Sitting In The Cheap Seats

Alan Cox, Richard Wilson & Jenny Galloway Alan Bennett ’s Forty Years On is a curious play. His first outing as playwright (back in 1968) is charmingly eccentric, wonderfully witty and every bit a Bennett play. In fact it comes across as if the History Boys stumbled into a production of ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ and decided to join in the fun.

Here in the Cheap Seats we never used to be big fans of Titanic, but when we saw Danielle Tarento and  Thom Southerland ‘s sublime production last year our minds were totally changed (you can read our rave review  here ). Now we’re thrilled that this glorious production is coming back and will set sail from it’s spiritual home in Southampton! Read on for the full lowdown.

Following the recent success of their highly acclaimed production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at The Kings Theatre,  multi award-winning CCADS Theatre return to Hayling’s intimate Station Theatre and Portsmouth’s atmospheric Square Tower with two very different but equally compelling two-person shows – one musical and one play.

Southampton’s  Mayflower Theatre has been a top destination for touring musicals for longer than we can remember and in recent years they’ve added top class drama to their repertoire. We sent  Emma van Kooperen to check out  Curious Incident as it arrived on the south coast!

THE RED SHOES by Bourne, , Choreographer and Director – Mathew Bourne, Designer – Lez Brotherstoni, Lighting – Paule Constable, Plymouth, 2016, Credit: Johan Persson/ It’s a rare thing, when you’re a regular theatregoer, to see something that is truly fresh and wonderfully new! Matthew Bourne seems to have knack for it though and his adaptation of The Red Shoes , based on the 1948 movie, is the sort of production that stays in the mind for weeks and that you’ll talk about for years!

Brodsky/Baryshnikov is a one-man show, performed by legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, based on the poems of Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky.  The production is an emotional journey deep into the poet’s visceral and complex compositions.  For the UK premiere, the show comes to the West End’s Apollo Theatre for a limited run of four nights only.

Following on from the success of his play Sid, playwright  Leon Fleming  and director  Scott Le Crass return with  Kicked in the Sh*tter  and in order to bring a play that we at Cheap Seats feel is tackling a very important subject, they’ve launched a crowd funding campaign