Jermyn Street Theatre Announces Memories Season
By: Stephi Wild May. 15, 2019
This autumn Jermyn Street Theatre presents a glittering season of work that celebrates the achievements of the West End studio venue over the past quarter of a century. The MEMORIES SEASON reflects the wide-range of high quality work that the theatre has become known for since its creation in 1994.
Each of the productions takes the idea of memory as a central theme, each, in their very differrent ways, exploring situations in which influences of the past play a central role in events of the present. The season comprises a revival of Somerset Maugham's For Services Rendered, the world premiere of Ice Cream Boys by Gail Louw, Artistic Director Tom Littler's production of Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well and the London premiere of the acclaimed Watermill Theatre's production of One Million Plays About Britain by Craig Taylor.
Jermyn Street Theatre's Artistic Director Tom Littler says -
Since Penny Horner and Howard Jameson created Jermyn Street Theatre twenty-five years ago, with the support of hundreds of volunteers, playwrights, directors, designers, stage managers and actors, they have acheived the impossible: a tiny theatre, without government funding, running in the West End.
>From September to January, we celebrate their achievement with the Memories Season. All four of this autumn's plays are about the power of memories. From the long shadow of the First World War stretching across the manicured lawns of For Services Rendered, to the burning rage and secrecy that fires The Ice Cream Boys; from the diaries, letters and lost LPs that make up my production of All's Well That Ends Well, to the scraps of overheard conversations that provide the dialogue for One Million Tiny Plays, this season celebrates memories: moving, absurd, and hilarious.
4 September - 5 October
Press night - Friday 6 September - 7.30pm
FOR SERVICES RENDERED
By Somerset Maugham
Directed by Tom Littler
A warm September afternoon in an idyllic English village. Tea is served on the terrace. Sounds of a tennis party float across the lawn. But this England has no place for the heroes of the First World War. No jobs to sustain them, no mantelpieces for their medals, and no money for their debts. Against the odds, three sisters must carve new paths in an uncertain world. This is the first major London revival of Somerset Maugham's masterpiece since it was seen at the Old Vic in 1993, and the National Theatre in 1979.
9 October - 2 November
Press night Friday 11 October - 7.30pm
World Premiere
THE ICE CREAM BOYS
By Gail Louw
Directed by Vik Sivalingam
There are some enemies you'd wait a lifetime to see face-to-face. Charismatic, corrupt and dangerous, Jacob Zuma was until recently President of South Africa. But before Zuma came to power, Ronnie Kasrils masterminded the intelligence services. Now at last they're alone together. When you've been betrayed, it's never too late to settle old scores.
Funny, fascinating, and hugely enjoyable, The Ice Cream Boys is a gripping exploration of politics and power. Gail Louw's plays include the acclaimed Blonde Poison.
6 November to 30 November
Press night Friday 8 November - 7.30pm
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Tom Littler
A co-production with Guildford Shakespeare Company
When his father dies, Bertram rejects his friends, abandons his mother, and flees his childhood home. But the orphaned Helena refuses to give up hope. Following in her father's footsteps, she becomes a doctor, saves a monarch's life, and crosses half of Europe in the passionate pursuit of her happiness.
One of Shakespeare's most intensely romantic and bittersweet plays is given a magical and intimate production, drenched in the music of memory.
2 December to 11 January
Press night Friday 6 December - 7.30pm
London Premiere
ONE MILLION TINY PLAYS ABOUT BRITAIN
By Craig Taylor
Directed by Laura Keefe
In association with The Watermill Theatre
A couple peer into an estate agent's window; two sports fans have a heart-to-heart in the loo; a daughter has questions about her mother's love life; and as a father helps his son tie his football boots, he realises they are growing apart. If you keep your eyes and ears open, there are a million tiny plays happening every day.
Originally published in The Guardian, this collage of scenes now form a hugely entertaining and addictive evening in the theatre. It will change the way you listen to the world around you, and train journeys will never be the same again.
Jermyn Street Theatre is an art-house theatre in the heart of London's West End. The 70-seat studio opened in 1994, and has since won numerous awards and transferred many productions to the West End and Broadway. In summer 2017 Tom Littler became Artistic Director. Littler relaunched the venue as a producing house. Since then it has forged partnerships with theatres in New York, Munich, Frankfurt, Newbury, York, Guildford, Oxford, Cumbria and York, producing over fifteen world premieres alongside several rediscoveries. Jermyn Street Theatre is a signatory to the Equity Fringe Agreement and committed to equal gender representation. In its first two years as a producing house, over 53% of actors and 60% of production teams have been female.
The current PORTRAIT SEASON ends with Pictures of Dorian Gray adapted by Lucy Shaw from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (5 June - 6 July). Press nights are Monday 10 - Wednesday 12 June. It has also included Howard Brenton's return adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie and new adaptation of Creditors (currently running to 1 June), the stage premiere of Rose Heiney's Original Death Rabbit, Trevor Nunn's world premiere production of Harley Granville Barker's Agnes Colander: An Attempt at Life, revised by Richard Nelson, and the world premiere of Mary's Babies by Maud Dromgoole.
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