The Park theatre’s Artistic Director Jez Bond has today announced the north London venue’s second season, which sees Tim Pigott-Smith star in the world premiere of a new play by Larry Belling and Sean Holmes bring his production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night back to the capital.
Other season highlights include the world premiere of Sarah Rutherford’s Adult Supervision, the London return of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, festive pantomime Sleeping Beauty and the London premiere of Paul Herzberg’s acclaimed play The Dead Wait, all of which play in the newly opened theatre’s largest space Park200.
Filter’s Twelfth Night will kick off the season from 24 September to 6 October. Directed by the Lyric Hammersmith’s Artistic Director Holmes, the explosive take on Shakespeare’s much-loved comedy comes to the Park theatre following a UK tour.
Directed by Bond, Adult Supervision, a provocative play that promises to “lift the lid on a stew of racial tensions and social embarrassments”, continues the season from 8 October to 3 November, followed by Joe Harmston’s production of Herzberg’s tale about a young South African athlete enlisted as a soldier, playing from 6 November to 1 December.
December welcomes The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare: Abridged [Revised], which returns to the capital with its 97-minute romp through all 37 of the Bard’s plays from 2 to 8 December, and family pantomime Sleeping Beauty (11 December to 19 January), which promises “a night of magic, romance, original music and laughter” during the festive period.
Completing the Park200’s season is the world premiere of Stroke Of Luck starring stage and screen actor Pigott-Smith. Last seen on the London stage in the Almeida theatre’s A Delicate Balance, the Enron star will take to the stage in Belling’s dark comedy about greed and guilt, families reunited and physical ailments from 29 January to 2 March.
The productions will be complimented by an eclectic season in the Park theatre’s smaller space Park90, which includes Sympathy Pains (3 to 22 September), a comedy drama about a pregnant man, the world premiere of The Barrier (25 September to 20 October), a modern tale about neighbourhood tensions, and Fog (22 October to 10 November), a story of two very different families directed by actor and playwright Ché Walker, whose play The Lightning Child opens at Shakespeare’s Globe next month.
Also playing in Park90 is the London premiere of Cherise Cross’ The Door (12 November to 1 December), Andrew Shepherd’s new version of Much Ado About Nothing (3 to 15 December), French love story Little Black Book (17 December to 19 January) and the world premiere of The Keepers Of Infinite Space (22 January to 16 February).
Talking about the new season, Bond said: “Since our opening in May, we have been overwhelmed by the support for the new venue, both within the local community and across the capital. This season builds on the foundations of our work thus far, cementing our place in the London theatre scene.”