Papatango today announce that their 2024 New Writing Prize will open for submissions at noon on Wednesday 17 January, until noon on Monday 11 March. This Prize launches a new partnership with Park Theatre, who will co-produce the winning play with Papatango in a full run on their main stage.

Judged anonymously, the Papatango New Writing Prize was the UK’s first, and remains the only annual, opportunity guaranteeing a new writer a full production – for 2025 in Park200 at Park Theatre, publication by Nick Hern Books, a royalty of 8% of the box office, and a £7,500 commission with full developmental support.

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With theatres and companies having to adapt to our new normal, the industry have responded by creating works available to stream online. Adapting their show Romantics Anonymous to this new format, Wise Children will offer a mixture of live performances and online streaming – performing to a socially distanced audiences, whilst also streaming their work with partnering theatres via their digital tour format. Ahead of the show, performer Omari Hardwick tells us how he feels about performing to a socially distanced audience for the first time since lockdown!

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This latest tour of Headlong’s sell-out west-end show from the National delivers a play in which form and content compliment each other with enigmatic dexterity; in which questions are posed by characters who themselves are somewhat questionable in both intent and integrity, and one is taken on a journey that the play itself keeps on telling you is pointless, but turns out to be anything but.

PPT, Credit: Johan Persson, 2017

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The National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic’s adaptation of Jane Eyre is absolutely flawless. From beginning to end I am in complete awe of the skill, perfection and creativity involved in bringing this piece of classical literature to life.

Courtesy of the National Theatre.

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A two-pronged storyline creates greatness and confusion in similar measure. Euripides’ Medea: A barbarian princess has married the hero Jason after aiding his quest for the Golden Fleece; is abandoned by him for a more royal match and, in revenge, accomplishes the murder of Jason’s new wife, and Medea’s own children.

Courtesy of Bristol Old Vic.

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“Currently on international tour, Cheek By Jowl’s tale is a modern telling replete with creative solutions to a tricky Problem Play, balancing truth and a sense of play.

Courtesy of Cheek by Jowl.

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Raymond Briggs’ Novel The Bear has long held a place in the canon of popular children’s books, and in the hearts of adults and children alike. From the author of the iconic work The Snowman, the story tells of the tale of a young girl called Tilly who awakes one night to find an enormous polar bear in her room. It is a heart-warming story of friendship and family, love and letting go, and this theatrical production captures the magic of the remarkable original with a wonder all its own.

Courtesy of Paul Blakemore

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The Rivals is a restoration comedy of the highest order, involving plenty of mistaken identity, outrageous faux pas, and other comedic misunderstandings on the road to love. A familiar formula to many, but, even to the robust sensibilities of contemporary Bath, a daring one. Perhaps this is because of it’s slightly autobiographical nature (Sheridan presents hysterically exaggerated glimpses of his own life in order to prevent possible detractors from taking them seriously), but, though only his first effort of play writing, this work is still hailed as one of the most incisive, irreverent, and enduring plays in the Sheridan canon.

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‘How do we learn? Why do we believe in the unbelievable? Why do we keep doing things that hurt us?’ These are, among others, just a few of the questions which Improbable Theatre Company attempt to tackle in their Mayfest entry, Opening Skinner’s Box. Based upon the popular and controversial book by Lauren Slater, the play runs through ten of the most influential psychological experiments of the 20^th century. It tackles topics of drug addiction, relationships, memory, obedience, belief, among several others.

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Who had the greatest last words (and what were they?) Who had the slowest, most tedious death? Who had it coming more than anyone else? These are just a few of the questions that this latest effort from ‘four of the greatest clowns working in Britain’, claims to address. In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Spymonkey have indulged their bardic inclinations by attempting to portray all 75 onstage deaths from every one of Shakespeare’s plays through the medium of physical comedy.

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