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Visionari pick six of the best for Studio Discoveries week at York Theatre Royal

Pepper & Honey: opening Visionari’s Studio Discoveries season on February 4

WHAT happens if the audience selects the shows? Find out when York Theatre Royal presents a week of theatre in the Studio chosen by the Visionari community programming group. 

This will be Visionari’s second such season of Studio Discoveries, this one featuring six shows from February 4 to 8.

“What if the story was retold by the woman at its heart? ” asks Debbie Cannon in her version of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Pepper & Honey, on February 4 at 11am and 2pm, is a new play from Not Now Collective, told through the baking of Croatian pepper biscuits – known as paprenjaci – that will be baked live in front of the Studio audience as the story of Ana’s preparations to start a new life in the UK unfolds. Babes-in-arms are welcome and biscuits are included.

Debbie Cannon is both writer and performer of Green Knight, on February 5 at 6.30pm, a one-woman version of the medieval poem Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. “It’s Christmas at Camelot and a monstrous green warrior issues an unwinnable challenge to Arthur’s finest knight. But what if the story was retold by the woman at its heart?” asks Debbie.

One of Picasso’s women in Picasso’s Women on February 5

Picasso’s Women, on February 5 at 8.30pm, looks at Spanish artist Pablo Picasso’s life through the voices of his wives, mistresses and muses. The three monologues feature French model Fernande, Russian ballerina Olga and 17-year-old mistress Marie-Therese.

Originally produced for the National Theatre and BBC Radio 3, the women’s stories provide an insight into the influence these women had on Picasso’s life and art.

Nathaniel Hall in First Time: humorous but heart-breaking

After last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe debut, HIV+ theatre-maker and activist Nathaniel Hall is on tour, presenting a humorous but heart-breaking show about growing up with HIV in First Time on February 6 at 7.45pm.

The show is based on Nathaniel’s personal experience of living with HIV after contracting the virus from his first sexual encounter aged only 16. First Time accompanies Hall’s on-going activism to break down the stigma associated with the disease through talks, participatory projects, education and outreach.

York company Cosmic Collective Theatre in Heaven’s Gate

Inspired by true events, Heaven’s Gate, on February 7 at 7.45pm, is an intergalactic new show from Cosmic Collective Theatre that imagines the final hour of four members of a real-life religious UFO group.

The excitement is palpable as they prepare for their graduation into the Kingdom of Heaven but soon the cracks begin to appear. “Whatever you do, don’t say the C-word – ‘Cult’,” says writer, director and performer Joe Feeney, a York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre alumnus, along with fellow cast member Anna Soden.

Preacherman in One Foot In The Rave, the closing show of Visionari’s Studio Discoveries programme

Visionari’s final choice is One Foot In The Rave, on February 8 at 7.45pm. Written and performed by Alexander Rhodes, it follows a disillusioned Jehovah’s Witness as he breaks free from the cult and lands on the ecstasy-fuelled floors of 1990s’ clubland. Shunned by everyone he knows, he is not prepared for what lies ahead.

Looking forward to the season ahead, York Theatre Royal producer Thom Freeth says: “It’s been amazing working with Visionari over the past few months to select and bring together a really impressive line-up of unique Studio shows. The group have chosen shows that will undoubtedly appeal to regular theatregoers and new audiences alike. 

Cyberdog in One Foot In The Rave

“We’re pleased to be showing award-winning work as part of the week, alongside work by an exciting new York company, Cosmic Collective Theatre. Whether you’re out to sample the intensity of Nineties’ clubland, gain an insight into the life of Picasso or just enjoy a complimentary Croatian biscuit, we think you’ll have a fantastic experience in our intimate Studio theatre.”

Tickets for Studio Discoveries shows are on sale on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the box office. The price is £10 per show or £8 each if booking for two or more shows.

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York Theatre Royal to co-produce world premiere of Alone In Berlin

Denis Otway, as Otto, Charlotte Emmerson, as Anna, and Joseph Marcell, as Inspector Escherich, in York Theatre Royal and Royal & Derngate Northampton’s Alone In Berlin. Picture: Geraint Lewis

REHEARSALS are under way for the York Theatre Royal and Royal & Derngate Northampton co-production of the world premiere of Alone In Berlin.

Charlotte Emmerson, Denis Conway and Joseph Marcell will lead an ensemble cast, directed by the Royal & Derngate artistic director, James Dacre, and rehearsed in Northampton, where the play will open next month before its York run from March 3 to 21.

Hans Fallada’s novel has been translated and adapted for the stage by Alistair Beaton. Furthermore, the premiere will feature illustrations 25 years in the making by graphic novelist Jason Lutes – from his book Berlin – who collaborates with designer Jonathan Fensom,video designerNina Dunn and lighting designer Charles Balfour. 

Cabaret singer Jessica Walker will perform original songs composed by Orlando Gough, complemented by composition and sound design by Donato Wharton.

Set in 1940, Alone In Berlin portrays life in wartime Berlin in a vividly theatrical study of how paranoia can warp a society gripped by the fear of the night-time knock on the door.

Based on true events, the storyline follows a quietly courageous couple who stand up to the brutal reality of the Nazi regime. Through the smallest of acts, they defy Hitler’s rule, facing the gravest of consequences. 

This timely story of the moral power of personal resistance tracks Otto and Anna as they negotiate the insidious effects of absolute power on every aspect of daily life. When they decide to make a stand in their unique way, the Gestapo launch a terrifying hunt for the perpetrators.

Otto and Anna find themselves players in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the forces of the state: a game that will eventually lead them down through ever-narrowing circles of totalitarian hell.

Described by Italian Jewish chemist, partisan, Holocaust survivor and writer Primo Levi as “the greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis”, Alone In Berlin re-entered the bestseller list three years ago – almost unheard of for a 20th century literary classic – as its themes began to resonate across the world once more.

Although regularly adapted for stage productions across Europe, this York and Northampton co-production, presented in association with the Oxford Playhouse, will be the first time Fallada’s masterpiece has been seen on a British stage.

Dacre’s cast will be led by Denis Conway and Charlotte Emmerson as Otto and Anna Quangel and Joseph Marcell as Inspector Escherich. Conway played opposite Poldark leading man Aidan Turner in Michael Grandage’s The Lieutenant Of Inishmore and is known for his extensive work at Dublin’s Gate Theatre and on screen in Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley, John Crowley’sBrooklyn and Oliver Stone’s Alexander.

Emmerson’s many credits include title roles in Marianne Elliot’s Therese Raquin (National Theatre) and Laurie Sansom’s The Duchess Of Malfi (Royal & Derngate) and leads in Chekhov’s major plays in productions directed by Peter Stein, Lucy Bailey and Trevor Nunn.

Best known for playing Geoffrey Butler, the butler, in the 1990s’  television series The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, British actor and comedian Marcell was last seen at Royal & Derngate in King John, while his numerous credits for Shakespeare’s Globe include the title role in King Lear.

York Theatre Royal and Royal & Derngate Northampton co-produced Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge last year, directed by Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster.

Tickets for the York run of Alone In Berlin are on sale on 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or in person from the Theatre Royal box office.