Sitting In The Cheap Seats

From the parents of ThePlay That Goes Wrong comes a brand-new comedy all about growing up. Are wethe same people at 30 as we were at 13? Does school life determine our future?Do we ever grow out of our school crush? Playing an unruly classroom of kids andanarchic high school teenagers, through to the aches and pains of adulthood,the original Mischief company are back in the West End with their first newplay since 2016.

When, way back in 2004, Green Day released American Idiot it was a clarion call forthe disaffected youth of the US. It leapt up the charts on a wave of criticalacclaim and commercial success and was much beloved of a certain callow youngmusic blogger in provincial Portsmouth. Fast forward 15 years and I don’tperhaps listen to the album very often now but it still holds significance asit’s first theatrical incarnation was one of the first theatre pieces Ireviewed and quite probably the point that convinced me to start this site.Now, a good few years later here I am again in Southampton for the launch of anew national tour.

Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the Summer Season 2019. Celebrating and interrogating our ‘sceptred isle’ through Shakespeare’s history plays, a year-long journey begins with Richard II, opening 22 February in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse , continuing into the Globe Theatre this summer with Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. The season also includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, and the return of 2018’s As You Like It. Robin Hood tales will form the core of the Read Not Dead series this year, and festivals throughout the summer include Women & Power and Poland is Hamlet. This year’s Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production will be Romeo and Juliet, opening on 28 February, with 20,000 free tickets available to state secondary schools. The Shakespeare’s Globe Touring Ensemble will once again present a trio of plays for the audience to choose from: The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, and Twelfth Night.

As rehearsals begin, casting is announced for the West End transfer of the National Theatre and Theatr Clwyd’s critically acclaimed co-production of Home, I’m Darling , a new play by Laura Wade , directed by Theatre Clwyd Artistic Director Tamara Harvey , featuring Katherine Parkinson , which begins performances at the Duke of York’s Theatre on 26 January.