King's Head Theatre - Summer 2015
Season preview
THE KING’S Head Theatre has announced its Summer 2015 season and it includes exciting new work and ground-breaking revivals, plus there’s news of a new writing festival in November.
The season kicks off with Not a Game for Boys. Written by Simon Block and presented by Cracking Up Productions, it runs from June 10 to July 4 (7pm + matinees).
Once a week three cabbies seek small respite from their daily lives in a local table tennis league. Tonight they must win or face the unthinkable oblivion of relegation but can the team survive the pressures on its individual members?
Not a Game for Boys is directed by Jason Lawson and stars Bobby Davro.
I Went to a Fabulous Party runs from June 13 to July 4, before transferring to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.
A party amongst friends gets saucy when two newcomers challenge the dynamic at married couple Matt and Lee’s. Booze flows, perceptions are upset and the guys get naughty.
As well as strobe lighting, I Went to a Fabulous Party contains full frontal nudity and strong language and is therefore suitable for ages 16+.
Following it’s sell-out West End preview, Second Soprano runs at the King’s Head Theatre from June 16 to July 19 (9pm).
Second Soprano is a poignant tale presented by a virtuosic comedy duo and a piano. It is 1914, and as two sisters are torn apart by historic events, an astonishing narrative unfolds.
Second Soprano is the untold story of the nurses and entertainers who served in WWI. It is a stirring personal account and a tragi/comic tribute performed in a merge of Physical Comedy, Post-modern Tragedy, Music Hall tradition and Rock ‘N’ Roll.
Written By Martha Shrimpton and Ellie Routledge, with additional writing by Olivia Hirst, Second Soprano is directed by Uri Roodner.
The first major revival since its premiere in 1969, Noonday Demons by Peter Barnes (The Ruling Class) runs from July 9 to August 1 (7pm + matinees).
St Eusebius is living as a hermit in the Egyptian desert, alone but for a tower of his own excrement, and the maggots that live in his festering flesh. With nothing to do but self-flagellate, he is quite content surviving on black olives, water and a whole lot of self-righteousness.
Enter a mysterious second hermit, with an order from God to evict Eusebius from the desert. A contest – staged as a bizarre wrestling-match – as to who is holier than whom, begins.
Described as witty and rude and full of the energy of its era, Noonday Demons explores themes of zealotry, and extreme violence performed in the name of God – all too frighteningly familiar in today’s world. Slapstick and music-hall ventriloquism, rude jokes, levitation, the rhetoric of religious fervour, a pile of human shit and a great deal of violence, blend to create a comedy which demands to be taken seriously.
Mary Franklin directs.
Another Soup return to the King’s Head with Lovett + Todd. A brand new musical that delves deep into the story of Sweeney Todd and his mistress, Mrs Cornelia Lovett, it runs from July 13 to August 1 (9pm + matinees).
The year is 1879. The place, London. The sordid streets of Holborn are awash with unsavoury individuals, wiling away their lives practicing the variously salacious Victorian vices of the times. On Fleet Street, Mr Sweeney Todd runs a reputable barbershop, shearing the whiskers of the gentry and clergy of London town. His sweetheart, Mrs Cornelia Lovett, spends her days managing an ailing pie shop, constantly on the brink of bankruptcy and plagued by belligerent bailiffs. What will they do to survive? How far will they go to achieve their aims? And what graves will they dig for themselves and others?
Lovett + Todd has music composed by critically acclaimed Jo Turner, and a script written by award-winning writers, Dave Spencer and Idgie Beau.
F***ing Men runs from August 4 to August 30 (7pm + matinees).
Joe DiPietro’s serio-comedy is a contemporary adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde set within the gay subculture of a big city. The play is a moving portrayal of hunger and desire as it follows the erotic encounters of ten men in their interconnected search for sexual satisfaction. Each scene in the play is a frank, candid and sometimes brutally honest depiction of the lustful transaction between two men.
The Man Who Had All the Luck, Arthur Miller’s rarely performed first produced play, runs from September 2 to September 27 (7pm + matinees). Read more.
And in November, the King’s Head launches its first new writing festival, #Festval45, which runs for five weeks.
Trainspotting, which ran at the King’s Head from March 17 to April 11, 2015, also transfers to Edinburgh, where it runs from August 5 to August 31.
Also at the King’s Head Theatre: the highly anticipated Rocky Horror sequel, Shock Treatment, starring Julie Atherton (until June 6) and The Flannelettes, Richard Cameron’s funny and hard-hitting portrait of a Yorkshire mining village on the slide (May 13 to June 6, 2015).
For more information or to book, call the box office on 020 7226 8561 or visit www.kingsheadtheatre.com/.