Theatre Royal Stratford East today announces its return to live work on stage:
· The previously announced The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars, written by Dipo Baruwa-Etti, directed by Nadia Fall and starring Kibong Tanji, will now play from Wed 02 – Sat 19 Jun 2021.
· The previously announced Extinct, written by April De Angelis and directed by Kirsty Housley, will now play from Wed 30 Jun – Sat 17 Jul 2021.
· Both The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars and Extinct will be available online for the final week of their respective runs.
· Nadia fall will direct a new production of Conor McPherson’s Shining City, which will star Brendan Coyle and will run from Fri 17 Sep – Sat 23 Oct 2021.
· The Stratford East Young Company will perform SCREAM FIRE (FOR THE REVOLUTION), devised and written by Natasha Brown with the Young Company, and directed by Nastazja Domaradzka, and Punk Rock by Simon Stephens and directed by Toby Clarke in Jul 2021.
· The previously announced pantomime Red Riding Hood will play from Sat 27 Nov - Sat 31 Dec 2021.
Tickets for The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars, Extinct, Scream Fire (For the Revolution) and Punk Rock go on sale to access bookers and Theatre Royal Stratford East Members at noon on Tue 27 Apr 2021, and on general sale at noon on Thu 29 Apr 2021. Tickets for Shining City will go on sale at a later date.
The previously announced After The End by Dennis Kelly, directed by Lyndsey Turner will be rescheduled for early 2022, with performances to be announced at a later date.
Nadia Fall, Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Stratford East said:
“Finally, finally, finally, after much anticipation, we are incredibly excited to announce our reopening, and we will be welcoming audiences back to the theatre from 02 June, opening with Dipo Baruwa-Etti’s The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars, followed by Extinct by April De Angelis. Our Youth Theatres are now also in full swing with real life rehearsals, and slowly but surely, we are making the positive steps towards bringing our beloved theatre back to life.
Despite the challenges of the past year, we still found new and innovative ways to tell stories; we staged site-specific theatre in a basketball court, made films online and broadcast on Sky Arts, as well as platforming new writing as audio plays and releasing podcasts. Welcome To Iran, our National Theatre co-production that was sadly cancelled due to the pandemic, has been made in to a radio play for BBC Radio 3 and will be broadcast on Sunday 23 May. But what we’ve all been craving is the return of the live communal experience, for which there is simply no substitute, and I’m thrilled to say we will be staging Shining City by the prolific, master storyteller Conor McPherson this autumn starring the brilliant Brendan Coyle.
I want to extend thanks to our generous supporters as well as grants such as the Cultural Recovery Fund, which has played a huge part in allowing us to open in a socially-distanced manner. I also want to reassure our community that we have eagerly been preparing our building for the return of artists and audiences, putting in place stringent cleaning regimes, seating plans and new routes through the theatre to ensure our staff and visitors remain safe. We cannot wait to see you all this summer.”
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Theatre Royal Stratford East presents
THE SUN, THE MOON, AND THE STARS
Written by Dipo Baruwa-Etti
Directed by Nadia Fall
Wed 02 Jun – Sat 19 Jun 2021
Press Night: Fri 04 Jun
This is bout those men
who stripped him of his crown,
treated that charcoal skin like concrete.
Peace will only come
when I make em come undone.
Femi is visited by her brother's ghost. He takes her into the past, revealing the final moments before his murder. But with a lack of evidence and eyewitnesses considered unreliable, Femi is determined to set things right herself.
The Sun, The Moon, And The Stars explores trauma, rage and the extent one young woman will go to in her quest for justice.
Kibong Tanji is playing Femi.
Kibong Tanji (playing Femi). Kibong trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She made her professional debut in 2018 as the female cover for Arinzé Kene in Misty at Trafalgar Studios. Other credits include Tina The Musical (Aldwych Theatre).
Dipo Baruwa-Etti is a playwright, poet, and filmmaker. Currently Channel 4 playwright on attachment with Almeida Theatre, his plays include An Unfinished Man (The Yard Theatre) and When Great Trees Fall, which was shortlisted for the George Devine Award 2020. He is published by Faber & Faber. For screen, Dipo is developing original television projects with Blueprint Pictures, ITV Studios, Duck Soup Films, an episode of a Sky Studios anthology series, and is in pre-production on a short film with BBC Drama/BFI that he will also direct. As a poet, he has been published in The Good Journal, Ink Sweat & Tears, Amaryllis, and had his work showcased nationwide as part of End Hunger UK's touring exhibition on food insecurity.
The show will also be streamed from Tuesday 15 – Sunday 20 June 2021. Streaming tickets will go on sale at noon on Thursday 29 April.
Creative Team
Written by Dipo Baruwa-Etti
Director Nadia Fall
Designer Peter McKintosh
Lighting Designer Oliver Fenwick
Sound Designer Tingying Dong
Movement Director Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe
Assistant Director Justina Kehinde
Supported by Telford Homes.
Theatre Royal Stratford East presents
EXTINCT
Written by April De Angelis
Director and Dramaturg - Kirsty Housley
Wed 30 Jun – Sat 17 Jul 2021
Press Night: Fri 02 Jul
What drives a person to rebel? What is the journey a citizen has to take before they decide to disobey the laws of their own country? From psychiatrists to vicars, classroom assistants to actors - What is their story?
April De Angelis takes on the climate emergency in this tapestry of testimonials from members of the Extinction Rebellion community.
Casting to be announced.
The show will also be streamed from Tuesday 15 – Sunday 20 June. Streaming tickets will go on sale at noon on Thursday 29 April.
Creative Team
Written by April De Angelis
Director and Dramaturg Kirsty Housley
Designer Peter McKintosh
Lighting Designer Joshua Pharo
Sound Designer Melanie Wilson
Video Designer Nina Dunn
April De Angelis is an acclaimed writer whose extensive theatre work includes The Village (Stratford East), My Brilliant Friend (based on the novels by Elena Ferrante), After Electra, Rune, Gastronauts, Jumpy, an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, A Laughing Matter, A Warwickshire Testimony, The Positive Hour, Playhouse Creatures and The Life and Times of Fanny Hill. She’s currently under commission to the National Theatre. De Angelis has also written the libretto for Flight, music by Jonathan Dove, for Glyndebourne Opera and The Silent Twins libretto, which was set to music by Errollyn Wallen. Her work for radio includes an adaptation of Life in the Tomb, a serialisation of Peyton Place, Visitants and The Outlander which won the Writer's Guild Award in 1992. For television her work includes Aristophanes. Upcoming: New musical Gin Craze (with Lucy Rivers) at Theatre Royal Derngate.
Kirsty Housley is a director, writer and dramaturg. Her recent directing credits include The Tao Of Glass (The Royal Exchange for Manchester International Festival), I’m A Phoenix, Bitch (Battersea Arts Centre) and Complicite’s The Encounter and A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer. Her dramaturgical work includes Avalanche: A Love Story (Barbican) and Misty (Bush Theatre and West End). Kirsty was the recipient of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award for Cue Deadly, a Live Film Project, and the Title Pending award for innovation at Northern Stage. She jointly received The Stage award for Innovation in 2017 for The Encounter and was nominated again in 2018 for The Believers are but Brothers.
Supported by Telford Homes.
Theatre Royal Stratford East presents
SHINING CITY
Written by Conor McPherson
Directed by Nadia Fall
Fri 17 Sep – Sat 23 Oct 2021
Press Night: Thu 23 Sep
Dublin, Ireland.
John, recently bereaved, believes himself to be haunted by the ghost of his dead wife.
Plagued by secrets, he slowly reveals his story and his truth to Ian - a psychotherapist and former priest who has lost his faith.
As the two men struggle to make sense of their place in the world, they are bound in ways they could never have imagined and forced to question the very nature of reality itself.
Written by Olivier Award-winning playwright Conor McPherson (The Weir, The Seafarer), SHINING CITY is a poignant and unsettling exploration of guilt, loneliness and the spaces between us.
Directed by Nadia Fall and starring Brendan Coyle, this is the play's first London revival since premiering at the Royal Court in 2004 to critical acclaim.
Creative Team
Written by Conor McPherson
Director Nadia Fall
Designer Peter McKintosh
Lighting Designer Howard Harrison
Sound Design Alexandra Faye Braithwaite
Movement Director Jack Murphy
Brendan Coyle (playing John). Brendan's most recent theatre includes St Nicholas (Donmar Warehouse & Goodman Theatre), The Price (Theatre Royal Bath & Wyndham's Theatre), Mojo (Harold Pinter), The Silver Tassie (Almeida) and Buried Child (National Theatre). Brendan also starred in the original production of The Weir at the Royal Court, in the West End and on Broadway; winning both the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor & New York Critics’ Circle Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. On screen, Brendan is most recognised for playing Mr Bates in Downton Abbey (ITV); for which he won 3 SAG Awards for Outstanding Ensemble and received Emmy, BAFTA and IFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor, and for playing Robert Timmins in Lark Rise to Candleford (BBC). Most recent TV includes Requiem (BBC/Netflix) and Spotless (Netflix). Brendan will next be seen in feature Downton Abbey 2 directed by Simon Curtis. He can be seen in Downton Abbey 1 and in Mary Queen of Scots directed by Josie Rourke. Other recent movies include Unless and Me Before You.
Conor McPherson was born in Dublin in 1971 and began writing for the stage while a student at University College Dublin. His plays include Girl from the North Country (with Bob Dylan), The Weir, The Seafarer, The Night Alive, Port Authority, This Lime Tree Bower, St Nicholas, Rum and Vodka, and The Good Thief. Adaptations include Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (Sonia Friedman Productions at the Harold Pinter Theatre), August Strindberg’s Dance of Death (Donmar) and Franz Xaver Kroetz’s The Nest (Young Vic/Lyric Theatre Belfast).
Theatre Royal Stratford East presents
RED RIDING HOOD
Sat 27 Nov- Sat 31 Dec 2021
Press Night: Sat 04 Dec, 7pm
Come on a festive adventure at Stratford East and follow the thrilling story of our red-cloaked heroine. See the classic fairy tale like you’ve never seen it before, with Stratford East’s much-loved mix of original music, belly-tickling gags and awe-inspiring magic.
Creative Team
Book and Lyrics Carl Miller
Music and Lyrics Robert Hyman
Director Robert Shaw Cameron
Designer Jean Chan
Lighting Designer Rick Fisher
Sound Designer Helen Skiera
Movement Ingrid Mackinnon
Supported by Garfield Weston Foundation.
Theatre Royal Stratford East presents
SCREAM FIRE (FOR THE REVOLUTION)
Devised and written by Natasha Brown and the Stratford East Young Company
Directed by Nastazja Domaradzka
Wed 21 Jul 2021, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
From a young age, women are taught to scream “fire” if they’re being attacked by a man because people are more likely to come to their aid. But what if women no longer need to be rescued?
This is a play about anger and softness, longing and being enough. SCREAM FIRE (FOR THE REVOLUTION) explores female connection and disconnection, intimacy, and how men suck... but we love them... but we hate them... but we love them... but they suck... ad nauseam.
Devised and written by Natasha Brown and the Stratford East Young Company, directed by Nastazja Domaradzka.
Creative Team
Devised and written by Natasha Brown and the Stratford East Young Company
Director Nastazja Domaradzka
Lighting Designer Pablo Fernadez
Sound Designer Roly Botha
Natasha Brown makes theatre. Her work interrogates power, identity and community. She has been part of the Soho Writers’ Lab, the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers’ Group and the Soho Accelerate programme. She is an Associate Writer at Middle Child Theatre. Her debut play I AM [NOT] KANYE WEST ran at the Bunker Theatre in March 2020. She has also made theatre with Boundless Theatre, Burn Bright, the Bush Theatre, Clean Break, Donmar Warehouse, Theatre Royal Stratford East and The Old Vic.
Nastazja Domaradzka is originally from Poland, and is a London-based feminist theatremaker and director. She has worked both in the UK and abroad and was the founder and curator of HerStory: Intersectional Feminist Festival. Nastazja’s recent work includes collaborating with Middle Child on their Brexit cabaret US AGAINST WHATEVER written by Maureen Lennon, directing a feminist call to arms 10 by Lizzie Milton at Vault Festival 2019, directing the English world premiere of Stamoslaw Wyspianski’s The Death of Ophelia at Shakespeare’s Globe and directing This Kind of Air by Romanian playwright Vera Ion at The Bunker Theatre. She directed Peyvand Sadeghian’s award winning show Dual دوگانه at the Vault Festival and prior to the outbreak of Covid-19 directed Argentinian piece Invisibles by Lola Lagos, which never played to the public. Nastazja’s work is rooted in Eastern European practice through using theatre as the tool of resistance and amplifying under-represented voices. She holds an MA in Applied Theatre from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and teaches at various drama schools in the UK.
Theatre Royal Stratford East presents
PUNK ROCK
Written by Simon Stephens
Directed by Toby Clarke
Sat 24 Jul 2021, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
“The pressure he gets. The thoughts he has. People should be careful around him...People like him who get so much abuse and then one day. Pop.”
Simon Stephens’s disturbing school play gets a timely revamp that examines a new world of pressure, privilege and psychosis. Performed by the Stratford East Young Company and directed by Toby Clarke.
Creative Team
Written by Simon Stephens
Director Toby Clarke
Lighting Designer Pablo Fernadez
Sound Designer Roly Botha
Movement Director Sean Holland
Toby Clarke is a Director, Playwright and Acting Coach. He has produced work nationally and at venues including Bristol Old Vic Studio & The Curve Leicester and he most recently directed the Olivier Award Nominated Warheads at Park Theatre. Toby has worked or continues to develop Young Company work with established companies such as Theatre Peckham, National Youth Theatre, the Young Vic and Southwark Playhouse.
Simon Stephens
Simon Stephens is a playwright and screenwriter. His stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME won seven Olivier Awards in 2013 (including Best New Play) and five Tony Awards (including Best New Play) in 2015. Other plays include: Fortune, Maria, Rage, Light Falls, Heisenberg, Song from Far Away; Birdland, Carmen Disruption, Blindsided, Morning, Three Kingdoms, Wastwater, Punk Rock, Marine Parade, Sea Wall, Harper Regan, Pornography, Motortown, On the Shore of the Wide World, (Olivier Award for Best New Play 2006). One Minute, Country Music, Christmas, Port, Herons and Bluebird.
Simon has written English language versions of Jon Fosse’s I Am the Wind; Odon Von Horvath’s Kasimir and Karoline (titled The Funfair); Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull and Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera. He has presented three series of the Royal Court Playwright’s Podcast. His book “A Working Diary” is published by Methuen. Simon Stephens has been an Associate at the Royal Court, London and is currently an Associate Artist at the Lyric, Hammersmith, a Professor of Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University and an Associate Professor at the Danish National School of the Performing Arts, Copenhagen. Simon has also written for radio and for the screen.
THEATRE ROYAL STRATFORD EAST LISTINGS
Tickets from £10 for every performance of every show. Bookers get £5 off when booking Band A or B for performances of all 3 shows at the same time, if booking before Sunday 17 January 2021.
Theatre Royal Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, London E15 1BN
Box Office 020 8534 0310 | www.stratfordeast.com
Twitter: @stratford_east
Instagram: @stratford_east
Facebook: facebook.com/theatreroyalstratfordeast
Website: stratfordeast.com
THE SUN, THE MOON, AND THE STARS
Wed 02 Jun – Sat 19 Jun 2021
Times: various times
Access Performances:
Relaxed Environment: Sat 12 Jun, 2.30pm
Audio Described: Sat 19 Jun, 2.30pm (providers: Alison Clarke and Ruth James)
Captioned: Thu 17 Jun, 8pm (provider: Suzanne Biesty)
BSL: Fri 18 Jun, 8pm (provider: Jacqui Beckford)
EXTINCT
Wed 30 Jun – Sat 17 Jul 2021
Times: various times
Access Performances:
Relaxed Environment: Sat 10 Jul, 2.30pm
Audio Described: Sat 17 Jul, 2.30pm (providers: Alison Clarke and Ruth James)
Captioned: Thu 15 Jul, 8pm (provider: Suzanne Biesty)
BSL: Fri 16 Jul, 8pm (provider: Jacqui Beckford)
SHINING CITY
Fri 17 Sep – Sat 23 Oct 2021
Times: various times
RED RIDING HOOD
Sat 27 Nov - Sat 31 Dec 2021
Times: various times
Relaxed Performances:
Relaxed performance: Thu 30 Dec, 2pm
Audio Described: Sat 18 Dec, 2pm (touch tour, 1pm)
Captioned: Fri 17 Dec, 7pm
BSL: Thu 16 Dec, 7pm
SCREAM FIRE (FOR THE REVOLUTION)
Wed 21 Jul 2021
Times: 2.30pm and 7.30pm
PUNK ROCK
Sat 24 Jul 2021
Times: 2.30pm and 7.30pm
