An exciting summer season of shows has been announced to follow Hello And Goodbye and Lifecoach in the Trafalgar Studio 2. David Bradley leads the season in black comedy The Quiz, while comedy duo The Black Sheep presents both a show for adults, I Lear, and families, Professor Bumm’s Story Machine. The summer is completed by The MAD Fringe, a fundraising festival of cabaret, comedy, theatre and music.
Laurence Olivier Award-winner David Bradley stars in one-man show The Quiz, which runs between 17 and 28 June. The Yorkshire-born actor is best known for his portrayal of cantankerous caretaker Argus Filch in the Harry Potter series of films, and won the 1991 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor In A Supporting Role for his performance in King Lear. The Quiz asks: If you’ve been performing The Grand Inquisitor for too many years and it’s always been your dream to die on stage like Kean, Irving and Tommy Cooper, is tonight the night to make the ultimate leap?
The Black Sheep team, writer/performers Andrew Jones and Ciaran Murtagh, return to the Trafalgar Studios after the 2006 success of Professor Bumm’s Story Machine, resurrecting the rudely-monikered professor’s tale-telling contraption and complementing it with new show I, Lear between 21 July and 16 August.
Professor Bumm’s Story Machine mixes Whose Line Is It Anyway with Jackanory as two literary eggheads improvise their way through the show, turning the audience’s ideas into brand new stories.
I, Lear takes audiences on a turbo speed tour of the entirety of British theatre in just one evening. Be moved to Yorkshire by Alan Gordon Bennett’s Talking Faeces, dutifully appreciative of the obligatory Chekhov and rendered speechless by the show-stopping Shakespearean finale.
The MAD (Make A Difference) Fringe rounds off the summer, running from 18-23 August. Billed as an alternative to the Edinburgh Festival, The MAD Fringe is staged in aid of the charity Theatrecares, and will feature both big names and young talent performing cabaret, comedy, theatre and music.
The summer season follows new comedy Lifecoach (20 May-14 June), in which comedian Phill Jupitus makes his West End acting debut, and Hello And Goodbye, Athol Fugard’s autobiographical drama which opens later this week.
In the Trafalgar Studio 1, cross-generational drama Visiting Mr Green runs until 10 May, when it is replaced by the UK premiere of Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig, which stars Kris Marshall, Joanna Page, Ella Smith and Robert Webb.
MA