April 27th – May 15th

Congo Red Presents

The Wages of Thin

By Trevor Griffiths

“You won’t do anything silly, will you, Thin? That man against the door is thoroughly savage. Nothing would please him better than to snap your femurs for you.”

Alfred Rimbaud Thin goes to relieve himself in a public convenience only to find himself a suspect in a murder enquiry. Over the course of a brutal interrogation, two bizarre policemen viciously accuse Thin of perversion, incest, and earning a wage that just doesn’t add up.

Oscar-nominated for REDS and the recipient of major international awards for COMEDIANS, Trevor Griffiths is one of our great contemporary dramatists. Written in 1969, THE WAGES OF THIN was his extraordinary debut play about the fragility of personal privacy. Smouldering, fast and riddled with vicious humour, its resonances for today are terrifying and unmistakable.

6th - 24th April

Yaller Skunk Theatre Company Presents

TAPE

By Stephen Belber
 
 ''...you can't ever really destroy your past, and you also can't crawl back inside it''
 
Vince can't let go of the past. And now he wants to record it. He hasn't seen his ex-girlfriend and best friend for ten years since graduation. He deals drugs but thinks only of that night years ago. Tonight he’s going to find the truth and make them all face it.

In a pressure filled society and with peers ever pressing our social buttons, how quickly can young people today end up in situations that they are unable to escape from, or how many have already been caught in similar events and perceive them as normal? TAPE explores the possibility of revisiting your past in order to shape your future.

Yaller Skunk reunites with Julia Stubbs, the director of their West End hit In My Name by Steven Hevey.

March 16 - April 3

Icarus Theatre Collective Present

Rip Her To Shreds

By Grant Corr

"I made the dress, I did my own hair and I put the make-up on myself. Yes I put woman’s makeup all over my face. I go to this club down a back street and there's this fella named Keenan. I don’t care if Satan drags my soul into hell; I'm going to see how far this rabbit-hole goes."

17 year old Davy has two choices: a slow, torturous demise dressed in a pin stripe suit or a violent death being ripped to shreds by Mena Town’s skin heads. But salvation comes in a single strapped, home made dress to make him Debbie Harry Gorgeous.

A play about difference, love, sex, violence, and a seventeen-year-old, cross-dressing DEBBIE HARRY

23 February - 13 March

fluff productions presents

Alice’s Adventures in the New World

Written by Sarah Sigal

Directed by Jessica Beck

Designed by Lily Arnold and Katherine Webb

‘Dear Alice—the truth is rarely pure and never simple.’

It is 1882. You are a seventeen year-old girl and you have just discovered your deceased mother is still alive and living in America. You set off to find her and meet:

a) an artist with an opium addiction

b) a depressed Socialist preaching free love

c) a hypochondriac debutante

d) a cattle rustler whose four husbands have all mysteriously disappeared

e) Oscar Wilde

f) your mother or

g) all of the above.

Wherever you go, you seem to be the only one in the room not wearing a corset and things become curiouser and curiouser along the way.

Alice’s Adventures in the New World is a new music hall show that explores myths about women, sexuality and gender relations in the Victorian era.

Cast: Rebecca Dunn, Ailsa Ilott, Emily North and Fiona Putnam

February 2 - 20

Secret Life Theatre Presents

In Memory of Edgar Lutzen

by David Hauptschein

Based on the 'Occult Diaries' of August Strindberg.  

Sweden's greatest painter, Edgar Lutzen, makes the radical decision to renounce art and devote his life to the pursuit of alchemy - the hidden practice of turning base metal into gold.  As he descends into a world feverish with sinister omens and the occult, his marriage collapses and his professional reputation is ruined.    

In Memory of Edgar Lutzen is a disorientating psychodrama which propels the audience into the nightmare of an unravelling mind. David Hauptschein takes inspiration from August Strindberg’s autobiographical writings where the Swedish playwright chronicles his experiments with alchemy, the occult and telepathic sex.

The ‘David Lynch of theatre’ returns to the Old Red Lion, following the success of The Playactor (Time Out Critics’ Choice) and An Alchemy of Flesh.  

"Explores the complexities of the male psyche in a style reminiscent of the sharp, fast-moving pace of David Mamet" The List (Edinburgh)

"Blows most contemporary playwrights out of the water" Chicago Reader

Tuesday 12th – Saturday 30th January

Show + Tell present

ROSS SUTHERLAND: THE THREE STIGMATA OF PACMAN

Set amongst the backdrop of mid-recession Britain and a decaying newspaper industry, this is the true-story adventure into the self-fulfilling prophecy. Navigating poetry, stories and animation this is a darkly comic ride head forth into the apocalypse by award-winning poet Ross Sutherland.

Exploring themes such as media rhetoric, historical bias, and posterity in art, The Three Stigmata of Pacman attempts to be a snapshot of contemporary Britain at a strange turning point in its cultural legacy; where newspapers are reporting science fiction, and the poets are burying themselves in the garden. 

One of the UK’s Top Ten Literary Talents – Sunday Times

Time Out Critic’s Choice Of The Year Award Winner 2005 (with Aisle16)

Pure genius – The Metro

1 - 31 December

Tom Stoppard’s

Artist Descending A Staircase

1972. Martello, Beauchamp and Donner – three contemporary artists who have lived and worked together for 60 years. But this afternoon Donner has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs. Was it professional jealously that led to his demise, or a love triangle that spanned six decades?

Six actors play the three artists as the search for artistic truth and criminal motive carries us from 1972 to 1914 and back again.

Tom Stoppard is one of the most accomplished and acclaimed playwrights working today. His other plays include Rock ‘n’ Roll, Arcadia, The Real Inspector Hound, The Real Thing and Rozencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead.

Christmas Reloaded

You better watch out; you better not cry; you better not pout I'm telling you why; Santa Claws is coming to town"

The people of the world don't know it yet but this Christmas something is coming to get them. And when Santa comes to town there's only one man who can stop him. His name is Jesus Xavier Skywalker and he's going to deck the halls.... with Santa's blood.

Resurrected, Rebranded, Reloaded and retailed to the highest bidder, Christmas as you've never seen it before in award winning PapaTango's raucous new comedy written by Philip Gawthorne.

Tuesday 10 November - Saturday 28 November

Box of Tricks present the WORLD PREMIERE of

Letting in Air

by Becky Prestwich

Nominated and Shortlisted for the Pearson Playwright Scheme 2009

"You shouldn't keep secrets.  Secrets keep you up at night.  They stop you sleeping."

Adam and his father have never been close. For Adam, Manchester is the sprung dancefloor at the Ritz and cider on the 42; for Frank, gaslights and cobbled streets.

In the wake of his mother’s death, Adam returns to Manchester with his girlfriend, promising a fresh start. But when Amy, a teenage girl with a troubled past, strikes up an unlikely friendship with his father, unspoken tensions reemerge.  Family bonds are tested and secrets refuse to remain hidden as Manchester becomes a whole new city.

Following the success of Streetlights and Shadows, Becky Prestwich's Letting in Air is a lyrical family drama about the ones we love and the secrets we keep.

Tuesday 20 October - Saturday 7 November

A Tasty Plan Productions present the UK PREMIERE of

WOMEN OF MANHATTAN

by John Patrick Shanley

Directed by Sherrill Gow

Before Sex and The City, there was Women of Manhattan.  Rhonda, Judy and Billie are lamenting the fact that while their careers are flourishing, their personal lives are a wreck. But then, in a series of sharply written, subtly revealing scenes, their situations change.

Women of Manhattan touches on the universal themes of love, loss and getting laid.  Brutally honest, the play reveals that behind the gloss and high heels, the big city disappoints just as quickly as it rewards.

September 29 - October 17

Incompany Theatre Present

The Offcut Festival

In Company Theatre aims to platform new writing and the emerging artists of London. We believe there is a wealth of talent out there unable to find an opportunity to showcase their work. We aim to provide this through the Off Cut Festival. For information about the festival, please click here

24 original, 15 minute plays are chosen, performed and voted on by the audience to form 8 finalists

Tuesday 8 -26 September

Across The Pond Theatre Company present

Bedtime Solos

By Jakob Holder

Directed by Samuel Miller

Bedtime Solos tells the story of a couple over an evening of physical intimacy and explores the isolation and that can exist between two people, even in the height of passion...
                 

 'Jakob Holder is a gifted and provocative young playwight' - Edward Albee

Jakob Holder is an award winning American playwright who has been mentored by Edward Albee for some years and has recently won the 2009 Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project, one of the most prestigious new writing awards in New York. 

Tuesday 8 - Saturday 26 September

Henry Filloux-Bennett & Stephen Makin, Loaded Hog Productions and Nick Rogers present

'Til I Die

By Benjamin Cooper

Directed by Samuel Miller

Danny and Lee have been going to watch their local football team play all their lives. They fight, chant, laugh and get drunk – and they hold tightly on to their close friendship.

Danny, who when he’s not with Lee spends his time looking after his invalid mother, desperately tries to keep Lee to himself. But when Lee gets a new girlfriend, and announces he’s planning to join the army, both their worlds slowly start to change.

'Til I Die is a play about growing up, the problems of love and loyalty, and the nature of a passionate friendship.

Cast includes Sebastian Hurtado, Cai O'Leary, Leona O'Sullivan with Patricia Quinn (best known as Magenta in the cult hit movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

18th August - 5th September

Alter Ego presents

Brazilx2

A double-bill celebrating the best of Brazilian theatre.

The Assault 

 São Paulo,1969. Money and power are pushing Victor to the edge. Trapped in a job at the bank that’s destroying him; to break free he’s got to find a victim. Hugo can’t see the threat, but he soon will… This multi-award winning classic about lust, greed and social division, in Brazil’s very own concrete jungle, explores lost identity in a society about to erupt. Written by one of Brazil’s most important playwrights and thrillingly performed in the UK for the very first time.

Directed by Victor Esses

Performed by Steven Farah and Jade Willis

The Last Days of Gilda

Rio de Janeiro, 40 degrees Celsius. Gilda locks herself in the kitchen to prepare the most delicious dishes. Outside the other women are furious. They accuse Gilda of poisoning men with love.  But Gilda is more generous and more dangerous than they can possibly imagine.  Starring acclaimed Brazilian actress Gaël Le Cornec (Frida Kahlo - Viva La Vida), The Last Days of Gilda returns to London after a sizzling sold out run earlier this year. A stunning one woman show whose explosive cocktail of food, sex, violence and love reveals the true soul of Brazil’s favelas.

Directed by Victor Esses

Tuesday 28 July - Saturday 1 August

Lumenis Theatre Present

Les Chaises

Les Chaises is based on the premise that ‘the chair’ has strangely inspired many artists as an object and a symbol for a manifold of meanings.

Lumenis is bringing together 3 writers to give their take on how we use chairs in a literal or a surreal way.  The result is an hour of theatre that is surprisingly captivating, but definitely not a little bizarre.

Mary Mazzilli’s Attempts on a Missing Chair is an absurdist, whimsical play about the meaning of the word ‘missing’, longing for that special something or someone.

In Clearance, by Fiona Whitelaw, Jean is faced with getting rid of her dead father's chair.  This proves to be more difficult than first expected, so she hire in Alfie, an antiques expert. If Alfie persuades Jean to part with the chair, what else will be cleared out and what may replace it?

Foreplay by Sue Lenier presents the audience with a  comedy of relationships. Alistair wants a baby. Janey’s not so sure. They go to a sex therapist for help. By the time they’re finished, the therapist needs help. This darkly comic romp exposes a disintegrating relationship through the psychiatrist’s chair

July 7 - July 25

Lucid Muse present

Damages

By Steve Thompson

Lucid Muse presents the first major revival of Steve Thompson's critically acclaimed debut.

Every paper wants a scoop. Every celebrity wants exposure. But when the scoop is a TV presenter's bare breasts it's not just reputations that could end up damaged. And there's more to these breasts than meets the eye...

Played in real time, Damages is a fiercely witty satire of the tabloid food chain and the ravenous appetites that sustain it.

"Sharp, slick, cynical and howlingly funny" Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
 
"One of the funniest and most plausible newspaper dramas I have ever seen" Charles Spencer, The Telegraph
 
Steve Thompson's plays include the West End hit 'Whipping it Up' and most recently 'Roaring Trade' at the Soho Theatre. 

Benet Catty's recent production of 'Howie The Rookie' at The Old Red Lion was Time Out critics choice.