Following a sell-out run last year, Forward Arena today announces the return of Hal Coase’s Callisto: a queer epic to Arcola Theatre as their final production this year, before the company embark on their most ambitious programme to date in 2018. Callisto: a queer epic opens at Arcola Theatre on 8 December, with previews from 5 December and runs until 23 December.
Callisto: a queer epic is a swirling constellation of remarkable queer stories. In London, 1680, opera star Arabella Hunt has secretly entered into the first recorded gay marriage in UK history. In Worcester, 1936, Alan Turing pays one final visit to Isobel Morcom, mother of his lost first love, Christopher. In the San Fernando Valley, 1979, Tammy Frazer arrives at Callisto Pornographic Studios, searching for the love of her life. And on the Moon, 2223, Lorn is building a paradise to sleep in, but Cal, his A.I. companion, is determined to keep him awake.
Executive Director of Forward Arena, Ellie Keel said today, “We’re so excited to re-mount this very special new play at the end of a year which has seen a plethora of queer work across London and national stages. Ahead of a very busy 2018 for the company, we are delighted to be presenting a play which goes some way towards celebrating the breadth and rich history of queer experience.”
Artistic Directors of Forward Arena, Thomas Bailey and Emma D’Arcy added, “We are delighted to be bringing Callisto: a queer epic, one of the most surprising, precise and moving new plays we’ve ever read, back to its spiritual home at Arcola Theatre. New writing with epic scope in intimate spaces is exactly the kind of theatre we get excited about.”
