Theatre News

Off-West End Announcements – 3 Apr 2009

Youth Festival at BAC
This weekend, the BAC is staging My Time (2 – 4 April), a festival showcasing multiple works by young people involved with the Participate program. The festival includes YPT shows, comedy, music and street dance, all created and performed by artists between the ages of 11 and 25.

The shows include:  YPT1’s The Lavender Hill Mob:  The Return (7:00 pm), YPT2’s CAPSULE! We’re Making Plans (7:30 pm), Claire Davies and Small Boats’ City (7:45 & 8:45 pm), Wandsworth Young Performers of the Year Highlights (8:00 pm), YPT3’s Scratch Night (9:00 pm), all which run all three days.  Also included are Lyrics@Lyric, Roundhouse Poetry Collective and BAC Beatboxers (3 April, 8:30 pm) and a workshop (4 April, 3:00-5:00 pm).


Also at the BAC this spring is the touring production The Home of the Wriggler (18 – 19 May), as part of the venue’s Burst Festival. Presented by Stan’s Café Theatre Company, this play shoots audiences nearly one thousand years in the future and gives voice to the automakers who keep the car industry spinning. The show combines interviews with former Rover employees and while onstage, the cast generates all power required throughout the performance using a variety of technologies.

Holiday Romance at Etcetera
Frank Saunder’s new play Holiday Romance will run at Camden High Street’s Etcetera Theatre venue from 21 April to 3 May. Set in Cannes during the concluding weekend of the Film Festival, Holiday Romance follows two friends – Daniel and Chris – as they embark on a weekend of booze and flings and find themselves wondering “is it really cheating if it’s in a different country?”

Grab A Place at the Camden People’s
Daedalus Theatre Company presents A Place at the Table (15 April – 2 May), a new play directed, designed and produced by Paul Burgess. A Place at the Table combines the talent of a melange of international artists – from Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo – to call attention to the 1993 assassination of Burundi’s first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye.

Cock Tavern opens Backroom
Adrian Pagan’s The Backroom (12 March – 2 May) has earned an extended run thanks to popular demand and critical acclaim. The comedy – presented by Good Night Out and directed by Gareth Corke – opens the door to the backroom of an Earls Court brothel, shedding light on seven prostitutes and the hilarity that ensues during five weeks of mayhem.

Call to Action at Hampstead
Clara Armand directs two one-act plays for the double bill Action (7 – 9 April). The show includes Philip Ayckbourn’s A Plan of Action and Deirdre Kinahan’s Melody, both about the trials and tribulations of relationships. Following each performance, the audience will be afforded an inside look into the process of play rehearsal with re-enactments by Interanimation Theatre Company.

Tucker into Broadway at Hampton Court
This summer’s Hampton Court Palace Festival includes an evening dedicated to musical theatre. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Best of Broadway (11 June) features performers including I’d Do Anything‘s Rachel Tucker, and includes songs from Grease, Mamma Mia!, Cabaret, The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables.

– by Katie Blemler