Enlightenment is a fascinating play by Shelagh Stephenson (Memory of Water) which is having it’s UK premier in a production by Edward Hall at the Hampstead Theatre. Although originally set in the US the play translates seamlessly to an anonymous middle class UK setting.

The starting point of the story is enough to set the blood of any parent of gap year children running cold. Joanna (Daisy Beaumont) and Nick (Richard Clotheir) are the parents of a missing backpacker. One day he just stopped communicating. Six months later the parents are left in limbo, looking for answers, trying as the playwright says “to construct a narrative”. A narrative emerges but not, perhaps, one that any of them were expecting. The play is described as a ‘tense psychological thriller’ but it is more than that. This is a play about truth and not truth, about the way we construct the narrative of our children and ourselves as parents. We saw it last night and I was very impressed. The play uses a dark humour to make the unthinkable approachable. I found it deeply moving at times and at times almost unbearable to watch. A sparse set and subtle use of back projection add greatly to the atmosphere. The production runs until October 30th. If you are in London and looking for a good play I’d certainly recommend it. Click here to view the embedded video.

Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London NW3 3EU http://www.hampsteadtheatre.com 

Enlightenment was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog

Next year’s biggest event for theatre breaks in London is likely to be the opening of The Wizard of Oz by all accounts. The full cast list has yet to  be revealed but we do know that Michael Crawford, the former Phantom from The Phantom of The Opera is to play the Wizard and of course Danielle Hope is Dorothy. With such a cast, and building on the interest from the TV show Over The Rainbow, Andrew Lloyd Webber looks set for a big hit but of course it will all depend eventually on word of mouth, and how well the new musical theatre show is produced at the London Palladium. Being a long standing favourite family show will hel as well for some kinds of London breaks with the children I suppose, but that’s not to say the Wizard  of Oz won’t appeal to grown ups and couples after a good weekend break in London. Tickets sales are reported to be brisk even at this early stage, and fans of the runner up in the competition, Sophie Evans have been booking up theatre breaks with hotel and travel deals to see Sophie when she plays the part of Dorothy herself at the London Palladium on Tuesdays and some of Danielle Hope’s holidays.

Sophie Evans

London theatre packages come in a variety of shapes and sizes but they all have one thing in common. They make delightful gifts! Choosing presents for loved ones is never easy and when it’s for a much loved Mum and Dad it can be really hard. What can you get the couple who have everything? A giant food hamper perhaps? Well, maybe, but it’s just food. Might be, dare I say it, a little dull? After all your Mum is just going to add it to that already overstocked pantry and freezer and while your Dad might enjoy the bottle of malt whisky it doesn’t really show much thought does it? London theatre packages are much more interesting and entertaining. First of all you get the fun of choosing what show you think they’ll enjoy. I’ve got some more advice about that in a minute. Then you can pick them a nice hotel, maybe throw in a pre-theatre dinner, and book their train journey as well. If there are a few of you sharing the expense you could add in an extra night and maybe one of those river cruises with dinner if it’s an extra special occasion. By now you are probably thinking this is going to cost a fortune but theatre break packages for London are really quite good value at the moment. You can get weeknight tickets for Les Miserables and one night in a 3* London hotel for under £100 at the moment. Adding  an extra night only adds around £35 each! Dinner is around £15 – 20 per person. All very affordable really. And just think of the brownie points on Christmas morning! London Theatre Packages Choosing a show

So how do you choose what they’d like to see? Sometimes it is obvious and easy to just choose their favourite show. If your parents are not quite so predictable I’d start with their music collection if I were you. Here’s some tips: Lots of classical stuff, some light opera, SuBo’s new CD = Les Miserables or just possibly Phantom of the Opera. If you are feeling adventurous book for Love Never Dies so they can brag to their friends about being the first to see it! Not much after 1965, except maybe some Shawadiwadi. Your Dad goes a bit funny when anyone mentions Olivia Newton John – they are going to love either Jersey Boys or Grease! Your Dad’s rock collection is rivaled only by your Mum’s passion for Freddie Mercury – has to be We Will Rock You Your Mum knows all the words to Dancing Queen and still has all her signed photos of Bjorn. Your Dad liked the film – Mamma Mia of course

I expect you get the idea by now. You could always surprise them and choose tickets to Chicago (still the sexiest show in town) or even Dirty Dancing. They’d have a great time at either whatever their musical taste. That’s the thing really. All the shows that are on in London are worth seeing. Oh and it’s not just musicals, you can get London theatre packages to see plays, opera and even ballets! a

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Are you looking for more information about London weekend breaks by rail? That’s actually a very good starting point because you’ve already made the best decision as far as transport goes for arriving in London. Go by train and you’ll not have to be worrying about things like car parking, how to pay the congestion charge or long motor way traffic jams holding up coach journeys. The fast inter city trains are also the quickest way to get from most UK cities into one of the central London mainline stations. London Breaks by Rail - Express Routes Weekend breaks can be for a West-end theatre show on any Friday, Saturday or Sunday night combined with a hotel stay of one night or more, including the show date. The most popular break tends to be a one-nighter including the big Saturday night out, but getting away early on a Friday makes a lot of sense too. Traveling on a Friday and Saturday gives a clear run through but Sundays can be fine for getting home too, depending on which rail line takes you back. All I’m saying is, check for regular Sunday engineering works if the service that relays between your city and London is one that may be prone to scheduled maintenance on a Sunday. Longer Weekend Breaks If your weekend break means going home on a Saturday of course, the traditional weekend has only just begun but then again I’ve noticed that for some people around here, the weekend definitely starts to ramp up on a Thursday night! London can be a very pleasant play to stay on a Sunday with less of a hurried atmosphere but still plenty of things to see and do so staying on for the whole weekend and then booking to get back on a Monday during the daytime can make for an extremely satisfying London weekend rail break, more like a mini holiday really. You could even make it a three or four night stay with the weekend theatre trip included, especially worthwhile if you have a long distance rail journey from one of the smaller rail networks that lie beyond the core inter city services. London Shows for Weekend Theatre Breaks One of the advantages with buying a theatre breaks package is that you can get good tickets for any of the more popular shows, even on a busy Friday or Saturday night. I tried to get an impulse ticket from the famous half price ticket booth the other day and after a lot of waiting around I came away without making a purchase. That was because the shows on offer didn’t include two that I was most interested in, and because the prices offered are not anything like half price at all. So supposing you’ve always wanted to grab a friend and go and see Hairspray, Dirty Dancing or Sister Act on a Saturday night but couldn’t find any available tickets except from the disreputable touts and so-called discount kiosks, well the answer is to do just a little bit of forward planning and organise a weekend break in London for just a few weeks down the line, then you can get on with life knowing there’s a fantastic treat in store for you to look forward to. London weekend breaks by rail are also perfect for really special occasions such as a big anniversary or celebration. Never mind seeing Les Miserables from the back of the upper circle, with theatre breaks packages it’s often possible to get best available seats with a competitive price guarantee, because the tour agents buy blocks of tickets way in advance and can therefore hold the best seats open for people who are booking the whole London weekend theatre package thing with the hotel stay and return rail tickets included. This is just one suggestion, but supposing you were a big fan of the Phantom of The Opera having seen it many years ago, and fancied repeating the experience in today’s West End. This gives you two possible shows for London Weekend breaks by rail because the new show with the Phantom opens in March 2010 and it’s going to be one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s biggest shows ever, called “Love Never Dies“. By booking the rail tickets well in advance in combination with London weekend breaks, (that’s the show and hotel stay), you get the full discount on the rail tickets which can mean as much as a 70% saving off the regular return saver. If it appears as if the only shows on in London are the big musicals then that’s certainly not the case. There are always a number of serious plays also on in the West end, usually for shorter runs but not always, and these are also available for London weekend breaks by rail. In 2010 there will be more Shakespeare, Pinter and Becket as well as modern American playwrights, and some comedy plays too. So you’ve decided very sensibly to opt for London weekend breaks by rail, thought about which show you’d both like to see, and maybe opted for a Friday night or Saturday theatre ticket depending which suits you best and considered the best time and day for homewards travel. All that’s left is to balance the convenience of a central London hotel with the economy of staying a little further out, but there is always a good selection of options available when booking London weekend theatre breaks. Now let me see, what else is there to worry about? a

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London Theatre Breaks to see Arcadia by Tom Stoppard ** book London Theatre Breaks to see Arcadia by Tom Stoppard ** Arcadia has been described as Tom Stoppard`s richest and most ravishing comedy. It’s a truly dazzling and also witty masterpiece of a play, full of human misunderstandings and a genuine quest for knowledge which resonates down through the centuries. David Leveaux directs Arcadia at the Duke of York’s Theatre , and his other recent West End and Broadway collaborations with Tom Stoppard include The Real Thing and Jumpers. Arcadia is the first major revival of this brilliant play since its premiere at the National Theatre in 1993. The cast includes Samantha Bond, Nancy Carroll, Jessie Cave, Neil Pearson, Dan Stevens and Ed Stoppard – yes, some relation.

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard – the setting The setting takes us immediately away from St Martin’s Lane in London where we enter the theatre, way back to April 1809 at a stately home in Derbyshire, the heart of the English East Midlands. Thomasina is a gifted pupil who proposes a startling new theory, way beyond her comprehension. All around her the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. In a parallel universe two hundred years later, academic rivals Hannah and Bernard are piecing together the clues and puzzling over those events of 1809 in their search for the baffling truth about the matter as the relationship between past and present provides some unique conclusions and further questions. London Theatre Breaks for Summer 2009 Two writers whose plays can be relied on in the testing West End are Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter so don’t miss the chance to catch Arcadia, a remarkable and wonderfully funny play by one of the world’s greatest writers, only available for London theatre breaks during the short summer season. ** book London Theatre Breaks to see Arcadia by Tom Stoppard **

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The Shawshank Redemption A new serious play comes to Charing Cross after the summer, The Shawshank Redemption. The world stage premiere of The Shawshank Redemption ran at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin this May where it received an almost unbroken run of standing ovations. The Shawshank Redemption is to receive its London premiere at the Wyndham’s Theatre on 13th September with previews starting on the 4th of September, 2009

The Shawshank Redemption book and film Based on the 1982 Stephen King novella, The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne, who is sentenced to life in Shawshank Prison after being convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. Stripped of his freedom, Andy is forced to endure a spirit-crushing routine, but with his quiet strength and inner courage there is one thing Andy never loses: hope. The story was adapted into a film in 1994, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, which was nominated for seven Oscars. Audience Reaction to the Shawshank Redemption Click here to view the embedded video. Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns’s new stage adaptation stars American actors Reg E Cathey and Kevin Anderson. Cathey is known for his role in hit US television drama The Wire and has appeared on Broadway in The Green Bird. Anderson is a member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company and has Broadway credits including Death Of A Salesman, which earned him a Tony Award nomination, Come Back Little Sheba and Brooklyn, while in London he starred in the premiere production of Sunset Boulevard. The Shawshank Redemption will run at Wyndhams Theatre with evening performances from Tuesday to Saturday and Matinees on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

a Shawshank Redemption

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A new Cast for Calendar Girls from July 28th. Jerry Hall Jerry Hall, ex-model and ex Mrs Mick Jagger, she of the long blond hair and even longer legs will be joining the cast of Calendar Girls from July 28th! Jerry’s West End credits include Mrs Robinson in The Graduate and Mother Lord in the 2005 production of High Society Dot Cotton in Calendar Girls EastEnders star June Brown (Dot) will also join the ladies of Calendar Girls. Of course, June is a stunning actress so she’ll help to bolster the cast. In real life June couldn’t be further from the part she plays in Eastenders as she’s actually a very elegant lady. The Eastenders connection doesn’t end there as Anita Dobson is also joining the cast. The other cast members will include Gemma Atkinson, Jill Halfpenny, Jill Baker, Richenda Carey and Jack Ryder. I can’t help feeling that there will be even more laughs backstage with this line up! I’d love to be a fly on the wall when that lot start dishing the dirt! The new cast will join the show on July 28 until October 17.

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Serious drama is the new black Writing in the Evening Standard Nicholas Hytner makes a ‘confident prediction’. He says: the hot tickets in London this summer will be for Shakespeare, Chekhov and Racine. He suggests there’s serious hunger amongst the theatre audience for more complex plays. He goes on to say: Over the next few months, sold out houses, a thousand strong, will discover again that honesty, intelligence and nobility of mind can be a crippling handicap (Hamlet). That the destruction of a decayed old order is necessary and absolutely heart-breaking (The Cherry Orchard). That obsessive love is an affliction that can turn a woman into a stalker (All’s Well That Ends Well) or prompt her to accuse an innocent young man of rape (Phedre) - but that in both cases the audience will stay with her, will not easily condemn, will not turn tabloid editor and cry witch. I can’t disagree with any of that. They are all productions that I’d love to see. Rich, complex, serious drama. And there is an audience for it. Those productions, in the main, sell out before most of that potential audience can even book seats. He’s not saying the West End musicals are dead. He’s being much more subtle than that. His point seems to be that the London theatre can both celebrate and satirise ‘pop culture’. I think he might be saying that we can have our ‘jukebox’, feel-good, musicals so long as they come with a suitable spoon full of self-awareness and make us think, as well as sing. It will become part of a London theatre that is thriving because it provides escape, because it both satirises and embraces a debased popular culture. But above all, because it is serious. And it turns out that serious is what the public wants. What do you want? I hate to point out the obvious but Nicholas Hytner is Director of the National Theatre. To an extent he has to believe serious drama is what the public wants. So it’s over to you, dear reader, what is it that you want? More serious drama? Or more fluff like Legally Blonde? (Oh and please, don’t try to persuade me it’s making a serious feminist point!)

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Under The Blue Sky by David Eldridge stars FRANCESCA ANNIS, LISA DILLON, NIGEL LINDSAY, CHRIS O’DOWD, DOMINIC ROWAN and CATHERINE TATE. at the Duke of York’s Theatre St. Martin’s Lane London WC2N 4BG Ends 20th September Tags: UnderThe Blue Sky, Duke of York’s, CATHERINE TATE

The Vortex Originally uploaded by Andyrob

Felicity Kendal in The Vortex