THE TWITS, GREASE and More Set for 2016 'Made At Curve' Series

With an acclaimed revival of Legally Blonde still running in the theatre, Chief Executive Chris Stafford and Artistic Director Nikolai Foster announce a new season of Made At Curve productions for autumn and Christmas 2016.

In October, Foster directs a contemporary spin on Oscar Wilde's classic play The Importance of Being Earnest, a co-production with Birmingham Repertory Theatre and this is followed by the return of Akram Khan with a new Curve co-production of Until The Lions running from 3 - 5 November.

Then at Christmas, following the success of last year's festive double-bill Oliver! and Roald Dahl's The Witches, Curve presents the much-loved musical Grease and sticky children's tale Roald Dahl's The Twits. Nikolai Foster will direct the brand new production of the smash hit musical Grease in the Theatre while at the same time Curve revisits the work of Roald Dahl in the Studio with David Wood's adaption of The Twits in a new co-production with Rose Theatre Kingston. As with last year's production of The Witches and Curve's current production of Legally Blonde, Roald Dahl's The Twits will play to an international audience with the show visiting Hong Kong prior to its run at Curve. The show then travels to Rose Theatre Kingston in April 2017.

Chris Stafford, Chief Executive and Nikolai Foster, Curve Artistic Director said:

"We are pleased to announce our new slate of Made at Curve productions, a season of work celebrating established writers alongside new work. We are thrilled to be co-producing The Importance of Being Earnest with our neighbours Birmingham Rep, marking the first co-production between our two theatres and the first time this classic play has been staged at Curve. Following on from Earnest, our co-production of Curve Associate Artist Akram Khan's Until The Lions will take to our stage this October, demonstrating our commitment to producing the very best dance here in Leicester. We are also excited to announce Grease as our Christmas musical. Alongside Grease and playing in our 300-seat theatre, we are thrilled to welcome rising director Max Webster to Curve, who will create a magical production of The Twits as part of the Dahl 100 celebrations. With the mighty Foxes at the top of the league and local lad Mark Selby also a world champion, there's an incredible energy and confidence building in our city; it couldn't be a better time to be in Leicester and making theatre for our incredible communities."

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A Curve & Birmingham Repertory Theatre Co-Production

The Importance of Being Earnest

By Oscar Wilde

Birmingham Repertory Theatre

9 September -24 September

Press Night: 14 September 7pm

Curve - Studio

6 October - 29 October

Press night: 11 October 7pm

Director: Nikolai Foster

Designer: Isla Shaw

Artistic Director Nikolai Foster gives The Importance of Being Earnest the Made at Curve treatment with a fresh and contemporary spin on Oscar Wilde's classic play in a co-production with Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Bachelor Jack Worthing and his best mate Algernon Moncrieff hope to marry society's most eligible ladies, Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew. But the lads' courtship of the women is far from straight forward. With double identities, handbag mishaps and hostile encounters with the formidable Lady Bracknell, the pair become embroiled in a web of mistaken identities with hilarious consequences.

Regarded as one of the finest comedies in the English language, Wilde's play explodes with his trademark razor-sharp wit and is a brilliant exploration of the hypocrisies of a society where what we see on the outside is very different from what lies beneath.

Join us for this stylish new production and follow our charming pair as they discover "the vital importance of being earnest".

Nikolai Foster is Artistic Director at Curve. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, he grew up in North Yorkshire. Nikolai trained at Drama Centre London and at the Crucible, Sheffield. Since taking up his post in January 2015, Nikolai has directed Legally Blonde: The Musical, Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's adapted by Richard Greenberg, Roald Dahl's The Witches, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, Shakespeare's Richard III, Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, a performance to celebrate the reveal of the tomb of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral and Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing.

A Curve Co-Production

Until The Lions

Created by the Akram Khan Dance Company

Produced during a residency at Curve

Curve - Theatre

3 November - 5 November

Visual Artist: Tim Yip; Dramaturg: Ruth Little;

Lighting Designer: Michael Hulls; Assistant Choreographer: Jose Agudo

Composer: Beautiful Noise (Vincenzo Lamagna); Assistant Director: Sasha Milavic Davies

Following a residency at Curve in July 2015, award-winning choreographer, dancer and Curve Associate Artist Akram Khan returns with his brand new, full-length production Until the Lions.

A revisiting of one story of the epic Mahabharata, Until the Lions will be one of his most startling and introspective works to date. In Until the Lions, Khan uses Kathak and contemporary dance to tell the tale of Amba, a princess abducted on her wedding day and stripped of her honour, who invokes the gods to seek revenge. This dramatic new work explores gender and sexuality, and the changes that time forces on the body.

As both performer and choreographer, Akram Khan has shared an uncanny, enduring connection with the Mahabharata. He performed in Peter Brook's 1985 version as a teenager and has staged stories of other heroes from the epic in Ronin (2003), Third Catalogue (2005) and Gnosis (2010).

Khan is directing and choreographing Until the Lions and will perform alongside two of his company dancers, Ching-Ying Chien and Christine Joy Ritter. Accompanying these three performers live on stage will be singers Sohini Alam and David Azurza, percussionist Yaron Engler and composer Vincenzo Lamagna.

Until the Lions was initiated by the 360° Network of round artistic venues across the world. The show is produced by Akram Khan Company (Farooq Chaudhry), and coproduced by Roundhouse/Sadler's Wells, MC2: Grenoble, La Comète Châlons-en-Champagne, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, Danse Danse/TOHU Montréal, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, New Vision Arts Festival Hong Kong, Taipei Performing Arts Center, Movimentos Festwochen Wolfsburg, Brighton Dome, Maison de la Culture d'Amiens, Concertgebouw Brugge, Holland Festival Amsterdam, Romaeuropa Festival, Curve Leicester. This production is a partial adaptation of Until the Lions, a retelling in verse of the Mahabharata by Karthika Naïr.

Akram Khan has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career including the Laurence Olivier Award, the Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance Award) and the prestigious ISPA (International Society for the Performing Arts) Distinguished Artist Award. Khan was awarded an MBE for services to dance in 2005.

Grease

Book, music & lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey

Curve - Theatre

26 November - 14 January

Press night: 1 December at 7pm

Director: Nikolai Foster; Choreographer: Nick Winston;

Designer: Colin Richmond; Lighting Designer: Guy Hoare;

Orchestrator: Sarah Travis

"Why, this car is auto-matic. It's systematic. It's hyyyyydromatic. Why, its greased lightning!"

Grease is the word this Christmas as Nikolai Foster directs Curve's brand new production of the electrifying, smash hit musical.

After a whirlwind summer romance, leather-clad greaser Danny and girl-next-door Sandy are unexpectedly reunited when she transfers to Rydell High for senior year. But can they survive the trials and tribulations of teenage life, and find true love once more?

A favourite on Broadway, the West End and the silver screen, Grease topped Channel 4's poll to find the 100 Greatest Musicals of all time. Featuring a phenomenal score including Summer Nights, Greased Lightnin', Hopelessly Devoted to You and You're the One That I Want, this is set to be the musical event of the year, celebrating the birth of American cool and the incredible pop explosion of the 1950s.

So round-up your Palace Burger Boys, pick up your Pink Ladies and get ready to burn up the quarter mile this Christmas!

For Nikolai Foster's biography see above.

A Curve and Rose Theatre, Kingston Co-production

Roald Dahl's The Twits

Based on the book by Roald Dahl

Adapted for the stage by David Wood

Curve - Studio

10 December -15 January

Press night: 14 December at 7pm

Hong Kong

25 November - 27 November

Rose Theatre Kingston

4 April - 15 April 2017

Director: Max Webster

"Mr. Twit was a twit. He was born a twit. And, now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever."

Mr Twit has a very hairy face. His beard is spiky and smelly. It also contains cornflakes, sardines and even some stilton.

Mrs Twit is equally as foul and she hates Mr Twit just as much as Mr Twit hates her.

The Twits really are the most spiteful and revolting couple you could ever hope to meet. They spend their days playing wicked tricks on each other and mistreating Muggle-Wump monkeys. They also have a particularly sticky trick to catch Roly-Poly birds for their bird pies.

But not for much longer because the monkeys have a cunning plan to teach those terrible twits a lesson.

Curve's mischievous new co-production with Rose Theatre Kingston is the perfect Christmas treat for all the family. Directed by Max Webster (The Lorax at The Old Vic), The Twits promises to be just as disgusting and repulsive as earth worms disguised as spaghetti!

Recommended for ages 6+

Max Webster is the current Baylis Director at The Old Vic Theatre. His directorial theatre credits include King Lear (Northampton Royal & Derngate & UK Tour), The Lorax (Old Vic Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing, (The Globe Theatre), Mary Stuart (Parco - Japan), James And The Giant Peach (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Twelfth Night (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Orlando, To Kill A Mockingbird, My Young And Foolish Heart (Royal Exchange Theatre), My Generation (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Shape Of The Impossible (Shed, National Theatre), Skewered Snails (Iron Oxide & Southbank Centre), Anna Karenina (Arcola Theatre), The Chalk Circle (Aarohan Theatre, Kathmandu & international tour), Sense (Company of Angels & Southwark Playhouse), Longing For Darkness (Havana Theatre Festival, Cuba & International tour), Carnival Under The Rainbow (Hilton Arts Festival, South Africa & National tour), Mustard (Company of Angels & Soho Theatre Studio), Feast Kakulu (Hilton Arts Festival, South Africa & National tour) and Finisterre (Theatre503 & Young Vic Genesis).

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The Leicester Curve is located at 60 Rutland St, Leicester LE1 1SB. Visit www.curveonline.co.uk or follow on Twitter: @CurveLeicester and Facebook: /CURVEtheatreLeicester for more information.

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