Forgot The Mince, Things I Know, Medea, Tin Drum, Pyar Actually
You Forgot The Mince – tour starts 26 September
You Forgot The Mince tours following a run at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Whilst on the road visiting theatre venues, the show will also play a number of prisons where the company will facilitate drama workshops.
This gritty new play by actor, writer and producer Francesca Joy is set in Leeds and inspired by true events with a story that revolves around love and a modern day abusive relationship.
Joy also performs with cast members Ursula Mohan and Prince Plockey. It is directed by Stephen Whitson with movement by choreographers Errol White and Davina Givan.
You Forgot The Mince is presented by Leeds-based theatre company and charity Imagine If which in addition to touring new writing to theatres and prisons across the UK also runs a range of drama-based workshops across the UK with offenders, ex-offenders, those with mental health issues, recovering addicts, young adults in the care system and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
You Forgot The Mince opens at The Courtyard Theatre, London then visits Hope Mill Theatre Manchester, MAC Birmingham, The Castle Wellingborough, Shoebox Theatre Swindon and Interplay Theatre Leeds. Young adults in care are able to receive free tickets.
Things I Know To Be True – tour starts 27 September
Original UK cast members, Matthew Barker and Kirsty Oswald, will reprise their roles as two of the four siblings in Things I Know To Be True when it tours again from September to February.
Barker has stage credits that include Sweet Bird of Youth, Good People, Husbands and Sons and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Amongst Oswald's credits are Othello, The Father, The Judas Kiss, We Are Proud To Present… and The Winter’s Tale.
Seline Hizli plays sister Pip. She is best known for her principal television role of Margaret in ITV’s Grantchester and has stage credits that include One Night in November, Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba and Jumpy.
Arthur Wilson takes the role of youngest brother, Ben. His credits include Man and Superman, Richard II, Home – Edinburgh, Persuasion, The Crunch and The Borrowers.
Playing their parents are Cate Hamer and John McArdle. They both have extensive credits on stage and screen.
Hamer's include Machinal, The Love of the Nightingale, Mary & Lizzie, The Tempest, Volpone, Scenes From An Execution and Crime and Punishment. Amongst McArdle's are Brookside, Emmerdale, Lennon, Our Country’s Good, The Crucible and Brassed Off.
Things I Know To Be True is written by Andrew Bovell. A funny and frank play, it tells the story of a family and marriage through the eyes of four grown siblings.
Things I Know To Be True is a Frantic Assembly and State Theatre Company South Australia production. It was originally produced in collaboration with Warwick Arts Centre in association with Chichester Festival Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith.
The play is co-directed by Frantic Assembly’s artistic director Scott Graham and State Theatre Company’s artistic director Geordie Brookman.
Things I Know To Be True plays Oxford Playhouse, The Lowry (Quays Theatre), Leicester Curve, Mercury Theatre Colchester, York Theatre Royal, Chester Storyhouse, Nuffield Southampton, The Lighthouse Poole and Lyric Hammersmith.
Medea – tour starts 28 September
Medea by Haitian-French playwright Jean René Lemoine is a contemporary reimagining of the Greek classic which has Medea a genderless, stateless, and violently transgressive LGBTQ figure.
The monologue has been translated and directed by Neil Bartlett and features François Testory whose shows include Empire, Flowers, Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Big Parade. He also works extensively as a vocalist.
Sound design and performance is by Phillipe Fontez.
This English language première of the work is presented by NFA International Arts & Culture in association with The Place, the Institut français du Royaume Uni, and SACD France. This intentionally small-scale venue tour intends the work to be experienced by young diverse audiences.
Medea previews at Brighton's Marlborough Pub & Theatre and opens at The Place London as part of And What? Queer. Arts. Festival before visiting Cambridge Junction, Norwich Arts Centre, Pavilion Dance Bournemouth, Hull Truck Theatre, Unity Theatre Liverpool as part of Homotopia Festival, Lancaster Arts Centre at University of Lancaster, and Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
The Tin Drum – tour starts 28 September
Kneehigh present a version of Gunter Grass's masterpiece The Tin Drum directed by the company's artistic director and founder, Mike Shepherd.
This new adaptation is by Kneehigh artistic associate Carl Grose and features music by Charles Hazlewood. Is it a co-production with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse.
The Tin Drum opens at Liverpool Everyman and then tours to West Yorkshire Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, Hall for Cornwall and Shoreditch Town Hall.
Pyar Actually (Love Actually) – tour starts 29 September
New comedy Pyar Actually (Love Actually) looks at duty, love and missed opportunities through the story of thirty-something Polly whose picture perfect life is interrupted when her first love Bali gets in touch 20 years later.
Directed by Pravesh Kumar, this short small-scale tour of Pyar Actually is presented by award-winning British Asian theatre company Rifco Studio and Sukh Ojla in association with Watford Palace Theatre.
Pyar Actually is the first full-length play of writer, actress and stand up comedian Sukh Ojla, a Rifco Associate. She developed the play through a series of community workshops, readings and peer-to-peer mentorship as part of the Rifco Associates programme.
Rifco focuses on new writing, developing new writers and nurturing young artists to crate work that reflects and celebrates contemporary British Asian culture, society and experiences. Rifco Studio is Rifco theatre on a smaller scale.
Pyar Actually opens at The Woodville Gravesend then visits The Curve Slough, Warwick Arts Centre, Watford Palace Theatre and Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Check web sites for information regarding post-show Q&As, captioned, signed and relaxed performances, and age suitability. At the time of going to press, some dates may not yet be on sale.