The spring season at Kilburn’s Tricycle theatre has been announced. Joining the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of I’ll Be The Devil and Days Of Significance are an Out Of Joint production of David Edgar’s Testing The Echo, Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, Ron Hutchinson’s Topless Mum and a production of To Kill A Mockingbird performed by a cast of barristers, solicitors and judges.
Testing The Echo’s Tricycle run (1 April-3 May, press night 4 April) is the penultimate stop on the production’s national tour. Edgar’s latest play is an examination of the process of becoming British and follows a group of students preparing for their citizenship ceremony.
While courtroom theatre is no stranger to the Tricycle – the theatre is famous for its representations of trials and inquiries including Called To Account, Guantanamo, Justifying War and The Colour Of Justice – having real legal professionals performing in the fictional courtroom of To Kill A Mockingbird puts a new spin on the idea. From 7-10 May a company directed by Sally Knyvette swaps the court for the stage to tell the story of a lawyer standing up for a black man accused of rape in 1930s Deep South America. The production will help raise funds for the Tricycle’s new writing and education programmes.
Originally written to be broadcast on the radio, Under Milk Wood (12-24 May, press night 14 May) follows a day in the life of Llareggub, a small, imaginary South Wales seaside town. The piece is performed at the Tricycle by the London Theatre Company.
The season is concluded with a co-production between the Tricycle, Tobacco Factory Productions and Imagineer Productions, as the companies combine to bring Hutchinson’s Topless Mum to West London. The play, a satire on tabloid journalism, premiered at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory last year. Following the success of Hutchinson’s Moonlight And Magnolias at the Tricycle last September, it will be revived between 28 May and 28 June (press night 2 June) at the Kilburn venue.
MA