Although many London theatres close down for the summer break, there are still quite a few venues opening in July.

Anyone who likes musicals (I’m not too crazy about them, but London was full of them this season):

THE RAT PACK

Opens 1 Jul 03 at the STRAND
Aldwych London, WC2
Tube Charing Cross
Telephone 0870 060 2335

HOBSON'S CHOICE
by Harold Brighouse, New adaptation by Tanika Gupta

Opens 2 July 03
Young Vic
66 The Cut, London, SE1
Tube Waterloo
Telephone 020 7928 6363

POWER
by Nick Dear , with music by Michael Nyman

Cottesloe, National Theatre
Royal National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 9PX
Tube Waterloo
Telephone 020 7452 3000

VINCENT IN BRIXTON
by Nicholas Wright

Playhouse Theatre
Northumberland Avenue London, WC2
Tube Charing Cross
Telephone 020 7369 1785

Nicholas Wright's play is based on the true facts of Vincent van Gogh's early life in London, about the transforming effect of love, sex and artistic adventure on unformed talent, and traces the birth of genius. Brixton, 1873. A brash young Dutchman, working for the London branch of an international firm of art-dealers, rents a room in the house of an English widow. Three years later, he returns to Europe on the first step of a journey, which will end in breakdown, death and immortality.

EDWARD II
by Christopher Marlowe
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
New Globe Walk, Bankside, SE1 9ED
Tube
Telephone 020 7401 9919

At the BARBICAN (yes, it definitely is one of my favourite places in London):
Third World Bunfight, iMumboJumbo
The Days of Miracle and Wonder
Written and directed by Brett Bailey

Co-produced by BITE:03, Barbican Bailey returns to BITE with a piece that dramatises the true 1996 quest of Chief Nicholas Tilana Goaleka (diviner, priest, liquor salesman, guru) to Britain to retrieve the skull of his ancestor. Sangomas (priestesses) and gospel choristers join the Bunfight team in their tradition of colourful, confrontational productions, providing a strong new voice in South African theatre.

Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DS
Venue Location: Level -1
10 - 19 July, 7.45pm

It doesn’t have to be always an East End theatre. From Liverpool Street one can easily take a train and see one of the many outstanding performances in the Greater London area:

BLAGGERS
In association with Aarawak Moon Productions

Wacky, hilarious and anything but predictable, the ever-popular improvisation show returns with team members including Choice FM DJs Angie Le Mar and Geoff Schumann, Casualty stars Zitar Sattar and Kwame Kwei-Armah, Don Gilet from Babyfather and MTV Base’s Kat

Friday 4 July

Lorraine Benloss, Don Gilet (Baby Father), David Harewood (Vice), Ade Ikoli, Tony Marshall (Preston Front) and Zita Sattar (Anna Paul in Casualty).

Saturday 5 July

Chizzy (also to star in Funny Black Women on the Edge 17 July – 9 August), Karl Collins (DC Glaze in The Bill), Rebecca Deren, Ade Ikoli, Kwame Kwei-Armah (Fame Academy) and Nolan Weekes (having survived the hordes of screaming girls from his appearance as The Sergeant in Da Boyz!).

Sunday 6 July

Jimmy Akingbola, O-T Fagbenle (currently playing to critical acclaim in Roy Williams’ Fallout at the Royal Court), Don Gilet, Angie Le Mar (writer and star of Funny Black Women on the Edge), Carl Ramsay and Choice FM’s Geoff Schumann.

Blaggers is a co-production with all-black, all-female production team Aarawak Moon. Set up in 1997, they are Tracey Daley, Jo Martin (who has just finished shooting BBC sitcom Crouch with Robbie Gee to be screened in the Autumn) and Josephine Melville (who will appear in Funny Black Women on the Edge).

FUNNY BLACK WOMEN ON THE EDGE
Written by and starring Angie Le Mar 

Both plays at The Theatre Royal, Stratford East

Gerry Raffles Square
Stratford
London
E15 1BN
Box Office:  020 8534 0310

THE HOMECOMING
By Harold Pinter

Small World Theatre Company Production
16th - 19th July 2003

GODSPELL

A spellbinding and powerful adaptation of Stephen Schwartz’s hit musical.  Despite being over 30 years old, this stunning retelling of the Gospel according to St Matthew continues to thrill, enchant and move.  A colourful, high-energy production, this marks the young, Award-winning Stage One Theatre Company’s debut at the KMT

A Stage One Production
23rd - 26th July 2003

Both venues at the Kenneth More Theatre
Oakfield Road,
Ilford, Essex IG1 1BT
Box Office: 020 8553 4466

Trains for Stratford and Ilford leave from London Liverpool Street on the Shenfield/Southend line.  Fast trains stop at Stratford and Ilford and take approximately ten minutes from London; slow trains stop at extra stations between Stratford and Ilford and can take up to twenty minutes.

For more commentary and articles by Andrea Kapsaski, check the Archives.

© 2003 Andrea Kapsaski

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