Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells Announces A Cornucopia Of Autumn Excellence For 2022

Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, celebrates the changing season with a slate of drama, comedy, cinema and family shows.

On 21st and 22nd September, the Three Inch Fools will return to Trinity with The Gunpowder Plot. This highly flammable historical tale comes to life in a brand new production full of uproarious intrigue, endless costume changes, and many, many false moustaches! Throughout the season, Trinity will screen National Theatre Live broadcasts including Emilia Clarke in The Seagull, and Much Ado About Nothing, which Time Out called a hoot. These screenings complement Trinity's regular independent cinema offering that runs throughout the year. A further highlight will be Trinity Youth Theatre's performance of Who the F**k is Don Quixote?, a new comic play fresh from Edinburgh Fringe, by the star of the West End's The Play That Goes Wrong, Jack Michael Stacey.

Trinity Theatre's autumn programming also offers award-winning drama. Winner of the Women's Prize for Playwriting 2020, Amy Trigg's remarkable debut play Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me will tour to Tunbridge Wells in October. This hilarious, heart-warming tale follows Juno, who was born with spina bifida and is now clumsily navigating her twenties amidst street healers, love, loneliness - and the feeling of being an unfinished project. In November, following its sell-out run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Trinity audiences will get the chance to see the queer cult sensation In PerSUEt. Eleanor Higgins' fierce, heartfelt, LGBTQ+ tragi-comedy is a play with unexpected truth, nuance and hope... and Sue Perkins. This searingly fresh new show aims to leave the audience in little doubt: that in recovery, one finds redemption.

Younger audiences will be delighted by Professor Slug's House of Bugs on 11th September. This interactive show is packed full of colourful puppets, catchy songs, and educational info about the wonderful world of bugs. The House of Bugs is fully booked with all sorts of bugs seeking help from Professor Slug and his young bug experts in the audience! On 2nd October audiences will be introduced to Flotsam and Jetsam, two very different creatures who are cast adrift in a world that is strange to them both. This hopeful, adventure story combines visual theatre with original music and delightful puppetry.

Running throughout the season will be a strong comedy offering from The Good Ship Comedy series. At the beginning of September, RTS Breakthrough Act 2020 and BAFTA Breakthrough writer/performer Tim Renkow (Jerk, BBC Three; Live At The Apollo, BBC One) will join Ninia Benjamin (Three Non-Blondes, BBC Three), who was most recently recognised by her peers as Comedian's Comedian Award Winner 2021 for Best Headliner, for a night of comedy. Later in the month, award-winning comedian, punk-rock musician and best-selling writer Andrew O'Neill (Damned Andrew, BBC Radio 4; Never Mind The Buzzcocks, BBC One) will be joined by American writer turned stand-up Sara Barron (Live at the Apollo, BBC One; The Guilty Feminist Podcast) for an evening of her trademark gossipy, charming and outrageous stand-up. The Good Ship Comedy will return in November with winner of the Chortle Student Comedy Award and the BBC New Comedy Award Michael Odewale (The Mash Report, BBC One; Comedians in Quarantine, Comedy Central). Odewale will perform alongside comedian, presenter, podcaster, actor and writer, STEPHEN BAILEY (The Apprentice: You're Fired, BBC One; Roast Battle, Comedy Central). November will also see multi-award-winning New Old Friends return to Trinity with their comedic whodunnit Crimes on Centre Court. This production has the hallmarks of the company's particular brand of theatrical hilarity; a dose of mirth, murder and mayhem, this time with a side of tennis!

Lovers of live music will be spoilt for choice this autumn. In October, inspired by Raynor Winn's Sunday Times best-selling memoir, The Salt Path, some of the most high-profile names on the British folk scene come together for an exciting collaboration as Raynor Winn and The Gigspanner Big Band present Saltlines. Ralph McTell's tour of his first album in 10 years, Hill of Beans, will stop off at Trinity in November. Bringing his exquisite song writing to life with virtuoso guitar picking and evocative stories, McTell interweaves spellbinding songs with wry humorous anecdotes.

As the nights draw in, Trinity has some spooky seasonal offerings. Supernatural murder mystery The Tell-Tale Heart, based on Edgar Allan Poe's classic Victorian chiller, will get pulses racing. The Tell-Tale Heart is presented by Rumpus Theatre Company, whose previous work, The Pit And The Pendulum Whats On Stage called gripping and terrifying. Audiences will be chilled by Bart Lee Theatre Company's Candlelit Frankenstein. Told by Mary Shelly, this rendition of Frankenstein is brought to life by this talented and enthralling company, igniting the imagination with poetry, soundscapes, shadows and movement.

With so much on offer for the whole community, Trinity Theatre has plenty to engage and delight in its 40th year.

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