SJT outlines Summer programme
March 23, 2009
Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre has released details of its Summer programme. The season opens with a production of Ron Hutchinson’s Moonlight and Magnolias (30 April – 27 June), led by new SJT artistic director Chris Monks. Long-serving previous artistic director Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s return to his 1969 farce How the Other Half Loves (4 June – 29 August) and Monks’ adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s swashbuckling operetta The Pirates of Penzance (2 July – 22 August), which has been given what the SJT describes as a “Reservoir Dogs twist”, are the other major forthcoming house productions.
Set in 1939, fact-based comedy Moonlight and Magnolias follows Hollywood producer David O Selznick’s attempt to rejuvenate his career after production shuts down on Gone with the Wind. He manages to poach The Wizard of Oz director Victor Fleming and recruit writer Ben Hecht, and the three begin perhaps the most hectic week of their lives in the industry as they attempt to rescue the film.
Like most of Ayckbourn’s plays, How the Other Half Loves premiered in Scarborough, at the SJT’s predecessor The Library Theatre. It traces the consequences of an apparently innocuous lie told by protagonists Fiona and Bob, which involve their respective partners, Frank and Theresa, interpreting previous events in a drastically mistaken way and acting accordingly.
The programme also sees the return of the SJT’s Lunchtime Shows toward the end of the season. A production of Billy Elliott writer Lee Hall’s Spoonface Steinberg (17 – 25 July) is followed by a version of Caroline Gold’s Howard and Mimi (31 July – 28 August). The former is a tale of life-affirming lessons learned by an autistic child, and was voted one of the top ten all time radio dramas by the Radio Times, while the latter examines how the cohabitation of a couple, Nick and Jane, affects their pets, a gregarious dog and a refined cat. It received the Best Play award in the 2009 Fringe Report Awards.
There are to be two visiting shows alongside the company’s own productions. Hull Truck’s comedy Lucky Sods, John Godber’s comedy about a family of modest means that suddenly finds itself £2m wealthier directed by Nick Lane, plays between 11 and 16 May. The following month sees the arrival of Oxford Playhouse’s One Small Step (22 – 24 June), which reconstructs the pivotal events of the Space Race in a manner suitable for all ages.
Additionally, the SJT will maintain its convention of hosting a selection of concerts. The Summer programme includes performances by Oregon singer/songwriter Rachel Harrington (7 May); Hang virtuoso Manu Delago and his group (21 May); Ensemble 360, with its family-oriented show Giddy Goat for Music in the Round and performance of music by Beethoven and Welsh composer Huw Watkins (both 7 June, 3pm and 7.30pm respectively); Scarborough Spa Orchestra (25 June, 11am and 7.30pm); flamenco jazz guitarist Eduardo Niebla’s much-lauded trio (23 July); award-winning cabaret singer Barb Jungr and her backing band, with their show Tell it Like it Is (13 August); and psychedelic jazz outfit The James Taylor Quartet (27 August).
-Simon Walker
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