New Year, New shows!
By Christina McDougall — English Touring Theatre
We are extremely excited for 2019. With two great shows already in rehearsals this month, we promise that you will be in for a treat this year.
Cougar
We kick started our rehearsals on Wednesday 2nd January for Cougar, which was a great start to the New Year.
We’re in a hotel.
We’re always in a hotel.
And each room is exactly the same as the last room, and the one before that, and the one before that…
Leila wants to inspire global change. John needs to get his shit together.
They have an arrangement. But managing an affair isn’t easy when the world around you is falling apart.
A new play about what — and who — we consume.
Just promise me you won’t
You know
Fall in love.
Chelsea Walker returns to The Orange Tree following her critically acclaimed production of Low Level Panic. She won the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award 2017, directing a riveting touring production of A Streetcar Named Desire with us.
With an all-female creative and stage management team, Cougar is proving that women can and should be given the same roles that are usually male dominated in theatre.
Cougar will be showing at The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond — 1stFebruary to 2nd March 2019.
Equus
The anticipation is finally over. The full cast has now been announced and we are very excited to see a new take on this remarkable classic.
Inspired by a true story, Peter Shaffer’s gripping psychological thriller, Equus, explores the complex relationships between devotion, myth and sexuality.
Award winning director Ned Bennett brings Peter Shaffer’s psychological thriller Equus to the stage in a bold new production of the critically-acclaimed classic.
We are delighted to be co-producing Equus with Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Equus will be at Theatre Royal Stratford East from 15th February — 23rd March.
It will then be touring the UK until 11th May 2019.
Coming Later In 2019
We are excited to bring you two great plays that we will tour the UK this year. Both highlight cultures, relationships and society.
Funeral Director
Life as the director of a Muslim funeral parlour isn’t always easy, but Ayesha has things pretty sorted. She and Zeyd share everything: a marriage, a business, a future.
Until Tom walks in to organise his boyfriend’s funeral. A snap moral decision, informed by the values of Ayesha’s community and faith, has profound consequences.
Forced to confront a secret she has hidden even from herself, Ayesha must decide who she is — no matter the cost.
The Funeral Director is an incisive and heartfelt story of sexuality, gender and religion in 21st-century Britain.
The Funeral Director was Winner of Papatango’s 10th annual New Writing Prize.
Two Trains Running
Winner of the 2018 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme, Nancy Medina, will direct Two Trains Running by August Wilson.
Set in Pittsburgh, 1969, and the regulars of Memphis Lee’s restaurant are struggling to cope with the turbulence of a world that is changing rapidly around them. The diner is scheduled to be torn down, a casualty of the city’s renovation project that is sweeping away the buildings of a community, but not its spirit.
With compassion and humour, the master American playwright August Wilson paints a vivid portrait of everyday lives in the shadow this defining moment in American history. When Two Trains Running premiered on Broadway in 1992, its production won TONY, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel awards and was shortlisted for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Othello / Digital Theatre +
We are thrilled to have partnered with Digital Theatre + to bring a filmed version of our critically acclaimed production of Othello, a co-production with Oxford Playhouse and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, to the award-winning education arm of Digital Theatre. The production will be published on DT+ from 23rd January for an audience of over 3 million students. There will also be a behind-the-scenes documentary, scene study masterclass & detailed interviews on character & performance. Watch the latest teaser below.
We look forward to bringing all these great productions to a theatre near you.
Here is to a great 2019.
