The Tricycle Theatre has announced two further co-productions to join its busy spring/summer season, as well as the world premiere of award-winning Canadian playwright Adam Bock’s The Colby Sisters Of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Joining Frantic Assembly’s previously announced The Believers at the Kilburn venue this spring is award-winning poet Kate Tempest’s Hopelessly Devoted. It will play as part of theatre company Paines Plough’s 40th anniversary and opens prior to Birmingham Rep Theatre’s production of Circles, a new play by this year’s Evening Standard Award Most Promising Playwright Award winner Rachel De-lahay.
Described by the Tricycle’s Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham as “astonishing”, the latest work from acclaimed performer and writer Tempest will play from 7 to 19 April and is directed by Paines Plough’s joint Artistic Director James Grieve.
Featuring live music by Tempest and collaborator Dan Carey, Hopelessly Devoted arrives at the Tricycle following a successful national tour and tells the story of prison inmates Chess and Serena. When Serena is granted parole, Chess faces total isolation until hope arrives in the form of a music producer looking for a reason to love music again. In Chess she finds a powerful voice, but to harness her talent, Chess must first face her past.
Cat Simmons, who was last seen on the London stage in Shakespeare’s Globe’s The Lightning Child and Macbeth, will lead the cast as Chess, alongside Gbemisola Ikumelo and former EastEnders and R&B star Michelle Gayle.
Following Frantic Assembly’s The Believers, which plays from 22 April to 24 May, Birmingham Rep Associate Director Tessa Walker’s production of Circles will run at the venue from 27 May to 14 June.
The new drama follows De-lahay’s recent success with her award-winning Royal Court drama Routes and centres on two teenagers who develop an unlikely friendship. Set against the backdrop of the city of Birmingham, generations caught in a cycle of violence are forced to re-examine all they thought they knew about love, trust, family and friendship.
Rounding up the newly announced season, the world premiere of The Colby Sisters Of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will play from 19 June to 26 July, directed by established American theatremaker Trip Cullman.
In a world of champagne and canapés, Bock’s new black comedy tells the story of the five Colby sisters who are the toast of New York’s high society. With wealth, style and desirable husbands, on the surface they appear to have it all, but privately, the sisters’ squabbles distort the picture of this perfect family.
The trio of newly announced plays join a jam-packed season for the theatre that also includes the previously announced Tricycle Takeover Festival, which will see young people get involved with every aspect of the venue for a seven day residency.
The Tricycle will also be celebrating the success of two former productions, with Handbagged playing at the Vaudeville Theatre from 3 April and Red Velvet heading to New York next month.