Summer Season Announced At Finborough Theatre

Our Summer Season opens on 7 June with the return of our acclaimed 'Celebrating British Music Theatre' series with the long overdue London premiere of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley's musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd. Directed by internationally acclaimed director Ian Judge (West End, RSC, ENO, Covent Garden) and designed by three time Olivier Award winner Tim Goodchild, The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd plays from 7 June to 2 July 2011. In stark contrast, on Sundays and Mondays, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27 June 2011, you can see the English premiere of Gitta Sereny's In Quest of Conscience , adapted for the stage by Robert David MacDonald, a devastating true story based on real life interviews with Franz Stangl, Commandant of both Sobibor and Treblinka death camps.

July sees the return of our hugely successful Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, our annual festival of Finborough Playwrights, running from 5-30 July 2011. The festival is centred around a month long run of a new play by Nick Gill making his professional debut with Mirror Teeth, originally seen as a staged reading in the very first Vibrant festival in 2009. Directed by former Associate Director Kate Wasserberg, Mirror Teeth plays from 5 July to 30 July 2011. On Sundays and Mondays, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25 July 2011 is the world premiere of Home Death by Olivier Award winner Nell Dunn, an unflinching dissection of how our society deals with the ultimate taboo - the reality of dying. This year's festival is completed by a late night season of 10 staged readings of 10 new works for the stage by 10 UK and international playwrights, discovered, developed or championed by the Finborough Theatre from 12 July to 23 July at 9.00pm.

The season culminates with Blue Surge, the UK premiere of a new play by award winning American playwright Rebecca Gilman, playing from 2 August to 27 August 2011. On Sundays and Mondays, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22 August 2011 will be our only rediscovery of the season, the first production for 24 years of Portraits by William Douglas Home, one of the West End's most successful post-war dramatists, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of renowned British artist Augustus John.

Our newly refurbished bar opened very successfully in November. Now known as The Finborough Wine Café (a unique combination of Café, Wine Bar and Wine Shop), and under entirely new management, the Wine Café is already a huge success with our regulars and the locals, and was awarded Best Theatre Bar in South West London in the recent Off West End Awards which also saw the Finborough Theatre win awards for Best Director, Best Lighting Designer and Best Artistic Director.

We have just completed a two week period of repairs and refurbishment of the theatre during our first closure (not counting Christmas weeks) since 2003. During that time, we have:

In the Theatre
Installed a industrial ducted air conditioning system in the auditorium.
Completely replaced all the seats in the theatre for the first time in at least 20 years. Built to the same basic design on the surface, the new seats include significant redesigns underneath for comfort.
Stripped back about 80 years worth of paint, wallpaper and varnish from 80% of the auditorium
Removed five redundant radiators.
Purchased and will shortly be installing new soundproofing measures.

Backstage
Installed a sink in the toilet.
Completely replaced and moved the main sink in the dressing room.
Removed a dangerous step into the dressing room/office backstage.
Constructed a brand new dressing room table and storage unit.
Constructed a brand new kitchen area.
Increased our storage area backstage.

There's still more to do - including recovering the new seats - and we will be continuing to improve our facilities both front of house and backstage in the coming months.

The refurbishment to date has cost nearly £12,000, all of which has been raised from very generous donations by members of the Friends of the Finborough Theatre scheme as well as our air conditioning bucket collections which we will be continuing for a few months until the total cost of the refurbishment is paid off. Any and all donations are still very gratefully accepted.

- Neil McPherson, Artistic Director

Summer Season - Press Nights and Photocalls

Part of the Celebrating British Music Theatre series
Tuesday, 7 June - Saturday, 2 July 2011 | London Premiere
The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd
Book, Music and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. Directed by Ian Judge. Designed by Tim Goodchild.
Press Night: Thursday, 9 June 2011 at 7.30pm | Photocall: Tuesday, 7 June 2011 at 1.00pm-1.30pm

Sundays and Mondays, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27 June 2011 | English Premiere
Gitta Sereny's In Quest of Conscience
Adapted for the stage by Robert David MacDonald. Directed by Rachel Heyburn.
Press Night: Monday, 13 June 2011 at 7.30pm | Photocall: Email admin@finboroughtheatre.co.uk
__________

Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights 2011
Tuesday, 5 July - Saturday, 30 July 2011 | World Premiere
Mirror Teeth
by Nick Gill. Directed by Kate Wasserberg.
Press Night: Thursday, 7 July 2011 at 7.30pm | Photocall: Tuesday, 5 July 2011 at 1.00pm-1.30pm

Sundays and Mondays, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25 July 2011 | World Premiere
Home Death
by Nell Dunn. Directed by Fiona Morrell.
Press Night: Monday, 11 July 2011 at 7.30pm| Photocall: Email admin@finboroughtheatre.co.uk

Tuesday, 12 July - Saturday, 23 July 2011 at 9.00pm

Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights Staged Readings
Curated by Artistic Director Neil McPherson.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011 - The Piper by Colleen Murphy. Directed by Fidelis Morgan.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011 - Sihanoukville by Sarah Grochala. Directed by Eleanor Rhode.
Thursday, 14 July 2011 - There Goes My Future by Nicholas de Jongh. Directed by Sam Yates.
Friday, 15 July 2011 - Given The Times by Omar El-Khairy. Directed by Daniel Burgess.
Saturday, 16 July 2011 - Hey Brother by Bekah Brunstetter. Directed by Oscar Toeman.
Sunday, 17 July 2011 - No Vibrant performance
Monday, 18 July 2011 - No Vibrant performance
Tuesday, 19 July 2011 - Bamboozl'd. Written and Directed by Brian Logan.
Wednesday, 20 July 2011 - In World by Jane Wainwright. Directed by Blanche McIntyre.
Thursday, 21 July 2011 - Splitshift by Titas Halder. Directed by Kate Budgen.
Friday, 22 July 2011 - Namaskar by Rosa Connor. Directed by Ola Ince.
Saturday, 23 July 2011 - Black Jesus by Anders Lustgarten. Directed by Rae Mcken.
__________

Tuesday, 2 August - Saturday, 27 August 2011 | UK Premiere
Blue Surge
by Rebecca Gilman.
Press Night: Thursday, 4 August 2011 at 7.30pm | Photocall: Tuesday, 2 August 2011 at 1.00pm-1.30pm

Sundays and Mondays, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22 August 2011 | Rediscovery - the first production for 24 years
Portraits
by William Douglas Home. Directed and Designed by Alex Marker.
Press Night: Monday, 8 August 2011 at 7.30pm| Photocall: Email admin@finboroughtheatre.co.uk

LISTINGS INFORMATION
Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Book Online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk | 24 Hour Box Office 0844 847 1652

Performance Times and Prices
The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd | Mirror Teeth | Blue Surge
Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm.
Saturday matinees at 3.00pm (from the second week of each run).
Sunday matinees at 3.00pm.

Prices for The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd
Weeks 1 and 2 - Tickets £18, £15 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £15 all seats, and Saturday evenings £18 all seats.
Weeks 3 and 4 - Tickets £20, £17 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £17 all seats, and Saturday evenings £20 all seats.

Prices for Mirror Teeth
Weeks 1 and 2 - £13, £9 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £9 all seats, and Saturday evenings £13 all seats.
Weeks 3 and 4 - £15, £11 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £11 all seats, and Saturday evenings £15 all seats.

Prices for Blue Surge
Weeks 1 and 2 - £15, £11 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £11 all seats, and Saturday evenings £15 all seats.
Weeks 3 and 4 - £18, £15 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £15 all seats, and Saturday evenings £18 all seats.

For all three shows:
£5 tickets for Under 30's for performances in the first week of each main run when booked online.
£10 tickets for residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on the first Saturday of each run when booked online.

In Quest of Conscience | Home Death | Portraits
All performances at 7.30pm. Tickets £13, £9 concessions.
Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights 2011 staged readings
12 July - 23 July 2011 at 9.00pm. Tickets £4 all seats

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