Trailblazing theatre for all
Ahead of Il Letto‘s premiere at Grimeborn 2017, librettist and playwright Christopher Hogg goes in search of Elvira Bonturi, an amateur soprano who married the composer Giacomo Puccini. I don’t think I have ever felt a colder January wind, than that which whips down from the mountains and across Lake Massaciuccoli to the gates of …
Heretic Productions today announces Heretic Voices, a new nationwide competition to find the best new writing in monologue form, with the four winners receiving a full production in the main space at the Arcola Theatre in January 2018. In addition the winning monologues will be published as a collection. Applicants can enter any monologue, written …
Arcola revives smash-hit, critically-acclaimed THEBES LAND – winner of Best Production at the 2016 Off West End awards First London revival for 35 years of Terry Johnson’s comedy INSIGNIFICANCE, about an imagined meeting between Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe Olivier Award-winning OperaUpClose comes to Arcola for the first time with a new English version of …
We are delighted to announce that Arcola Theatre has retained its place in Arts Council England’s National Portfolio. We will receive around £300,000 of public income every year for the next 4 years, amounting to just over £1.2 million of support. Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen said: “We’re grateful to the Arts Council and to the public …
Arcola secures Arts Council National Portfolio funding Read More »
Our sister company, Arcola Energy, is inviting 100 young programmers and engineers aged 8 to 18 to take part in a week-long ‘Hydrogen Hack‘. Using fuel cells and programming, young inventors will use their creativity and engineering skills to hack hardware: making it move faster, longer or to take its first steps as an animate object. The hack …
Arcola’s critically-acclaimed production of RICHARD III has been selected to open the 2017 Alcalá Classics Festival in Madrid, Spain. The festival showcases thrilling productions of classical plays from national and international companies. RICHARD III is, this year, the only entry from the United Kingdom. Arcola’s Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen will direct the 18-strong cast, with …
Richard III to transfer to Alcalá Festival, Spain Read More »
Five years ago I was a wandering itinerant folk singer/songwriter/performer/theatrical nut, living on a dime and sleeping on the floor of my best friend’s house. Seven months previously I had taken the somewhat drastic step of quitting my day job to pursue my dream of becoming a full time songwriter. I had saved up some …
As the global Marvel brand sparks controversy online, Martin Thomas reflects on Arcola’s plans for more diverse and representative art. Like hundreds of other arts organisations across England, Arcola was recently involved in reviewing its contribution to excellent and diverse art and work with children and young people. The review was part of its National Portfolio Organisation application to Arts Council …
Spectacular and arresting, These Trees are Made of Blood blends cabaret and an original musical score to tell a vital, human story from Argentina’s Dirty War. Following a sold-out premiere in 2015 at Southwark Playhouse, the cabaret coup reignites at Arcola for four weeks only even bolder than before. Based on an original story by …
Cabaret, theatre and music combine for the immersive These Trees are Made of Blood Read More »
Hackney Council has announced that it intends to develop several publicly-owned sites around Arcola, creating a new ‘Dalston Quarter’. They are running a public consultation, which closes this Sunday, to determine the principles which should guide the development. This is an unprecedented opportunity to help shape the future of Dalston, and to secure a place …
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” So, apparently, said George Bernard Shaw, the playwright and critic who spent a whole lifetime playing: writing plays and working with players to stage them. His drama Candida – lesser-known than his major hits, Pygmalion, Man and Superman or Saint …
The full cast has been announced for Arcola’s thrilling new production of William Shakespeare’s RICHARD III, starring RSC Associate Artist Greg Hicks and directed by Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen. Following his celebrated performances as Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Greg Hicks takes on the role of the tyrant …
Naylah Ahmed, writer of Kali Theatre’s upcoming production Ready Or Not, talks about the themes of loss, guilt and fear. Playing at Arcola from 11 to 29 April 2017. Sometimes the worst human actions are the result of one moment – a moment we can’t take back, a moment with unimaginable consequences. Ready Or Not, a …
Writer Naylah Ahmed on her new play Ready Or Not Read More »
Neil Bartlett was Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith from 1994 to 2005. Since then he has created acclaimed work with Artangel, the National Theatre and for festivals across the UK. Here he writes about the inspiration for his new stage adaptation of The Plague, playing at Arcola from 5 April to 6 May 2017. …
Neil Bartlett to direct his new adaptation of Albert Camus’ modern classic, THE PLAGUE RSC Associate Artist Greg Hicks to play the title role in William Shakespeare’s RICHARD III, directed by Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen Amy Draper to direct THESE TREES ARE MADE OF BLOOD, blending cabaret and original music to tell a vital story …
Ahead of his major new production of The Cherry Orchard, Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen discusses the play and its salience on the hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. What are the main themes you are seeking to bring out in The Cherry Orchard? Change; change in society. What’s fascinating about Chekhov is that he’s writing …
Kitty Hunter Blair and Jeremy Brooks’ translation of The Lower Depths was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company on 29 June 1972. 100 years after the Russian Revolution, it’s back on stage in our production of The Lower Depths, directed by Helena Kaut-Howson. In this exclusive article, Kitty Hunter Blair talks about the process of translating Russian plays, …
WORDS, WORDS, WORDS: Kitty Hunter Blair on translating The Lower Depths Read More »
THE LOWER DEPTHS by Maxim Gorky, translated by Jeremy Brooks & Kitty Hunter-Blair, directed by Helena Kaut-Howson THE CHERRY ORCHARD by Anton Chekhov, in an English version by Trevor Griffiths (London premiere) from a translation by Helen Rappaport, directed by Arcola Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen NEW NIGERIANS by Oladipo Agboluaje (world premiere), directed by Rosamunde …
Arcola Theatre announces REVOLUTION season, marking centenary of Russian Revolution Read More »
A season of stories from Arcola’s community Arcola Queer Collective return after two sold-out productions with THE DRAG by Mae West and THE X, a new adaptation of La Prisonnière by Édouard Bourdet, 90 years after both plays scandalised America. The Collective’s Opening Night Cabaret and new collaborations with Project Indigo (Hackney’s only LGBT+ youth club) …
Arcola Creative Engagement announces Creative/Disruption 17 Read More »
New exhibition at the Arcola cafe that aims to raise awareness of children affected by Syrian war ‘MISPLACED CHILD‘: AN ARTIST’S CAMPAIGN TO RAISE AWARENESS OF CHILDREN AFFECTED BY SYRIAN WAR More than a year after the death of Alan Kurdi, the little 3-year-old Syrian boy who was washed up dead on a Turkish beach, …
MISPLACED CHILD: A new photography exhibition at the cafe of Arcola Read More »