WOS Heads to This Weekend’s Latitude Festival

The 2010 Latitude Festival kicks off at Henham Park in Southwold today (15 July), with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera House, Bush, Lyric Hammermith and Paines Plough among the companies presenting work this year.

And Whatsonstage.com will also be there, providing regular updates from the festival frontline on our special event blog (first updates coming soon).

Established in 2006 and marketed from the off as “more than just a
music festival”, Latitude has become known for the
calibre of its theatre programme, which operates alongside the event’s
music, comedy, poetry and film arenas (under the stewardship of arts programmer Tania Harrison). The festival showcases both new
and established companies, often with bespoke productions created
especially for the weekend.

Among the many highlights this year is the first appearance at the festival by the Royal Opera House, which presents Pleasure’s Progress
by director-choreographer Will Tuckett, to be performed deep in the
festival’s Faraway Forest woods.

Also direct from Covent Garden come The Opera Group and London Sinfonietta with George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, a contemporary classical take on the tale of the Pied Piper. And soul singer Omar makes his debut with Lovesong, a one man play for piano written and directed for English Touring Theatre by Che Walker (whose musical Been So Long was a hit at last year’s festival).

Meanwhile, the RSC are returning to
the theatre arena with a new piece by playwright Carl Grose aiming to
rival the company’s hugely popular zombie show at Latitude 08.

The London Fringe will be well represented by the Bush
Theatre and Lyric Hammersmith, the former with its latest show, The Great British Country Fete,
the latter bringing a group of its actors, dancers and visual artists
for live storytelling across the festival’s three day programme.

Soho
Theatre is also on the bill with Mark Ravenhill’s horror short, The Experiment, first seen at Southwark Playhouse last year. And cult comic Daniel Kitson will be premiering his latest play, It’s Always Right Now. Until It’s Later, and teaming up with Gavin Osborn to present Stories for the Starlit Sky on the atmospheric Waterfront stage every night at midnight.

Also appearing on the Waterfront stage is the cast of American love-rock musical, Hair, who will be
performing a 30-minute excerpt from the show which transferred direct
from Broadway to London’s Gielgud Theatre in April.

– Theo Bosanquet & Nancy Groves

To follow our Latitude 2010 Special Event Blog, click here.