Soho theatre has announced a packed programme of work to add to its already jam-packed spring/summer season with new comedy, site-specific drama and award-winning writing on offer.
Fringe First award-winning Irish theatre company 15th Oak kick of the newly announced proceedings with The Life And Sort Of Death Of Eric Argyle from 1 to 20 April. Developed and directed by Soho theatre Associate Artist Dan Heard, the Irish Theatre Awards nominated production comes to London following successful Edinburgh and Dublin runs.
Telling the story of a man who barely lived enough to have regrets, leading industry newspaper The Stage described the production as “a comedy that is as heart-warming as it is heart-breaking” when it played as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer.
Playing alongside the production from 8 to 24 April is Kali Theatre’s site-specific production My Daughter’s Trial, which will see the Soho theatre co-production play slightly further away than its usual Dean Street venue, finding a home in the fitting Browns Courtrooms on St Martin’s Lane.
Gulshanah Choudhuri’s play tells the story of Parveen, an ambitious young Muslim barrister who faces her own trial when she must decide whether to section her mentally ill mother against her family’s wishes. Set in the atmospheric former Westminster County Court, the audience must act as jury and public gallery as Parveen juggles her professional and personal responsibilities.
From 23 April to 11 May, Soho theatre will house prison drama Glory Gazed. Developed by Second Shot Productions with ex-servicemen prisoners at HMP & YOI Doncaster, the dark comic drama looks at the impact of war upon returning soldiers.
The last play in the spring/summer season is Soho theatre’s 2011 Verity Bargate Award-winning drama Pastoral. Awarded annually to an emerging writer, Thomas Eccleshare’s play will launch the search for the 2013 recipient and play from 25 to 27 April before returning from 15 May to 8 June.
Directed by the Soho theatre’s Artistic Director Steve Marmion, Pastoral stars Anna Calder-Marshall (In The Republic Of Happiness, Royal Court theatre; Salt, Root And Roe, Trafalgar Studios) as Moll, an old woman who thinks she’s going on holiday when really something far more sinister is afoot. As menacing cats and strutting voles advance, a dangerously fertile countryside just keeps on growing.
The Soho theatre has also revealed a bumper schedule of cabaret and comedy to join the drama on offer in its new season. Highlights include award-winning stand-up from performers including Andrew Lawrence, Vikki Stone, comedy group Pappy’s, Frank Skinner and Stewart Lee, and entertainment from Jonny Woo, ventriloquist Nina Conti and New York’s Found Footage Festival.