Burnout Boxes into London Gym Post-Edinburgh

Bryony Lavery’s Beautiful Burnout – which, before the Edinburgh Fringe even officially opens tomorrow (6 August 2010), is being touted as one of the hits of this year’s festival – has already booked its passage south. Post-Edinburgh, the play about wannabe boxing champions will embark on a UK tour, including dates next month in London at York Hall Leisure Centre, a world-famous boxing venue in Bethnal Green, where it runs from from 16 September to 2 October 2010.

The play, co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly, promises to deliver a “visceral, hearts-in-your-mouth” take on “one of the most controversial sports of our time”. Set in a Glasgow gym, it centres on four young men and a “battling lassie”, all seeking the fame and fortune that can only be attained through intense, physical and violent rounds in the boxing ring. They want to be like Calzaghe, land 950 out of 1000 punches and win fistfuls of money.

Beautiful Burnout is directed by Frantic Assembly’s joint founders and artistic directors Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, employing the company’s trademark physical style which combines movement, design, music and text. Frantic has previously worked with Bryony Lavery on 2007’s Stockholm. Lavery’s other plays include Kursk, A Wedding Story and Frozen, which won the TMA Best Play Award and was produced on Broadway where it was nominated for four Tony Awards.

In east London, Beautiful Burnout is presented in association with the Barbican, where the National Theatre of Scotland’s multi award-winning Black Watch, premiered at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe, has had multiple London seasons and returns for another from 27 November 2010 to 8 January 2011.

The cast for Beautiful Burnout includes Black Watch alumni Ryan Fletcher and Henry Pettigrew (recently seen in the Donmar’s Jude Law-led Hamlet), as well as Taqi Nazeer, Eddie Kay, Vicki Manderson, Lorraine McIntosh and Ewan Stewart. The production is designed by Laura Hopkins, with lighting by Andy Purves, sound by Carolyn Downing and video by Ian William Galloway.

During the Edinburgh Fringe, Beautiful Burnout runs until 29 August 2010 at the Pleasance Courtyard. It then tours to Glasgow, Glenrothes, Sheffield and Chichester, as well as London with further dates to be announced.