Shipwright announces its Spring 2022 season which will include four semi-staged readings featuring some of the UK’s most exciting stage and screen talent including Omari Douglas (It’s a Sin, Cabaret, Wise Children, RUSH), Alex Lawther (The End of the F*ing Word, The Imitation Game, The Jungle), Ellie Kendrick (Game of Thrones, The Diary of Anne Frank), Guy Gunaratne (In Our Mad and Furious City), Shanaya Rafaat (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Jude, Around the World in 80 Days), Daniel Raggett (Anna X, The Human Voice) and Hugh Wyld (Billy Elliot, Pillars of the Community, Titus Andronicus).
The readings will take place in a uniquely intimate setting inside the historic Master Shipwright’s House on the river in Deptford. The new season also includes the return of Shipwright’s sold-out musical, The Pied Piper, which thrilled audiences last Christmas.
Shipwright is a new riverside theatre at the Master Shipwright’s House in Deptford (a short walk from Deptford, New Cross and Greenwich stations). The venue launched last Summer with an eclectic alfresco festival of music, literature, comedy and cabaret in which audiences from across London enjoyed three weeks of live entertainment in the historic grounds of the house on the river Thames.
The Autumn 2021 season featured sold-out productions Pains of Youth by Ferdinand Bruckner, Dealing with Clair byMartin Crimp, and the premiere of The Pied Piper, which returns for Spring 2022.
Joseph Winters, Artistic Director, introduces the new season: “This is an exciting and unusual season: not quite rehearsed-readings, not quite staged productions, these new performances exist somewhere in between, where the boundaries separating creatives, actors and audiences start to come down. For guests that means an experience like no other: come and join these extraordinary artists up close as they explore the stories that matter to them most.
It is always a joy to welcome audiences into the unique setting that is the Master Shipwright’s House, and it feels particularly fitting for these readings: these are intimate and extraordinary works in an intimate and extraordinary space. At their heart these are all writers dreaming of freedom. By visiting them afresh, we are asking in different ways, and from different perspectives, what does it take to be free today?
Alongside all this new work, we’re delighted to be bringing back our raucous new musical, ‘The Pied Piper’, originally our pantomime but coming back just as funny and just as relevant in March! After sold-out performances last year this is a great opportunity to share it with a wider audience, both in person, and then online from April.
And as ever, we want Shipwright to be a theatre for the people who live with and around us, so our Open Doors scheme continues to give away free tickets to our neighbours, made possible, in part, by the launch of our new Friends scheme.”
The Spring season of readings begins on Sunday 6 March with The Waterfront Journals by David Wojnarowicz. This exhilarating adaptation is led by Alex Lawther and Ellie Kendrick alongside Hugh Wyld and Shipwright Artistic Director, Joseph Winters. A visceral testimony from one of the twentieth century’s most pioneering queer artists, this promenade performance of monologues delves into the perilous landscape of homelessness. A percentage of all ticket-sales will be donated to Positive East, a local charity supporting people with HIV.
On 6 April, Shipwright presents Undressing by James O’Neill, a brave new examination of therapy, written by a practicing psychoanalyst. Shanaya Rafaat leads a cast of actors and non-actors in this examination of child-abuse and reparation, directed by Daniel Raggett.
On 1 May Omari Douglas will lead an unabridged staged reading of James Baldwin’s landmark novel Giovanni’s Room. This story of a fated love triangle in 1950s Paris has become a landmark in gay writing. Baldwin caused outrage in 1956 as a black author
writing about white gay men, yet for him the issues of race, sexuality and personal freedom were eternally intertwined.
Finally on 5 June Shipwright will present Weird Fucks by Lynne Tillman. Directed by Guy Gunaratne, this is a piercing and hilarious dispatch from the erogenous zones of New York and Europe. Full casting to be announced.
The Pied Piper by Eleanor Colville and Joseph Winters will return for two live performances at 2.30pm, and 7.30pm on 27 March and will be available to stream online from April.
A new Friends scheme will offer audiences a chance to get closer to the work at Shipwright and to support those making it. For £60/year (£35 for 35s-and-under), Friends will be the first to hear about events, get priority booking, receive invitations to special events including intimate one-off performances, food and drinks evenings, and a limited-edition Shipwright tote bag. The income received from memberships directly supports Shipwright’s Open Doors policy, providing free tickets to those in the local area, as well as continuing to support Shipwright’s work giving early and mid-career artists space to develop and perform.
The Waterfront Journals, Undressing, Giovanni’s Room, Weird Fucks and The Pied Piper are on sale now at ‘Pay What You Can’ prices ranging from £10 – £40, whilst the Open Doors policy continues to offer free tickets to our neighbours.
