Stories of Three Women with Ties to the Middle East Make Up ANGEL & ECHOES, Part of Brits Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) is thrilled to host Henry Naylor's ANGEL & ECHOES at the 2017 Brits Off Broadway festival. Directed by Michael Cabot (ANGEL) and Emma Butler(ECHOES), and produced by Redbeard Theatre Ltd with Gilded Balloon Production, ANGEL & ECHOES begins performances on Tuesday, April 11 for a limited engagement through Sunday, May 7. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Friday at 7:15 PM;Saturday at 2:15 PM & 7:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

Presented in one evening, these two striking short plays about three women will challenge assumptions about women in the Middle East, and their stories will haunt long after the curtain comes down.

ANGEL is inspired by the story of a modern legend, the Kurdish freedom fighter The Angel of Kobane. According to lore, she shot 100 ISIS fighters when they overtook her small town of Kobane in Syria, striking fear in the heart of jihadists.

ECHOES, back by popular demand after its sold-out too-short run at Brits Off Broadway last year, tells the parallel stories of two women born 175 years apart: a Victorian pioneer woman who wants to build an Empire and a present-­day Islamist schoolgirl who wants to build a Caliphate.

The cast of ANGEL features Avital Lvova. The cast of EHOES features Serena Manteghi, and Rachel Smyth.

Henry Naylor (playwright) is a British writer, producer, director and performer, best known for his award-winning writing and for working with comedy partner Andy Parsons in "Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections." He was a lead writer for "Spitting Image," and has written for many well-known award-winning British TV and radio shows including, "Alas Smith and Jones," "Dead Ringers" and "Alistair McGowan's Big Impression." With Parsons, Henry set up London's first ever comedy sketch club TBA, and the duo co-hosted nine seasons of topical sketch show "Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections" on BBC Radio 2, collecting some of Europe's highest ratings for a radio comedy in the noughties.

In 2008, Henry created, directed and executive-produced "Headcases," a topical, satirical ITV show using ground-breaking CGI technology. The show won numerous prestigious TV awards, including the RTS for Design and Innovation and the C21 Award for Best New Sketch Show at Cannes' Mipcom.

In 2014, Henry made a departure from comedy, by writing and directing his drama The Collector. It was first presented at the Gilded Balloon at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe to great critical acclaim and won a Scotsman Fringe First award for 'Innovation and Outstanding New Writing.' Forming the first instalment in the Arabian Nightmares trilogy of plays, The Collector then had a sell-out run at London's Arcola Theatre in November 2014.

His follow-up play Echoes - the second instalment of the Arabian Nightmares trilogy - was even more successful. Again opening at the Gilded Balloon, it won the Spirit of the Fringe Award at Edinburgh. The play then transferred to the Arcola Theatre in London, before playing Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in April 2016, part of Brits Off Broadway. At the 2016 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Echoes became one of the most decorated shows at the festival's history, winning five major Fringe Awards, including Best Theatre.

Henry's most recent work, Angel, premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival and won two major awards, and was nominated for both the Best of Edinburgh and Amnesty gongs. He also became one of a small handful of playwrights to win the Fringe First twice. Every single performance sold out, and the show garnered an astonishing 18 five- and four-star reviews.
In 2017, Angel will tour extensively around the world, with month-long runs at each at 59E59 Theaters in New York, the Holden Street Theatre in Adelaide, and one of London's most prestigious Off-West End venues, the Arcola. In December, The Times named Angel one of the Ten Best Plays of 2016.

His three Arabian Nightmares plays were published by Nick Hern Books in February 2017.

Emma Butler (director, ECHOES) directing credits include Echoes (Gilded Baloon; Arcola; Vaults Festival; Adelaide Fringe - Best Theatre; Brits Off Broadway; Prague, Brisbane, Melbourne Fringes);Tight Bastards, The Bench, and Powerpoints (Theatre 503); Romeo & Juliet (Site Specific); Detrimental(Greenwich Theatre); Dying City (The Cockpit). As an Associate/Resident Director she has worked onRichard III (Almeida); The Dazzle (Michael Grandage Company); and Absent Friends (UK tour). As an Assistant Director, she worked on Waiting for Godot (UK tour); and The King James Bible(Shakespeare's Globe). Emma's next role is as an assistant director with The Royal Shakespeare Company.

Michael Cabot (director, ANGEL) is the founder and Artistic Director of London Classic Theatre. LCT was launched as a touring company in April 2000, and since its foundation, its productions have played to over 500,000 people at more than 200 theatres and arts centers across the UK. He has directed all 35 LCT productions since its debut with Andorra at the New End, Hampstead - and has overseen LCT's transition from the London Fringe in the late 1990s - to its current position as one of the UK's leading touring companies. As well as directing a range of popular, modern classic drama such asEquus, Entertaining Mr Sloane, and Abigail's Party, he's also staged new translations of two 18th Century comedies, The Game of Love and Chance and The Double Inconstancy by Marivaux. Also, he directed two UK premières, Hugh Leonard's Love in the Title and Joanna Murray-Smith's Nightfall. In 2015, LCT's fifteenth anniversary season, he directed national tours of Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Most recently, he directed Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party. LCT is currently touring Michael's production of Terry Johnson's Hysteria, and will be directing a major new touring production of Noel Coward's Private Lives in Autumn 2017. Michael studied Drama at University College Swansea and trained on the Directing Course at Drama Studio London. Angel is the second time he's collaborated with Henry Naylor - having directed The Collector on Kathryn Barker Productions' critically-acclaimed, five-star National UK Tour.

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