Following a Covid alert, ‘All That’, by Shaun Kitchener, the headline show in King’s Head Theatre’s summer Queer Season, is cancelling its first three performances.
The show will now preview from Friday 30 July and run to Saturday 21 August.
Press night moves from Thursday 29 July to Tuesday 3 August at 7.00pm.
A spokesman said: “Unfortunately, a member of the team recently came into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. To ensure that we are adhering to the strictest of protocols and maintaining the safety of all involved, our opening is being delayed a few days and press night moved to Tuesday 3 August. The safety of our team and audience members remains our number one priority.”
In a bid to prevent further disruption in the event that anyone else needs to isolate, producers have engaged a fifth actor, Matthew Morrison, to understudy all roles in the production. Matthew recently featured in ‘The Devil’s Harmomy’, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams, which won many accolades including the Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction at Sundance Film Festival 2020. In the summer of 2019 he filmed the award-winning feature ‘Boy Meets Boy’, a modern, gay love story, set in Berlin, directed by Daniel Sanchez Lopez, described as “the next great gay love story” by iD Magazine.
Ticket buyers will be contacted by their point of purchase via email, and will be offered the option to exchange their tickets or receive a refund or credit voucher. Full refunds will be offered to all customers who are unable to move their tickets to an alternative performance.
Taylor and Riley have been living the loved-up suburban dream for nearly a decade. Nice house, nice town, nice group of respectable straight friends. But when financial troubles prompt them to rent out their spare room, it’s not long before they meet Jamie and Parker - a couple with a totally different outlook to their own. As tensions rise, wires cross and preconceptions are challenged, the four housemates will be tested to their very limits - and forced to reassess the lives they’ve built and what it is they really want. Combining moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity with a profoundly honest look at modern relationships, ‘All That’ is a razor-sharp riposte to the idea that there’s ever a ‘right’ way to be gay.
Writer Shaun Kitchener said: “I’m overjoyed that ‘All That’ is headlining the King’s Head Theatre’s amazing Queer Season this summer. In addition to sharing its name with an underrated Carly Rae Jepsen classic, the play explores different attitudes to love, sex and monogamy within the gay community as well as the importance of honesty - with loved ones but also with yourself. I hope it gives people something to think about on the tube home, whilst raising a few laughs along the way.”
Executive Director Fiona English said: “Gay stories by gay writers that explore, reflect and celebrate the gay community have always been a cornerstone of the King’s Head Theatre’s programme. We’re delighted to present Shaun’s warm, funny and important play as the centrepiece of our most varied and exciting queer season yet.”
CREATIVE TEAM
Shaun Kitchener - Writer
James Callàs Ball - Director
Delyth Evans - Designer
Andrew Reynolds - Sound Designer
Jack Weir - Lighting Designer
Samantha Craven - Company Stage Manager on Book
Ned Lay - Production Manager
Tom O’Connell - Producer for Kings Head Theatre
Shaun Kitchener (Writer)
Shaun is a BAFTA Rocliffe-winning, Offie-nominated stage and screen writer, who has penned over 30 episodes of ‘Hollyoaks’ over the last four years. His play ‘Positive’ was produced at the Park Theatre in 2015 to critical acclaim, and in 2017 he wrote and directed the unofficial Steps musical ‘5,6,7,8’; which was a sold-out smash for the Camden Fringe. He has been through the Royal Court and Soho Theatre new writers’ programmes, and has been running the short plays event Briefs at Waterloo East Theatre since 2013. One of his own shorts, ‘That’s Great!’, was performed as part of Ink Festival in 2019, touring East Anglia and playing in London’s West End. He’s also a journalist and writes fortnightly pop culture columns for Metro; and occasionally hosts radio shows on Electric Angels.
James Callàs Ball (Director)
James is a Junior Associate Director at the King’s Head Theatre and completed their Trainee Director Scheme in 2017. He now works as a freelance theatre director. Credits as Director: ‘Wonder of the World’ (RWCMD); ‘Positive’ (Waterloo East Theatre); ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ (BurntOut Theatre, UK Tour) and ‘Deadline Day’ (Theatre N16). Assistant/Associate Director Credits: ‘Amélie the Musical’ (Watermill Theatre/UK Tour/Criterion Theatre); ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ (Vaudeville Theatre); ‘Ruffian On The Stair’ (Hope Theatre); ‘Loot’ (Park
Theatre); ‘The Fall of Anne Boleyn’ (Historic Royal Palaces/Tower of London) and ‘Holy Crap!’ (King’s Head Theatre). James founded Speechless Theatre Company, which specialises in telling stories with no words. Speechless productions include: ‘Hamlet... With No Words’ (Voila Europe Festival); ‘Drawn In’ (Kings Head Theatre/Tristan Bates Theatre); ‘All or Nothing?’ (Edinburgh Fringe).
