Current Shows
Wesele / Wedding
An immersive one woman show rooted in the European tradition of absurdist political comedy with a Polish-English love story at heart.
It’s the last Polish-English wedding before the Brexit-imposed borders close around the UK, sealing it off from the rest of Europe. The MC invites all the guests to take part in wedding games and Disco Polo singalongs in a bid to keep the international community together. She needs this wedding to go off without a hitch. Will she succeed?
This comic (and at times dark) collage of authentic and fictional migrant stories told by a real-life wedding MC uses stand-up, storytelling and physical theatre modes to subvert Polish and British cultural and gender stereotypes. The show examines and challenges the role of tradition, folklore, national identity, religion and family bonds, and investigates how they shape society’s perceptions of itself and the ‘other.’ Celebratory and uplifting, Wesele / Wedding is also an unexpectedly moving and politically relevant meditation on the dangers of populism and of borders – both physical and mental. Peppered with Polish and Esperanto Wesele / Wedding explores whether popular culture can bring us together.
“A fresh angle on the popular topic of Brexit and a charismatic performance from Margot Przymierska” A Younger Theatre
“A comic stip-style guide to Polishness in all its glory told with the poignancy of an old folktale peppered with a bunch of socio-geographical trivia facts” Tydzień Polski, Review
Audience Members: ‘Margot pokes fun at both Poles and Brits, integrating the entire audience’ ‘An immersive piece of theatre that will open your mind’ ‘Hilarious! Great fun with a fantastic performance!’ ‘A very engaging experience. A truly participatory experience’ ‘Full of fantastic cultural crossovers’
Recommended for ages 14+
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GALLERY
Smile Club
Written by Andrea Heaton & Adam Z. Robinson
Directed by Rod Dixon
Performed by Andrea Heaton
Come on love, cheer up, it might never happen.
Welcome to Smile Club. Life’s so much better when you smile. Everyone knows that. So go on – give us a smile.
Meet Lisa, a Smile Club attendee. Lisa’s been through it all and she now knows – beyond a shadow of a doubt – that nobody likes a girl who makes a fuss; nobody likes a girl who can’t take a joke. She knows too, that life is simpler when you let things go. And she certainly has. All of it.
Join Lisa as she presents the perks and rewards of being a Smile Club Member. Hear about her descent into dejection, rage, and bloody violence, before her remarkable transformation into the smiley, well-adjusted human you see before you today.
Set in a dystopian world in which a government drive exists to tame and prune unruly women deemed unable to fit into society, Smile Club is a darkly comic and searingly satirical new one woman show from writer/performer Andrea Heaton (Fidget Theatre) and writer Adam Z. Robinson (Shivers, The Book of Darkness and Light), directed by Red Ladder Theatre Company’s Rod Dixon (Mother Courage and Her Children, The Parting Glass).
‘A very clever fusion of satire and science fiction with the dark humour of Black Mirror and the dystopian horror of The Handmaid’s Tale.’ Audience Member on work-in-progress
‘Hugely relevant, accessible, exciting – hairs standing up on the back of my neck moments!’ Audience Member on work-in-progress
Follow the show on Twitter @smileclubshow & Instagram @smileclubshow #smileclub
Recommended for ages 12+ (strong language, themes of violence). Running time: 60 minutes (approx.; no interval). Some performances may include a post-show Q&A (question and answer) session with the cast and/or creative team.
Performance dates, times and venues are listed below.
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GALLERY
The Damned United
Down the stairs… Along the corridor… Round the corner… Into the dressing room… HIS dressing room. Hateful, hateful place. Spiteful, spiteful place. Dirty, dirty Leeds.
1974. Brian Clough, the enfant terrible of British football, tries to redeem his managerial career and reputation by winning the European Cup with his new team: Leeds United. The team he has openly despised for years, the team he hates and which hates him. Don Revie’s Leeds.
Originally co-produced with the Leeds Playhouse, The Damned United takes you inside the tortured mind of a genius slamming up against his limits, and brings to life the beauty and brutality of football, the working man’s ballet.
‘a cracking piece of theatre’ 4* review from British Theatre
‘swift, compact and bullishly to the point’ 5* review from Entertainment Focus
‘Yes, this a play about football, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a tribute to an era-defining genius, a portrait of a man terminally wrapped-up in his own bravado, a study of loyalty and friendship under pressure…’ 4* Review in The Stage
By Anders Lustgarten
Adapted from the novel by David Peace
Directed by Red Ladder’s Artistic Director Rod Dixon
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GALLERY
Wrong ‘Un
February 1918, and after several decades of protest and four years of bloody war Parliament is poised to grant what the suffragettes have demanded and fought for – votes for all women. After years of direct action, arrest, imprisonment and force-feeding, it seems their time has come.
Wrong ‘Un tells of the adventures of Annie Wilde, a Lancashire mill-girl galvanised by a rousing mixture of injustice, conviction, self-doubt and fear on her journey from schoolroom to prison cell and beyond.
A one-woman musical written by Boff Whalley, directed by Red Ladder’s Artistic Director Rod Dixon.
Wrong ‘Un has toured for five years – the longest tour in the history of the company. The show has played a wide range of spaces: theatre studios, pubs, village halls, trade union conferences, and even a tent at Shambala Festival. It is still in demand. This one woman show is a musical with no musicians – the performer takes on five different roles and sings all the songs unaccompanied! Kathleen Yore (of Odd Doll Puppetry) has taken on the challenging role of Annie Wilde which was originally written with and for Ella Harris.
“…warm, likable and subversive… One hundred years on, the suffragette movement is still relevant.” The Stage
“…a sharp and intelligent musical” The Guardian
A full education pack is available to accompany this show, download it here.
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GALLERY
