Theatre News

Extensions: 50 Ways to Leave, Stomp & Encounter

| London's West End |

22 July 2008

Heartbreak apparently sells at the box office, as west London’s Bush Theatre has discovered this week. The Fringe powerhouse has reported unprecedented demand for its latest show, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, a collection of short new “break-up” plays written by various dramatists and inspired by theatregoer contributions (See News, 2 Jul 2008). So much so that is has tripled the number of London dates for the new production.

Originally scheduled to run at the Bush for six nights only this week (from last night, 21 July), having already toured to Oxford, Norwich and the Latitude Festival in Southwold, Suffolk, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover will now run for an additional two weeks to 9 August 2008.

Over the past year, the Bush invited audiences to send in, anonymously, their best break-up experiences, which have been used by five playwrights – Lucy Chillery, Ben Ellis, Stacey Gregg, Lucy Kirkwood and Ben Schiffer – to create 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, a comic cocktail of characters and stories.

Ralf Little – best known for TV’s The Royle Family and Two Packets of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and last seen on stage in Stacy, for which he was nominated for a Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Solo Performance – leads a cast that also comprises Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Claire Keelan and Michelle Terry. The production is directed by Anthea Williams, designed by Mika Handley, with lighting by Tom White and music composed by Arthur Darvill.

In the West End, two other productions have also recently announced extensions to their booking periods:

At the specially created Cinema, Haymarket, Kneehigh Theatre’s multimedia stage adaptation of David Lean’s classic 1945 film Brief Encounter has added four weeks to its booking period. Opened on 17 February 2008 (previews from 2 February), the production is now booking through to 19 October (See Review Round-up, 19 Feb 2008).
Based on a combination of Noel Coward’s screenplay and his original 1935 one-act stage play, Still Life, Brief Encounter is adapted and directed by Kneehigh artistic director Emma Rice, who is also appearing as Myrtle until 17 August. Naomi Frederick and Tristan Sturrock currently star as Laura and Alec, the infidelity tempted couple immortalised on screen by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

And at the West End’s Ambassadors Theatre, dance extravaganza
Stomp has extended by four months, taking it up to 8 February 2009. The award-winning show, which originated in Brighton in 1991, transforms the junk and clutter of urban life into a source of rhythm and dance. After international touring success, Stomp had its West End premiere in September 2002 at the Vaudeville Theatre, where it ran for five years before transferring to the Ambassadors (See News, 5 Sep 2007). It’s been seen by more than ten million people.

– by Terri Paddock