Two returning shows, two new productions and one visiting show make up the autumn/winter season at North London’s Tricycle theatre.
Sean Holmes continues his association with the Tricycle by directing three of the five shows in the new season, which kicks off in July with the return of his production of Ron Hutchinson’s Moonlight And Magnolias, which had a successful run at the Tricycle last year.
Moonlight And Magnolias, which runs from 2 July to 2 August, is a parody of the inside workings of the film industry and tells the story behind the re-writing of 1939 film Gone With The Wind. Andy Nyman and Steven Pacey reprise their roles as film producer David O. Selznick and director Victor Fleming, who, along with writer Ben Hecht, desperately attempt to rewrite the script, as production on the film shuts down.
Hutchinson’s other plays include Rat In The Skull, Burning Issues, The Curse Of The Baskervilles and Topless Mum, a production of which is featured in the Tricycle’s current season, previewing from 28 May.
In addition to Moonlight And Magnolias, Holmes has previously directed Singer and The Price for the Tricycle. He has worked frequently for the National Theatre, the Royal Court and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and recently directed a production of Arthur Miller’s The Man Who Had All The Luck at the Donmar Warehouse.
Moonlight And Magnolias is followed by a second returning production, Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Let There Be Love (5 to 30 August ), which played at the Tricycle in January. Directed by the playwright, Let There Be Love tells the story of cantankerous West Indian-born pensioner Alfred, who tries to teach the Polish girl who cleans his Willesden home to be British. Tricycle regular Joseph Marcell reprises his role as Alfred.
In September, Holmes brings the Filter/Royal Shakespeare Company production of Twelfth Night to the Tricycle. This irreverent and accessible new take on Shakespeare’s story of romance and mistaken identity premiered in 2006 as part of the RSC’s Complete Works Festival, and has subsequently been presented in London and Edinburgh. It plays at the Tricycle from 1 to 27 September (press night 2 September) with a cast including Ollie Dinsdale and Ferdy Roberts, co-Artistic Directors of Filter.
October at the Kilburn theatre sees the British premiere of August Wilson’s Radio Golf (2 October to 1 November, press night 6 October), directed by Paulette Randall. Set in the US, Radio Golf is the last in Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wilson’s cycle of 10 plays that examine the African-American experience in the 20th century. Others in the cycle include Gem Of The Ocean, produced at the Tricycle in 2006, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Jitney, which won a Best New Play Laurence Olivier Award in 2002. Each play tackles a decade and Radio Golf, the final play in the cycle, focuses on the 1990s. It premiered in the US in 2005, just before Wilson’s death.
To finish the season, Holmes returns to the Tricycle in December to direct Matt Di Angelo in a new production of Joe Orton’s Loot (11 December to 31 January, press night 15 December).
One of Orton’s most well-known plays, Loot follows the fortunes of Dennis and Hal, two young lads who hijack Hal’s mother’s coffin to stash the loot from a recent heist. The plot thickens as her body keeps turning up around the house, the unscrupulous Inspector Truscott turns up and Nurse Fay works her dubious charms on Hal’s dad.
Di Angelo makes his professional stage debut as Hal. The actor is best known for playing Deano Wicks in the television soap EastEnders for two years, before going on to appear in last year’s series of BBC dance competition Strictly Come Dancing, in which he came second.
Currently at the Tricycle is a semi-staged production of Dylan Thomas’s radio play Under Milk Wood, which runs until 24 May. It is followed by Hutchinson’s Topless Mum, playing from 28 May to 28 June (press night 2 June).
CB