The Hope Theatre has announced details of its upcoming summer season, which includes their next in-house production, Snakehead, a high-volume piece of gig-theatre re-examining the Medusa myth.
Phil Bartlett, artistic director of The Hope Theatre, comments, Summer is coming and we can’t wait to share our upcoming season with audiences. The programme is packed with stories that centre music and myth, and at its heart is our next in-house production, Snakehead. I was blown away when I heard the music demos for Sam Rees and Max Welton’s exhilarating twenty-first century retelling of Medusa’s story, and know the production will provide an unforgettable night at our little theatre with big ideas.
The summer season opens with Body 115 (5th – 13th May), a rhapsodic tale of inner and outer journeys inspired by Dante and performed by skilled performance poet Jan Noble. With a narrative that begins at King’s Cross and moves to Calais, Paris and Milan, Body 115 is a unique trans-European odyssey turned safari of the soul.
Following this the Hope will welcome Speakers’ Corner: The Public Shaming of Rufus Love (16th – 27th May), provocative and hilarious new writing that gives a voice to the dissidents, disruptors and iconoclasts. Proposing that Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park is ‘like Twitter, but hardcore’, Rufus Love’s new play is about the ways our identities are interconnected, and how far we will go to be on the right side of the debate.
In-house production Snakehead (6th – 24th June) is a passionate and abrasive gig-theatre re-examination of the story of Medusa, one of mythology’s most misunderstood women. Throughout history, Medusa has been given a rough ride – but in Snakehead, she’s going to set the record straight. Written by Samuel Rees and featuring an exhilarating new soundtrack by composer Max Welton, Snakehead blends dark post-punk, explosive electronica, and vibrant contemporary pop to create an unforgettable immersive experience.
Weaving together an original folk score and tales from a romance best forgotten, Sing, River (27th June – 8th July) invites us into the hidden world of British mythology. Midsummer comes but once a year, and as the seasons shift like clockwork, there are secrets lurking on the riverbed. Love Song Productions present a new queer solo show that explores the act of severing yourself from dark memories in order to survive, and the sometimes unwanted consequences that come with it.
A new musical, Ghost Light (11th – 29th July) will premiere at the Hope. Writer-composer Molly O’Gorman’s piece tells the story of a washed-up child star named Kat trapped in a cycle of emotional and financial abuse, and the toll of being a woman in the public eye takes on her health. When Kat’s sister returns and finds her at her lowest, she has to decide whether to go back to the world that almost destroyed her.
The Hope Theatre’s long-running Sunday until Monday series also continues this summer, giving companies the opportunity to present work professionally in a low-risk environment.
Productions include: Genderfluid Babe Manifesto (21st – 22nd May), which uses dance and drag to tell an Argentinian-set story about a trans woman’s relationship with their mother; and A Year and a Day (11th – 12th June), a darkly comic story in which a man skips a year and a day into the future every-time he falls asleep. This August sees the return of Camden Fringe to the Hope – for the third year running, the venue will present four weeks of the freshest new writing, with performances at 7pm and 9pm each evening.
Productions include Must Be This Gay To Ride (17th – 19th August), sharp new play exploring hierarchies of queerness, Boil (6th – 9th August), a surprising tale of fraud set against the backdrop of city riots, and Ciara (3rd – 5th August), in which religious difference threatens to complicate a blossoming relationship.
Tickets for summer season productions are now on-sale via the Hope Theatre website, with the full Camden Fringe programme on-sale in May.
