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Blood and Ice

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by Liz Lochhead

Blood and Ice

7-12 January 2019
Performances at 7.45pm, doors open 7.15pm

Now widowed, Mary Shelley, who is tortured by her past and the creature she created, hears the voices of Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and her step-sister Claire Clairmont, which drags her back to the now legendary period of her youth.

During a summer of endless rain, a challenge is set. At just eighteen, Mary Shelley gives birth both to a creature and a new genre of fiction in her novel, Frankenstein.

Her success and infamy haunt her. She flees across Europe but cannot escape the death that surrounds her, and the voice of Frankenstein's monster.

Blood and Ice is a play by Liz Lochhead, a Scottish playwright and poet. It has been performed and amended several times since its original production in  1982. This version is based on the 2003 production.

By arrangement with Nick Hern Books.

Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble present “The Spirit of Trane”

 
 
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  • Steve Fishwick trumpet
  • John Pearce piano
  • Jeremy Brown bass
  • Matt Fishwick drums
  • Grant Stewart tenor saxophone

UK trumpet star Steve Fishwick will be joining forces with special guest from New York, Grant Stewart to present an evening of swinging, straight-ahead, polished and powerfully expressive jazz, which bears the influence of their great heroes, Kenny Dorham, Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon. John Pearce, Jeremy Brown and Steve’s twin-brother Matt will round off this impeccable quintet.

Steve Fishwick is considered to be one of the best jazz trumpet players ever to come from the UK, and is rapidly gaining a global reputation thanks to his flawless technique and beautifully flowing, harmonically rich improvisations. He lists the late great Kenny Dorham as the key influence on his playing and Art Farmer, Miles Davis and Woody Shaw amongst his favourite players, but his style is very much his own.

‘Steve has his own style,’ remarked no less a giant of the trumpet than Wynton Marsalis. ‘He plays from the bottom to the top of the horn whilst maintaining the integrity of the chords. I can’t think of another trumpet player that can do what he does.”

‘Where has Fishwick been hiding?’ asked legendary Jazz critic Ira Gitler. ‘… when Steve lights his wick he becomes a flying fish, soaring above the waves, totally in control!’

Voted a ‘rising star on the tenor’ in the Downbeat critics’ poll between 2008 and 2015, Grant Stewart has toured internationally and released sixteen albums as a leader. Drum legend Jimmy Cobb described him as ‘One of my favourite tenor players in the world.’

Born in Toronto, Canada on 4 June 1971, Grant moved to New York at the City at the age of nineteen studying with masters such as Donald Byrd and Barry Harris. He has performed internationally with Jimmy Cobb, Harold Mabern, Louis Hayes, Curtis Fuller, Renee Fleming, Clark Terry, Bob Mover, Etta Jones, Bill Charlap, Lewis Nash, Peter Washington, Brad Mehldau, Russell Malone, Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Harry Connick, Mickey Roker, Jimmy Lovelace, Cecil Payne, Dick Hymen, Herb Geller and was a member of the last Al Grey Sextet.

A winner of the prestigious Downbeat Award for the ‘rising star on the tenor’, Grant has toured internationally, recorded 16 albums as a leader, and appeared on many other recordings as a sideman.

Jerusalem

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by Jez ButterworthJerusalem image

7-16 February 2019, performances at 7.30pm

On St George’s Day, the morning of the Flintock Fair, Johnny “Rooster” Byron, local hell-raiser, teller of tall tales and modern day Pied Piper, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice on his caravan, his kid wants his dad to take him to the fair, Troy Whitworth wants to give him a serious kicking and a motley crew of mates wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.

Jez Butterworth’s infamous and award-winning play is a comic, contemporary masterpiece of life in our green and pleasant land.

"Unarguably one of the best dramas of the twenty-first century"
Guardian
"A wonderful, rollicking, dark comedy about contemporary life in rural England"
Financial Times

Cast

  • Phaedra  - Sophie Maybury
  • Ms Fawcett - Chris Moran
  • Mr Parsons - Simon White
  • Johnny 'Rooster' Byron - Matt Tully
  • Ginger Yates - Joseph Morbey
  • Professor - Alison Hill
  • Lee Piper -  Laurence Maguire
  • Davey Dean - Rex Rayner
  • Pea Gibbons - Imogen Pike
  • Tanya Crawley - Natasha Hall
  • Wesley - John Turner
  • Dawn - Steph Gunner-Lucas
  • Marky - Dexter Kingsnorth / Oz Kingsnorth

Directed by John Goodman

By arrangement with Nick Hern Books.

A Doll's House

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by Henrik Ibsen

Adapted by Samuel Adamson

A Doll's House

11-16 March 2019, performances at 7.30pm

(Includes Saturday Matinee on 16 March 2019 at 2.30pm)

Nora Helmer has it all: two beautiful children, a lovely home, and a loving husband. However, her idyllic life begins to unravel when an old associate reminds her of the fraudulent contract she made with him years ago.

This classic play finds Nora on a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment that still resonates today.

Cast

  • Nora Helmer  - Tara O'Connor
  • Torvald Helmer - Chris Pett
  • Kristine Linde - Iuliana Tiu
  • Nils Krogstad - Paul Gallantry
  • Dr. Rank - Mikhail Franklin
  • Anne-Marie - Michelle Yvonne Appleby

Directed by Adrian Tang

This amateur production of “A Doll's House (Adamson)” is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH LTD.

 

 

Progress Premieres 2019

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Progress Premieres 2019

1-4 May 2019, performances at 7.45pm

Two original plays get their premiere on the Progress stage.

Equivocators by Dan Clarke 

Set during the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, William Shakespeare arrives at the home of Ben Jonson in search of the missing pages of the Scottish play he is writing.

Peter's Wife by Christine Moran

Michelle is desperate to have a baby. Julie is desperate to keep her marriage together. And Anna? She's just desperate.

Three couples. Two siblings. One affair. Six lives changed forever.

 

Past events

Past shows at Progress Theatre - Past Seasons

2018

2017

2016

  • Wolves - December
  • 11th Annual WriteFest - November
  • Dracula - October  
  • The Long and the  Short and the Tall - September
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream - July - Caversham Court Gardens
  • Daisy Pulls it Off - July - Progress Youth Theatre
  • Humble Boy - June
  • Suddenly Last Summer - May
  • Stones In His Pockets -  April
  • Marat/Sade - March
  • Steel Magnolias - February
  • The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - January

    2015

    • The Hidden Truth - December - Progress Youth Theatre
    • Brontë - November
    • The 10th Annual Writefest - October
    • Two-Way Mirror - September
    • The Merry Wives of Windsor - July - at Caversham Court Gardens 
    • Gormenghast - July - Progress Youth Theatre
    • The Weir - June
    • Talking Heads - April
    • Animal Farm - March
    • Gaslight - February
    • The Three Musketeers - January

    2014

    • Mojo - December - Progress Youth Theatre
    • Noises Off - November
    • The 9th Annual WriteFest - October
    • Darwin and Fitzroy - September
    • Love's Labour's Lost… And Won - July - at Caversham Court Gardens 
    • The Roses of Eyam - July - Progress Youth Theatre
    • God of Carnage - June
    • Not About Heroes - May
    • Lady Windermere's Fan - April
    • Trainspotting - March
    • Bold Girls - February
    • The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - January

     

    Past Seasons...