Theatre News

Earthquakes in Bath

Following a sell-out run at the National Theatre last year, Headlong’s acclaimed production of Earthquakes in London, directed by Rupert Goold – the Olivier-award winning director of Enron – is set to play Bath on its first UK tour. Incorporating singing, dancing, cabaret and video, Mike Bartlett’s epic, funny and fascinating drama will appear at the Theatre Royal from Tuesday 27 September to Saturday 1 October starring Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders, Doctor Who), Paul Shelley (Doctors, Macbeth) and Seán Gleeson (Doctors, EastEnders).

Mike Bartlett’s play is a “high octane roller-coaster ride, which rockets from 1968 to 2525, and back again”, examining with wit and imagination, family relationships, modern excess, population explosion, environmental issues, the potential for change and the possibility of hope in our challenging and ever-changing world.

Three sisters attempt to navigate their complex lives and loves, while their estranged father, a brilliant scientist, questions the future. Sarah, the eldest, is an environment minister in the newly formed coalition government, Freya, the middle child, is a teaching assistant expecting her first baby and the youngest, Jasmine, has just been kicked out of university. Earthquakes in London takes audience members on a journey across scenes and decades as five stories run in parallel and the action travels between the past, present and future.

Tracy-Ann Oberman is perhaps best-known for playing Chrissie Watts in EastEnders, a role which culminated in her killing ‘Dirty Den’. She has previously performed in Bath in Macbeth in 1994 and The Vagina Monologues in 2010. Paul Shelley’s many stage credits include a number of Theatre Royal Bath appearances, including So Long Life in 2001, Camille in 2003 and A Man For All Seasons in 2005.

Also in the cast, Gyuri Sarossy, trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and has previously performed with The Peter Hall Company in Bath, appearing in Man and Superman, Don Juan and Galileo’s Daughter in the 2004 season and in Balmoral in the 2009 season.

Multi award-winning director Rupert Goold is also Artistic Director of Headlong, and his most recent productions include Enron, for which he won the Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle and Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Director (Chichester, Royal Court and West End); Time and the Conways (NT); and Macbeth (Olivier and Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Director; Chichester, West End and Broadway).

Headlong’s new production Decade, which investigates the legacy of 9/11, also directed by Rupert Goold, is currently appearing at St. Katharine’s Docks, London.