The Hope Theatre has announced its 2022 autumn season. Brimming with premieres, new writing and originality, the programme cements The Hope Theatre’s position as a hub for innovation and contemporary theatre-making.
The season includes a UK professional premiere of award-winning American playwright Jen Silverman’s (A Play in 5 Betties, Southwark Playhouse) dark comedy The Moors. A period drama with one foot firmly in the present, The Moors (11th October – 5 th November) is an irreverent Gothic story, inspired by the letters of Charlotte Brontë, about isolation, ambition and women taking matters into their own hands.
A queer thriller and macabre comedy, The Moors is set within a harsh and powerful landscape. The in-house production will be directed by The Hope Theatre’s artistic director Phil Bartlett.
The autumn season also includes the world-premiere of Lydia Sabatini’s play The Light Trail (8th – 26th November). Shortlisted for the Paines Plough Women’s Prize last year, it follows teenagers Jas and Ellie, who meet playing football and embark on a relationship that is underscored by Jas’s schizophrenia and the impact that has on the young women and their families.
Oh! Suburbia! (20th September – 1st October) returns to the Hope Theatre this autumn, following a successful summer run that was cut short due to COVID. A one-man avant-garde theatrical revue from award-winning performer, musician and raconteur Bob Karper, ‘Oh! Suburbia! picked up a Standing Ovation nomination from London Pub Theatres back in June, who called the show ‘a bonkers delight’. This unique interrogation of suburban life is packed full of songs and features an audio cast of UK seniors.
Artistic director Phil Bartlett comments, the true highlight of my job remains getting to meet so many innovative and inspiring theatre-makers and seeing how they transform our humble blackbox with their words and bodies and ideas. Jen Silverman is one of the sharpest and most exciting playwrights writing today, and I’m ecstatic to be staging the UK professional premiere of The Moors at the Hope this October. With a whip-smart and very funny script, unforgettable characters, and a darkly demented plot, I can think of no better way to spend an autumn evening than heading on up to the moors – just beware the ravenous crows!
The Hope Theatre’s ever-popular two-night Sunday-Monday runs continue this autumn, providing companies with the opportunity to share work professionally in a low-risk environment. Productions include: Truly, Madly, Baldy (4th – 5 th September) which chronicles how one woman dealt with having alopecia through original music and story-telling; Sold By Mama (11th – 12th September) a riveting snapshot of Los Angeles’ hidden sex-trafficking subculture; Faustine (30th – 31st October), a feminist cautionary tale which promises that ‘spirits will rise, devils will dance, and bras will burn’; and Parma Violets (13th – 14th November) a nuanced examination of the blossoming inter-cultural relationship between two young people, one of whom is from a Traveller community.
Tickets for all productions are now on-sale via the Hope Theatre website
