Soho announces Spring season with Boys, Swamp Juice & Utopia
The Soho Theatre has announced its 2012 Spring season with highlights including Ella Hickson‘s Boys making its London debut following a premiere at HighTide Festival, Total Theatre Award winner Swamp Juice moving to the Soho following its acclaimed run at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe, and the stage adaptation of Chris Mullin‘s political diaries A Walk on Part moving upstairs for a run in the Main House.
Also co-produced with the Live Theatre, Michael Chaplin‘s stage adaptation of the political diaries of Chris Mullin will return to the Soho, moving from the Downstairs space it occupied from 18 November (previews from 15 November) to 10 December 2011 to the Main House from 22 March (previews from 21 March) to 14 April 2012.
John Hodgkinson returns to the role as Chris Mullin, in a “witty” and “irreverent” take on the fall of New Labour. Adapted for the stage by Michael Chaplin and directed by The Pitmen Painters‘ Max Roberts, A Walk on Part is billed as providing an insider’s view of the last and most turbulent decade in politics.
A Walk on Part is followed in the Main House by Swamp Juice which transfers to the Soho following an acclaimed season at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe. It opens at the Soho on 19 April 2012 (previews from 17 April) where it runs until 5 May.
Set in a “swamp like no other” populated with bickering toads, overbearing fairies and a rather gentle swamp monster, Canadian performer Jeff Achtem‘s play follows success of his 2010 work Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones. Focusing on the life in a swamp, the production also promises a “jaw dropping 3D finale” for all ages.
Hickson’s Boys hits London
Also in the Main House, Headlong transfer Ella Hickson‘s Boys to London following a premiere at the HighTide Festival and the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton. Directed by Headlong associate Robert Icke, Boys tells the finals day for the Class of 2011. Benny, Mack, Timp and Cam are due out of their five bedroom flat tomorrow morning; five bedrooms, five chairs, four boys – and one hell of a party.
Stepping into a world that doesn’t want them, these boys start to wonder whether there’s any point in getting any older. How will they find the fight to make it as adults? Tonight marks the end of an era. It’s hot. And there’ll be girls. Predict a riot.
Ella Hickson‘s Gift was part of Headlong’s 9/11 project Decade in September 2011 with her other stage credits including the 2008 Fringe First-winning Eight, Precious Little Talent, Soup and Hot Mess. Boys runs at the Soho Theatre from 31 May 2012 (previews from 30 May) to 16 June.
Finally in the Main House, Steve Marmion and Live Theatre artistic director Max Roberts will commission new short plays challenging our visions of the future in a season of work billed Utopia.
Enough of the dystopian visions, austerity measures and extreme renditions. Utopia is billed as a night of humanity at its best, looking at a different vision of our future, a vision of humankind being both human and kind. Just look at what we could have won…
Audiences will be invited to follow the creative process from March 2012, opening at the Live Theatre on 31 May and running until 16 June. The shows will then transfer to the Soho from 20 June to 14 July 2012.
Promising four performances a night between the venue’s three performance spaces, the Soho Theatre have also announced a season of work for the Upstairs space including new plays from Third Angel, Kali Theatre, Deafinitely Theatre, Cartoon De Salvo, the Wrong Crowd, Dirty Stop-Out and Menagerie Theatre.
Comedy and cabaret programmed for the Soho’s Downstairs space include Adam Riches, Ursula Martinez, Tindersticks, Late Night Gimp Fight, Greg Proops, Lord Buckley, Imran Yusuf and Nick Helm.
Full details are available on the Soho Theatre’s website.
