14 February 2017
Newsdesk
Glory Whispers by Sonya Hale and The Monkey by John Stanley are part of Homecomings - a festival of new work by prisoners and ex-prisoners about getting out and going home by Synergy Theatre Project in association with Theatre503.
Franc Ashman (The Royale, Bush Theatre; Our Ajax, Southwark Playhouse), Rachel Finnegan (Red Velvet, Tricycle Theatre; Death Comes to Pemberley, BBC) and Dominic McHale (Coronation Street, ITV; Bridget Jones) will bring alive Glory Whispers by Sonya Hale.
This tense domestic thriller begins with a whispered name and leads to a reunion charged with hope, deception and the spectre of addiction. An unexpected meeting with Glory brings hope to Mina; if she can stay clean and Glory can bring up a kid then maybe even mad Jonno can fix up and they can be a family again. But sacrifices, secrets and survival can get in the way of your dreams.
Danielle Flett (Doctor Faustus, Duke of Yorks; Vera Vera Vera, Royal Court), Morgan Watkins (Silent Witness, BBC; Suffragette), George Whitehead (Love’s Labour’s Lost, Oxford Shakespeare Company) and Daniel Kendrick (Fury, Soho Theatre; Call The Midwife, BBC) have been cast in The Monkey by John Stanley.
John Stanley paints a darkly comic portrait of dishonourable thieves bound together by addiction. Tel’s left Bermondsey behind and only robs the occasional drum now. He prefers dealing in moody clobber from Deptford. But he’s got a screw loose and word’s out he’s a soft touch. Thick-Al owes him a monkey and he has to revisit old hunting grounds to collect.
Synergy creates ground-breaking work which harnesses the energy, instincts and life experiences of prisoners, ex-prisoners and young people at risk of offending. Synergy bring original stories from unheard voices to the stage and offer fresh insights into the criminal justice system.
Homecomings Festival: Glory Whispers
Tuesday 21st February – Saturday 4th March 2017
Tuesday to Saturday, 7.45pm
Saturday matinee, 3pm, PWYC
Homecomings Festival: The Monkey
Tuesday 7th – Saturday 18th March 2017
Tuesday to Saturday, 7.45pm
Saturday matinee, 3pm, PWYC
@Synergy_Theatre, @theatre503, #Homecomings
Glory Whispers
Playwright Sonya Hale
Director Juliet Knight
Designer Katy McPhee
Mina Franc Ashman
Glory Rachel Finnegan
Jonno Dominic McHale
The Monkey
Playwright John Stanley
Director Russell Bolam
Designer Katy McPhee
Rebecca Danielle Flett
Terry Morgan Watkins
Alan George Whitehead
Darren Daniel Kendrick
Location Theatre503, The Latchmere, 503 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 3BW, https://theatre503.com/
How to get there Theatre503 is located on above the Latchmere Pub on the corner of Latchmere Road and Battersea Park Road. The nearest underground stations are Sloane Square (on the Bakerloo and Northern lines then bus 319), South Kensington (on the Bakerloo, Northern, Circle and District lines) then bus 49 or 345, and Vauxhall (on the Northern and Piccadilly lines) then bus 34. The nearest rail station is Clapham Junction.
Box Office Tickets are available priced £15 (£12 concessions)
Available from Theatre503 Box Office and https://theatre503.com/ ,
020 7978 7040.
Sonya Hale
Sonya has had work performed at Southbank Centre and Latitude and is currently under commission with Clean Break. She provides workshops at Outside Edge for people in recovery from addiction and wrote and directed her play, Canals, at East 15 Acting School. Glory Whispers is her full length professional debut.
John Stanley
John is a lifelong Londoner who has written poetry since childhood and recently completed a novel based on his life story. He's had short plays performed at Theatre503 and The Monkey is his full length professional debut.
Synergy Theatre Project
Synergy Theatre Project was founded in 2000. Over the 16 years since the company was formed, Synergy has developed a programme of artistic work that seeks to build a bridge from prison to social reintegration, prevent young people from entering the criminal justice system, and inspire change by capturing the imagination and affecting the feelings, behaviours and attitudes of participants and public.
From the earliest days, Synergy set about creating a range of initiatives to support prisoners to write plays. Courses within prisons began in 2001 and Write Now, Synergy’s first national playwriting competition for prisoners in 2005 was delivered in partnership with the Royal Court. A second competition, this time working not only with the Royal Court but with West Yorkshire Playhouse/HMP Leeds and New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich/HMP Hollesley Bay culminated in Convictions, Synergy’s first ever festival of plays written by prisoners and ex-prisoners, which created opportunity to showcase and validate the work of five writers with offending histories. It attracted critical acclaim at Soho Theatre in 2011. Synergy’s third Write Now competition in 2012 included courses and taster workshops for ex-prisoners and for prisoners at HMPs Birmingham, Feltham, Liverpool, Send, Brixton, Highpoint, Channings Wood and Sheppey. A prizegiving event featuring staged extracts from the winning plays took place on the main stage of the Royal Court Theatre. Synergy has since worked with the writers to develop the two winning plays to be staged in Homecomings, the company’s second festival of new plays by prisoners and ex-prisoners.
