultimately, with God.

Michael Longhurst’s acclaimed production of Peter Shaffer’s iconic play features live orchestral accompaniment by Southbank Sinfonia. Adam Gillen and Lucian Msamati reprise the roles of Mozart and Salieri. Further casting to be announced.

Amadeus is directed by Michael Longhurst with design by Chloe Lamford, music direction and additional music by Simon Slater, choreography by Imogen Knight, lighting design by Jon Clark and sound design by Paul Arditti. Amadeus is produced in association with Southbank Sinfonia, and supported by the Amadeus production syndicate.

LYTTELTON THEATRE QUEER THEATRE: LGBT+ STORIES & SOCIAL CHANGE In partnership with Pride in London To mark 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, the NT looks at how theatre has charted the LGBT+ experience. Events include a debate on LGBT+ rights, talks on Queer Stages, Trans Culture and Drag as an Art Form, and film screenings of Paris was a Woman, Bette Bourne: It Goes with the Shoes and Tangerine. The series features rehearsed readings in the Lyttelton Theatre with full casting to be announced. Post show talks will follow each of the readings.

Neaptide by Sarah Daniels, directed by Sarah Frankcom | Thu 6 July, 7.30pm Wig Out! written and directed by Tarell Alvin McCraney | Fri 7 July, 7.30pm Certain Young Men written and directed by Peter Gill | Sat 8 July, 7.30pm Bent by Martin Sherman, directed by Stephen Daldry | Sun 9 July, 2.30pm The Drag by Mae West, directed by Polly Stenham | Mon 10 July, 7.30pm

OSLO a new play by J.T. Rogers The Lincoln Center Theater production Previews 5 September, press nights 15, 16 and 18 September (under embargo) Continuing in repertoire until 23 September (limited ticket availability) Transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End from 30 September – 30 December Winner, Best Play 2017: Tony Awards, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards In 1993, in front of the world’s press, the leaders of Israel and Palestine shook hands on the lawn of the White House. Few watching would have guessed that the negotiations leading up to this iconic moment started secretly in a castle in the middle of a forest outside Oslo.

Oslo tells the true story of two maverick Norwegian diplomats who coordinated top-secret talks and inspired seemingly impossible friendships. Their quiet heroics led to the ground-breaking Oslo Peace Accords. Bartlett Sher’s acclaimed production of this new play by J.T. Rogers (Blood & Gifts, The Overwhelming) sets a deeply personal story against an epic historical landscape. This darkly funny political thriller comes to the National Theatre following a sell-out run in New York, prior to a West End run later this autumn. Cast to be announced. Set design by Michael Yeargan, costume design by Catherine Zuber, lighting design by Donald Holder, sound design by Peter John Still and projections by 59 Productions.

JANE EYRE based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë devised by the original company a co-production with Bristol Old Vic Previews from 26 September, continuing in the repertoire until 21 October Following a critically acclaimed season at the National Theatre and a 21 city UK tour, Jane Eyre returns this September to the NT. This innovative reimagining of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece is a collaboration between the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic and is directed by Sally Cookson. The classic story of the trailblazing Jane is as inspiring as ever. This bold and dynamic production uncovers one woman’s fight for freedom and fulfilment on her own terms. Jane Eyre’s spirited heroine faces life’s obstacles head-on, surviving poverty, injustice and the discovery of bitter betrayal before taking the ultimate decision to follow her heart.

Cast includes: Hannah Bristow, Matthew Churcher, Nadia Clifford, Ben Cutler, Tim Delap, Alex Heane, Jenny Johns, Melanie Marshall, Evelyn Miller, Paul Mundell, Dami Olukoya, David Ridley, Lynda Rooke, Francesca Tomlinson and Phoebe Vigor.

Dramaturgy by Mike Akers, set design by Michael Vale, costume design by Katie Sykes, lighting design by Aideen Malone, music by Benji Bower, sound design by Dominic Bilkey and movement by Dan Canham.

NETWORK adapted by Lee Hall based on the Paddy Chayefsky film Previews from 4 November, press night 13 November, continuing in the repertoire until 24 March Howard Beale, news anchor-man, isn’t pulling in the viewers. In his final broadcast he unravels live on screen. But when the ratings soar, the network seizes on their new found populist prophet, and Howard becomes the biggest thing on TV.

Network depicts a dystopian media landscape where opinion trumps fact. Hilarious and horrifying by turns, the iconic film by Paddy Chayefsky won four Academy Awards in 1976. Now, Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) and director Ivo van Hove (Hedda Gabler) bring his masterwork to the stage for the first time, with Bryan Cranston (All the Way, for which he won the Tony for Best Actor, Breaking Bad and Trumbo for which he was nominated for an Oscar) in the role of Howard Beale. Set and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld, video design by Tal Yarden, costume design by An D’Huys, music and sound design by Eric Sleichim.

A very limited number of additional on stage seats will be released in the autumn – see the NT website for more information.

Network is produced in association with Patrick Myles, David Luff, Ros Povey and Lee Menzies. Generously supported by Marcia Grand for the memory of Richard Grand.

PINOCCHIO by Dennis Kelly With songs and score from the Walt Disney film by Leigh Harline, Ned Washington and Paul J Smith adapted by Martin Lowe Previews from 1 December, press night 13 December, on sale until 7 April On a quest to be truly alive, Pinocchio leaves Geppetto’s workshop with Jiminy Cricket in tow. Their electrifying adventure takes them from alpine forests to Pleasure Island to the bottom of the ocean. This spectacular new production brings together the director of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the writer of Matilda the Musical.

For the first time on stage, featuring unforgettable music and songs from the Walt Disney film including I’ve Got No Strings, Give a Little Whistle and When You Wish upon a Star in dazzling new arrangements, Pinocchio comes to life as never before.

Cast includes Joe Idris-Roberts (Pinocchio), Audrey Brisson (Jiminy Cricket), Annette McLaughlin (Blue Lady), David Langham (The Fox), David Kirkbride (Coachman), Dawn Sievewright (Lampy), Chris Jarman (Stromboli) together with Stuart Angell, Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge, Stephanie Bron, James Charlton, Rebecca Jayne-Davies, Sarah Kameela Impey, Anabel Kutay, Michael Lin, Jack North, Clemmie Sveaas, Michael Taibi, Scarlet Wilderink and Jack Wolfe.

John Tiffany directs Pinocchio by Dennis Kelly, with songs and score from the Walt Disney film by Leigh Harline, Ned Washington and Paul J. Smith newly adapted by Martin Lowe. With design and puppet co-design by Bob Crowley, lighting design by Paule Constable, music supervision and orchestrations by Martin Lowe, choreography by Steven Hoggett, puppetry and puppet co-design by Toby Olié, sound design by Simon Baker and illusions by Jamie Harrison.

Half-price tickets for under-18s are available for all performances (excluding £15 tickets). Additional family tickets for the run will be released in a ballot closer to the performance dates – see the NT website for more information. There will be a relaxed performance of Pinocchio on 17 March at 1.30pm Presented by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions.

DORFMAN THEATRE MOSQUITOES by Lucy Kirkwood Previews from 18 July, press night 25 July continuing in repertoire until 28 September Alice is a scientist. She lives in Geneva. As the Large Hadron Collider starts up in 2008, she is on the brink of the most exciting work of her life, searching for the Higgs boson particle. Jenny is her sister. She lives in Luton. She spends a lot of time Googling. When tragedy throws them together, the collision threatens them all with chaos. Mosquitoes by Lucy Kirkwood will have its world premiere in the Dorfman Theatre in July. Rufus Norris directs this new play about families and particle physics with Olivia Williams in the role of Alice and Olivia Colman as her sister Jenny. Cast also includes: Amanda Boxer, Cait Davis, Vanessa Emme, Yoli Fuller, Paul Hilton, Joseph Quinn and Sofia Stuart.

Design by Katrina Lindsay, lighting design by Paule Constable, music by Adam Cork, sound design by Paul Arditti and video design by Finn Ross and Ian William Galloway.

Mosquitoes is supported by Winton Philanthropies and Rosetrees Trust. This play is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Plays Award.

The production is currently sold out. There are day tickets available and every Friday at 1pm an allocation of £20 tickets will be released for the following week’s performances, as part of Friday Rush. Friday Rush tickets are available to book online only and are limited to two per customer.

THE MAJORITY a new play by Rob Drummond Previews from 11 August, press night 14 August, continuing until 28 August Following the acclaimed run of Bullet Catch in The Shed, Rob Drummond returns to the National with a new one-man show about democracy. The Majority charts Rob’s journey as he navigates the Scottish independence referendum, Brexit, Trump…and whatever today brings. So take your seat and push the button. Yes or No. Can you change the show with your votes? Every night will be different depending on the majority. Directed by David Overend, design by Jemima Robinson, lighting design by Michael Harpur, music and sound by Scott Twynholm, video associate Mogzi Bromley-Morgans. Originally co-commissioned with The Arches, Glasgow.

BEGINNING a new play by David Eldridge Previews from 5 October, press night 12 October, continuing in the repertoire until 14 November It’s the early hours of the morning and Danny’s the last straggler at Laura’s party. The flat’s in a mess. And so are they. One more drink? Polly Findlay directs this new play by David Eldridge (Market Boy, Under the Blue Sky, In Basildon). Tender and funny, it’s an intimate look at the first fragile moments of risking your heart and taking a chance. Justine Mitchell plays Laura, Sam Troughton plays Danny. Design by Fly Davis, lighting design by Jack Knowles, sound design by Paul Arditti and movement by Naomi Said.

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES by Inua Ellams a co-production with Fuel and West Yorkshire Playhouse Currently in repertoire until 8th July, returning in November Following a sell-out run at the Dorfman this summer, Inua Ellams’ play about stories from barber shops across the globe returns to the National Theatre in November. Tickets go on sale online and by phone from 1pm on Monday 19 June.

Newsroom, political platform, local hot-spot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. This dynamic play journeys from a barber shop in London, to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling. Barber Shop Chronicles is Inua Ellams’ third play at the National, following the exhilarating The 14th Tale and Black T-shirt Collection.

The current cast includes Fisayo Akinade, Hammed Animashaun, Peter Bankolé, Maynard Eziashi, Simon Manyonda, Patrice Naiambana, Cyril Nri, Kwami Odoom, Sule Rimi, Abdul Salis, David Webber, and Anthony Welsh.

Casting for November to be confirmed in due course. Directed by Bijan Sheibani, design by Rae Smith, lighting design by Jack Knowles, movement direction by Aline David and sound design by Gareth Fry. Barber Shop Chronicles will play at West Yorkshire Playhouse 12 – 29 July.

CURRENT PRODUCTIONS IN REPERTOIRE AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE OLIVIER THEATRE SALOMÉ a new play by Yaël Farber Continuing in the repertoire until 15 July An occupied desert nation. A radical from the wilderness on hunger strike. A girl whose mysterious dance will change the course of the world. This charged retelling turns the infamous biblical tale on its head, placing the girl we call Salomé at the centre of a revolution.

Internationally acclaimed director Yaël Farber (Les Blancs) draws on multiple accounts to create her urgent, hypnotic production on the Olivier stage.

Designed by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Tim Lutkin, music and sound by Adam Cork, movement direction by Ami Shulman, fight direction by Kate Waters and dramaturgy by Drew Lichtenberg. Cast includes Philip Arditti, Paul Chahidi, Ramzi Choukair, Uriel Emil, Olwen Fouéré, Roseanna Frascona, Lloyd Hutchinson, Aidan Kelly, Yasmin Levy, Theo T J Lowe, Isabella Nefar, Lubana al Quntar, and Raad Rawi. Hundreds of Travelex tickets at £15 available per performance. This production is supported by Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater. Broadcast to cinemas by NT Live on 22 June.

COMMON a new play by DC Moore a co-production with Headlong Continuing in the repertoire until 5 August Mary’s the best liar, rogue, thief and faker in this whole septic isle. And she’s back. As the factory smoke of the industrial revolution belches out from the cities, Mary is swept up in the battle of her former home. The common land, belonging to all, is disappearing. D C Moore’s dark and funny new play is an epic tale of unsavoury action and England’s lost land.

Headlong’s Artistic Director, Jeremy Herrin, (People, Places and Things, This House) directs Anne-Marie Duff as Mary. Cast also includes Ian-Lloyd Anderson, Lois Chimimba, Peta Cornish, Anna Crichlow, John Dagleish, Brian Doherty, Amy Downham, Trevor Fox, Hannah Hutch, Cush Jumbo, Tim McMullan, John O’Dowd, Ian Shaw and Edward Wolstenholme.

Design by Richard Hudson, lighting design by Paule Constable, music by Stephen Warbeck, sound design by Ian Dickinson, movement direction by Joseph Alford, dance by Siân Williams, puppetry by Laura Cubitt and fight Directors Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown of RC-ANNIE Ltd. Hundreds of Travelex tickets at £15 available per performance.

LYTTELTON THEATRE ANGELS IN AMERICA: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes Continuing in the repertoire until 19 August America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis, and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. This new staging of Tony Kushner’s multi-award-winning two-part play is directed by Olivier and Tony award-winning director Marianne Elliott (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and War Horse). Part One: Millennium Approaches was first performed at the NT in 1992, and was joined by Perestroika in a double-bill the following year. 2017 marks the 25th anniversary of the shows.

Set design by Ian MacNeil, costume design by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting design by Paule Constable, choreography and movement by Robby Graham, music by Adrian Sutton, sound design by Ian Dickinson, puppetry direction and movement by Finn Caldwell, puppetry design by Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes, illusions by Chris Fisher, aerial direction by Gwen Hales and fight direction by Kate Waters.

The cast is Stuart Angell, Mark Arnold, Arun Blair-Mangat, Susan Brown, Laura Caldow, Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Kate Harper, John Hastings, Claire Lambert, Nathan Lane, Amanda Lawrence, James McArdle, Becky Namgauds, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Russell Tovey, Paksie Vernon, Stan West and Lewis Wilkins. The Angels in America ballot presented by Delta Air Lines – hundreds of £20 tickets will be released in the final two ballots, the last closing on 26 July.

Broadcast to cinemas by NT Live – Part One on 20 July, Part Two on 27 July NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE NT Live will be broadcasting five productions to 700 venues across the UK and 60 countries around the world Salomé – a radical retelling of the Biblical story of one young woman’s political awakening. Written and directed by Yaël Farber. Broadcast live from the NT on Thursday 22 June.

Angels in America – Marianne Elliott’s new production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America will be broadcast live from the NT in two parts. Part 1: Millennium Approaches on Thursday 20 July and Part 2: Perestroika on Thursday 27 July.

Yerma – Billie Piper stars in Yerma as a woman driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child. Simon Stone creates a radical production of Lorca’s achingly powerful masterpiece. Broadcast live from the Young Vic on Thursday 31 August (international screenings from 21 September).

Young Marx – Rory Kinnear plays Marx and Oliver Chris, Engels, in this new comedy about Marx’s time as a 32-year-old revolutionary in 1850 London. Written by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman and directed by Nicholas Hytner. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre on 7 December.

Julius Caesar – Ben Whishaw and Michelle Fairley play Brutus and Cassius, leaders of the coup, David Calder plays Caesar and David Morrissey is Mark Antony, who brings Rome back under control after the conspirators’ defeat in this production of Shakespeare’s classic. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. Broadcast live from The Bridge Theatre on 22 March 2018.

Sky Arts is the UK sponsor for National Theatre Live. Find your nearest venue at ntlive.com

NATIONAL THEATRE THROUGHOUT THE UK, IN THE WEST END AND INTERNATIONALLY The NT will tour to 49 venues in 37 towns and cities across the UK in 2017-18 OSLO

Winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Play, the acclaimed Lincoln Center Theater production of Oslo transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End from 30 September until 30 December 2017 following a limited run at the NT.

This gripping new play by JT Rogers, directed by Bartlett Sher, tells the true story of how one young couple, Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul and her husband, social scientist Terje Rød-Larsen planned and orchestrated top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords. OsloThePlay.com

PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS The National Theatre, Headlong and St Ann’s Warehouse in association with Bryan Singer Productions will present the National Theatre/Headlong production of People, Places and Things by Duncan Macmillan at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York from 19 October to 19 November 2017.

Directed by Jeremy Herrin, Macmillan’s intoxicating new play opened at the NT’s Dorfman Theatre in autumn 2015, and transferred to Wyndham’s Theatre in March 2016 where it became the ‘must-see’ show of the season. Denise Gough will reprise her award-winning role as Emma. Gough’s raw and heart-breaking performance as an actress whose life has spun recklessly out of control because of her addiction to drink and drugs was unanimously acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, earning her the 2016 Olivier Award and the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Actress. Further cast details to be announced.

Generous support to the National Theatre for People, Places and Things from: Areté Foundation / Betsy & Ed Cohen and Leila Maw Straus MBE.

Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places and Things will also begin a major UK tour with a new cast this autumn, in a co-production between the National Theatre, Headlong, HOME and Exeter Northcott Theatre. Full casting to be announced shortly. The tour begins at HOME, Manchester (22 September – 7 October), and continues to Oxford Playhouse (11 – 14 October), Theatre Royal Bath (17 – 21 October), Bristol Old Vic (24 – 28 October), Exeter Northcott Theatre (31 October – 4 November), Nuffield Southampton Theatres (7 – 11 November) and finish at Liverpool Playhouse Theatre (14 – 18 November).

Set design by Bunny Christie, the Olivier and Tony Award winning designer of the NT’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Costume design by Christina Cunningham, lighting by James Farncombe, video by Andrzej Goulding and music is composed by Matthew Herbert with Olivier Award-winning sound design by Tom Gibbons.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, adapted by Simon Stephens from Mark Haddon’s bestselling book and directed by Marianne Elliott, had its final West End performance on Saturday 3 June 2017, having been seen by over one million people in London. Curious Incident has won seven Olivier Awards, including Best New Play, Best Director, Best Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design – as well as five Tony Awards during its run on Broadway. Its preferred card partner is American Express.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time continues a major tour of the UK and Ireland until September 2017, with upcoming visits to the Theatre Royal, Plymouth (26 June – 1 July), Birmingham Hippodrome (4 – 8 July), Venue Cymru, Llandudno (11 – 15 July), Cliffs Pavilion, Southend (18 – 22 July), Liverpool Empire Theatre (25 – 29 July), Alhambra Theatre, Bradford (31 July – 5 August), His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen (8 – 12 August), King’s Theatre, Glasgow (14 – 19 August), Theatre Royal, Norwich (29 August – 2 September) and Milton Keynes Theatre (4 – 16 September 2017). curiousonstage.com

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time will continue on an international tour, visiting the Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam, Holland (20 September – 1 October 2017) and the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, Canada (10 Oct – 19 November 2017), with further dates and venues to be announced.

MY COUNTRY; A WORK IN PROGRESS My Country; a work in progress, created by Rufus Norris and Carol Ann Duffy and based on the words of people from around the UK, will complete a UK tour at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London on 24 June. It has been adapted for TV by the BBC and is due to be broadcast in the autumn.

JANE EYRE Jane Eyre, Sally Cookson’s energetic and imaginative new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece, a co-production between the NT and Bristol Old Vic, continues to tour until 23 September, with upcoming visits to the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (19 – 24 June), Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (27 June – 1 July), Theatre Royal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (3 – 8 July), Milton Keynes Theatre (10 – 15 July), Theatre Royal, Norwich (17 – 22 July), Brighton Theatre Royal (24 – 29 July), Grand Theatre, Leeds (31 July – 5 August), Grand Opera House, Belfast (21 – 26 August), His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen (28 August – 2 September), Birmingham REP (4 – 16 September) and Hull New Theatre (18 – 23 September) before returning to Lyttelton Theatre from 26 September to 21 October. janeeyreonstage.co.uk

WAR HORSE The NT’s acclaimed production of War Horse based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel, and directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris begins its second major tour of the UK on 15 September 2017 at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, where it will run until 14 October 2017. The tour continues its journey around the UK to Bristol Hippodrome (18 October – 11 November 2017), the Empire Theatre, Liverpool (15 November – 2 December 2017), New Theatre, Oxford (13 December 2017 – 6 January 2018), Brighton Centre (25 January – 10 February 2018), Bradford Alhambra Theatre (14 February – 10 March 2018) and the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (14 March – 7 April 2018), Edinburgh Festival Theatre (18 April – 12 May 2018), Mayflower Theatre, Southampton (16 May – 9 June 2018), The Lowry, Salford (13 – 30 June 2018), Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (4 – 28 July 2018), New Victoria Theatre, Woking (1 – 18 August 2018), Plymouth Theatre Royal (29 August – 15 September), Milton Keynes Theatre (19 September – 6 October 2018) and Glasgow SEC (15 January – 2 February 2019). Further dates and venues will be announced. warhorseonstage.com

HEDDA GABLER Following its acclaimed run at the NT’s Lyttelton Theatre, Patrick Marber’s vital new version of Ibsen’s masterpiece Hedda Gabler directed by Ivo van Hove and with Lizzy Watts in the title role, begins a UK tour at Theatre Royal Plymouth (2 – 7 October). The tour will then go to the Edinburgh Festival Theatre (17 – 21 October), Leicester Curve (23 – 28 October), The Lowry Salford (30 October – 4 November), Norwich Theatre Royal (7 – 11 November), Hull New Theatre (13 – 18 November), His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen (21 – 25 November), Northampton Royal & Derngate (28 November – 2 December), Glasgow Thetare Royal (15 – 20 January 2018), Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton (23 – 27 January), New Victoria Woking (29 January – 3 February), Nottingham Theatre Royal (5 – 10 February) , Newcastle Theatre Royal (12 – 17 February), Grand Opera House York (20 – 24 February) and Milton Keynes Theatre (27 February – 3 March). Further casting to be announced. heddagableronstage.com

RIVER STAGE Back by popular demand, this summer sees the return of the free outdoor River Stage Festival. The festival runs for five weekends with take-overs from East London’s The Glory, HOME Manchester, WOMAD, Rambert and the National Theatre itself bringing audiences an eclectic mix of performances that include the very best dance acts, DJ’s and outdoor performances.

Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre said, ‘It’s brilliant to welcome back the River Stage Festival. I’m delighted that this range of partners from across the country have decided to join us this year, and the assortment of performance, music, dance and workshops free for all ages is a vibrant and vital part of the National Theatre programme this summer.’

The festival is a collaborative partnership showcasing world-class programming and presenting new and diverse artists and acts, with something for everyone to enjoy. It takes place on the River Stage, in front of the NT, with events every Friday evening and all day on Saturday and Sunday from 28 July to 28 August. Join us this summer for theatre, guest DJs, family fun, vibrant dance and the very best in live music acts – this free summer festival is not to be missed.

LEARNING AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE NT Learning opens up theatre to people of all ages and supports theatre education across the UK with a wide range of projects and events.

CONNECTIONS 2017 Connections, the largest youth theatre festival in the UK celebrates brilliant new writing for young people aged 13 – 19. This year’s festival at the National Theatre will see performances by ten companies, chosen from over 250 school and youth theatre companies from 28 June to 3 July.

Over the year 4,000 young people from every corner of the UK have worked with 28 partner theatres and performed ten brand new plays, commissioned from some of the country’s most exciting writers. The result is an unforgettable feast of theatre made by and for young people.

The productions invited to appear at the NT in the culminating week of this year’s Connections Festival are;

Wednesday 28 June the Dorfman Theatre 7pm – The Snow Dragons by Lizzie Nunnery, performed by Lymm High School (Warrington, Cheshire) 8.30pm – Extremism by Anders Lustgarten, performed by Theatre Royal Stratford East Youth Theatre + (Stratford, London) Thursday 29 June the Dorfman Theatre 7pm – Musical Differences by Robin French, performed by NCN Actors (Nottingham) 8.30pm – Three by Harriet Braun, performed by Kindred KYT (Peterborough, Cambridgeshire) Friday 30 June the Dorfman Theatre 7pm – The School Film by Patrick Marber, performed by Kingsley Bideford Community Theatre Company (Bideford, Devon) 8.30pm – The Monstrum by Kellie Smith, performed by The Marlowe Youth Theatre (Canterbury, Kent) Saturday 1 July in the Dorfman Theatre 7pm – #YOLO by Matthew Bulgo, performed by West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company (Port Tennant, Swansea) 8.30pm – Status Update by Tim Etchells, performed by Rotherham College (Rotherham, South Yorkshire) Monday 3 July in the Olivier Theatre 7pm – Zero for Young Dudes! by Alistair McDowall, performed by Orange Tree Theatre Connections Company (Richmond, London) 8.30pm – FOMO by Suhayla El-Bushra, performed by CASTEnsemble (Shardlow, Derbyshire) To book tickets go to the NT website Be part of Connections 2018 To be part of next year’s festival, sign up now to Connections 2018. The National Theatre is looking for 300 youth theatre and school companies across the UK to take part. Applications are now open http://ift.tt/2rvaD4s

Connections is supported by: The Buffini Chao Foundation, Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, Delta Air Lines, Jacqueline and Richard Worswick, The EBM Charitable Trust, Samantha and Richard Campbell-Breeden, The Garvey Family Trust, Susan Miller and Byron Grote, Hays Travel Foundation, Faithorn Farrell Timms and supporters of the Connections Appeal

FREE EXHIBITIONS A changing programme of free exhibitions taking inspiration from the work on our stages, the NT Archive and our national programme. In Visible Ink: Tracing LGBT+ stories at the NT, follows some of the changes for the LGBT+ community over the past 25 years, Lyttelton Lounge from 23 June. We’re here because we’re here – the story of the project as it happened across the UK is in the Wolfson Gallery until 31 August. The project was conceived and created by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller in collaboration with Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre. National Theatre Posters is in the Wolfson Gallery from October 2017. Curated by design critic and writer Rick Poynor, the exhibition explores poster design from 1963 to the present. From November in the Lyttelton Lounge, The Linbury Prize for Stage Design showcases work by 12 emerging designers working with some of the UK’s leading theatre, opera and dance companies. NEW VIEWS 2017

The NT’s annual playwriting programme and competition for 15 – 19 year-olds.

The 2017 New Views winning play is Dead Don’t Floss, by 17 year-old Beattie Green from St Marylebone School in London.

Beattie Green’s play was chosen out of over 300 entries which came from 62 schools across the UK, as well as a partner theatre programme at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. The winning play was selected from a shortlist of ten by a panel of judges including NT Senior Dramaturg Nina Steiger, playwrights Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and Anupama Chandrasekhar (NT writer in residence) and actor Tamara Lawrance. Dead Don’t Floss will be performed in the Dorfman Theatre at 4.30pm and 7.30pm on Tuesday 4 July.

Rehearsed readings of shortlisted plays will take place in the Duffield Studio on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 July at 11.30am and 2pm.

For more information, to book tickets or to sign up to New Views 2017/2018 visit http://ift.tt/2seGp2Z

New Views is supported by Old Possum’s Practical Trust, Chapman Charitable Trust, Golsoncott Foundation, The Steel Charitable Trust and Unity Theatre Trust.

The National Theatre’s Partner for Learning is Bank of America Merrill Lynch. ENTRY PASS Entry Pass, the NT’s scheme which offers low-price tickets to under-25-year-olds, is now in its tenth year. To encourage even more young people to see our productions, and with the support of Delta Air Lines, the National has doubled the amount of amount of tickets available to Entry Pass members this year to 25,000. Salomé and Common were the first shows with double the amount of Entry Pass tickets available to book. Tickets are £7.50 for Entry Pass members and £10 for their friends. Entry Pass is part of the NT’s ongoing commitment to offering low-price tickets: this year, 30% of all seats on the South Bank will be available at £20 or under. Entry Pass is supported by Delta Air Lines.

ACCESS The NT is dedicated to making the best theatre and sharing it with as many people as possible. Access facilities include captioned, audio-described, British Sign Language and relaxed performances, as well as touch tours, braille and large print cast lists and infrared audio headsets. For more information visit http://ift.tt/2rvq4tt or call Box Office: 020 7452 3000.

SPONSORS The National Theatre would appreciate an acknowledgement in the body of the text and/or as a separate footnote following editorial copy. Travelex £15 Tickets sponsored by Travelex The National Theatre is working in partnership with American Express The National Theatre’s Partner for Learning is Bank of America Merrill Lynch The National Theatre’s Partner for Connectivity is Cisco The National Theatre’s Outdoor Media Partner is Clear Channel The National Theatre’s Official Airline is Delta Air Lines The Official Hotel Partner of the National Theatre is Edwardian Hotels London The National Theatre’s Workshops Partner is Flints Theatrical Chandlers The National Theatre’s International Hotel Partner is Intercontinental Hotels Group New writing at the National Theatre is supported by ITV plc The National Theatre’s Pouring Partner is Nyetimber The National Theatre’s Partner for Lighting and Energy is Philips Amadeus is generously supported by the Amadeus Production Syndicate Network is generously supported by Marcia Grand for the memory of Richard Grand People, Places and Things is generously supported by Areté Foundation / Betsy & Ed Cohen and Leila Maw Straus MBE Follies is supported by the Follies production syndicate Mosquitoes is supported by Winton Philanthropies and Rosetrees Trust. This play is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Plays Award Sky Arts is the UK sponsor for National Theatre Live The National Theatre wishes to acknowledge its partner National Angels Limited The National Theatre is supported using public funding by Arts Council England

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[londontheatre]

With Book by James Goldman, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and Directed by Dominic Cooke at the Olivier Theatre.

1971, New York. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves. Including such classic songs as Broadway Baby, I’m Still Here and Losing My Mind, Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical is staged for the first time at the NT. Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton play the magnificent Follies in this dazzling new production. Featuring a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, the production is directed by Dominic Cooke (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).

Director Dominic Cooke said: “Sondheim is one of the great innovators of modern theatre. Everything he has written breaks new ground thematically and finds a fresh form to express it. His restless, questing spirit defines, for me, what it means to be an artist. I love Follies for its iconic score, brutal honesty and psychological accuracy. It depicts a profound crisis and that most American of themes: the question for authenticity in a world of illusion.

For this production we have put together a book mainly drawn from original 1971 text with some additions from later rewrites. We have brought together an incredible cast and a top notch team. I can’t wait to get started.”

Winner of Academy, Tony, Grammy and Olivier awards, Sondheim’s previous work at the NT includes A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George.

The cast includes Julie Armstrong (Sandra Crane), Norma Attallah (Emily Whitman), Josephine Barstow (Heidi Schiller), Jeremy Batt (Chorus Boy) Tracie Bennett (Carlotta Campion), Di Botcher (Hattie Walker), Billy Boyle (Theodore Whitman), Janie Dee (Phyllis Rogers Stone), Anouska Eaton (Young Emily), Liz Ewing (Company), Geraldine Fitzgerald (Solange Lafitte), Peter Forbes (Buddy Plummer), Emily Goodenough (Showgirl), Bruce Graham (Roscoe), Adrian Grove (Sam Deems), Fred Haig (Young Buddy), Aimee Hodnett (Young Hattie), Dawn Hope (Stella Deems), Liz Izen (Deedee West), Alison Langer (Young Heidi), Emily Langham (Young Carlotta), Sarah-Marie Maxwell (Young Solange), Ian McLarnon (Company), Leisha Mollyneux (Young Stella), Gemma Page (Christine Donovan), Kate Parr (Young Sandra), Philip Quast (Ben Stone), Edwin Ray (Chorus Boy), Gary Raymond (Dimitri Weismann), Adam Rhys-Charles (Young Ben), Jordan Shaw (Chorus Boy), Imelda Staunton (Sally Durrant Plummer), Zizi Strallen (Young Phyllis), Barnaby Thompson (Chorus Boy), Christine Tucker (Young Deedee), Michael Vinsen (Chorus Boy) and Alex Young (Young Sally).

Follies is designed by Vicki Mortimer, with choreography by Bill Deamer, musical supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, additional orchestrations by Josh Clayton, musical director Nigel Lilley, lighting design by Paule Constable and sound designer by Paul Groothuis.

The original production of Follies premiered on Broadway in 1971, where it was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, and won seven. The show premiered in London in 1987, and has been revived around the world many times to great acclaim. This 2017 staging will be the first time the musical has been performed at the National Theatre.

Supported by the Follies production syndicate. Press Night: Wednesday 6 September

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