The Revlon Girl’s back!
Thursday 22 Jan 2026
If you missed our sell-out run of The Revlon Girl by Neil Anthony Docking last October, here’s another chance to see for yourself why this play moved audiences to laughter and tears and earned such reviews as:
"a powerful ensemble piece …. every raw nerve, fear and emotion are just feet away from your eyes.” Kev Castle
"This was not the lipstick of a production I was expecting …(it) will forever be a piece to reflect on” Left Lion
We are delighted to announce that we will be putting on three more performances at The Studio Theatre, Stamford Road, NG2 6LS on the following dates:
Saturday 14th February 2.30 pm and 7.30 pm
Sunday 15th February 4.00 pm
Set eight months after the Aberfan Disaster of 1966, this is the real life story of a group of bereaved mothers who met every week above a local hotel to talk, cry and even laugh without feeling guilty.
At one of their meetings, the women looked at each other and admitted how much they felt they’d let themselves go. Afraid people would think them frivolous, they secretly arrange for a representative from Revlon to come and give them a talk on beauty tips.
Touching, tender, occasionally raw, this is a play that looks into the human heart of disaster and celebrates the humanity that survives.
Contains strong language and deals with themes of bereavement.
Get your tickets here!
LMT at The Fringe!
Wednesday 20 Aug 2025
While our Once Upon A Bridge team are up in Scotland performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, here are some of the comments given by those audience members who have taken the time to see their show!
Great show! Solid acting. Emotional and truthful. Highly recommeded.
- Molly
We have seen over 50 theatre productions in the last 15 days and this must be one of the top 5
- Carolyn Emery
Brilliant acting in this fast paced play that leaves unanswered questions. Beautiful poetic writing well worth seeing.
- Susanne
Outstanding flawless performances from the cast. I was engrossed in the stories from start to finish. One of my 3 top pieces I've seen this Fringe.
- Lindsay Seal
This is a compelling, emotional and thoroughly enjoyable show with excellent performances and a compelling narrative. Highly recommend! Not to be missed!
- Tim
An intricate and engaging retelling of a horrific real event. Beautifully acted and great light and shade! Highly recommend! Don't miss it this Fringe!
- @servicepleasefringe
What a fantastic interpretation of a real life event! The simplistic interrogation style staging really informed the performance and allowed the actors to deliver the fantastic and well developed tone of each character, creating a superb engaging performance. Well written and well acted. Don't miss this show at the Fringe!
- Connie Peel
Once Upon a Bridge is a taut, finely crafted piece of theatre that takes as its starting point a shocking real-life incident and turns it into a study of chance, choice, and consequence. Based on the notorious moment in 2017 when a woman was pushed by a jogger into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge, Sonya Kelly’s play imagines what brought three strangers – the jogger, the bus driver, and the woman – to that very point in time.
The staging is stripped back to three chairs, but the simplicity only heightens the intensity. With no distractions, every gesture and every word counts. The dramatic tension is palpable throughout, as the narrative shifts between perspectives, gradually weaving together a picture of ordinary lives colliding in extraordinary, and near-tragic, fashion.
Claire Louise Moss is compelling as the young woman, nervous but hopeful as she heads to an interview at a law firm. Gurmej Vik brings depth and humanity to the bus driver, a family man constantly looking over his shoulder, terrified of losing his job under the management’s relentless obsession with timekeeping and surveillance. Luke Willis captures the tightly wound energy of the jogger – driven, restless, and brittle under the weight of his own ambitions.
Despite the occasional audible sound from surrounding theatres and the courtyard, the three actors hold the audience completely. For the duration of the play, they keep us in the palm of their hands, building tension until the final moment. A short but riveting piece, Once Upon a Bridge is a reminder of how a single instant can alter lives forever and is unmissable.
- Rona, One4Review
Translating real events into a drama for the stage is a challenging quest, but the Lace Market Theatre have succeeded with a clear and compelling presentation in Once Upon a Bridge at theSpace at Surgeons Hall.
A reminder of how easy it is to become part of life-changing events in the impersonal urban jungle
On 5 May 2017, a jogger inexplicably shoved a woman into the path of a London bus on Putney Bridge, leaving the driver to narrowly avoid tragedy. Caught on CCTV, the assailant ran on as though nothing had happened. Dubbed the “Putney Pusher”, he was never identified, despite a police appeal and widespread media coverage.
Sonya Kelly’s play reimagines this random act of violence in a powerfully chilling and intriguing “what if?”. Director Beverley Anthony seats the three characters most intimately involved in the incident on evenly spaced chairs, face-on to the audience, resembling interviewees. It is a starkly simple device that appropriately reflects the gravity of the situation. In turn, they provide backgrounds to themselves, relate their side of the story and reflect on how it has affected them.
Luke Willis creates a cocky, self-assured jogger who almost manages to remain oblivious to the possible consequences of his actions until the horrors finally overwhelm him and he breaks down emotionally. Clare Moss sensitively and delicately relates the traumatic experience the woman endured, wondering why it had to happen to her. Gurmej Virk similarly describes events as the dutiful bus driver – a family man who takes pride in his work and punctuality and always seeks to do his very best.
There is great imagination in the creation of the characters and their lives, which draws interest in them as people. Their narratives eventually collide, and the first exchange of words towards the end comes as a dramatic breakthrough.
It is a reminder of how easy it is to become part of life-changing events in the impersonal urban jungle.
- Richard Beck from broadwaybaby.com
Back in 2017, the ‘Putney Pusher’ was the name given to the assault, and arguably attempted manslaughter, of a woman on Putney Bridge, in London. As the un-named woman was walking across the bridge, a male jogger shoved her into the road, directly into the path of an approaching London bus. It was only the swift actions of the bus driver that prevented a tragedy. Police investigated, arresting three men, but ultimately, no charges have ever been brought.
Sonya Kelly’s play, brought to the Edinburgh Fringe by Nottingham based Lace Market Theatre, takes this incident as its origin point, and weaves a tale of who the people involved may have been, and what the impact on them might have been.
There are only three characters in the play: Woman; Bus Driver; and Man. The performance is staged with each character positioned on a chair, lit in their own pool of light. Our focus is directed from one character to another by who is lit at any time. Part-way through, as the action converges on that moment on the bridge, everyone speaks over each other, making the only time we see all the characters illuminated. It’s a very clever way to tell the story with no other props or set. We’re forced to focus on the story being told, to listen to what these characters are saying.
For all that they don’t have names, we learn a lot about each of our characters.
Woman (Clare Louise Moss) is Irish. Her granny lived in London, decades ago, but only briefly. She was pushed down the stairs by a man at Piccadilly Circus tube station, who displayed both classism and sexism, and treated her as if she was a nuisance. That granny was noticeably heavily pregnant made things worse. She lost a job because of the incident, and fled back to Ireland, never to return.
Woman is here, now, in contemporary London, to be a barrister - seeking justice for those, like her granny, who are overlooked, ignored, treated as inconvenient. Moss’ role calls for her to code switch between a relatively strong Irish accent, and the plummy tones of the Oxbridge educated elite - members of the same class of privileged English person who feels entitled to power and influence. Moss’ acting here is exemplary, capturing the spirit of triumph and happiness of Woman, contrasted with the snobbishness of those around her.
Man is a finance-bro. He speaks with a broad accent that’s either Essex or approaching Cockney, but either way he’s entirely coded as a ‘geezer’, a ‘chancer’, a ‘bit of a lad’. He put my back up immediately, which is testament to Luke Willis’ excellent acting.
He’s disingenuous almost from the moment we meet him - pretending to be something he isn’t to impress an American lawyer at a friend’s wedding, and continuing to lie to her throughout their relationship. It’s very clear that, however much he pretends, he’s very far from being the gentleman he aspires to be.
In fact, Man is a ball of barely suppressed rage, with a sense of entitlement that sees him lashing out at a female colleague at work. He also deeply buys into the culture of conspicuous consumption, yearning for a house in Hampstead that he can’t yet afford.
Bus Driver (Gurmej Virk) is immediately very sympathetic. He’s just a guy, doing his job, and trying to do the best for his family. He’s an immigrant, and he works a terrible shift pattern for one of London’s bus companies, with a supervisor who appears to be all stick, and no carrot. But Bus Driver loves his job. He takes pride in it. He recalls passing the final test to become qualified, and recalls being told that he has a duty to look after his passengers and other road users. It’s a responsibility he takes seriously.
We watch as the events of that terrible day draw nearer. From years, decades in the past even, we move closer and closer, when the format changes, from one person speaking, to everyone talking over each other. It’s a clever way to convey the chaos and adrenalin of the moments immediately after Woman has been shoved into the road.
There’s a lot here about different notions of masculinity. Bus Driver is gentle, careful, considerate, and hard-working. Man thinks that the world owes him, and that anything anyone else has, reduces his opportunities. Bus Driver can see that the pie expands to have enough for everyone: Man thinks that all of the pie should be his. It’s stretching a metaphor, but at times, this play is similarly indulgent.
But only occasionally. Woman has the most whimsy, with her memories of Granny back in Ireland, but it’s off-set with the occasional political barb, moments which increase in the aftermath of the incident, as Woman finds her voice, and expresses her rage.
This is an exceptionally well put together production of an intriguing play, that will make you reflect on how the tiniest of moments can have the deepest repercussions.
- Anne-Louise Fortune from fromthenorthculture.co.uk
And here's a vlog from Luke on day 4 at The Fringe...
https://youtube.com/shorts/1r4p7bfwO3A?si=p5A56TEj8yQ7jyVV
NANDA Awards 2025
Friday 20 Jun 2025
Tonight the Lace Market Theatre attended the annual NANDA (Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Drama Association) awards dinner. We had a great attendance representing Skylight and The Three Musketeers.
We are very proud to have taken home the award for Play of the Year for Skylight, which also received special mentions for Joe Downing (Best Actor in a Supporting Role), Paul Spruce (Best Actor), Ellen Woszatka (Best Actress) and Best Technical Presentation.
The Three Musketeers got some special mentions too.
Youth Theatre Shines at NANDA Youth Festival 2025
Saturday 3 May 2025
After a long-awaited return, the NANDA Youth Festival was back in full swing — and what a day it was! Held on a sunny Saturday at Chilwell School, the festival brought together young performers from across Nottinghamshire for a full day of creativity, camaraderie, and celebration of youth theatre.
Our Youth Theatre proudly performed a 40-minute edited version of Macbeth, a production they had previously staged at the Lace Market Theatre in March. The cast delivered their Shakespearean piece with passion and maturity, captivating the audience and demonstrating their talent and the dedication they had put into the production.
Throughout the day, our group also had the chance to support and watch performances from other local youth theatres. Ravenshead Youth Theatre opened the day with Starman, a powerful original piece by Mandy Buckley set in a futuristic Earth grappling with air pollution. Nottingham Arts Theatre Youth Group performed two contrasting works: Takeaway by Jackie Kay, and The King's Jester, an original piece created and performed by two of their own members. Each performance brought something unique to the stage, showcasing the breadth of talent and imagination within our region’s young creatives.
The day wasn’t just about performing — it was also about connecting. Our Youth Theatre members threw themselves into supporting others, cheering on their peers and even squeezing in some drama games while the judging took place. The atmosphere was warm, lively, and filled with mutual respect and encouragement.
The event was introduced and compered by Rob Hurst, Chairman of NANDA, who has been a driving force behind local theatre for many years and played a crucial role in guiding the organisation through the challenges of the pandemic. Rob was joined by Gordon Parsons, NANDA President, whose lifelong dedication to theatre — including directing, acting, and even reviewing for radio — was clear in his enthusiasm for the event.
Esteemed adjudicator Stephen Godward rounded off the day with his thoughtful and inspiring feedback. A seasoned performer and director, Stephen brought a wealth of theatrical experience to the judging panel, and his insights were as educational as they were encouraging for all the young performers.
The day concluded with an awards ceremony, and we’re thrilled to share that our Youth Theatre brought home several accolades:
Dan Shaw Award for adjudicator's descretion – awarded to Edgar
Fox Trophy for Best Actress – awarded to Viola
Best Actress runner-up awarded to Emily
Fox Trophy for Best Actor – awarded to Noah
Best Actor runner-up awarded to Rory
Arcade Drama Cup for Runner-Up at the Festival – awarded to Macbeth
The King’s Jester, an original piece created and performed by two of Nottingham Arts Theatre Youth Group members, was named Best Play of the festival — a worthy winner that impressed with its creativity and strong performances.
It was a true celebration of young talent and teamwork — and a wonderful way to mark the return of the Youth Festival since its pause during the COVID years. We’re so proud of our cast not only for their brilliant performance, but also for their supportive spirit and enthusiasm throughout the day. Here’s to many more festivals to come!
2025/26 Season
Sunday 16 Mar 2025
The plays we plan to perform are as follows:
|
DATES |
SHOW |
VENUE |
|
22 Sep 2025 |
Gaslight |
Auditorium |
|
A fogbound London, 1880. Bella Manningham lives an upper-middle-class existence but she is constantly on edge, in fear that she is losing her mind. The reproaches and frequent disappearances of her attractive but stern husband, only increase her anxiety. |
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6 Oct 2025 to 11 Oct 2025 |
Revlon Girl |
Studio |
|
Eight months after the Aberfan Disaster of 1966, in which 144 people were killed (116 of them children), a group of bereaved mothers meet weekly above a local hotel to talk, cry and even laugh without feeling guilty. At one of their previous meetings, the women looked at each other and admitted how much they felt they’d let themselves go. Afraid that people will think them frivolous, they’ve secretly arranged for a representative from Revlon to come and give them a talk on beauty tips. This is a remarkably warm, sorrowful and at times even funny study in the masks grief wears, what it takes and what it might mean, to put on a brave face. |
||
|
27 Oct 2025 |
Home I'm Darling |
Auditorium |
|
Every marriage needs a little fantasy to keep it sparkling. But behind the gingham curtains, being a domestic goddess isn't as easy as it looks... Home, I'm Darling is Laura Wade's new dark comedy about sex, cake and the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife. A timely analysis of the gender divide, which manages to ask important questions about what women might want and how they might successfully find it. It’s a sharp, funny and sad dissection of a doomed attempt to achieve marital bliss by retreating into a delusional cocoon. |
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|
24 Nov 2025 |
The Crucible by Arthur Miller |
Auditorium |
|
This classic drama set against the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, is both a gripping historical play and a timely parable of our contemporary society. The play is a fictionalized account of how a small group of girls in Salem, Massachusetts falsely accused others of witchcraft. The story tells how small lies build and build until a whole town is involved, eventually condemning 19 men and women to the gallows for being possessed of the Devil. The play explores themes of mass hysteria, the importance of standing up for one's beliefs and the devastating effect of power when it is wielded by persons of questionable morality. |
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|
11 Dec 2025 |
The Last Noel |
Studio |
|
It's Christmas Day, sort of, and Alice, Mike and Tess – three generations of the one family – are busy preparing a feast, singing songs, spinning yarns and squabbling about snacks... like only a close family can. But someone is missing from the table. Telling their stories in turns, and breaking off for the odd musical interlude, the family pass the time waiting for Tess's mum to arrive. As they do, we see a picture of how one family forms its traditions – and how those traditions matter most when there are problems on the horizon. |
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12 Jan 2026 |
The Cat's Meow |
Auditorium |
|
Based on the true story of a mysterious Hollywood death, The Cat's Meow offers a fascinating cross section of Jazz Era characters who intersect in 1924, for one notorious weekend on board William Randolph Hearst's Luxury yacht. The guests include movie mogul Thomas Ince, who is hoping to revive his flagging fortunes by forming a partnership with Hearst, and Charlie Chaplin who has much more mischievous ‘Recreational’ motives for being onboard. A stylish and sardonically funny exposé of corrupt Tinseltown values, this darkly comic morality play is laced with clandestine romance, Hollywood excess, and steadily heating tensions. |
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9 Feb 2026 |
Things I Know to Be True by Andrew Bovail |
Auditorium |
|
Originally staged in collaboration with Frantic Assembly, this is a complex and intense portrait of the mechanics of a family and a marriage. Bob and Fran have worked hard to give their four children the opportunities they never had. Now, with the kids ready to make lives of their own, it's time to sit back and smell the roses. But the change of the seasons reveals some shattering truths. Through the eyes of four siblings, who struggle to define themselves beyond their parents' love and expectations, we see this once close knit family split apart and then tentatively take the first steps to re-tie those precious family bonds. |
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|
19 Feb 2026 |
The Glad Game |
Auditorium |
|
A mesmerising portrait of Hope. Intimate, boundary-pushing, brilliant, Phoebe Frances Brown’s autobiographical one-woman show is a compelling and intimate retelling of a life cut tragically short. Growing up in Nottingham, acting has defined Phoebe’s life. She took every opportunity (including the Central TV Workshop). In 2018, as a 26-year-old actor, now working in London, she’s auditioning for television, filming feminist comedy sketches and has just been cast in Small Island at the National Theatre. But in November, doctors discover an incurable tumour in her brain that will severely affect her speech and memory, the “two very basic things” required to act. The Glad Game is Phoebe’s story; the story of finding yourself in the darkest moments, about leaning on those who love you and finding reasons, however small or silly, to find humour and be glad. |
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|
16 Mar 2026 |
Youth Theatre Show TBC |
Auditorium |
|
TBC |
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|
13 Apr 2026 |
Uncle Vanya |
Auditorium |
|
In the heat of summer, Sonya and her Uncle Vanya while away their days on a crumbling estate deep in the countryside, visited occasionally only by the local doctor Astrov. However, when Sonya's father suddenly returns with his beautiful new wife declaring that he intends to sell the house, the polite facades crumble and repressed feelings start to emerge with devastating consequences. Uncle Vanya, is a portrayal of life at the turn of the 20th century, full of tumultuous frustration, dark humour and hidden passions. |
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|
27 Apr 2026 |
Hansard |
Studio |
|
This tender and brutal comedy/drama, set around the passing of the Section 28 legislation in 1988, is a witty and devastating portrait of the British governing class. Hansard is an intimate domestic drama about a long and troubled marriage. It is also a comedy about politics and identity and the failings of the ruling class. Set around the passing of the Section 28 legislation in 1988, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality. It is funny, tender, brutal, and ultimately devastating. |
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|
18 May 2026 |
The Duchess of Malfi |
Auditorium |
|
The Duchess of Malfi is a revenge tragedy play by John Webster that tells the story of a widowed duchess who marries her steward against her brothers' wishes. The play explores themes of class, power, and the corruption of the Catholic Church. A defiant woman is destroyed by her corrupt brothers in this violent revenge tragedy, full of dark humour. In an attempt to prevent the fiercely independent Duchess from marrying the man she loves, her corrupt brothers go on a disturbing quest to destroy her. Remarkable for its inventive and grotesque violence, yet full of dark humour, this violent revenge tragedy asks how anyone can survive in a world where masculinity has become toxic. |
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|
24 May 2026 |
German Visit |
Auditorium |
|
TBC |
||
|
23 Jun 2025 |
Accidental Death of An Anarchist |
Auditorium |
|
Originally based on the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing and the death of anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli during interrogation by the Milan police, this adaptation is set in a Contemporary Metropolitan Police Station. After getting himself arrested, the Maniac (a mysterious but dangerously unstable man with a talent for impersonations) manages to convince the police that he is actually the judge overseeing the investigation into the anarchist’s death. He forces the officers to reenact the interrogation, exposing the countless lies and inconsistencies in their story. The whole time, he mercilessly mocks the policemen’s corruption—although they are often too dim-witted to notice—and secretly tape-records all the evidence of their guilt. At the end of the play, he presents the audience with a fateful dilemma that forces them to ask what justice might look like under a thoroughly rotten government. |
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20 Jul 2026 |
How to Succeed in Business, Without Really Trying |
Auditorium |
|
The story concerns young, ambitious J. Pierrepont Finch, who, with the help of the book How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, rises from window washer to chairman of the board of the ‘World-Wide Wicket Company’. Our hero, J. Pierrepont Finch, runs into many obstacles and overcomes them like a modern, comic Siegfried: there's his rival (the boss's nephew), the mailroom trap, the office wolf, the dangerous secretary, the board meeting, jealous executives and, of course, the big boss himself. From the first coffee break to the last elevator load on Friday night, office life is never the same once "Ponty" Finch settles in for the trip to the top. |
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Tickets for these plays will be available from the beginning of July.
Under the Limelight: Backstage at the Volunteer-led LMT
Friday 14 Mar 2025
From a dilapidated 1970s paint store in an old chapel to a cornerstone of Nottingham’s independent theatre community, The Lace Market Theatre (LMT) has been staging shows for almost fifty years. Like many creative communities, the LMT has a constant churn in members and recently made an appeal for support from the local community. We spoke to long time volunteer and Chair of the Board of Trustees, Gareth Morris, on the ebb and flow of a creative community, the challenges a volunteer organisation can face, and what keeps a theatre alive.
Read the full article on LeftLion's website here.
Plea for century-old theatre after drop in members
Friday 10 Jan 2025
Max Bromley says he has been a member of the theatre since the 60s
An amateur theatre company with a history spanning 100 years is calling for more people to join the organisation.
The Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham was founded as the Nottingham Playgoers Club in 1922.
It moved into its current home - formerly a chapel - in the early 70s and the team worked to adapt it.
With its rich history in the city, the theatre is now focusing on the future, hoping more members will join to ensure its curtains do not close.
The organisation said it had seen a drop in membership since the pandemic and hoped to see new members walk through the door.
Members can be involved in roles on and off the stage
For wardrobe master Max Bromley, the theatre company also played a special role in his family's history.
"My parents met at the theatre. My dad was directing a show, and my mum was in it, and so I've been a member, I suppose, since 1962, on and off," he said.
Mr Bromley added: "We're all amateurs here, and we've got an awful nerve. We expect total strangers to pay and come and watch us do something we enjoy doing."
And they do, which is why the small theatre has stood the test of time.
In its humble 124-seat auditorium, the organisation puts on 14 shows each year.
Ian Smith, who directed the theatre's upcoming production of Skylight - written by British playwright David Hare - said the theatre was his "happy place".
"I still work professionally but volunteer here, and I've done so for a long time.
"It provides a platform for you to be creative and to be part of a theatre that is one of Nottingham's hidden gems," he said.
Actor Charlotte Hukin says for her "art is life"
Amateur actor Charlotte Hukin believes it is important for people to grow up with theatre and art.
"You can do as little or as much as you want; there's no pressure," she said.
Members can be involved in roles on and off the stage, including sound and lighting roles, front of house, and administration.
The organisation opened its doors to the public on Thursday, so people could learn more about the theatre and its work.
Read the full article online here.
100-year-old Nottingham theatre ... launches appeal
Wednesday 8 Jan 2025
One of Britain’s oldest amateur theatre companies is calling for new members to help safeguard it for future generations. The Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham is a much-loved and well-known company of actors and production staff which has been providing a high standard of theatre in the city centre for just over a century.
The late Timothy West was a patron. His wife, Prunella Scales, remains a patron, alongside famous actor couple Keeley Hawes and Matthew Macfadyen.
Founded as the Nottingham Playgoers Club in 1922, the company today puts on 14 shows every year. The theatre is run like a traditional repertory company, similar to the professional ‘reps’ which used to flourish in venues across the country.
Membership fell slightly during the pandemic so now the theatre has produced its own mini-documentary, to show the workings of the company, both on and off stage. The film will be screened at a special open evening at the theatre on Halifax Place in Nottingham on Thursday January 9 at 7.30pm. Anyone with an interest in acting or theatre production is welcome to attend, with no experience necessary.
The company had over 300 members pre-pandemic but numbers dropped during the Covid pandemic. It now has around 230 members, many of whom perform in the busy and varied programme of plays staged every year. Others take on backstage roles like stage management, sound and lighting, costume and props, front of house, box office, bar and theatre administration.
The 124-seat theatre also runs a 30-strong Youth Group of 11-18 year olds who attend weekly workshops in term time. Every spring the group stages a popular major production on the main stage.
The Lace Market Theatre also has special links with two theatres in Nottingham’s twin town of Karlsruhe in Germany. An exchange tour takes place every two years alternating between the cities, when the theatres put on two plays during a week of performances and cultural sightseeing.
Chairman of the board of trustees, Gareth Morris, said: "Everything you see when you visit the Lace Market Theatre has been put there by someone because of their passion for theatre. We are very lucky to be the current custodians and it is up to us to pass it on to the next generation of enthusiastic creatives in a better condition than we received it and anyone can be a part of that. You don't need to be an expert in any particular area, we will show you the ropes and support your love of theatre in any discipline you're interested in."
Actor and assistant stage manager, Jake Turner, is currently rehearsing for a production of Sam Steiner’s West End hit, ‘Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons’. He said: "Acting with the Lace Market Theatre has given me a chance to explore my passion for the stage. The atmosphere is very warm and welcoming and it’s great to be part of a collective of creative people. As a result, my passion has continued to grow and blossom, and I have made friendships that will last a lifetime."
Lesley Brown, props mistress, added: "The Lace Market Theatre has allowed me to rediscover my creativity, working together as a team to put on great productions. There’s ready-made friendship because of our shared passion, and also a chance to develop new skills. It can also be a springboard into a professional career in theatre. It really is my second home and family."
At the open evening visitors will be able to meet current members and watch the new behind-the-scenes film that covers all aspects of the theatre running. There will also be a free drink in the bar, a guided tour of the theatre building and an opportunity to ask questions and join the company on the spot for £55 per year. Discounted rates are available for people on low or no income.
Read the full article here.
Lydia Marchant Came to Visit
Monday 16 Sep 2024
Mumsy was written for and first performed at Hull Truck just last year. The Lace Market Theatre is the first company to put the show on since and after reading one of the opening night reviews, Lydia Marchant (playwright for Mumsy) sent a message of congratulations. After a short exchange we invited her along to watch the Saturday matinée performance and we were thrilled when she accepted.
After watching the show and stopping afterwards to have a chat with some of the cast and crew Lydia had a few photos with the team before heading on her way.
This morning we received the following message from Lydia.
I just wanted to say a massive thank you to the cast and creatives of Mumsy at the Lace Market Theatre for doing such a beautiful, funny and tender job with the play. All 3 performers were amazing, you each totally got the characters and made them your own, the production was fab and I was so pleased with the audience reaction.
Lovely to meet you all and thanks for making me feel so welcome at the theatre.
NANDA Awards 2024
Friday 21 Jun 2024
Tonight the Lace Market Theatre attended the annual NANDA (Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Drama Association) awards dinner. We had a great attendance representing The Pride and The Weir.
We are very proud to have taken home the award for Best Actor with Jak Truswell in his portrayal of Oliver in The Pride.
There were also special mentions for Chris Sims (Director), Jack Leo (Best Actor) and Best Technical Presentation for The Pride; and Nik Hedges (Director), Michelle Smith (Best Actress), Best Set Design and Best Techincal Presentation for The Weir.
2024/25 Season
Sunday 24 Mar 2024
The plays we plan to perform are as follows:
|
DATES |
SHOW |
VENUE |
|
9 Sep 2024 |
Mumsy |
Studio |
|
Sophie is about to become a single mum – a third-generation one – and she's terrified. How will she afford to feed her baby? Or a Deluxe Snuggle Pod? Can she hold on to her job? What if she's crap at parenthood? Surely she can count on her own mum and nan to help... Except her mum's got used to having a life of her own, and doesn't fancy giving up pole-dancing class and Tinder to go back to changing nappies and no sleep. Meanwhile, fresh out of hospital with a broken leg, her nan's having a three-quarter-life crisis of her own. From slammed doors to living-room karaoke, Lydia Marchant's play Mumsy is a sparky, soulful comedy drama about the highs and lows of motherhood. It premiered at Hull Truck Theatre in March 2023. |
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30 Sep 2024 to 5 Oct 2024 |
Murdered To Death |
Auditorium |
|
From the author of Out of Focus comes this hilarious spoof of the best Agatha Christie traditions, with an assembled cast of characters guaranteed to delight: Bunting the butler, an English Colonel with the prerequisite stiff upper lip, a shady French art dealer and his moll, bumbling local inspectors and a well meaning local sleuth who seems to attract murder - they’re all here, and all caught up in the side-splitting antics which follow the mysterious death of the owner of a country manor house. But will the murderer be unmasked before everyone else has met their doom, or will audiences die laughing first? |
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28 Oct 2024 |
Mary Shelley |
Auditorium |
|
Mary Shelley: daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft; lover of Shelley; author of Frankenstein... Helen Edmundson's compelling play explores a crucial episode in the early life of Mary Shelley – her meeting and scandalous elopement aged sixteen with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and its consequences for her sisters, her stepmother and above all, her troubled father, the political philosopher William Godwin. Mary Shelley was first staged in a co-production between Shared Experience, Nottingham Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, in March 2012. |
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11 Nov 2024 |
Bully Boy by Sandi Toksvig |
Studio |
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A ferociously gripping play that tackles the challenging moral issues of contemporary military occupation and its effect on the mental health of serving soldiers with startling insight. Falklands War veteran Major Oscar Hadley is sent to a combat zone to probe allegations of severe misconduct by Eddie Clark, a young squaddie from Burnley and part of a self-styled 'Bully Boy' unit of the British Army. As the interrogation develops, Oscar begins to discover that '‘truth' in a modern insurgency can be a point of view rather than a fact. Written with startling insight by author and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, Bully Boy was first performed at Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, in 2011. |
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9 Dec 2024 |
A Christmas Carol |
Auditorium |
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An acclaimed dramatisation of Dickens' well-loved Christmas story - more faithful to the original than any other published version, and making skilful use of traditional carols to underscore the action. Karen Louise Hebden's stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol was first staged at Derby Playhouse in 2003, directed by Stephen Edwards with Ben Roberts as Scrooge, breaking box office records with 98% paid attendance. Hebden's version was staged at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in December 2005, and was revived at Derby Playhouse in 2006. It has subsequently enjoyed over fifty amateur productions nationally as well as being the inaugural Christmas production at The Rose, Kingston, in December 2008. |
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13 Jan 2025 |
Skylight |
Auditorium |
|
Broadway and the West End applauded this intensely clear-sighted and compassionate play about a love affair. Kyra is surprised to see the son of her former lover at her apartment in a London slum. He hopes she will reconcile with his distraught, now widowed, father. Tom, a restless, self-made restaurant and hotel tycoon, arrives later that evening, unaware of his son's visit. Kyra, who was his invaluable business associate and a close family friend until his wife discovered their affair, has since found a vocation teaching underprivileged children. Is the gap between them unbridgeable, or can they resurrect their relationship? |
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27 Jan 2025 |
A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain by Sami Ibrahim |
Studio |
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Elif shears sheep for a rich landowner. Every other waking hour she spends queuing outside the palace, hoping that the King will let her live within the city walls. She comes from a faraway land. She is searching for sanctuary. And this is what we call a 'hostile environment'. Sami Ibrahim's play A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain is a poetic fable about an impenetrable immigration system that mirrors our own. It premiered in Paines Plough's Roundabout in 2022, including a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as a co-production between Paines Plough and Rose Theatre, |
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17 Feb 2025 |
Alys, Always |
Auditorium |
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A psychological thriller excavating the fault lines that separate the entitled from the rest, Alys, Always is adapted for the stage by Lucinda Coxon from Harriet Lane's gripping novel. Frances works on the books pages of a Sunday newspaper. She's quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside, looking in. One evening, driving back to London after visiting her infuriating parents, she comes across an overturned car crumpled on the side of the road. She waits with the injured driver, Alys Kyte, until the ambulance arrives. Later, when Alys's famous family gets in touch, Frances finds herself ushered for the first time into the world on the other side of the window. And she begins to wonder: what will it take to belong? |
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3 Mar 2025 |
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons |
Studio |
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The average person will speak 123,205,750 words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit? Oliver and Bernadette are about to find out. Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons is a tender and funny rom-com about what we say, how we say it, and what happens when we can't say anything any more. The play was first performed at Warwick Arts Centre in 2015, and won three Judges' Awards at the National Student Drama Festival before appearing at Latitude Festival, Camden People's Theatre in London, and several runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was a hit with both audiences and critics. It has since been performed around the world, is widely studied and has been translated into multiple languages. |
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24 Mar 2025 |
Youth Theatre Show TBC |
Auditorium |
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TBC |
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28 Apr 2025 |
Private Lives |
Auditorium |
|
Revived in 2002 by the Royal National Theatre in a production that sparkled on Broadway, Private Lives is one of the most sophisticated, entertaining plays ever written. Elyot and Amanda, once married and now honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel, meet by chance, reignite the old spark and impulsively elope. After days of being reunited, they again find their fiery romance alternating between passions of love and anger. Their aggrieved spouses appear and a roundelay of affiliations ensues as the women first stick together, then apart, and new partnerships are formed. A uniquely humorous play boasting numerous successful Broadway runs with stars like Coward himself, Laurence Olivier, Tallulah Bankhead, Gertrude Lawrence, Tammy Grimes, Richard Burton, and Elizabeth Taylor. |
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26 May 2025 |
The Three Musketeers |
Auditorium |
|
When the young and naive D'Artagnan sets out on his quest to become a King's musketeer, he immediately encounters the dangerous femme fatale, Milady de Winter. After discovering that the musketeers have been disbanded, he makes it his mission to get them reinstated. But will his feud with Milady thwart him? And who the heck is she? This riotous adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel by John Nicholson (Hound of the Baskervilles, Peepolykus) was originally performed by physical-comedy theatre company Le Navet Bete on a UK tour in 2019, with four actors playing over thirty characters. It was co- produced by Le Navet Bete and Exeter Northcott Theatre. The Three Musketeers will suit any theatre company or drama group looking for a funny, high-energy adaptation of a universally loved story, which is suitable for audiences of all ages. Swashbuckling and rollicking adventure guaranteed – convincing French accents, not so much. |
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23 Jun 2025 |
Ring Round the Moon |
Auditorium |
|
Adapted from Jean Anouilh's play Invitation to the Castle (1947), Ring Round the Moon is a whimsical jaunt of love and matchmaking. Set in the winter garden of an estate during a ball, the poor but lovely dancer Isabelle has arrived at the invitation of Hugo, a charming scoundrel and twin brother to Frederic, a young man hopelessly in love. However, Hugo believes that Frederic loves the wrong woman--the manipulative millionairess Diana--and wants to use Isabelle to break up the engagement. At the same time, Isabelle must hide her identity (and melodramatic mother) to play the part of a wealthy socialite. Lady India, Hugo's eccentric cousin, is the mistress of Diana's father Messerschmann, but carrying on a secret romance with Messerschmann's secretary, Patrice. And Madame Desmortes, the hostess of everyone, has just about had it with everyone's secrets. A light confection of mistaken identities and heartbreak schemes, Ring Round the Moon is joyful and sublime in its portrayal of a Cinderella finding her true love at an unexpected ball. |
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21 Jul 2025 |
The Prince |
Auditorium |
|
Have you ever been trapped in a bad relationship, playing a role that doesn't suit you? Jen and Sam are also trapped ... in a multiverse of Shakespeare's complete works. On their quest to discover the doorway back to reality they notice something unusual about Henry 'Hotspur' Percy. Now Jen and Sam must decide; do they risk losing their way home to help someone who might be like them – someone who does not yet know who she truly is? The Prince is a sharp new play that weaves through Henry IV Part One and other of the Bard's works, providing fun for the audience whether they be Shakespeare scholars or verse virgins. With sword fighting, lesbianism, and disappointed parents, this thrilling new work was written by Abigail Thorn, celebrated creator of Philosophy Tube. |
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Tickets for these plays will be available from the beginning of July.
Emmy win for our patron Matthew Macfadyen
Monday 15 Jan 2024
Seems like Matthew Macfadyen has his plate pretty full.
While accepting his Emmy award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series on Monday, the Succession star thanked his "on-screen wife" Sarah Snook, his "other on-screen wife" Nicholas Braun and his actual wife, actress Keeley Hawes (Line of Duty, Bodyguard), much to the amusement of the Emmy Awards audience.
Macfadyen also thanked "the Television Academy, the entire Succession family. Directors, writers, producers, cast and crew, our peerless crew, every department, often unsung, always brilliant."
In the smash-hit HBO series, Macfadyen is Tom Wambsgans, an executive at Waystar — the Roy family’s global media conglomerate. Tom’s aforementioned "wife" is Roy sibling Shiv (Snook), while the "other on-screen wife" Braun plays the much-maligned Cousin Greg.
Macfadyen also won in an Emmy in this category in 2022, and earlier this month he won a Golden Globe. He is also nominated for a SAG Award in the Male Actor in a Drama Series category.
Succession leads the Emmy nominations list for 2023 with a total of 27, followed by The Last of Us with 24 and Ted Lasso with 21.
Succession came to an end in May 2023 with its fourth season.
See full list of Emmy winners here.
Golden Globe win for our patron Matthew Macfadyen
Sunday 7 Jan 2024
In his first Golden Globes win, Succession's Matthew Macfadyen put the praise and blame where it belongs.
"I just adored every second playing the weird and wonderful human grease stain that is Tom Wambsgans," Macfadyfen said onstage Sunday to more laughs than most of host Jo Koy's opening monologue. "Tom Wambsgans CEO, I should say God help us," the Deadpool 3 actor added, reminding everyone of who ended up sort of on top at the end of the Jesse Armstrong-created satire, and how good the writing on the HBO show was.
Up against The Morning Show's Billy Crudup, The Bear's Elon Moss-Bachrach, Jury Duty's James Marsden and his Succession co-stars Alexander Skarsgård and Alan Ruck in the Globes' Male Supporting Actor, TV category, Macfadyen's win and pitch-perfect speech saw a big response from the Succession table in the Beverly Hilton ballroom.
In a display of Succession's status among the Tinseltown finest, Macfadyen's remarks also got a big cheer from Ben Affleck and a heart round of applause from JLo and Matt Damon, among everyone else in the venue.
For a show that has racked up nominations and wins from almost the moment it debuted in 2018, this was not only Macfadyen's first Globes win, but his first nomination as well. Succession has a total of nine nominations at this year's Globes.
A past Emmy winner, the actor is up next week for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
See full list of Golden Globe winners here.
NANDA Awards 2023
Saturday 24 Jun 2023
Tonight the Lace Market Theatre attended the annual NANDA (Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Drama Association) awards dinner. We had a great attendance representing Constellations and The Government Inspector.
We are very proud to have taken home the award for Best Actor with Ben Gilbert in his portrayal of Roland in Constellations.
There were also special mentions for Chris Sims (Director) and Ellen Woszatka (Best Actress) for Constellations; and Matt Huntbach (Director), Louis Street (Best Actor), Max Bromley (Costumes) and Nik Hedges (Set Design) for The Government Inspector.
2023/24 Season
Sunday 2 Apr 2023
The plays we plan to perform are as follows:
|
DATES |
SHOW |
VENUE |
|
12 Sep 2023 |
Educating Rita |
Studio |
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A warm-hearted duologue between a professor and his pupil who has aspirations. The film of the story starred Michael Caine and Julie Walters. Two excellent parts although the actor playing Rita will need a Liverpudlian accent. |
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2 Oct 2023 to 7 Oct 2023 |
Hobson's Choice |
Auditorium |
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Well known and much loved tale of curmudgeonly bootmaker Hobson, his three daughters all anxious to marry and his shy apprentice Will Mossop. Originally scheduled for the 2019/20 Season and one of the first plays lost because of Covid. |
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30 Oct 2023 |
The Pride |
Auditorium |
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This play was universally admired by members of the PAG. Evoked great empathy for the characters and dealt sensitively with LGBT issues. This is more than a good play this is an important play and demands to be performed. To quote from a PAG assessment sheet ‘Will need strong actors and considerate direction’. |
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14 Nov 2023 |
The Weir by Conor MacPherson |
Studio |
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Storytelling set in a small rural bar in Ireland in the 1990’s. Beautifully crafted language and fascinating characters. Written in an Irish idiom but accents are required. |
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8 Dec 2023 |
The Importance of Being Earnest |
Auditorium |
|
Oscar Wilde’s classic masterpiece for Christmas. It is a costume drama but one that plays to one of the wardrobe department’s many strengths. Extended run of ten performances but is still expected to sell out. |
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15 Jan 2024 |
Shakers Restirred |
Auditorium |
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Selected specifically for Jakobus in Karlsruhe. All four cast members play cocktail waitresses but also their customers, manager etc. Also there is minimal set required. A typical Godber of the time, very funny but laced with sharp social commentary. A challenge for the actors and director as it requires multi-role playing. |
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30 Jan 2024 |
Once Upon A Bridge by Spnya Kelly |
Studio |
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A jogger pushes a woman on London Bridge, a bus swerves to avoid her! The three diverse protagonists tell their stories leading up to and after this real event. Storytelling by means of three interlinked monologues. |
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19 Feb 2024 |
Romeo & Juliet |
Auditorium |
|
Selected specifically for Die Kauze in Karlsruhe as they like Shakespeare and this apparently will appeal specifically to their younger members. When casting consideration needs to be given to limiting numbers because of the logistics of getting them all to Germany! Similar thought needs to go into set and props. |
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20 Mar 2024 |
Youth Theatre Show TBC |
Auditorium |
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TBC |
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15 Apr 2024 |
A Doll's House |
Auditorium |
|
Ibsen, a writer before his time, an early feminist. In this play he creates Nora one of the most enduring characters in literature. A single set andan opportunity for the wardrobe department to excel. |
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30 Apr 2024 |
A Doll's House Part 2 |
Studio |
|
Fifteen years after the end of A Doll’s House much has changed in the Helmer household! Overwhelmingly positive feedback from all PAG members of this insightfully written piece of theatre. How do Torvald, Nora and Anne-Marie view the world and what of Emmy a child in A Doll’s House but now all grown up and engaged to be married? |
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27 May 2024 |
Strangers On A Train |
Auditorium |
|
A thriller that lives up to its name. The basis of the Alfred Hitchcock film. An easy choice for PAG as it is well written with a believable storyline. Two fantastic parts for men. To quote myself from the PAG assessment sheet ‘great plot and stunning denouement’. |
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24 Jun 2024 |
Rabbit Hole |
Auditorium |
|
An extremely well-written piece that wowed members of the PAG with the PAG assessment sheet littered with superlatives. An important play about an important subject, grief. There are no staging or costume concerns. The challenge for the director and cast will be to strike a careful balance of emotions. |
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22 Jul 2024 |
Abigail's Party |
Auditorium |
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This is a classic in its time, the 1970’s, revived for a new generation. The drama revolves around a suburban house party. A short distance away a teenage daughter is also attending a party and mum is specifically not invited. Beverley and Angela offer some supremely tactless remarks then reality breaks through the smugness when... |
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Tickets for these plays will be available from the beginning of July.
Lace Market Youth Theatre on the town...
Tuesday 5 Jul 2022
This week, the Lace Market Youth Theatre had a night out to see Singin' in the Rain thanks to a generous donation from David Nightingale, who has always been a big supporter of our youth group.
NANDA Awards 2022
Friday 24 Jun 2022
Tonight the Lace Market Theatre attended the annual NANDA (Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Drama Association) awards dinner. We had a great attendance representing How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, Pressure, and Ghosts. We are very proud to have taken home the following awards.
Best Supporting Actor. Fraser Wanless for his performance in How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found.
Best Actor. Malcolm Todd for his portrayal of Group Captain James Stagg in Pressure.
Best Director. Jane Herring for her direction of Pressure; this is our third year winning this award after Mant Huntback won in 2019 with The Hound of the Baskervilles and Chris Sims won in 2020 with Foxfinder.
Play of the Year. Pressure.
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service
Thursday 2 Jun 2022
The Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham, which is run entirely by volunteers, has been awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive and is the equivalent to an MBE. The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is a tremendous achievement and one that all of our volunteers both past and present can be immensely proud of.
The Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire will present The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service to the Lace Market Theatre later this year. It will conclude a most remarkable year of celebrations, 2022 is the theatre’s centenary year and the fortieth anniversary of twinning with two theatres from Nottingham’s twin city Karlsruhe.
To celebrate the theatre’s centenary year, plans are already well in hand for a Gala Evening when the theatre will be staging a performance of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever before an invited audience. The gala evening will recognise the pioneers who formed the company back in 1922 and those volunteers who took a leap of faith in the mid 1970’s, buying a derelict building in Halifax Place which we are all now so very proud to call our home.
Earlier in 2022 volunteers played host to our German friends from Karlsruhe; Die Kaeuze Theatra and Jakobus Theatra. There was much joy and laughter as presents and anecdotes were exchanged to mark the fortieth anniversary. It is best summed up by quoting the Mayor of Karlsruhe in his letter to the Mayor of Nottingham ‘you and everyone participating in this exchange act as ambassadors for community and
cooperation, joy and friendship – and a peaceful world’.
It requires an enormous range of skills, from stage managers to sound engineers and graphic designers to ushers to run a theatre staging fourteen in-house productions each year. If you would like to get involved in any capacity visit the website www.lacemarkettheatre.co.uk and see how you can take the first step. New volunteers are it’s lifeblood and the Lace Market Theatre would be delighted to hear from you.
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is a great honour for all Lace Market Theatre volunteers and they look forward to carrying the torch for live theatre for many years to come.
2022/23 Season
Monday 21 Mar 2022
The plays we plan to perform are as follows:
|
DATES |
SHOW |
VENUE |
|
20 Sep 2022 |
Vincent in Brixton |
Studio |
|
Brixton, 1873. A brash young Dutchman rents a room in the house of an English widow. Three years later he returns to Europe on the first step of a journey which will end in breakdown, death and immortality. |
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10 Oct 2022 to 15 Oct 2022 |
Medea |
Auditorium |
|
Medea is centered on Medea's calculated desire for revenge against her unfaithful husband. The play is set in Corinth some time after Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, where he met Medea. |
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25 Oct 2022 |
Escaped Alone |
Studio |
|
Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Caryl Churchill's convention-defying play juxtaposes backyard tea with environmental disaster, exploring themes of politics, crisis, communication and female endurance. |
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12 Nov 2022 |
Hay Fever by Noël Coward |
Auditorium |
|
Set in an English country house on the River Thames, it blends over-the-top hijinks, slapstick, satire, and a comedy of manners to present a unique portrait of a wacky and endearing English family in the early 1920s. Each of the four members of the Bliss family has invited a guest to stay at the family estate for the weekend. This sets the stage for a series of raucous misunderstandings that only serve to underscore an unspoken but universal fact: There is no such thing as a normal family. |
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12 Dec 2022 |
The Flint Street Nativity |
Auditorium |
|
Mizzis Horrocks' class of seven year olds is about to perform their nativity play at Flint Street Junior School for the proud mums and dads - and the occasional social worker. Squabbles arise when Gabriel wants to play Mary, the Star grumbles he's not a proper star like they have at NASA, Herod won't stop waving to his mum and dad and the subversive Innkeeper is determined to liven up the traditional script. And then the stick insect escapes... The children are played by adults, who later play their parents. |
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10 Jan 2023 |
Constellations |
Studio |
|
Suppose that life exists in a multiverse -- a set of parallel existences that contain infinitely different futures. The possibilities in our lives are, quite literally, endless. Every possible event that could happen, does happen, in one universe or another. And if two lovers meet -- are drawn together in every version of existence -- every possible happy ending and heartbreak that could befall them, will. Nick Payne’s beautiful play, Constellations, explores how even the smallest change in our lives can dramatically alter the course we take. It is a spellbinding exploration of love, science, quantum theory, and infinite possibility for heartbreak or for hope. |
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30 Jan 2023 |
Handbagged by Moira Buffini |
Auditorium |
|
The monarch - Liz. Her most powerful subject - Maggie. One believed there was no such thing as society. The other had vowed to serve it. |
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27 Feb 2023 |
The Government Inspector |
Auditorium |
|
A classic satire of provincial bureaucracy in which a town’s corrupt authorities are thrown into hilarious confusion by the supposed arrival of a Government Inspector. This version, set in the East Midlands in the mid 19th Century, has been specifically written for the Lace Market Theatre. |
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29 Mar 2023 |
Youth Theatre Show TBC |
Auditorium |
|
TBC |
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24 Apr 2023 |
Measure for Measure |
Auditorium |
|
The play's plot features its protagonist, Duke Vincentio of Vienna, stepping out from public life to observe the affairs of the city under the governance of his deputy, Angelo. Angelo's harsh and ascetic public image is compared to his abhorrent personal conduct once in office, in which he exploits his power to procure a sexual favour from Isabella, whom he considers enigmatically beautiful. |
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9 May 2023 |
The Son |
Studio |
|
Nicolas, just two years ago a smiling boy, is going through a difficult phase after his parents’ divorce. He’s listless, skipping classes, lying. He believes moving in with his father and his new family may help. And a different school, a fresh start. When he doesn’t feel comfortable there, when he senses he isn’t wanted, he decides that going back to his mother’s may be the answer. |
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29 May 2023 |
Towards Zero |
Auditorium |
|
When a house party gathers at Gull's Point, the seaside home of Lady Tressilian, Neville Strange finds himself caught between his old wife Audrey and his new flame Kay. A nail-biting thriller, the play probes the psychology of jealousy in the shadow of a savage and brutal murder. A carefully unpeeled investigation before our eyes brings the story to a pointed ending. |
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26 Jun 2023 |
Something Unspoken / Suddenly Last Summer |
Auditorium |
|
Miss Cornelia Scott is a grand, Southern woman whose outer extravagance belies inner insecurities. She has a complex, codependent relationship with her secretary, and during the elections for the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, their tensions reach a tipping point. Catherine Holly has witnessed the murder of her cousin Sebastian, which has sent her to a psychiatric hospital. When Sebastian's mother, Mrs. Venable, invites a psychiatrist to question Catherine about her story, she paints a picture so graphic it's almost unbelievable. Mrs. Venable would rather not believe it and have her son's secrets remain secrets. In one of Tennessee Williams' most haunting pieces of writing, how far will a mother go to preserve her son's reputation? |
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24 Jul 2023 |
Salad Days |
Auditorium |
|
Jane and Timothy Dawes meet in a park, soon after their graduation, to plan their lives. They agree to get married, and do so in secret, but Timothy's parents have urged him to ask his various influential uncles to find him suitable employment. He and Jane, however, decide that he must take the first job that he is offered. A passing tramp offers them £7 a week to look after his mobile piano for a month, and, upon accepting, they discover that when the piano plays it gives everyone within earshot an irresistible desire to dance. |
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Tickets for these plays will be available from the beginning of July.
2021/22 Season
Friday 4 Jun 2021
Great news!! We hope to reopen the theatre with plays in September. We are a little cautious and will have to follow the guidelines.
The plays we plan to perform are as follows:
|
DATES |
SHOW |
VENUE |
|
20 Sep 2021 |
How to Date a Feminist |
Auditorium |
|
A comedy that riffs on the Hollywood romcom as it explores the difficulties of finding true love amidst the complexities of modern dating etiquette and gender roles. It was first performed at the Arcola Theatre, London, on 6 September 2016. |
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|
18 Oct 2021 to 23 Oct 2021 |
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg |
Auditorium |
|
First performed in 1967, and still relevant, the play centres on a couple who are struggling to save their marriage whilst trying to raise their only child, a girl who suffers with cerebral palsy and is unable to communicate. Caring for her has occupied nearly every moment of her parents' lives since her birth, taking a heavy toll on their marriage. A recent West End revival starred Toby Stephens, Claire Skinner and Patricia Hodge. |
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|
15 Nov 2021 |
Pink Mist |
Auditorium |
|
Pink Mist is a verse-drama about three young soldiers from Bristol who are deployed to Afghanistan. Within a short space of time they return to the women in their lives (a mother, a wife, a girlfriend), all of whom must now share the psychological and physical aftershocks of their service. Drawing upon interviews with soldiers and their families, it is the first extended lyric narrative to emerge from the devastating conflict. |
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13 Dec 2021 |
How the Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn |
Auditorium |
|
Familiar Ayckbourn themes of dysfunctional couples embarking upon disastrous relationships in a polite suburban setting. The main reason this early play (it was Ayckbourn’s second great success) is not performed more often is the challenge of staging it - one scene consists of two dinner parties taking place on stage simultaneously, with one hapless couple involved in both! Done successfully, it should be riotously funny. |
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10 Jan 2022 |
How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found |
Auditorium |
|
Marketing executive Charlie is suffering from the pressures of his stressful lifestyle: insomnia, drink and drug abuse, panic attacks, mounting debts, and the recent death of his mother. When he is caught trying to make some money disappear, Charlie pulls a disappearing act of his own – running from the office, leaving the city, abandoning his life and his identity. |
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7 Feb 2022 |
The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance |
Auditorium |
|
First performed at the Hampstead Theatre in 1977, and then with successful runs at the National; and on Broadway and winner og the Tony Award for best new play. Based on the story of Joseph Merrick (renamed John in the play) and his attempts to be treated as an ordinary person instead of an exhibit at a freak show, it raises important questions about what we consider “normal” and how we respond to people who don’t fit society’s norms. |
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7 Mar 2022 |
Queen Anne |
Auditorium |
|
Period dramas have been popular in the last few seasons (a good opportunity to display costumes and wigs!) but this is rather less comic than some. The period and central character have recently become familiar through the film The Favourite; Edmundson’s play, first performed by the RSC in 2015, takes a different angle on the Queen’s relationship with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Like all good historical pieces, it raises key questions about political power at any time, including today. |
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4 Apr 2022 |
Youth Theatre Show TBC |
Auditorium |
|
TBC |
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11 Apr 2022 |
German Visit Shows TBC |
Auditorium |
|
TBC |
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|
9 May 2022 |
Pressure |
Auditorium |
|
David Haig is perhaps best known as an actor and the writer of the powerful WW1 drama, My Boy Jack. Here he dramatises the previously almost unknown background to the D-Day landings, why the original date of the invasion had to be postponed because of bad weather. Needless to say, the word “pressure” takes on multiple significance and the play asks important questions about how much the fate of millions might depend on one person’s decision. Extracts were performed at Portsmouth on 5 June 2019 for the Queen, President Trump and other world leaders, to help mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. |
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23 May 2022 |
Hang |
Studio |
|
Cataclysm in a small space. Explosion in lower case. Intensity and obliqueness are defining marks of Debbie Tucker Green’s plays. As is a lack of capital letters. At some indefinite point in the future, a victim of an unnamed crime is meeting a pair of officials. They will allow her to help decide how the person who has harmed her family will be punished – actually, how the perpetrator will be killed. |
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13 Jun 2022 |
Jekyll and Hyde |
Auditorium |
|
A radical re-imagining of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 gothic novella, commissioned by the National Youth Theatre and first performed in September 2017. The play opens in the Victorian period, after the death of Dr Jekyll (the culminating event in Stevenson's novella). Jekyll's widow, Harriet, is trying to continue her late husband's work, which results in her developing an alter ego as a violent, forthright prostitute, Flossie Hyde. But all isn’t what it seems, and the plot (and period of action) takes a surprising and violent twist at the end of Act 1. |
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27 Jun 2022 |
Ghosts |
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Richard Eyre’s version of Ibsen is true to the original while stripping down some of the more verbose passages. The result is a tense, ultimately tragic drama of a woman who has spent her life suspended in an emotional void after the death of her cruel but outwardly charming husband. She is determined to escape the ghosts of her past by telling her son, Oswald, the truth about his father, but finds his legacy impossible to escape. 'Raw and unsparing, but also devastatingly true to the spirit of the original... theatre seldom, if ever, comes greater than this' was the Sunday Telegraph’s review of its 2013 premiere. |
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18 Jul 2022 |
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First staged at the National Theatre in 2012, Bennett’s play centres on a crumbling stately home that its elderly, aristocratic, owners are being forced to sell as they can no longer maintain it. The National Trust is the obvious buyer … until a more lucrative but morally dubious offer comes along. Like much of Bennett’s work, there is a metaphor for the state of the nation hovering behind the satire, which in this case is directed at the heritage industry and the value of so-called national treasures. |
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Tickets for these plays will be available from the beginning of July.
