Theatre News

Eastern Angles Launches Out This Spring

Anne Morley-Priestman

A new touring production which will play in community centres, town halls – not to mention theatres and tithe barns –  takes to the road from 4 March until 4 June. It will be staged by the Ipswich-based Eastern Angles. Up Out o’ The Sea is a story about a lifeboat disaster, its long-term effect on the local community and what happens when an outsider starts asking the sort of questions which some people would rather not have voiced. Let alone answered. It’s directed by Ivan Cutting and designed by Ian Teague.

Appropriately enough, the première on 4 March is at Lowestoft’s Seagull Theatre. The author is Andrew Holland, who is now based in Suffolk. His work initially came to the company’s attention through the National Theatre Studio and includes plays for radio as well as the live theatre. Ever Your Loving Son was based on the letters written home while serving on the Western Front during the First World War by two sons of the Fison family. Holland and his family now live in the same small village.

Meanwhile, back in Ipswich itself the Sir John Mills Theatre is hosting a new production of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. This is the original play – not the musical version which may now be more familiar to audiences through its extensive nationwide tours. The performance dates in Ipswich are from 16 to 19 March and the production company is an amateur but well-respected one.