Jermyn Street Theatre Announces FOOTPRINTS FESTIVAL Lineup

Two weeks after announcing Footprints Festival, today Jermyn Street Theatre has unveiled its full programme of 43 shows brought together to celebrate the theatre's reopening this Summer. Running for three months from May to August this jamboree of live work comprises an exciting combination of familiar faces and new talent and honours the theatre's traditions with a rich mix of Drama, Solo, Cabaret, Classics, Showcases and Poetry. All can be experienced in person in a socially distanced auditorium or at home live-streamed to a computer or television screen.

SOLO

Solo shows have always been a feature at Jermyn Street Theatre and amongst the one person plays on offer are work from the theatre's Creative Associates Somebody Jones and Khadifa Wong with HOW I LEARNED TO SWIM and Hannah Kumari with her timely football drama ENG-ER-LAND. Actor/writers include Hannah Morrish with Hole, Helen Reuben with Saviour, Jack Klaff with The Whole Shebang, and Robert Mountford with Vagabonds - My Phil Lynott Odyssey. In addition Simon Evans (BBC's Staged BBC1) makes his Jermyn Street Theatre debut with Leaves, the writing and directing team of Eoin McAndrew and Fay Thomas bring The Girl Who Was Very Good at Lying and Cat Robey returns with On Arriving.

CABARET

Jermyn Street Theatre has a long tradition of cabaret in its twenty-seven year history and no celebration would be complete without it. Footprints Festival presents some familiar faces, amongst them Stefan Bednarczyk with Flanders and Swann and Tom Lehrer, Issy van Randwyck with Dazzling Divas and Rosemary Ashe with Adorable Dora. Terence Blacker brings The Shock of the Old and there's comedy from Katie Arnstein in her Sexy Lamp and Bicycles and Fish. Sudha Bhuchar presents Evening Conversations, and Cheryl Knight pays tribute to Joyce Grenfell in her and Paul Knight's Ode to Joyce. In addition, kicking off the festival will be Metta Theatre's climate-conscious musical HouseFire.

CLASSICS

Over the years Jermyn Street Theatre has presented classic tales, intimately told in its small studio space. Work on offer here includes two mighty epics: staged readings of The Mahabharata and The Odyssey are directed by Jatinder Verma and Artistic Director Tom Littler. Michael Pennington returns with his acclaimed shows Anton Chekhov and Sweet William and 'rockstar classicist' Natalie Haynes brings stand-up from the ancient world with Pandora's Jar / Honour Among Thebes and Troy Story. Kenneth Jay presents Blake: Letters from Heaven and Hell, Harold Pinter is represented by James Hayes' Mac and More. Shakespeare comes in the form of The Rape of Lucrece and Oscar Wilde is there with Wilde Without the Boy, both performed by Gerard Logan . Christopher Kent and Gamal Khamis bring the extraordinary Love and War Trilogy and there is also the adaptation of the Latin-American romance of Gabriel García Márquez with Love in the Time of Corona.

In addition to this cornucopia of full length shows, Jermyn Street Theatre will present the Showcases from the 15 Creative Associates they recruited in 2020 including work written by Alfred Fagon Award-winner Lorna French.

POETRY

The Live Canon Ensemble perform six amazing sets of poetry at Sunday teatimes including poetry of the Romantics, the Metaphysicals, Women on War, the Abolition, Science Fiction, and the Pre-Raphaelites.

DRAMA

Drama is at Jermyn Street Theatre's heart. Three previously announced shows headline the festival - Jermyn Street Theatre's new Carne Deputy Director, Ebenezer Bamgboye reopens the theatre with the first revival of Biyi Bandele's award-winning play Two Horsemen, the acclaimed production Lone Flyer, about pilot Amy Johnson, comes from the Watermill Theatre, and Keith Waterhouse's stage adaptation of The Diary of A Nobody Mr and Mrs Nobody is directed by Jermyn Street Theatre's Creative Associate Gabriella Bird.

Artistic Director Tom Littler said:

"It feels essential to reopen in a way that celebrates the talents of the diverse and wonderful freelancers who make up the Jermyn Street Theatre family. This is a remarkable assembly of artists and shows, and we are excited to share it. We cannot wait for our audience to return to see old friends and discover new talent. Reopening when we can sell only 25 In Theatre seats a night is a risky venture reliant on the support of our audience and Friends. With our colleagues across the sector, we continue to call for a government-backed insurance scheme and an expansion of Theatre Tax Relief to properly support the reopening of theatres."

The Footprints Festival runs from 17 May - 1 August. 25 In Theatre tickets are available per performance in the newly designed socially-distanced auditorium and every performances will be streamed simultaneously online and can be watched by purchasing an At Home ticket.

Festival Passes (£25) grant a 25% discount across all In Theatre and At Home tickets and must be bought before purchasing any individual tickets.

The full programme and tickets are available at www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk

To post a comment, you must register and login.