Gibraltar, written by media law expert Alastair Brett with Siân Evans, is based on the hugely controversial shooting by the SAS in Gibraltar of three unarmed Provisional IRA terrorists in 1988. Hear how the Government got it wrong, how the press got it wrong and how television got it wrong. Decide who you think got it right and who told the truth. Was it simply ‘shoot to kill’ – the state summarily executing three terrorists – or did a police blunder cause a highly classified secret operation to go horribly wrong?
The themes in Gibraltar raise serious questions about the culture, practices and ethics of journalism and how the media can and will ‘spin’ material and fail to check or omit uncomfortable facts in the headlong rush to publish or broadcast a ‘scoop’.
Following the shootings, a television documentary provoked a massive press backlash; the Government’s account of the shootings was challenged and witnesses’ backgrounds and reputations were trashed in the programme’s aftermath - the truth was buried in a welter of accusation and counter-accusation.
The characters in Gibraltar are a fusion of those who were, in one way or another, caught up in the aftermath of the shootings and the making of the television documentary – here called Ambush. Although based on fact, the dialogue is fictional apart from the accounts of the shootings given on television, what was said in the House of Commons, in the Gibraltar Coroner’s Court and in police and magistrates’ reports. Gibraltar also looks at the role of the Government and the intelligence services in allowing drug smugglers and criminals, with multiple paymasters, to avoid justice by informing on terrorists and the criminal underworld.
Gibraltar examines the people who live in this British Overseas Territory, its proximity to Spain and Morocco and the smuggling that has gone on there for years. 25 years on, this is your opportunity to find out about the SAS, the IRA, journalists, MI5 informants and the Costa del Crime. Decide where you think the truth lies!
Gilbraltar plays at Studio 2, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL from 8pm, Wednesday 27th March – Saturday 20th April 2013
You can also follow @GibraltarPlay on Twitter.
Vigorous spirit, exuberant energy and amongst all, confidence, are key elements needed to be in the Chorus Line but when asked the question “what do you do when its over”? What would you say? A Chorus Line explores this and more.
At an audition, 17 hopefuls vie for the eight spots in an upcoming Broadway musical, Director Zach (John Partridge) puts them through their paces but wants’ to learn more about each of them. Reluctantly one by one they bare their strengths and weaknesses, their hopes and desire their future and their past, all in the hope for a final place in the chorus.
Featuring a strong cast including Scarlett Strallen as Cassie a veteran dancer who once had notable success as a soloist is a determined force and delivers a awe-inspiring solo dance (“The Music and the Mirror”). Gary Wood who I haven’t come across before is a pure talent; his portrayal of Paul, a gay dancer whose parents discover him in a drag revue effortlessly manages to capture the heart of the audience with his solo monologue and sent a tingle down my spine something very rare and special indeed.
Other notable performances came from Leigh Zimmerman who plays street wise Sheila who is utterly brilliant and Alexzandra Sarmiento who plays Connie the shortest in the line up (quite literally) was confident and very witty.
Bob Avian who was originally co-chorographer now directs this world class show and Baayork Lee, who is one of the show’s original cast members has freshened up the choreography.
Apart from some large mirrors the stage is a blank canvas and this really allows for the characters to build a picture for the audience to visualize instead of being distracted by countless scenery changes and props.
A Chorus Line lays bare the ins and outs of the audition process and has no real storyline to grip onto but instead delves into the life of those who form the backdrop to any musical.
Finally a show, which is simple, exciting and should not be missed.
A Chorus Lines is booking until January 2014 at the London Palladium.
Come to a peculiar home in Schwartzgarten and witness the disturbing intrigues of Mister Holgado in Christopher William Hill’s brilliant dark comedy about a little boy, his over anxious parents and a tiger named Sigmund.
Matthew Lenton directs Mister Holgado, a deliciously dark and gruesomely funny new play, following in the tradition of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket.
The cast is Sandy Grierson as Doctor/Mister Holgado, Daniel Naddafy as Conrad and Cath Whitefield as Mother.
When Conrad tells his parents there is a tiger living in his wardrobe with a penchant for champagne truffles, his parents don’t believe him. His father, a respected child-psychologist, even sees this lie as a deliberate act of juvenile defiance. However, when his parents welcome the mysterious stranger Mister Holgado into their home, Conrad worries he is more of threat than any tiger could be. But parents always know best, don’t they?
Mister Holgado is a playfully macabre and sometimes gleefully grotesque story set in the fictional town of Schwartzgarten from children’s author and playwright Christopher William Hill.
Hill’s writing credits include Osbert the Avenger from his series of books Tales from Schwartzgarten. Theatre credits include Exotic Tastes (Arcola Theatre); Heartbreak Beautiful(National Theatre Connections); Inglorious Technicolour (Stephen Joseph Theatre, 2006); Multiplex (National Theatre Connections); Song of the Western Men (Minerva Theatre Chichester); Blood Red, Saffron Yellow (Plymouth Theatre Royal). Christopher has written several plays for BBC Radio 4, including Marmalade for Comrade Philby (starring Bill Nighy), Says it on the Tin (6 part series); Killing Maestros (starring Bill Nighy), which won the BAFTA for Best Radio Play.
Award-winning Director Matthew Lenton is the Artistic Director of Vanishing Point, a company he founded in 1999. He previously directed The Legend of Captain Crow’s Teeth at the Unicorn and his other theatre credits include Wonderland, Interiors, Saturday Night, The Beggar’s Opera and Little Otik.
Mister Holgado plays at the Unicorn Theatre from Sunday 24 March to Sunday 28 April 2013
Suitable for age 8 upwards
Cult sci-fi musical Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens is returning to the West End for a seven-week summer season at Leicester Square Theatre from Thursday August 1 to Sunday 15 September.
In the seedy cabaret club Saucy Jack’s, on the planet Frottage III, all is not well. Danger lurks in every corner as the cabaret acts are being picked off one by one by the relentless slingback killer, plunging a murderous heel deep into the victims chest! Against the backdrop of gloom and fear, down-trodden waitress Booby Shevalle, talented Sammy Sax, barman Mitch Maypole, bar-fly Dr von Whackoff and pan-galactic Chesty Prospects share their dreams and reveal secrets as the evil shadow of the Slingback Killer draws ever near. All is not lost as the glorious Space Vixens arrive, interstellar, super-fashion crime fighters here to save the day by the Power of Disco, with glowing Glitterboots and disco beams. Love interests develop, closets are opened and lives are saved before everything builds to an extraordinary musical climax.
Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens premiered in 1995 at the Edinburgh Festival. It was written as a piece of theatre that would appeal to people who might feel more at home in bars and clubs than theatres. Its frenzied audience involvement and its raunchy electronic score made it an instant success with sold-out audiences invading the stage nightly and refusing to leave the theatre. Rave reviews and crazy plastic-clad fans quickly led to a Fringe First award for ‘innovation in theatre and outstanding new production’. Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens eventually stormed the West End, taking up residence at the Queen’s Theatre for 12 weeks in the summer of 1998. Now it’s back!
Stuart Saint (Director/Choreographer) was responsible for Leicester Square Theatre’s recent sold-out critical smash-hit adult panto, Dick!. Stuart has an extensive range of theatrical endeavours under his belt, Producing, Directing, Choreographing and also performing in many productions on national tour and the West End. In 2012, Stuart completed a sold out run, playing Joe in the critical acclaimed new West End musical Toxic Bankers, alongside producing and performing in his one man (ish) cabaret show’s A Saintly Affair and Boudoir Star at Leicester Square Theatre. As a director and choreographer Stuart has worked on many pantomimes, musicals and variety shows throughout the UK, also choreographing several music videos for MTV, including the recent YouTube hit This Is The Night for the Guru Project and a crazy Britney Spears spoof starring Radio One DJ Greg James for the popular BBC THREE programme Britain Unzipped. Stuart recently appear in The Boys In The Band at Greenwich Theatre and is currently working on his rock ballet, Princess.
Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens runs from Thursday 1 August - Sunday 15 September at Leicester Square Theatre.
Following a highly acclaimed run at the Soho Theatre in 2012, Bafta award-winning writer Jack Thorne’s Mydidae will transfer to the West End’s Trafalgar Studios from 5th March.
Mydidae, directed by Vicky Jones, was praised by critics and audiences alike during its sell-out run. Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Keir Charles will recreate their performances described as among the bravest and most true-to-life of last year (Time Out). Mydidae is hugely watchable, and Thorne’s ability to produce spiky, sparky dialogue is matched by electric performances (The Guardian).
Mydidae is an authentic and intimate exploration of a relationship between two people staged in a fully plumbed bathroom. Thorne’s writing explores the truth and tension of modern-day realities thorough an exemplary naturalistic drama. Powerful, funny and transfixing, Mydidae sparkles at every turn in its bitter-sweet study of humanity.
The work opens at a poignant milestone in a young couple’s life, the first anniversary of a shared personal tragedy; David and Marian’s different perspectives of the event and their conflicting views test their relationship and force brutal realities into the forefront of their consciousness. The clinical intimacy of the bathroom offers an exposing, inescapable and undeniably human terrain, looking at how emotions make us act and react.
Studying the complexities of human relationships, Mydidae explores how loss and pain can mutate into blame and guilt and how, sometimes, those closest to us can provoke the most
painful feelings of all. Some subjects are inescapable though and while we hide from past fears Mydidae shows that they catch up with us and reveal personal complexities within our characters that we never realised existed.
Mydidae was commissioned by DryWrite as their first full-length play. The work resonates strongly with DryWrite exploring, as it does, the intimacy between audience and characters, humour, tragedy, real situations and our need for understanding.
It is a play for women, it is a play for men and it is a play for anyone who has ever shared a bath.
Playing at The Trafalgar Studios from Tuesday March 5th.
Ghost the Musical is set to return to what many regard as its spiritual home and birthplace, The Manchester Opera House for a strictly limited 3 week run this summer.
Playing from the 2nd – 20th July this particular venue is expected to sell out in record time. In 2011 when the show staged its World Premiere at the same theatre there wasn’t a spare seat to be had for the entire 5 week run!
ATG card holders are able to book tickets from the 18th February and tickets will go on general sale from 10am on the 21st February. www.atgtickets.com
Full casting and further tour venues are expected to be announced over the coming month.
Believe
Cole Porter’s multi award-winning musical Kiss Me, Kate directed by Trevor Nunn and with a cast that includes Alex Bourne, David Burt, Adam Garcia, Clive Rowe and Hannah Waddingham will end its scheduled run at The Old Vic on Saturday 2 March 2013.
Featuring music and lyrics by Cole Porter with book by Sam and Bella Spewack, Kiss Me Kate is an exuberant show-within-a-show that throws together the worlds of gun-toting gangsters, sparring actors and romantic entanglements against a backdrop of a musical production of The Taming of the shrew.
Cole Porter’s dazzling score is shot through with wit, charm and Broadway energy; it includes Too Darn Hot, Brush Up Your Shakespeare, Another Op’nin’, Another Show, So In Love and Always True To You In my Fashion.
Cast: Michelle Bishop, Alex Bourne, Kevin Brewis, Wendy Mae Brown, David Burt, Christopher Dickins, Adam Garcia, Paul Grunert, Mark Heenehan, Shaun Henson, Samuel Holmes, Richard Jones, Carolyn Maitland, Jo Morris, Jason Pennycooke, Tanya Robb, Clive Rowe, Warren Sollars, Holly Dale Spencer, Flik Swan, Kate Tydman, Hannah Waddingham and Tim Walton.
WICKED, the record-breaking West End musical now in its 7th smash hit year at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, is pleased to announce the opening of its 15th new booking period, on Monday 11 February 2013, with tickets going on sale until Saturday 26 April 2014.
Acclaimed as “the most popular show in the West End” (Time Out), the Olivier and Evening Standard Award- winning London production of the global musical phenomenon has now been seen by almost 5 million theatregoers
since its West End premiere in 2006. Wicked is already the 16th longest-running West End musical of all time*. *Information verified by The Society of London Theatre.
Louise Dearman as ‘Elphaba’: Photo Credit: Matt Crockett
Wicked currently stars: Louise Dearman (Elphaba), Gina Beck (Glinda), Ben Freeman (Fiyero), Louise Plowright (Madame Morrible), Keith Bartlett (The Wizard), Christopher Howell (Doctor Dillamond), Sam Lupton (Boq), Katie Rowley Jones (Nessarose), Hayley Gallivan (Standby Elphaba) and Lucy van Gasse (Standby Glinda).
While continuing its open-ended West End run, Wicked has also recently announced a major tour of the UK and Ireland, which opens at the Palace Theatre in Manchester on 12 September 2013.
Based on the acclaimed novel by Gregory Maguire that re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
Wicked has music and lyrics by Academy Award® winner Stephen Schwartz, a book by Winnie Holzman and is directed by two-time Tony Award® winner and Olivier Award nominee Joe Mantello. Wicked is based on the best- selling novel, ‘Wicked – The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’, by Gregory Maguire.
Wicked is produced by: Marc Platt, Universal Pictures Stage Productions, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone. Executive Producer (UK): Michael McCabe.
Official UK website, video trailer and online booking: www.WickedTheMusical.co.uk
Wicked spearheads and supports a range of good causes born out of the themes of the award-winning musical. Discover more at: www.WickedForGood.co.uk
Producers of The Book of Mormon have today announced that ALL seats for the first preview performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Monday 25 February will be sold for £20. These tickets will be available from 12 noon tomorrow – Friday 8 February, purchased only in person from the Box Office at the Prince of Wales Theatre on a first come first served basis.
The news coincides with full details published of the ticket lottery that offers theatregoers the opportunity to buy a strictly limited number of top-price tickets for £20 at each performance from Tuesday 26 February. The lottery regularly attracts large crowds of South Park and Mormon fans on Broadway and around the U.S. everywhere The Book of Mormon is playing and is now being launched in London to give daily access to a limited number of tickets to those who have been unable to book in advance.
“We know how hard it’s been for some people to get tickets.” said Trey Parker. “The lottery helps us give our fans a great chance at seeing the show.”
From Tuesday 26 February, entries to the lottery will be accepted in person at the Box Office two and a half hours prior to every performance. Names will be drawn at random two hours before each performance. Only one entry per person is allowed for a maximum of two tickets and winners must be present at the time of drawing and show valid ID to purchase tickets.
From South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez, The Book of Mormon, winner of nine Tony Awards including Best Musical and the Grammy for Best Musical Theatre album, follows a pair of Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that’s a long way from Salt Lake City.
The Prince of Wales Theatre, Coventry Street, London, W1D 6AS
Box Office: 0844 482 5110 / www.bookofmormonlondon.com
