The award winning Hope Theatre presents its first in-house show of 2017

BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE
Author: DENNIS POTTER
Director: MATTHEW PARKER
PRESS NIGHT: Thursday 4 May 2017 at 7.45pm

“All I want is the England I used to know. The England I remember. I simply want the world to stop just where it is – and go back a bit. ”

Intense and macabre, prophetic and darkly funny, Dennis Potter’s infamous play Brimstone and Treacle exposes the horror lurking in Middle Englandminds. Behind floral curtains, Mr and Mrs Bates care for their daughter, left injured and insensible following a car crash. A young visitor with a silver tongue crashes into their lives, but is he their saviour, a thief or the Devil himself?

Brimstone and Treacle was originally written as a BBC Play for Today in 1976, but was initially banned on release due to its shocking and disturbing content. Today the work’s depiction of an England as a powder keg of prejudice and fear is more relevant than ever. Following a critically acclaimed and award-winning 2016 season of in-house productions The Hope Theatre (Fringe Theatre of the Year nominee, The Stage) brings this claustrophobic and divisive play to life with pitch-black humour and a whiff of sulphur.

Directed by The Hope Theatre’s award winning Artistic Director Matthew Parker (Best Artistic Director, Off West End Awards 2017) and designed by Rachael Ryan, the cast features Olivia Beardsley (The Babadook) Stephanie Beattie, (BreakA Leg Critics Choice
Best Actress for Steel Magnolias), Fergus Leathem (Game of Thrones) and
Paul Clayton (Peep Show, Him & Her).

It follows Matthew’s hugely successful, award winning ★★★★★ in-house
productions Lovesong of the Electric Bear (winner of 2 Off West End Awards; transferred to West End 2015), Sea Life (4 Off West End Award nominations), Steel Magnolias (Winner of 2 Break A Leg Critics Choice Awards inc Best Production) and Her Aching Heart (Best Play, Spy In The Stalls Awards and 3 Off West End Award nominations)

The Hope Theatre
207 Upper Street
London N1 1RL

2 – 20 May 2017
Tues to Sat at 7.45pm
Tickets £15 & £12 concs
Box Office: 0333 666 3366
http://www.thehopetheatre.com

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SNAPSHOT
Author: George Johnston
Director: James McAndrew

At The Hope Theatre, Islington, N1 1RL
PRESS NIGHT: 19:45, Thurs 25 May 2017

23 May – 10 June/06/17
Tuesday – Saturday
7.45pm
Tickets £15 & £12 cons
Box Office: 0333 666 3366

http://www.thehopetheatre.com/productions/snapshot/

‘‘I was young. I was a bit stupid. We all were.”

London,  2017.  It’s  a  cosmopolitan  melting  pot,  a  modern  world  where anything  goes.  But  then  why  is  James  struggling  to  tell  Daniel  that  he can’t get work, and is flirting with older men to get by? Daniel is finally outof the closet, but can’t talk about his feelings. Frank wants James and willpay for it, and Olivia just wants to be noticed.

SNAPSHOT is a glimpse into the lives of real people, trying to figure it all out. Raw, poignant and powerful, George Johnston’s debut full-length play is a triumphant exploration of sexuality, jealousy and mental health.

Cast
Brian Martin – James
Joey Akubeze – Daniel
Bruce Kitchener – Frank
Zoe Lambrakis – Olivia

Twitter: @TheHopeTheatre
Facebook: /thehopetheatre
Twitter: @SnapshotPlay
Facebook: ‘Snapshot by George Johnston’

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I KNOW YOU OF OLD by David Fairs
From William Shakespeare’s MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

13 June – 1 July
Tues – Sat 7.45pm, Weds & Sat matinees 2.30pm (from 22 June)

After their 2016 Hope Theatre success Macbeths, GOLEM! returns with another reimagined and repurposed Shakespeare adaptation, shedding new light on a story you might think you already know. Hero is dead. The night before the funeral, the strange circumstances of her death hang in the air – are the rumours about Hero to be trusted? At her coffin, the eye of the storm, her fiancé Claudio is wracked with grief and guilt. When Hero’s sharp-tongued cousin Beatrice arrives, closely followed by notorious playboy Benedick, Claudio sees a way to atone for former wrongs and do one last thing for Hero – he will bring this prickly pair together. But extreme emotional circumstances can make you act in peculiar ways. What might you do to ease the pain? Would you abandon yourself to recklessness? Could you laugh through the tears? Using only Shakespeare’s original text, David Fairs re-orchestrates Much Ado About Nothing into a new, parallel dark comedy: I Know You Of Old. Join the legendary Benedick and Beatrice as they stalk the midnight shadows of this secluded chapel – their battles of wit are as sparkling as ever, but is there a darkness at the heart of the Merry War…?

Cast: Claudio – Conor O’Kane, Benedick – David Fairs, Beatrice – Sarah Lambie
Creatives: Producer – GOLEM! Director – Anna Marsland, Writer – David Fairs

“Macbeths is an impressive achievement… feeling like a completely new, contemporary story… With riveting performances and a narrative that continually wrong-foots its audience, David Fairs has created a gripping thriller that will appeal just as much to those who claim not to like Shakespeare as it does to die-hard fans”
★★★★Liz Dyer for London Theatre 1

“Lambie and Fairs demonstrate their talent in an incredibly mature and polished performance” ★★★★ Samantha Katz for The Upcoming

“Directed by Anna Marsland… the temporary possession of the Macbeths adds a Killer Bob/Twin Peaks vibe to the proceedings” Michael Davis for Female Arts

Tickets £15 & £12 concs

Box Office: 0333 666 3366
http://www.thehopetheatre.com

Twitter: @TheHopeTheatre
Facebook: /thehopetheatre
Facebook: /GolemTheatre
UK Twitter: @golemtheatre

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TORN APART (DISSOLUTION)
Written & directed by Bj McNeill

“I fell in love once. With the wrong woman”

This is a love story. A love story set in three different times and three different
bedrooms…

West Germany, Bremen, the early 1980s. The universities and cafés are full of  young  people  who  escaped  from  the  East,  the  bars  are  full  of  American soldiers. Alina, a Polish literature student, bumps into one of them.

London, 1999. The turn of the century. Elliott, a young chef is dating Casey, an  Australian  backpacker.  Whilst  eating  Indian  food  and  listening  to  RHCP, Elliott  talks  to  Casey  about  his  orphanage  and  his  love  for  her.  She  listens knowing that, sooner or later, her Visa will run out.

London,  now.  Holly  married  a  perfect  man,  had  a  child  and  achieved  her white picket fence fantasy but this is in the past now, for she has fallen in love with Erica, and she will do anything to rationalise her feelings.

TORN  APART  (DISSOLUTION)  puts  women  centre  stage  and  deals  with
issues  such  as  feminism,  immigration,  male  repression,  fate,  homosexuality,
but above all it explores the most painful aspects of human conditioning.

★★★★★
“Innovative, imaginative and most of all, unique”
London Pub Theatres
★★★★★
“TORN APART’S emphasis on relationships has something that will appeal to everyone”
Female Arts Magazine
★★★★
“The threat of violence and the animal baseness of sex are omnipresent as if Pinter were directing everything”
British Theatre
★★★★

Cast
ALINA: Nastazja Somers
SOLDIER: Charlie Allen
ELLIOTT: Elliott Rogers
CASEY: Christina Baston
HOLLY: Sarah Hastings
ERICA: Monty Leigh

4 to 22 July 2017
Tues to Sat at 7.45pm
No shows Sun/Mon
Tickets £15 & £12 concs
Box Office: 0333 666 3366
http://www.thehopetheatre.com

Twitter: @TheHopeTheatre, @NOffenceTheatre
Facebook: /thehopetheatre /NoOffenceTheatre