The Hope Theatre Announces Further Details Of Its Autumn Season

The Hope Theatre can today announce further details of the shows in its autumn 2021 season, which will kick off with the recently announced in-house show FEVER PITCH, running from 31 August - 25 September in the 7pm early slot. Running alongside Fever Pitch in the late slot will be THE GOOD DAD from 31 August - 11 September, followed by KING, from 21 - 25 September. RAT KING will play from 5 - 9 October, LOVESICK will play from 2 - 6 November, followed by DARLING from 9 - 27 November, and this year's festive offering will be a live adaptation of one of the Hope at Home shows put out digitally during the pandemic, 21 ROUND FOR CHRISTMAS, playing from 30 November - 18 December.

Artistic Director Kennedy Bloomer, said, "Our incredible line-up this Autumn have mostly been waiting for 17 months for us to get here together. We'll be recommending the wearing of face-masks and keeping our enhanced cleaning and sanitisation this season to keep everyone as safe as possible. We're so proud, relieved and grateful to still be here. I wish all the best to the new Artistic Director who is yet to be announced - The Hope really is the little theatre with BIG ideas and long may it continue!"

THE GOOD DAD

Written by Gail Louw, directed by Anthony Shrubsall, starring Sarah Lawrie

31 August - 11 September @ 9pm

PRESS NIGHT: 3 September @ 9pm

The whole family knew he was a good dad. But he wasn't well, he had a weak heart, so they gathered around him to protect him - from everything, because he really was a good dad. And Donna was special; he loved her the most. So why is Donna in prison?

ON SALE NOW

KING

Written and performed by award winning Greek playwright & stand-up comedian Dennis Matsikas, directed by Liz Arday

21 - 25 September @ 9pm

PRESS NIGHT: 23 September @ 9pm

Meet King: a down-on-his-luck migrant dishpig locked out for the night with only the bins - and you - to keep him company. KING is a satirical state-of-the-nation monologue about surviving as an economic migrant in a hostile post-Brexit England.

ON SALE NOW

RAT KING

Written by Bram Davidovic and directed by Natasha Kathi-Chandra

5 - 9 October @ 9pm

PRESS NIGHT: 7 October @ 9pm

School is boring and the medication she takes looks like tic tac's and tastes like crap. The more her parents worry, the more suffocated she feels living under their roof. The world is a big place that she's determined to explore, so she's preparing to run away. Jack is living on the streets, life's hard for a homeless youth like him but he's surviving. As Kelly takes her first steps towards freedom she lands herself in trouble. Jacko comes to her rescue and they are catapulted into a journey together that will change their lives forever.

ON SALE FROM SEPTEMBER 2021

LOVESICK

A debut play by Australian actor and writer Georgina Barley, directed by Marlie Haco, alongside producer Adele Reeves and the rest of their all-female creative team.

2 - 6 November @ 8.30pm

PRESS NIGHT: 4 November @ 8:30pm

"I can feel it. You did this. You put it in me. It was planted in me. Literally. This thing, this feeling, attached to the heart, hanging off it like a tick." Sarah needed a heart transplant. Maggie performed the operation. There were no complications - but things have become complicated. Weaving together dialogue, movement and poetry, Lovesick looks at the extent to which our organs hold memory, and explores the strong connections we forge with those that have saved our lives, and those that leave us behind after death.

ON SALE FROM SEPTEMBER 2021

DARLING

Written by award-winning American playwright Kathy Rucker and directed by Scott Le Crass.

9 - 27 November @ 7pm

PRESS NIGHT: 11 November @ 7pm

It's 1985 in small town Indiana. Dave is a charismatic man with literary ambitions... He's also a con artist. Angie, fleeing her past and desperate to belong, joins Dave to pull off a monumental scam - what some would call "old school catfishing". Their victims are the lonely. When the law finally catches up to them, their strongest defender is one of their most aggrieved victims. An American tale of love, mercy and mail fraud. Pretending to be someone else forfun and profit began long before computers were invented. Inspired by a true story that took place during the 1980's in the American Midwest. Could you spot a catfish?

ON SALE FROM SEPTEMBER 2021

21 ROUND FOR CHRISTMAS

Written by Toby Hampton and Matt Ballantyne, directed by Toby Hampton.

30 November - 18 December @ 7pm

PRESS NIGHT: 2 December @ 7pm

Wine, turkey, laughter and dirty family history swept neatly under the carpet until Boxing Day. We join the world of Tracy, a day-dreaming, list-making extroverted introvert who is in the midst of cooking Christmas Dinner for her family - her very, very large family. A proud mother, wife, friend and family member who feels she may be starting to become surplus to requirements... except at Christmas.

ON SALE FROM SEPTEMBER 2021

Closed since March 2020, this acclaimed 50 seat pub theatre in the heart of Islington reopened on the public on 29 June with a critically acclaimed production of THE BOY WITH THE BEE JAR, alongside HOPE BOX, a week of comedy celebrating live theatre, in the late slot.

The Hope Theatre is also hosting a series of shows encompassing sketch and stand-up comedy, drama, new writing and drag as part of the CAMDEN FRINGE during August, including HORRIGAN & HOWELL: A SKETCH TOO FAR from 2-8 August, TIER THREE SISTERS from 9 - 15 August, POSSIBILITIES also from 10 - 15 August, FOUR SISTERS from 16 - 19 August, OLIVES AND BLOWJOBS from 20 - 22 August, ASÃ’ from 16 - 22 August, TH'WILDCAT OF SHEFFIELD: UNSHIELDED from 23 - 27 August, and EDDIE BRIMSON: NAUGHTY BOY from 23 - 27 August.

Opening in 2013, The Hope Theatre was originally a sister theatre of Islington's King's Head Theatre, renovated from a function room above the famous Hope & Anchor pub and music venue into a black box studio theatre. The Hope Theatre has transferred two productions to the West End (Ushers to the Charing Cross Theatre and the Snoo Wilson's Lovesong Of The Electric Bear to The Arts) and has been home to many world premieres. It also housed the professional world premiere of Joe Orton's Fred And Madge.

The Hope Theatre is a place for audiences and companies to explore BIG ideas. It nurtures and develops new producing models, working with exciting companies to present a mix of new writing, lost gems from well-known writers, re-polished classics and innovatively staged musicals.

Although The Hope Theatre has received no regular public subsidy since its 2013 opening, it was the first Off West End venue to open with a house agreement with Equity. This ensures a legal wage for all actors, stage managers and box office staff working at the theatre.

In 2020, Kennedy Bloomer became Artistic Director of the theatre and navigated the theatre through the global Covid-19 pandemic and total closure by taking The Hope Theatre online. She recently announced that she was stepping down in August, and the new Artistic Director appointment will be announced shortly.

The Hope Theatre was successfully granted funds from the Arts Council England Emergency Response Fund, the ACE and DCMS Culture Recovery Fund 1 and 2. The Hope Theatre team would like to gratefully acknowledge the role that this funding has played in enabling the venue to survive and reopen this summer.

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