Matthew Parker News

The Alban Arena announced in September that the scheduled production of Mother Goose would be postponed until 2021 due ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  But in order not to disappoint audiences Alban Arena and Maltings Theatre's resident company OVO are joining forces to bring PETER PAN to Alban Arena this Christmas. 

The MALTINGS THEATRE re-opened its doors to a public keen to attend live theatre on October 6th with a sellout production of THE 39 STEPS directed by Maltings Artistic Director Adam Nichols.  

Hot on the heels of the re-ignition of outdoor performances, The Maltings Theatre will present a two-week open air festival of Shakespeare (and more) at the Roman Theatre of St Albans during August.

The new year has officially seen the passing of the artistic direction baton from Matthew Parker to Kennedy Bloomer at The Hope Theatre. Opening the decade in style are 6FootStories with their rewriting of everyone's most beloved Prince of Denmark. Hamlet has hired three players to expose Claudius's diabolic plan. We meet them deep in rehearsals when the ghost of Hamlet Sr thunders in (in uproarious fashion, one must add) to request they avenge his death.

In the shadows of the Kennedy compound in Washington DC lives a peculiar family, the Pascals. Twenty years after JFK's assassination, Marty (Fergus Leathem) is coming home from New York to celebrate Thanksgiving with his mother (Gill King), little brother Anthony (Bart Lambert), and twin sister Jackie-O (Colette Eaton). What should have been a delightful festive reunion turns into a perverted evening of mind-games and manipulation when the young man shows up with his fiancée Lesly (Kaya Bucholic)

The crimes perpetrated by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb in 1920s-Chicago have gone on to become interwoven in popular culture and have generated a multitude of films, plays, and fiction. They were barely 20 years old when they ensnared and murdered 14-year-old Bobby for no other gain but the thrill they'd get from killing a human being. They were sentenced for life plus 99 years but while the latter was attacked and killed in prison, Leopold was granted parole and released in 1958 - 33 years after being convicted.

The pupil comes prepared for her lesson: pens, notepad, ruler. The professor apologises for being late. The lesson begins. And then, the lesson really begins. In Matthew Parker's clever new production of Ionesco's play, everything is in order but nothing makes sense.

Tom Powell's latest fast-paced drama sees its international premiere at Islington's award-winning The Hope Theatre.

ReFrameTM (ReFrameProject.org), a coalition of industry professionals and partner companies founded In Film and Sundance Institute-whose mission is to increase the and IMDbPro (imdbpro.com/)- the essential information resource for the entertainment industry-announced today the second round of feature films that qualify for the ReFrame Stamp to recognize standout, gender-balanced films. The complete list of stamp recipients can be found at ReFrameProject.org/stamp and imdb.com/reframe. The ReFrame Stamp program launched on June 8, 2018 with the announcement of 12 films that earned the stamp out of 100 films surveyed. We then expanded the program by inviting studio and independent films that have secured U.S. domestic theatrical or streaming distribution to submit their films for stamp consideration.

The award winning Hope Theatre has announced its upcoming Winter Season under the artistic direction of Off West End award winner Matthew Parker.

The Hope Theatre's own Artistic Director, Matthew Parker, presents the world premiere of Robin Hooper's Foul Pages in a frenzy of neck ruffs paired with leather all wrapped up in homosexual subtext. The Countess of Pembroke (Clare Bloomer) convinces Shakespeare (Ian Hallard) to debut his new play As You Like It in an attempt to persuade King James I (Tom Vanson) to release her former lover Sir Walter Raleigh.

Ian Hallard is to take the lead role of William Shakespeare in the world premiere of Matthew Parker's production of outrageous backstage romp Foul Pages by Robin Hooper, which opens at The Hope Theatre on February 15.

Following the critical acclaimed staging of Louise Jameson's and Nigel Fairs' MY GAY BEST FRIEND, the scene is set for a bumper Spring programme at The Hope Theatre.

It's 1603, the plague is ravaging London, scattering the court to the rural countryside of Wiltshire and delaying the coronation of the soon to be King James I. While actors rehearse, despite backstage squabbles and sexual politics, Shakespeare and the Countess of Pembroke struggle with the rewrites of As You Like It', which must appeal to the new king's merciful nature and seduce him into releasing the condemned Sir Walter Raleigh.

Antonio Pappano will return to the Philharmonic to conduct Britten's Piano Concerto (1945 version), with The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Leif Ove Andsnes as soloist; Saint-Sa ns's Symphony No. 3, Organ, with Philharmonic organist Kent Tritle; and Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Thursday, February 8, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, February 9 at 2:00 p.m.; and Saturday, February 10 at 8:00 p.m.

Asolo Rep presents an FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training touring production of William Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR.

4 and 5 star reviews continue to float across the media as critics and audiences alike praise The Hope Theatre's 25th anniversary in-house production of Bryony Lavery's hilarious Mill's and Boon pastiche 'Her Aching Heart' since curtains rose on the 29th November.

Hosted in the ambiguously small The Hope Theatre, decked in ruby velvet and rather decadent furniture for the occasion, this 25th Anniversary production of Bryony Lavery and directed by Matthew Parker, Her Aching Heart is funny, energetic, and deliciously overdramatic.

Mark Strong (Kingsman: The Secret Service) faces the cold vastness of space in the thrilling sci-fi drama APPROACHING THE UNKNOWN, arriving on DVD October 11, 2016 from Paramount Home Media Distribution.

The Producers, running May 27 - June 26, 2016 in the Hawks Mainstage Theatre at the Omaha Community Playhouse, is the hilarious, lively and absurd Mel Brooks comedy that follows producers Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom on their quest to become filthy rich.