Theatre News

Kane & Bruce Present Musical Fete at Bush, 2 Aug

23 March 2010

The Great British Country Fete, a musical comedy scripted by comedian Russell Kane and featuring songs by Michael Bruce, will premiere this summer as part of the newly announced season at London’s Bush Theatre, which also includes plays by Elaine Murphy and Anthony Weigh.

Directed by Anthea Williams (50 Ways to Leave Your Lover), the show takes an irreverent look at the British country fete, “a pillar of country life, a melting pot of personalities … the British summer wouldn’t be the same with it”. It runs at the Bush from 2 to 14 August 2010 (previews from 28 July), following a short national tour.

Writer Russell Kane is a three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and one of the UK’s brightest up-and-coming stand ups. He recently toured Fakespeare: The Tragickal Saveings of King Nigel, a ‘bawdy romp’ set in a modern-day Essex where everyone speaks in Shakespearean verse.

Songwriter Michael Bruce is composer in residence at the Bush and the winner of the Notes from the Stage prize for composition. His previous shows include Ed, which won the 2009 Whatsonstage.com-supported Musical Theatre Matters award after its premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The new season commences with the transfer of Elaine Murphy’s Fringe First winning debut play Little Gem (19 April to 22 May 2010, previews from 16 April). It explores the lives of three generations of Dublin women through love, joy, death and disappointment as they discover that the only people worth trusting are each other.

It’s followed, from 14 June to 10 July 2010 (previews from 7 June), by the premiere of Anthony Weigh’s Like a Fishbone. Directed by Bush artistic director Josie Rourke, the play centres on a prominent architect who is commissioned to design a memorial to the victims of an ‘unspeakable crime’. Anthony Weigh’s last play, 2,000 Feet Away, received its UK premiere at the Bush Theatre in 2008.