Press Briefing
Updated 10 August 2020
The below information can also be downloaded as a word document here
DAVID HARE’S
B E A T T H E D E V I L
Ralph Fiennes will make his Bridge Theatre debut performing David Hare’s monologue Beat the Devil, a new play written as a response to the author’s experience of contracting coronavirus. Nicholas Hytner will direct with designs by Bunny Christie, lighting by Jon Clark, sound by Gareth Fry and music by George Fenton. The performance schedule can be found below.
On the same day that the UK government finally made the first of two decisive interventions that led to a conspicuously late lockdown, David Hare contracted Covid-19. Nobody seemed to know much about it then, and many doctors are not altogether sure they know much more today. Suffering a pageant of apparently random symptoms, Hare recalls the delirium of his illness, which mix with fear, dream, honest medicine and dishonest politics to create a monologue – performed at The Bridge by Ralph Fiennes – of furious urgency and power.
Ralph Fiennes has enjoyed an extensive career in theatre, film and television as well as producing and directing film. He was last on stage at the National Theatre in Antony and Cleopatra. Fiennes was previously directed by Hytner as Edmund in King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His many other theatre credits include Hamlet, Ivanov, Richard II and Coriolanus for the Almeida, The Master Builder, God of Carnage and Faith Healer. His many film credits include Schindler’s List, The English Patient, The Constant Gardener, The Grand Budapest Hotel and the roles of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films and M in Skyfall and Spectre. He has also directed three feature films – Coriolanus, The Invisible Woman and The White Crow. Fiennes’ forthcoming films include The King’s Man, The Dig, The Forgiven and No Time To Die.
David Hare is one of the UK’s most prolific and acclaimed writers having written extensively for stage, television and film. He is the author of over 30 full length plays, his first, Slag, was produced in 1970. Hare is the winner of multiple international awards including a BAFTA for Licking Hitler, an Olivier award and a Critics’ Circle award for Racing Demon, an Evening Standard Drama award for Pravda and a Tony award for Skylight. He is also a two-time Academy award nominee for The Hours and The Reader and was knighted in 1998.
Nicholas Hytner co-founded the London Theatre Company with Nick Starr. For the Bridge Theatre he has directed Young Marx, Julius Caesar, Allelujah!, Alys, Always, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Two Ladies. Previously he was Director of the National Theatre from 2003 to 2015. His book Balancing Acts is published by Jonathan Cape.
ALAN BENNETT’S
T A L K I N G H E A D S
Following the television broadcast in June this year, eight of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues will be performed in repertoire at the Bridge Theatre. The performance schedule can be found below.
During April and May, while the Bridge Theatre was closed, the London Theatre Company worked with the BBC to produce Alan Bennett’s landmark Talking Heads monologues. They were broadcast on BBC One in June.
Eight of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads come to the stage in a series of unique double bills, all of them with the same leading actors whose performances were universally acclaimed on television. Each of the short plays is a perfectly distilled masterpiece, sometimes disturbing, often hilarious and always profoundly humane.
Monica Dolan in The Shrine directed by Nicholas Hytner
Tamsin Greig in Nights in the Gardens of Spain directed by Marianne Elliott
Lesley Manville in Bed Among the Lentils directed by Nicholas Hytner
Lucian Msamati in Playing Sandwiches directed by Jeremy Herrin
Maxine Peake in Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet directed by Sarah Frankcom
Rochenda Sandall in The Outside Dog directed by Nadia Fall
Kristin Scott Thomas in The Hand of God directed by Jonathan Kent
Imelda Staunton in A Lady of Letters directed by Jonathan Kent
Designs are by Bunny Christie, with lighting by Jon Clark, video designs by Luke Halls, sound by Gareth Fry and music by George Fenton.
Alan Bennett has been one of our leading dramatists since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic, as have many of his works for the stage including Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van (together with the screenplay), A Question of Attribution, The Madness of George III (together with the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Madness of King George) and an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. At the National Theatre, The History Boys (also a screenplay) won numerous awards including Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle awards for Best Play, an Olivier for Best New Play and the South Bank Show Award. On Broadway, The History Boys won five New York Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics’ Circle Awards, a New York Drama Critics’ Award, a New York Drama League Award and six Tonys.
Alan Bennett’s collections of prose are Writing Home, Untold Stories (PEN/Ackerley Prize, 2006) and Keeping On, Keeping On. Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin contains Bennett’s selection of English verse, accompanied by his commentary. His recent fiction includes The Uncommon Reader and Smut: Two Unseemly Stories.
Allelujah! marked the tenth collaboration between Alan Bennett and Nicholas Hytner, presented at the Bridge Theatre in 2018, a working relationship which began in 1990 with The Wind in the Willows, and continued with The Madness of King George III, The Lady in the Van and The History Boys (all three also adapted for film), followed by The Habit of Art, People and the double bill Untold Stories.
The Talking Heads monologues were first broadcast on the BBC in 1988 and 1998, breaking new ground for television and widely celebrated as Alan Bennett’s masterpieces. The monologues won two BAFTAs, an RTS award and have also since been included on the A-level and GCSE English Literature syllabus.
The recent BBC One television series was produced by Nicholas Hytner and Kevin Loader for the London Theatre Company (LTC) and co-produced by Steve Clark Hall. Executive Producers were
Nick Starr, Andrew Leveson and Medwyn Jones for LTC and Piers Wenger for the BBC. The series was commissioned by Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama and Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content. Ten of the original pieces were re-made with the addition of two new ones written by Bennett last year.
For these performances at the Bridge, Alan Bennett has generously waived his royalty.
Earlier this summer, he and the actors, directors, producers and senior crew of the new BBC1 series of Talking Heads donated their fees to NHS Charities Together – generating over £1m that will be used to support NHS staff, volunteers and patients as they continue to tackle the Covid crisis and its aftermath.
INUA ELLAMS AND FUEL PRESENT
A N E V E N I N G W I T H A N I M M I G R A N T
Written and performed by Inua Ellams, The Bridge will present Ellams’ and Fuel’s production of An Evening with an Immigrant, with music selection by DJ Sid Mercutio. The performance schedule can be found below.
Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in what is now considered by many to be Boko Haram territory, Inua Ellams left Nigeria for England in 1996 aged 12, moved to Ireland for three years, before returning to London and starting work as a writer and graphic designer. Littered with poems, stories and anecdotes, Ellams will tell his ridiculous, fantastic, poignant immigrant-story of escaping fundamentalist Islam, directing an arts festival at his college in Dublin, performing solo shows at the National Theatre and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or place to call home.
Inua Ellams is an award-winning poet, performer, playwright, graphic artist and designer. He started performing in cafes in 2003 and has since worked in venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Glastonbury Music Festival. He is the recipient of an Edinburgh Fringe First Award for his autobiographical award-winning play The 14th Tale. He has also undertaken several commissions, including those for Louis Vuitton and Soho Theatre. Following two sell-out runs at the National Theatre and a world tour, his play Barber Shop Chronicles (A Fuel, National Theatre and Leeds Playhouse co-production) also ran at the Roundhouse in 2019. His adaptation of Three Sisters was co-produced by the National Theatre and Fuel in 2019-2020.
Fuel says: “Fuel leads the field in independent producing in the UK’s live performance sector. They work with brilliant artists to make fresh experiences for adventurous people. To date, many of these experiences have been theatre, whether that is in an actual theatre, on the streets, in community settings, or in purpose-built structures. All of the artists Fuel works with produce shows, performances or experiences which have clear, direct and playful relationships with their audiences. They appeal to the emotions and the intellect. Things that make you laugh and cry. These artists see the world in a different way; they respond to challenges and difficulties with ingenuity and ideas; they create something unexpected which articulates something new to audiences. Fuel was founded in 2004 and is led by Kate McGrath. Fuel is supported by Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation, Fenton Arts Trust, the Garrick Trust, the Backstage Trust, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Wellcome Trust through Sustaining Excellence. www.fueltheatre.com”
YOLANDA MERCY’S
Q U A R T E R L I F E C R I S I S
Yolanda Mercy will perform her one woman play Quarter Life Crisis, directed by Jade Lewis at The Bridge. The performance schedule can be found below. Previously seen in London at Soho Theatre in 2017 and 2018, Quarter Life Crisis was adapted for radio and broadcast on BBC Radio 1xtra.
Alicia is a hot mess. She doesn’t know what she’s doing with her life. Swiping left, swiping right to find the perfect match. Even though she’s a Londoner, born and bred, the scent of Lagos peppers her existence in the ends. Everyone around her seems to know where they’re going in life, but she’s just trying to find ways to cheat growing up and keep her 16-25 railcard. What does it mean to be an adult and when do you become one?
London based writer and performer Yolanda Mercy’s first play was On the Edge of Me presented at Soho Theatre where she is currently on attachment (as a Soho Six). Earlier this year saw her television writing debut with BBW, a comedy drama for Channel 4 as part of their BAFTA nominated anthology – On the Edge. She is a published author with Oberon Books for Quarter Life Crisis.
Jade Lewis is a writer and director. Her theatre credits include Astro Babies at Ovalhouse which she wrote and directed. Her directing credits include Superhoe at the Royal Court Theatre and the Brighton Festival, Extinguished Things at Summerhall Festival, Quarter Life Crisis which played at Underbelly, Soho Theatre and internationally as well as On The Edge of Me which toured nationally. Her Resident Director credits include Nine Night at National Theatre and Trafalgar Studios. Lewis was a Boris Karloff Trainee Assistant Director at the Young Vic, Creative Associate at The Gate Theatre and one of Ovalhouse’s Emerging Artist team. She has also directed and assisted on community projects for Southwark Playhouse, Southbank Centre, Company 3 and the Young Vic. In 2019 Lewis was nominated for Best Director at the Stage Debut Awards for her work on Superhoe.
THE LEEDS STUDIO PRODUCTION OF ZODWA NYONI’S
N I N E L I V E S
Poet and playwright Zodwa Nyoni’s Nine Lives will be performed by Lladel Bryant and directed by Alex Chisholm, presented by The Bridge. The performance schedule can be found below. Developed at West Yorkshire Playhouse (now Leeds Playhouse), Nine Lives received a UK national tour before it received its London premiere at the Arcola Theatre.
Fleeing from his home where a fresh wave of homophobia threatens his life, Ishmael has sought sanctuary in the UK. Dispersed to Leeds, Ishmael waits to hear his fate, he waits for a new life to begin amongst strangers. But not everyone is bad… can he find a place to call home again? Some of us wanted to stop being afraid. Some of us wanted to find ourselves. Some of us wanted to belong. Zodwa Nyoni threads together humour and humanity to tell the real personal story behind asylum headlines.
Zodwa Nyoni is a playwright, poet and screenwriter. She was the 2014 Writer-in-Residence at West Yorkshire Playhouse/Channel 4 and a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She has made short films with the Young Vic, National Trust, Tyneside Cinema, BBC Films and BFI Film Hub North. Currently under commission by the Kiln Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Nyoni is published by Bloomsbury.
As well as previously performing Nine Lives, Lladel Bryant’s theatre credits include The Night Before Christmas and A Christmas Carol for Leeds Playhouse, Shed Crew and Bittersweet Sunshine for Red Ladder Theatre Company and Concrete Jungle for Manchester Fringe Festival. His screen credits include DCI Banks and The Raven Tournament.
Alex Chisholm is the Co-Artistic Director of Freedom Studios in Bradford. Chisholm directed Nine Lives for West Yorkshire Playhouse, a UK tour and the Arcola Theatre and Conscientious for the West Yorkshire Playhouse and a UK tour. While Associate Director at the West Yorkshire Playhouse her credits include Schoolboy/Lover, Dust, Mela, Scuffer, Tender Dearly, Non-Contact Time and Huddersfield.
Leeds Playhouse says: “In 2018 West Yorkshire Playhouse relaunched as Leeds Playhouse, a creative hub for the city and beyond, a place where people and communities come to tell and share stories, to experience world class theatre that is pioneering, invigorating and relevant. Dedicated collaborators seek out the best companies and individual artists locally, nationally and internationally to create inspirational theatre in Leeds at the heart of Yorkshire. Leeds Playhouse develops work with established practitioners and finds new voices that they believe should be heard, providing a creative space for new writers, emerging companies and individual theatre artists, making work with national and international ambitions yet locally rooted with their distinctiveness informed by where they are from. The Leeds Playhouse production The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was presented at the Bridge Theatre in association with Elliott Harper Productions in 2019/20.”
IMAGES
www.dropbox.com/sh/yv8k7267n6vjt17/AABadIHVtJPJiMczmsJvUghVa?dl=0
BRIDGE THEATRE FAQ’s RE COVID-19
www.bridgetheatre.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Address Bridge Theatre, 3 Potters Fields Park, London SE1 2SG
Box Office 0333 320 0051 or boxoffice@bridgetheatre.co.uk
Access 0333 320 0051 or access@bridgetheatre.co.uk
Website www.bridgetheatre.co.uk
Twitter @_bridgetheatre
Instagram _bridgetheatre
Facebook bridgetheatrelondon
SCHEDULE
Saturday 29 August 2pm, 5pm and 8pm Beat the Devil
Monday 31 August 5pm and 8pm Beat the Devil
Tuesday 1 September 5pm and 8pm Beat the Devil
Wednesday 2 September 5pm and 8pm Beat the Devil
Thursday 3 September 5pm and 8pm Beat the Devil
Friday 4 September 5pm and 8pm Beat the Devil
Saturday 5 September 2pm, 5pm and 8pm Beat the Devil
Monday 7 September 8pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine
Tuesday 8 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm Beat the Devil
Wednesday 9 September 8pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog
Thursday 10 September 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog
Friday 11 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog
Saturday 12 September 2pm and 5pmTalking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm Beat the Devil
Monday 14 September 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine
Tuesday 15 September 5pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog
Wednesday 16 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog
Thursday 17 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog
Friday 18 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Saturday 19 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Monday 21 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine, 8pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog
Tuesday 22 September 2pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog, 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: Bed Among Lentils and The Shrine
Wednesday 23 September 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog
Thursday 24 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Friday 25 September 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Saturday 26 September 2pm Talking Heads: The Hand of God and The Outside Dog, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Monday 28 September 8pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches
Tuesday 29 September 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches
Wednesday 30 September 8pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet
Thursday 1 October 2pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet
Friday 2 October 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches
Saturday 3 October 2pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches
Monday 5 October 5pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 8pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet
Tuesday 6 October 5pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches
Wednesday 7 October 8pm Quarter Life Crisis
Thursday 8 October 2pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm Talking Head: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm Quarter Life Crisis
Friday 9 October 2pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 5pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 8pm Quarter Life Crisis
Saturday 10 October 2pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm Talking Head: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm Quarter Life Crisis
Monday 12 October 5pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Tuesday 13 October 5pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Wednesday 14 October 2pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 5pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Thursday 15 October 2pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm An Evening with an Immigrant
Friday 16 October 2pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 5pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 8pm Quarter Life Crisis
Saturday 17 October 2pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm Talking Head: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm Quarter Life Crisis
Monday 19 October 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet
Tuesday 20 October 5pm and 8pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet
Wednesday 21 October 2pm and 5pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm Beat the Devil
Thursday 22 October 5pm Beat the Devil, 8pm Nine Lives
Friday 23 October 2pm Beat the Devil, 5pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 8pm Nine Lives
Saturday 24 October 2pm Talking Heads: Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet, 5pm Beat the Devil, 8pm Nine Lives
Monday 26 October 5pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 8pm Beat the Devil
Tuesday 27 October 2pm and 8pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm Beat the Devil
Wednesday 28 October 2pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm Beat the Devil, 8pm Nine Lives
Thursday 29 October 2pm Beat the Devil, 5pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 8pm Nine Lives
Friday 30 October 2pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm Beat the Devil, 8pm Nine Lives
Saturday 31 October 2pm Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and Playing Sandwiches, 5pm Beat the Devil, 8pm Nine Lives