Current Show

Meeting Point Productions and Reclaim Productions, supported by Southwark Playhouse presents

Theatre Uncut

 

New short plays by Mark Ravenhill, Dennis Kelly, Jack Thorne, Lucy Kirkwood, Clara Brennan, Angus Lustgarten and Laura Lomas in response to the country-wide spending cuts.

Across the country thousands of people are involved in protests and debates, sparked into action by the largest cuts to public spending since World War Two. Theatre Uncut is a national theatre event in response to these cuts, bringing together some of the UK’s leading dramatists.

Theatre Uncut’s flagship event will be held at The Vault, Southwark Playhouse from 16th March to 19th March 2011. March 19th will see drama groups, universities, youth clubs and theatre companies nationwide join the event, staging their own versions of the shorts in a national theatrical uprising.We have an ever-growing participant list from students in Berlin to an Over 65s drama group in the Midlands- You too can be a part of this theatrical uprising!

Writers for Theatre Uncut include Mark Ravenhill, David Greig, Dennis Kelly, Jack Thorne, Lucy Kirkwood, Laura Lomas, Anders Lustgarten (based on an initial idea by Simon Stephens and Anders Lustgarten), Mark Ravenhill and Clara Brennan, all of whom have agreed to donate their work rights free for the duration of the event. Directors include Mark Ravenhill, Lucy Morrison, Katie McAleese, Cressida Brown, Blanche McIntyre, Amy Hodge and Hannah Price.

Tickets are only £5.50 and any profits from tickets sales will be donated to the Child Poverty Action Group, who campaign to make benefits available to those who need them, and have pledged to eradicate child poverty in the UK by 2020.

For more information and to book tickets please go to www.theatreuncut.co.uk

 

 

The British Press on Dream of the Dog

Shortlisted at the Off West End Awards 2010 for Best Production, Best Female Lead, and Best Sound Design

“A massive, unmissable hit… An evening fit to grab you by the throat.”
-The Telegraph * * * * *

“Produced with care and flair, and performed with real passion…One of the most perfect one act plays I’ve seen in ages.”
-The Independant * * * *

“Janet Suzman is mesmerising as Mrs Wiley.”
-Time Out * * * * Critic’s Choice

“One of the best post-apartheid new dramas we’ve seen in London”
-What’s On Stage * * * *

“We are kept in rapt attention, with the cast never once letting the tension drop…90 minutes of compelling drama.”
The Public Reviews * * * *

“Katie McAleese's production is stunningly acted.”
The Guardian * * *

TIME OUT AND THE GUARDIAN'S CRITIC'S CHOICE. NOMINATED FOR 6 OFF WEST END AWARDS INCLUDING BEST PRODUCTION

First image knife poster old man dark leaning

Dream of the Dog

A play by Craig Higginson Directed by Katie McAleese Starring the Academy Award and BAFTA nominated Janet Suzman with Bernard Kay, Ariyon Bakare and Gracy Goldman

 

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, shortly after the millennium. Patricia and Richard Wiley, an elderly white couple, are packing up to leave the farm they’ve sold to developers. Their preparations are interrupted by the arrival of a young man – ‘Look Smart’ – who used to be one of the black workers on their estate until he disappeared fifteen years ago.

The day before ‘Look Smart’ left, something terrible happened on the Wileys’ farm. But everyone has a different memory of the dreadful event and their own role in it. As the different accounts of their shared past are unravelled, they are all forced to confront their own versions of the truth – with shocking ramifications for their lives today.

Dream of the Dog is a richly textured and complex story of South Africa’s emerging democracy, and its continued negotiation with its past in order to find a workable identity for its future. Critically acclaimed in South Africa, this new play takes an unflinching look at the twin mantras of the post-Mandela age – reconciliation and forgiveness – as it asks whether black and white can ever live together peacefully.

 

Dream of the Dog received its world premiere in South Africa in 2007, playing at the Grahamstown Festival and the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, where it was nominated for four Naledi Awards (South Africa’s equivalent of the Olivier Awards) including Best New South African Play.

This marked the European Premiere of Dream of the Dog. After a sell out run at the award winning Finborough Theatre, Dream of the Dog transferred to the West End at the Trafalgar Studios