World Premiere of TEDDY Set for Southwark Playhouse

Snapdragon Productions and Theatre Bench present the world première of Teddy - by Tristan Bernays and music by Dougal Irvine. Snapdragon's Eleanor Rhode directs the production which opens on 8 June, with previews from 4 June and runs until 27 June.

Elephant and Castle. 1956. Saturday night.

Teddy and Josie are about to hit the streets of London for a good time. It's pissing it down, they're totally skint, and someone wants them dead - but a little trouble never stopped a Ted from having a good time. Desperate times call for rock 'n' roll.

Teddy is a punchy, lyrical ride though the dark and damaged world of 1950s London. Featuring a blistering live performance from Johnny Valentine and The Broken Hearts and an electrifying original score by Dougal Irvine.

Expect sex, violence and damn good hair.

Tristan Bernays said today "I can't wait to bring Teddy to Southwark Playhouse - a venue which is at the vanguard of new and exciting theatre and musicals."

Dougal Irvine added, "I'm thrilled to be the composer for Teddy and to be collaborating with playwright Tristan Bernays. Tristan's a dynamic writer with a crazy gift for poetry and pace. His dress sense is also worth a song or two. Having written a few musicals now, this process has been about letting Tristan's words shine, wrapping the music around and under them so they can burst out like little beasts onto the stage. Teddy is somewhere between a musical, a play with songs and a live gig. It'll be something different and fresh, a night out for the next generation."

Tristan Bernays is a writer and performer. As a writer, his work includes Iron (Orange Tree Theatre)
Iron Oxide (Southwark Playhouse as part of Theatre Renegade's Courting Drama), The Bread & The Beer (Soho Theatre and UK Tour), Old Fools (Bush Theatre as part of Theatre Renegade's Courting Drama), Coffin (Kings Head Theatre), Arden 2.0 as part of Old Vic New Voices' Arden Project (Warner Brothers Theatre) and Aftershocks (National Theatre Studio).

Dougal Irvine is an award winning composer, lyricist and writer. He trained in playwriting at Royal Court. Credits as a bookwriter/lyricist/composer include Departure Lounge, In Touch, The Other School, Angry Birds and The Busker's Opera. As a lyricist his credits include Britain's Got Bhangra (The Off West End Award for Best New Musical), Laila and The Lighthouse. As a composer, his work includes The Snow Queen (Nuffield Theatre/Royal and Derngate), The Bacchae, Blood Wedding (Royal and Derngate during the Cameron Mackintosh/Mercury Musicals Resident Composer Scheme), The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors (Changeling Theatre) and Captured by the Dark (StopGap Theatre).

Director Eleanor Rhode directs. Her recent theatre work includes Toast, The Dead Wait and Thark (Park Theatre), Generous, the London première of The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey and the first London revival in over 30 years of A Life by Hugh Leonard (all Finborough Theatre). Other directing includes The Gypsy Thread (National Theatre Studio), Can I Be Straight With You? (Bush Theatre), The Error of Their Ways (Cockpit Theatre), A Number (Camden People's Theatre), This Lime Tree Bower (Edinburgh Festival) and staged readings of The Session (Pushkin House), The Promised Land (Tristan Bates), The Geese of Beverly Road (Theatre 503), Photos of You Sleeping (Hampstead Theatre) and The December Man (L'homme de décembre), Sihanoukville and Barrow Hill (Finborough Theatre). She is currently working on a new musical for Centerstage Theatre Seattle.

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