Alan Ayckbourn’s Neighbourhood Watch, Trinidad and Tobago culture and the story of a 19th century novelist will all feature in the Tricycle theatre’s new spring/summer programme.
Kicking off the new season is double bill The MUJU Crew, by the interfaith Muslim-Jewish theatre company based at the North London venue, which presents My Dutiful Laundrette, a play that explores love, loss and laundry, and Flirting With Faith, which demonstrates how hard it is to find love in a metropolis, and even more so with someone of faith. The double bill runs from 2 to 5 April.
Ayckbourn’s latest play, Neighbourhood Watch, which is currently touring the UK, will conclude its tour at the Tricycle from 10 April to 5 May (press night 11 April). The original cast members, which include Eileen Battye, Terence Booth, Phil Cheadle, Matthew Cottle, Richard Derrington, Frances Grey, Amy Loughton and Alexandra Mathie, will reprise their roles in the production which tells of the dangers of taking the laws into your own hands.
Helen Edmundson’s Mary Shelley, which will also end its national tour at the Tricycle, will run from 12 June to 7 July. Directed by Shared Experience’s Artistic Director Polly Teale, the play steps back in time to explore the early life of Frankenstein’s author and the radical beliefs and relationships that led her to write one of the greatest novels in history.
All the way from New York, A Slow Air, which is written and directed by David Harrower, will arrive at the Tricycle theatre for a limited run from 8 May to 2 June (press night 10 May). The story of a brother and sister in their mid-40s who live 50 miles apart but haven’t spoken to each other in 14 years, stars Susan Vidler and Lewis Howden.
From 23 July to 25 August, when the Olympic Games are underway, the theatre will be injected with Trinidad and Tobago culture in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the twin island republic’s Independence. Trinidad And Tobago Village will present static and interactive exhibits exploring many aspects of the region’s creativity, including cuisine, art, craft, photography and fashion.
Music also plays a key role in the new season. Written, directed and produced by Alex Webb, Jazz At Café Society, a musical show telling the true story of the legendary 1940s New York nightclub which promoted racial equality and progressive causes, will run from 16 to 21 July starring Gwyneth Herbert, China Moses, Max Reinhardt and Alexander Stewart. Lovers Rock Monologues, which explores a sub-genre of reggae born in the UK in the 1970s, will run from 9 to 14 July while The Romantic Heritage (15 April) and Mother Russia (20 May) bring classical music to the venue.
Other highlights in the spring/summer programme include The Duke’s Comedy Club, which will return to the Tricycle theatre for two nights of stand-up comedy on 6 and 7 April 2012, comedian Francesca Martinez’s What The **** Is Normal?! (6 to 9 June) and comedian and writer Mark Thomas’s Bravo Figaro, which will run from 10 September to 22 September.