Posts

Roots Theatre presents Blackbird by David Harrower

Blackbird
Blackbird

Blackbird

Award-Winning director Nick Bagnall will direct Roots Theatre’s Bex Culshaw and Liverpool’s Paul Duckworth in David Harrower’s gripping play BLACKBIRD in a Liverpool Premiere at The Hope Street Theatre from the 25 – 28 March 2020. Blackbird has won several awards including Best New Play at the Olivier Awards and in 2016 transferred to Broadway starring Jeff Bridges and Michelle Williams.

Ray (Duckworth) is confronted with his past when Una (Culshaw) arrives unannounced at his office. Guilt, rage and raw emotions run high as they recollect their relationship from 15 years ago, when she was 12 and he was 40. Harrower’s gripping drama “mixes guilt, memory and desire into the most potent of theatrical cocktails” – Daily Telegraph.

 Nick Bagnall has had a desire to direct Blackbird for many years.  “It has been a long time since I have done such an intimate, immediate two-hander and I’m thrilled to be getting in the room with this play. Hope Street Theatre is the perfect venue; to be breathing the same space as these poisoned and damaged creatures, to see the whites of the actors’ eyes with no escape and to be left with some seriously complex questions. And to have it in Liverpool is a treat. Paul Duckworth and Bex Culshaw as the actors are the ideal partnership, they will leave you heartbroken and enriched and, in a world, and at a time that needs to be asking the bigger questions – I can’t wait to get going.”

Actor Paul Duckworth who is currently starring in the Royal Court’s “Lost in Colomendy” is equally excited to be re-joining Nick Bagnall in the rehearsal room following last year’s production of Sweeney Todd at the Liverpool Everyman.

“To be working on this play in my city with Nick is so exciting. We have worked together on huge epic sprawling stories, so when this two-hander came up it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass on. I can’t wait to get going. It is a challenging and unique story that sadly needs to be told again and again.”

 Blackbird was commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival and was first presented in the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, on 15 August 2005. The production transferred to the Albery Theatre, London, from 7 February 2006, where it was produced by Michael Edwards and Carole Winter for MJE productions.

Blackbird contains strong language and themes of strong sexual content that some audience members may find upsetting, Suitable for ages 16+

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

 LISTINGS

25 – 27 March 2020 at 7:30pm | 28 March 2020 at 2:30pm & 7:30pm

Press Performance: 25 March 2020 at 7:30pm

Tickets £12 (£10cons) | Pay What You Decide on 25 March

 Box Office: www.thehopestreettheatre.com

 PRESS QUOTES FOR “BLACKBIRD”

“Neither condoning, nor condemning, Harrower has produced a fine, thought-provoking piece on a taboo subject” – Independent

“A modern tragedy, full of pity and terror. Certainties dissolve.”  – Sunday Telegraph

“Harrower’s drama positively explodes with unresolved, and possibly unresolvable, concerns. His brooding ambiguity and his dry, resonating poetry culminate in one of the most daring new plays of recent years” – Sunday Herald.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Roots Theatre | Twitter: @roots_theatre | Instagram: @roots_theatre

The Hope Street Theatre | Twitter:  @HopeStTheatre | Instagram: @hopestreettheatre

BareWater Productions | Twitter: @barewater_prods | Instagram: @barewater.productions

/by
, ,

Mesmerising Sweeney Todd got me by the throat

Sweeney and Mrs Lovett (image with him sat on chair)

Lots to love about Nick Bagnall’s stripped-back Sweeney Todd in Liverpool, including the cast, acting, and absorbing scenes between Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett and the decision to set it in a time of Brexhaustion. Everything seems fresh minted. 

Bagnall’s wickedly heartfelt production with just four musicians and nine actors is something very special indeed. The marriage of humour and horror is expertly done and never gimmicky. 

Liam Tobin is a grounded Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who “shaved the faces of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard of again.” His ghoulish demeanour is always striking.  

‘Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays,’ observes young street orphan Tobias, here played brilliantly by Shiv Rabheru, in ‘Not While I’m Around’. This sequence shines through the prism of social poverty, environmental apocalypse and Brexit Britain. 

It’s a lot more earnest, prescient as well.

You can see why Everyman programmed Sondheim’s musical thriller: it’s a genuinely political piece about austerity, the underdog and the lengths that desperate people will go to for survival. 

The thing that’s really been obsessing me though, is everything about the muted design and brilliant cast who prove truly inventive – interacting with the audience with verve and wrapping their brains around Sondheim’s complex score with a knowing wink.

Michael Vale’s design envelopes the stage with simple effects and minimal props – the staging is in the round and the action takes place on a metallic disc that is often lit from below in tones of blood red and spooky green. 

There is real invention: the cast take turns to rotate the central action manually using their hands or a stick. 

The most surprising thing about this Sweeney Todd, however, is Kacey Ainsworth as nonchalant Mrs Lovett – the criminal mastermind behind all this human pie-making; dressed in a white vest and wearing trainers Ainsworth has the audience in the palm of her hands from the start and this Mrs Lovett is a creation of true genius.

Ainsworth is very good throughout, especially in extended dream sequence ‘By The Sea’, which may be the happiest few minutes of regional theatre that you will see all year. 

In short, this is the food of love: get on a train and play on.

Sweeney Todd is at Everyman, Liverpool, until 18 May.

/by

Everyman announce further casting for major production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd

Cast of Sweeney Todd
Cast of Sweeney Todd

Cast of Sweeney Todd

The Everyman & Playhouse have announced further casting for associate director Nick Bagnall’s anarchic production of the musical Sweeney Todd.

Actors announced to join Liam Tobin who plays Sweeney in Nick Bagnall’s production

  • Production runs from 12 April to 18 May
  • Tickets are available now
  • Two more actors still to be revealed

Former EastEnders star Kacey Ainsworth will play the role of Mrs Lovett. Known for her performance as Little Mo in the soap, Kacey is currently in her fourth series of the ITV detective drama Grantchester. This will be Kacey’s first production at the Everyman.

Also announced is returning Everyman Company 2017 member Dean Nolan. He played the roles of Motel, Mercutio and Sluplianek in the 2017 productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Romeo & Juliet and Conquest of the South Pole. Dean returns to the Everyman to play rival barber Pirelli.

Paul Duckworth will play Judge Turpin, following his performances in Everyman Company 2018 shows Paint Your Wagon and Othello. Paul returns to the Everyman after his recent role in the Royal Court’s production of Scouse Cinderella over Christmas.

Playing The Beadle is Mark Rice-Oxley. The Merseyside actor is back at the Everyman for the first time since performing in the 2014 production of Bright Phoenix.  

Keziah Joseph is cast in the role of Johanna Barker. Keziah recently visited the Playhouse in 2017, playing Mowgli in a major UK touring production of The Jungle Book.

The role of Tobias will be played by Shiv Rabheru and North-Wales actor Bryan Parry completes the current group of casting in the role of Anthony.

The new cast members join the already announced Liam Tobin, who plays Sweeney Todd in the production, with one more actor still to be announced.

Nick Bagnall, associate director at Everyman & Playhouse, said: “I’m really excited to be working with this group of actors for Sweeney Todd. It will be great to see old Company members, as well as some new faces, on the Everyman stage.

“It’s a show that packs a real political punch and the music is incredible, but also the story’s so fascinating – it’s gruesome, dangerous, dark and funny.

“Most productions of Sweeney Todd have around 25 to 30 cast members, but our ensemble will include just nine talented actors who can sing for this production. Adding to the fact that we will be performing it in the round, this will be a stripped-back, rough, hard-edged, soulful and a show tailor-made for Everyman audiences.”

Sweeney Todd will be performed at the Everyman from 12 April to 18 May. Tickets are on sale now and available at: https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on/sweeney-todd  or by calling Box Office on 0151 709 4776.

/by
,

Liverpool Everyman, Director Nick Bagnall: “I had a woman sharply point at me and decry: ‘There’s no room for rock and roll in Shakespeare’”

Nick Bagnall

Nick Bagnall

We are all familiar with Romeo and Juliet. The Everyman Company and actors from Liverpool’s Young Everyman Playhouse are uniting to celebrate Shakespeare’s brutal tale of love and family. Director, Nick Bagnall has come out of rehearsals and is in a buoyant mood. “Rehearsals are going fantastically well. I’ve done a big edit of the play and made bold decisions with the casting,” he says. “Time is short, so I’m filling the production with ensemble and song.”

George Caple and Elliot Kingsley play the star-crossed lovers, in a conceptual reimagining involving a gender switch of Romeo and Julius. There has been a lot of gender-blind casting in Shakespeare over the past year or so – Tamsin Greig played Malvolia at the National, The all-female trilogy at the Donmar; Glenda Jackson’s King Lear  at the Old Vic and many more. This contemporary view of the play will be applied to Bagnall’s fast paced production where bloodshed on the streets and arranged marriage are common place.

Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet

Is Bagnall prepared for backlash from traditionalists? “I’m never surprised by the purists. They always say something that is slightly rigid. Ultimately, when I’m making work I like to be anarchic and playful,” he says defiantly. “The young people who are in the company – of which there are over forty – are incredible and they are blown away by the gender swap. It’s rather beautiful and its given it a vitality that I really hoped it would. I relocated Shakespeare to the swinging 60’s in my recent production of Two Gentlemen of Verona at The Globe,” he laughs. “I had a woman sharply point at me and decry: ‘There’s no room for rock and roll in Shakespeare’ – I’m totally prepared for backlash!”

What is fantastic about this production is that it is made with and for young people. The Liverpool Everyman’s children, and young people are at the heart of the show’s process. “Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) are the best youth theatre in the land”, he says. “They are an incredible bunch of young people. I have to say that, for them, just being in a room with professional actors, it’s very clear how much they are learning; they bring a unique energy to proceedings. My biggest aim with this is about demystifying Shakespeare for young people and to create something that they can relate to when it comes to living in Liverpool in 2017.”

We’ve all seen the story of Juliet and Romeo test the patience of audiences more than perhaps any other Shakespeare play. So why is Bagnall’s any different, why should we come along? “Because its open-hearted, sexy and vital storytelling,” he says. “I have a fantastic cast and an electric bunch of young people. It’s rock and roll… Oh and there’s even a bit of Indian dub-step.”

Romeo and Juliet runs Saturday 27 May to Wednesday 7 June at Liverpool Everyman

Rehearsal images Gallery below. Photographs by Brian Roberts

/by