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Adamsdale, LaBute & McGuinness Take Trafalgar 2

Perrier Award-winning comic Will Adamsdale (pictured) and work from playwrights Neil LaBute and Frank McGuinness will feature in the autumn/winter line-up at the West End’s 100-seat Trafalgar Studio 2.

A “dark journey packed with stolen cars, sleeping pills, kitchen knives and cheddar cheese crackers” opens the season, as Notes from Underground runs from 10 October to 4 November 2006. Adamsdale (whose Jackson’s Way won the Perrier in 2004) stars in the drama by American writer and performer Eric Bogosian.

Stephen McDonald’s Not About Heroes, which enjoyed seasons at the Imperial War Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms last year, is produced at Trafalgar Studios by Feelgood Theatre Productions, and runs from 7 to 18 November 2006. The play tells the story of war poets Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen, who met while recovering at Craiglockhart War Hospital.

Irish playwright Frank McGuinness’ Gates Of Gold, exploring the friendship between Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir, the founders of Dublin’s Gate theatre, runs from 21 November to 16 December 2006. William Gaunt leads the cast. McGuinness’ Speaking Like Magpies was presented by the RSC at Trafalgar Studios earlier this year as part of its Gunpowder Season. Gates of Gold had its British premiere at the fringe Finborough Theatre in November 2004.

The venue’s Christmas show is Grimms, a selection of dark and funny fairytales from around the world, presented by Horla (whose production of A Christmas Carol was at Trafalgar Studios last year). Grimms runs from 20 December 2006 to 6 January 2007.

Completing the autumn/winter season is American playwright Neil LaBute’s Bash - a collection of three one-act plays in which harrowing events are recounted. Bash had its UK premiere at the Almeida in 2000. The new production, directed by Tamara Harvey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, runs at Trafalgar Studios from 10 January to 3 February 2007. The cast features Juliet Rylance and David Sturzaker.

Ahead of the newly announced productions in Trafalgar Studio 2, the fringe transfer of Nina Raine’s Rabbit will have a five-week season from 5 September to 7 October 2006 (See News, 21 Jul 2006). Meanwhile, in the larger Trafalgar Studio 1, Shared Experience’s production of Jane Eyre is followed by Daniel Kramer’s new revival of Martin Sherman’s Bent starring Alan Cumming (See News, 14 Jul 2006), which opens on 5 October 2006 (previews from 22 September).

- by Caroline Ansdell

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