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Hunter & NYT Headline Soho's Summer Season

Soho Theatre’s new spring/summer season includes a collaboration between acclaimed Japanese director Hideki Noda and classical tragedy specialist Colin Teevan, starring Olivier Award winner Kathryn Hunter; new plays by two young writers on attachment; the UK’s only deaf theatre company, Deafinitely Theatre, making its Soho debut; and part of the National Youth Theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Twenty-one-year-old Moses Raine’s Shrieks of Laughter, a journey into the murky subconscious of the protagonist Henry, opens the season from 11 May to 3 June 2006, directed by Maria Aberg. It’s followed, from 6 to 17 June 2006, by Oladipo Agboluaje’s The Estate. In the comedy - directed by Femi Elufowoju Jr, artistic director of African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi, which co-produces - family feuds, illicit relationships and class divides have a contemporary Nigerian twist when a widow is determined to make her husband’ funeral the media event of the year.

Kathryn Hunter (last seen on the London stage in Whistling Psyche at the Almeida) plays Mr Ido, a man whose family is kidnapped and, in the midst of the media glare, seeks vengeance, in The Bee. Hideki Noda and Colin Teevan’s tragic satire runs from 21 June to 15 July 2006.

Dysfunction, on from 20 to 29 July 2006, is a new play for both deaf and hearing audiences by Deafinitely Theatre. Nigel and Sue are battling their way through their 23rd year of married life in the play that examines communication in all relationships.

From 4 August to 2 September 2006, the National Youth Theatre presents Sextet as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations (See News, 29 Mar 2006). Six plays focus on a decade apiece since the 1950s, when the NYT was established. Previous Soho writer on attachment Rebecca Lenkiewicz wrote the 1950s section. Al Smith, Barrie Keefe, Amy Evans, Samuel Adamson and Stella Duffy bring the drama up to the present day.

There will also be comedy nights and entertainment throughout the season, including performances from Alex Horne, Craig Hill, Jeremy Lion, Shazia Mirza, Natalie Haynes, Janey Godley, Gina Yashere and Laurence Clark.

- by Caroline Ansdell

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