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The Hope Theatre – New Spring Season Announced

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The Hope Theatre 2018 Spring Season

The Hope Theatre is delighted to announce their Spring 2018 season featuring a mix of new writing and established work with a 50/50 gender split of writers and containing a world premiere directed by Artistic Director Matthew Parker.

 

MY GAY BEST FRIEND – 9th to 27th January

2018 gets off to a bang as Louise Jameson (Dr Who, Eastenders) returns to The Hope following her award nominated performance in TWO SHORT PLAYS ABOUT GAYS last year. Louise will appear in the wonderful two-hander MY GAY BEST FRIEND – a heady mixture of high camp, melancholy reflection on friendships and the childhood dramas that haunt us all. 

MOMENTS/EMPTY BEDS – 30th January to 17th February

The award winning Pennyworth Productions bring their double bill MOMENTS/EMPTY BEDS to The Hope. In these productions Pennyworth explore modern loneliness, family tension and missed connections. Written by exciting emerging playwright Julia Cranney, these plays are funny, frank and touching in equal measure.

FOUL PAGES – 20th February to 17th March

Our award winning Artistic Director Matthew Parker directs the world premiere of FOUL PAGES by Robin Hooper (ex literary manager of the Royal Court and Paines Plough). A fruity farce full of scandalous secrets, backstage betrayals and lusty liaisons. You think you know your Shakespeare?… Think again! FOUL PAGES is the sixth in-house production from the award winning Hope Theatre team.

OUR BIG LOVE STORY – 20th March to 7th April

5 people’s lives intertwine in OUR BIG LOVE STORY; a tale of faith, prejudice, love and healing looking at radicalisation of young people and the struggle to keep your faith after a traumatic event. Written by Stephanie Silver OUR BIG LOVE STORY is a thought provoking, heartwarming and at funny look at how love, faith and coming together as a society really does make the world go around. 

PIG – 10th to 28th April

Completing the spring season is the European Premiere of Tim Luscombe’s PIG; delving into aspects of life that are frequently venal, unpleasant, disturbing and downright tragic, exploring violent sex and sexual violence, punishment, redemption, ownership and sacrifice, selfharm and death-wish, role-play and fantasy, and the eroticism of violence and of HIV-Aids. Directed by Russell Bolam and produced by Nastazja Somers (TORN APART (DISSOLUTION) at The Hope Theatre) and Julia Mucko. 

 

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Artistic Director Matthew Parker said:

“I’m super excited by this eclectic new season looking at our lives in different ways and worlds. I’m particularly pleased to have a strong LGBTQ+ showing and a 50/50 split of female and male writers whilst we continue our commitment to the Equity Low Pay No Pay campaign.”

 
 

www.TheHopeTheatre.com

 

 

 

 

Review of Turkey – 3.5 Stars

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Turkey

Turkey

The Hope Theatre

Reviewed – 28th September 2017

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

 

 

“moments of true theatrical beauty”

 

Turkey is impossible to simplify; somewhere between a modern Hedda Gabler and Yerma, it retains all the qualities of the greatest stories ever told, with a distinctly modern perspective. Hilariously funny, Turkey presents a liberal love story with a twist, though it’s crash-cut ending leaves the audience desperate for the end of the story.

The narrative follows the story of Maddie and Toni, a young lesbian couple who are happily monogamous, living a normal life. There’s just one issue; Maddie wants a baby and Toni can’t give her one. The visceral story explores the issues of motherhood in more unusual concepts, exploring the lengths to which one is willing to go to reach the ultimate goal and the consequences of tunnel-vision. The dialogue is incredibly well written and super snappy, with some truly breathtaking moments of stillness, though the pacing sometimes seemed to be lost in the middle of scenes.

The acting is strong and solid; Harriet Green gives a natural and consistently strong performance and Cameron Robertson flickers between an older man, out of place in the world of the young couple and a youthful exuberance that controls the stage. Pevyand Sadeghian (Madeline) gives a fiery performance, but sometimes lacks the depth that could make the character more likeable.

The set is constructed from a series of boxes and hanging props, allowing the piece to flit between abstract proxemics and physicality and the daring realism of the script and performances; credit must go to Niall Phillips’ direction for streamlining these differences into a coherent and well-functioning whole that serves the story with specificity and style. The comedy is incredibly well-written, truly highlighting the more dramatic moments, but can sometimes make the characters feel a little archetypal.

For me, the plot felt a little too centred around a single event or concept, rather than following through a more developed story line, and I would love to see this piece expanded and developed to 90 minutes or more, with a clearer reason behind the narrative. Turkey is a solid piece of theatre, with an interesting and uncommon story and some moments of true theatrical beauty. I look forward to seeing the next steps of Frankie Meredith’s writing career and will be watching closely; this is certainly a jaw-dropping achievement for Meredith’s first full-length play and the entire team must be commended for creating an original yet classically soulful story.

 

Reviewed by Tasmine Airey

 

 

TURKEY

is at The Hope Theatre until 14th October

 

 

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