Following his hugely successful first year as artistic director, Tom Littler is marking the start of his second year at the helm with a season of new work celebrating rebellious spirits. This includes the first UK production by award-winning British/American playwright Bathsheba Doran, the world premiere of a play about the maverick surrealist, Leonora Carrington, the revival of a modern Canadian classic and a spine-chilling, body-snatching Christmas comedy.
During the theatre’s first year as a producing venue, it has staged world premieres of five full-length plays (including Howard Brenton’s The Blinding Light) and five one-act plays, two European premieres, and several revivals including the complete cycle of Noel Coward’s Tonight at 8.30. Jermyn Street Theatre, a signatory to the Equity Fringe Agreement, has also reported that its weekly sales are up by over 50%, and it has employed 28 female and 26 male actors.
The autumn Rebels season comprises:
About Leo
5 to 29 September 2018 (press night is 7 September)
The world premiere of Alice Allemano’s About Leo, directed by JMK Award-winning Michael Oakley. About Leo tells the true story of surrealist painter Leonora Carrington. When a young journalist turns up unexpectedly in Mexico City, the elderly Leo must confront her past, including her legendary love affair with the artist Max Ernst. This is Allemano’s first play.
Parents’ Evening
3 to 27 October (press night is 5 October)
The European premiere of Parents’ Evening by Bathsheba Doran. Parents’ Evening is a contemporary marital drama set at a parent-teacher evening that goes disastrously wrong. Bathsheba Doran is a Londoner who moved to the US after studying at Cambridge University, and became one of the most highly regarded playwrights in American theatre. For the first time, Doran’s plays return to the UK. Directed by Stella Powell-Jones, Jermyn Street Theatre’s deputy director.
Billy Bishop Goes to War
31 October to 24 November 2018 (press night is 2 November)
Part of a mini-season commemorating the centenary of the end of the First World War, Billy Bishop Goes to War by John Gray with Eric Peterson is directed by Jimmy Walters in a co-production with Proud Haddock. The two-man play features songs that chronicle the true story of the audacious First World War flying ace, Billy Bishop. The run is accompanied by one-night performances of This Evil Thing, a drama about conscientious objectors written and performed by Michael Mears, and Never Such Innocence, an evening of wartime music and poetry.
Burke and Hare
28 November to 21 December 2018 (press night is 30 November)
A co-production with the Watermill Theatre of Tom Wentworth’s black comedy Burke and Hare, directed by Abigail Pickard Price. In 19th century Edinburgh, William Burke and William Hare spotted a gap in the market: a huge demand from the medical profession for human corpses. They created a dastardly plan to meet the demand with a steady supply.
