Approaching 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the significant event signalled the beginnings of an era post The Troubles, a decades long conflict instigated by conflicting ideologies in as to Northern Ireland’s path on a political, social and religious level. Set in the height of The Troubles, Tim Edge’s Under the Black Rock traces a family’s gradual pull into the complex conflict and the repercussions of doing so.
Much loved around the world, popular cooking competition The Great British Bake Off has reinvigorated the nation’s love of baking, inspiring many to take up the hobby and crafts bakes thought unimaginable to make. Renowned for its impressive creations, the show has made stars out many amateur bakers, going on to show that you can achieve great things by pursuing your passions. Judged by national treasures Paul Hollywood and Pru Leith, and household names Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, over a decade down, the reality show continues to inspire imaginations. Making its London premiere on the Noël Coward stage after a successful run at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, The Great British Bake Off Musical is a playful take on a fictional season of the show, bringing with it a whole new host of characters.
Courtesy of Manuel Harlan.
The Olivier Awards with Mastercard 2023 have formally announced the recipients for this year’s Industry Recognition Award. The event is organised annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre.
Recipients need to have demonstrated at least one of the following:
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is delighted to launch the ‘Keep it Fringe’ fund, a new initiative to support Fringe artists, which is being led by Fringe Society President Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
This fund, supported by the Fleabag for Charity campaign, and funds donated to the Fringe Society through individual donors and our partnership with Edinburgh Gin, will distribute fifty bursaries of £2,000 which will be awarded to individual artists or companies bringing work to the Fringe in 2023.
The environments we grow up in play a significant role in our developmental journey. Childhood friendships and experiences things that never truly leave us. A retrospective of his locality of Peckham, writer and performer David Alade presents Sunny Side Up – a reconnection to his younger self and a heartfelt look of what now is.
Referring to himself as ‘Lil D’, Alade guides us through a 70 minute journey of his life thus far, from his humble upbringing to the current day. Tales of school – childhood crushes, parents’ evenings, grades showcasing a natural talent for the arts, college, attending Angela Ruskin University, Cambridge – where a wake up call has him confronted with pursuing the right path compared to those he has grown up with all building the foundations for a better life.
Almost a decade on from its launch, and NOW Festival, curated by the Yard has played a pivotal role in shaping our contemporary theatrical landscape, having platformed over 60 artists including Jules Cunningham, Rosana Cade & Ivor MacAskill and FK Alexander. Returning once again from 18th April to 13th May with a refreshing, bold, experimental line up of new works and ideas, NOW 23 arrives with an exciting line-up of Yard commissions and premieres from Marikiscrycrycry, SERAFINE1369, Ira Brand, BULLYACHE, Freddie Wulf and Daniel Oliver & Mazvita.
Assimilating to a new way of life brings with it a whole host of challenges, how the community engage with this process is perhaps one of the toughest challenges if one isn’t accepted. But what binds us all is the ability to love, communicate and help one another in times of need. Delving into the integration process of two refugees settling into a South Eastern England seaside town, Mahad Ali presents My Brother’s Keeper, an observant take on how two very different worlds are forced to see eye to eye and get by.
Courtesy of Ali Wright.
The last 3 years for us have been incredibly unpredictable and life altering, we’ve been hit with a pandemic that has gone on to shape how we currently live in a major way. Within theatre, the domino effect of the first theatre closing its doors in March 2020 in response to the pandemic, an open letter to the government calling for support industry-wide signalling the beginnings of a recovery process that during the interim birthed and encouraged the use of little known digital platform ‘Zoom’, amongst other digital innovations. Post pandemic, we rebuild, however the repercussions of the last few years have been mighty. So we ask ourselves, moving forward, what does the future of the oldest performance form look like? Where do we go from here? Award winning theatre maker Tim Crouch bravely ponders this in experimental piece Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel.
Emerging playwright Roxy Cook was announced today as the winner of the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award for her first play A Woman Walks Into a Bank. Roxy accepted the Award from Erica Whyman, Chair of the Award Judging Panel at an event taking place in the shell of the 503Studio at Nine Elms, which will become a world-class centre for debut playwrights. The event included a rehearsed reading of an excerpt of the winning play.
With her play selected from 1,466 submissions from 49 countries, Roxy receives The Carne Prize of £6,000 which includes the staging of a world premiere production at Theatre503 after a year’s support and development, and publication of her play by Samuel French Ltd, a Concord Theatricals Company.