The Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark, one of London's newest theatre
venues, has announced its autumn season:
What We Did To Weinstein
By Ryan Craig
Directed by Tim Supple
September 21 November 12 2005
Tuesday Saturday 8pm, Saturday Mat 3.30pm and Sunday 6pm
Tickets £18 / £12 (concs), £25 meal deal
In the light of the current situation around the world where
a culture offear and reprisal is becoming commonplace, where terrorism
and the war on terror are the most regular news items Ryan Craig’s
comic and hard-hitting play offers a timely and sharp reminder that
theatre can and must address the most important issues of the day.
What We Did To Weinstein is about a clash of cultures, of
religions, of lifestyles, of ideals and of historical perspectives.
Fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, lovers and old friends are
polarised by the political affairs of the world. Their lives are profoundly
and personally altered by the events happening around the world. These
are characters in real cities: London, Jerusalem and Ramallah, who
are living on the front line of the war on terror. They are characters
who are trying to live their lives in the shadow of this war and who
represent every possible faction within that war.
Ryan Craig’s work has been performed on tour throughout the
UK and in London at the National Theatre and Lyric Hammersmith. He
is the Writer In Residence at BBC Radio Drama and BBC Writers Room
and he is currently creating the first devised drama for BBC radio.
He is a founder member of the National Theatre’s Monsterist group
of playwrights.
The cast includes Harry Towb (currently in Brian Friel’s The
Home Place in the West End), Leonard Fenton (Doctor Legg in EastEnders),
Josh Cohen (Benjamin in The Graduate in the West End), Vineeta
Rishi (currently in BBC Radio’s Silver Street) and Pushpinder
Chani.
Sunday In The Park With George
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by James Lapine
Directed by Sam Buntrock
November 18 2005 February 19 2006
Tuesday Saturday 8pm, Saturday matinee 3.30pm and Sunday 6pm
Tickets £22.50 / £14 (concs), Meal deal £27.50
This will be the first new production of Sondheim and Lapine’s
play since the National Theatre's 1990 production. The production
will star Daniel Evans as George (Oliver award for Charlie Kringas
in Merrily We Roll Along at the Donmar Warehouse 2001 and who
will guest star in the Christmas Special of Doctor Who) and
Anna-Jane Casey as Dot (Velma in Chicago, Anita in West
Side Story, both in the West End).
The show will be directed by Sam Buntrock, whose credits include
the award-winning London revival of Assassins.
Inspired by Georges Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece A Sunday
Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte, Sondheim and Lapine’s
musical celebrates the art of creation and the creation of art. In
the first half, set in 1884, the people and the animals
in the painting come to life in a world where, for artist Georges,
art comes before love, before everything. In the second half, set
a century later, Seurat’s great-grandson is searching for inspiration
amidst the unforgiving world of contemporary art in New York.
