Trinity Theatre Announces Summer Season

Unmissable programming, inspiring youth work and a unique architectural restoration project are all underway at Trinity Theatre this season as this leading cultural centre approaches its 40th anniversary. With West End hits like Showstoppers! The Improvised Musical coming straight from Shaftesbury Avenue, live events with some of the biggest names in literature, an eclectic Shakespeare festival, live music, big name comedy acts, sparkling ballet streams and the best of the season's cinema releases, Trinity Theatre is bringing fresh, unmissable events to their historic setting.

Trinity Theatre brings National Theatre and West End Shows through its historic doors. NT Live: Straight Line Crazy (26th May) sees multi-award winning Ralph Finnes (Schindler's List; The Grand Budapest Hotel; The End of the Affair) lead in David Hare's blazing account of the most powerful man in New York, Robert Moses. Direct from the West End, Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (12th - 13th May) brings spontaneous musical comedy at its finest. As 2016 Olivier Award Winners, a critically-acclaimed West End run and a BBC Radio 4 series, The Showstoppers have delighted audiences across the world with their ingenious blend of comedy, musical theatre and sponteneity. Ground-breaking new plays take wry, amusing journeys into literature, feminism and gender. Estella (14th - 15th July) dives straight into the heart of literature's most mysterious heroine. Inspired by Dicken's classic Great Expectations, this radical re-imagining will be performed by captivating actor-musicians. In A Room of One's Own (16th June), Rebecca Vaughan performs Virginia Woolf's 1928 exploration of the impact of poverty and sexual inequality on intellectual freedom.

Comedic masterpieces are also part of this season's broad programme, with black comedy Superstition Mountain (25th May) following the three Gunwallow brothers in a bit of bother - or on the edge of meltdown - as they seek out the legendary Lost Dutchman's gold mine in their Gold Rush adventure. Starring Oliver nominee Ben Keaton, Waiting for Godot (5th June) is comedy dressed to look profound or a philosophical work of genius dripping in gags, depending on your viewpoint! Noel Coward fans can see TTC: Presents Noel Coward's Private Lives (19th -23rd July). Combustible chemistry meets comedy in this razor-sharp play, as we see divorcee couple unfortunately meet when newly-wed and on their next honeymoon! Also bringing unmissable acts are award-winning comedian Neil Delamere, one of the top acts working in the Irish comedy scene today, Esther Manito, an Arab Essex girl who will challenge every single preconception of what that means, Nathan Caton with his charismatic and laid-back style of stand up, and much more.

Music and dance also make up Trinity Theatre's programme. The Royal Ballet: Swan Lake (19th May) will bring the classic fairytale to life in the event cinema, a performance sparkling with the magic of lakes, forests and palaces, underscored by Tchaikovsky's sublime score. More ballet and magic is brought by Merlin (15th May), a sweeping epic adventure of hope and heartbreak inspired by the story of a mythical wizard.

Summer will bring in Shakespeare as you've never seen it before; exciting theatre by innovative voices! All-female Players Theatre Company present Twelfth Night (1st July), breathing new life into Shakespeare's comedy of mistaken identity, music and love. Bowler Crab celebrate their 10th season with A Midsummer Night's Dream (2nd July), performed in beautiful rhyming verse! Shakespeare's midsummer world of magic, music and mayhem will immerse audiences in trick-some fairies, enchanted lovers and ass-headed 'rude mechanicals'. The Bard in the Yard (2nd July) finds William Shakespeare stuck, really stuck. Blank parchment stuck and trying to write a new masterpiece. Going back to Shakespearean roots, theatre company Shake-Scene bring Much Ado About Nothing (3rd July). This tangled tale is performed with lines and cues only without any rehearsal. Why? Because that's how it was done in Shakespeare's time!

Live music galore will be seen across the season. Sensational Sondheim (10th - 11th June) will celebrate the titan of musical theatre with a magnificent medley of his most famous songs; during his career, Sondheim is known for Broadway's best shows, including Company, Follies and West Side Story. Down For The Count (17th June) will celebrate the legends of swings, featuring moving music from the likes of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald and more beloved names.

Exctiting musicians will also perform their latest work, including Spiers & Boden (18th June), the founding members of Bellowhead who rocketed onto the music scene to win BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. British-American jazz quartet ATLANTICUS (13th July) blend the tradition of the great Hammond organ groups with a postmodern sound, while critically-acclaimed guitarist and composer Richard Durrant returns to Trinity as part of his popular Music for Midsummer 2022 tour. World-class acts will come to Trinity Theatre's Breathing Room, including Fiona Bevan, (Songwriter for Ed SHeeran, One Direction and more) and Dean Friedman, who marked his entry with the quirkily irrestisable track Ariel.

Trinity's youth work is front and centre this season, as their community initiatives continue to engage young people with creative opportunities. Trinity Theatre will co-produce with Rust & Stardust to bring The Poetical Scientist (31st May), exploring the fascinating life of Ada Lovelace - feminist icon, the first computer programmer, and the daughter of scandalous poet Lord Byron. The Addams Family School Edition follows the ultimate princess of darkness, Wednesday Addams, shockingly in love with a respectable young man from a respectable family. More ghoulishness can be found in DRACULA The Bloody Truth (30th May). Seven actors perform fourty roles in this fast-paced retelling of Bram Stoker's classic, fittingly performed in Kent's Hever Castle. The Castle will also host Bring on the Bard (27th - 28th June) as local schools take to the stage to perform Shakespearean adaptations, coming to Trinity Theatre later in the month (29th - 30th June).

Children will be delighted with Trinity Theatre's line up of engaging theatre, including the Twirlywoos (28th May), The Mighty Kids Beatbox Comedy Show (31st July) and The Rascally Diner (24th July), inspired by the award-winning children's book The Rascally Cake by Jeanne

Willis and Korky Paul. Trinity's own Youth Theatre will perform The Jungle Book (29th July) and Seussical Jr. (13th August) as their youth programmes bring children into the world of performance and create opportunities to develop invaluable life skills.

June will see Pop Up Poetry at Trinity Theatre as part of the Tunbridge Wells Poetry Festival. The Escape Plan (19th June) will bring an evening of pure escape with stories, jokes and poems from writer, poet and TV and film producer Henry Normal. Winner of the Ginkgo Poetry Prize 2020 and Poets for the Planet Jane Lovell will bring Eco Poetry Night (14th June), showcasing environmental writing from the floor.

Topping off this line-up of a variety of cultural events, Trinity Theatre will be opening its 200 year-old clocktower for the very first time as it is redeveloped into a unique exhibition space. Visitors will be able to climb the clocktower's new spiral staircase and discover the building's fascinating history; from its origins as a creative Gothic Church designed by renowned architect Decimus Burton in the 1870s, to the community battle that saved it from demolition a century later. The top of the clocktower not only boasts the original clock and bell but will provide unparalleled panoramic views of Tunbridge Wells.

Tickets to events are available by contacting the box office on 01892 678 678 or by visiting https://www.trinitytheatre.net/.

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