This July, join the Royal Opera House for a special, live-streamed Insight. Actor and director Rikki Beadle Blair chairs a thought-provoking panel that features some of the UK’s most celebrated LGBTQ+ voices from across the creative industries.
This July, join the Royal Opera House for a special, live-streamed Insight. Actor and director Rikki Beadle Blair chairs a thought-provoking panel that features some of the UK’s most celebrated LGBTQ+ voices from across the creative industries.
Starting life as a 5 minute play, Daniel York’s Forgotten has been many years in the making. A response to the lack of acknowledgement given to the tremendous effort aiding Britain’s and the Allies’ WWI victory, Forgotten places at the forefront the 140,000 Chinese labourers who sacrificed their lives in the hopes of escaping their current regime. The title, Forgotten speaks of many who have disgracefully been written out of the history books, a common thread often witnessed within significant Western texts. A much needed historical lesson, the production looks to highlight an alternative perspective of an event we are so often used to being presented in a particular manner. November 2018 marks the centenary of the war’s ending, making this a very timely piece. Daniel tells us more about the show’s creation and what to expect!
The topic of race is a complex one, one that will have society talking, discussing and debating for centuries to come. Conversations have become increasingly overt, due in part to shifting attitudes. Lynette Linton’s #Hashtag Lightie is a landmark production, it brings to light what it means to be mixed race within the UK.
It’s rare to walk down a high street without spotting either a bookies, or a chicken and chip shop. It’s a sign of our times at present, a marker of 21st century London. Both seemingly unassuming settings, what dramatically could happen? Well, in Lynette Linton’s refreshing new production, Chicken Palace, the chicken and chip shop setting is given a lease of life. Having made her debut at new writing festival, Angelic Tales, 3 years ago with her production STEP, Linton has gone from strength to strength in her writing career. Ahead of Chicken Palace‘s debut, Theatrefullstop were lucky enough to speak to the playwright about her inspirations for the play, working with Theatre Royal legends Rikki Beadle-Blair and John Russel Gordon, and offers advice to aspiring playwrights!
Hi Lynette! How are you feeling ahead of the first performance of your new play, Chicken Palace, due to show at Stratford East Theatre Royal?
Note: This show was a staged reading of a work in progress, after only a day of rehearsals.
After Rikki Beadle-Blair’s energetic introduction, the audience were thrust into the show, ‘Jamaica Boy’. Surrounding the cast on stage was an audience being brought into the process of writing a play. ‘Jamaica Boy’ is far from finished, but once it has been polished this play has the potential to become a real diamond of a piece.
“You’re silencing it. You get people here by calling it ‘Sunday’, then they find out it’s about lesbians.” So went one woman’s feedback about the title of Joy Gharoro-Akpajotor’s hard-hitting, hair-raising solo playwright debut. We the audience were very split on this point, and the discussion raged, facilitated by award-winning writer and director Rikki Beadle-Blair as he darted from left to right, negotiating the rush of raised hands: “It’s getting serious!”.