A proposal is being investigated to set up a trust to run the apex and the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds through a single management team. The trust would retain the unique identity of both venues, but make significant efficiency savings through a single management team, shared box office and marketing. The results of…
A Suffolk theatre will be swapping the stage for the TV screen as it features in a BBC documentary. The Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds will feature in Arts Troubleshooter, a two-part series which see arts expert Michael Lynch visit two arts organisations facing challenging times. The second episode of the series will focus on…
‘How can the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds enrich life and change lives?’ That’s the question that the Suffolk venue is inviting the public to discuss at an open-day in June, as it gives attendees the chance to shape the future of the theatre. The theatre is putting itself in the hands of the public by…
As the houselights dim the cast are unsure of the show they are about to perform. Characters undeveloped and words unknown. No, not an example of bad planning but the bravery of a company who improvise a brand new musical from scratch each night, based on audience suggestions. For their 341st musical, the Showstoppers company…
Beware things that go bump in the night, things may not be all they‘re cracked up to be. In the darkened manager’s office in the eaves of London’s Lyceum Theatre, Henry Irving has just finished entertaining the Prince Of Wales with his Faust. His manager, Bram Stoker, is working on a manuscript about a Transylvanian…
The Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds has announced that Colin Blumenau will leave his role as Artistic Director at the Suffolk venue at the end of July. Blumenau joined the theatre in 1996 and led the theatre’s major project to restore the venue to its original Georgian glory in 2007. He has also directed or…
Plans for a major fundraising initiative for the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds have been shelved, it has just been announced. Colin Blumenau, the venue’s Artistic Director, had planned an ambitious challenge of riding from Land’s End to John O’Groats, via Bury St Edmunds. En-route Blumenau was due to visit famous Georgian sites along the…
Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls is widely regarded as a classic of 20th Century theatre, an examination of the sacrifices women over the centuries have had to make to become successful in a male dominated environment. However despite this status and the critical plaudits this revival has achieved it is hard, on this showing, to see…
It’s not over until the fat lady sings, or in this case a man, dressed as a lady, dressed as a cooking range – it can only be one thing, panto time and far from heralding the end, Dick Whittington proves to be deliciously devilish start to the festive season. Young Richard Whittington has heard…
Fame is fleeting. Ask most people who was first to fly across the Atlantic and they’ll probably say Charles Lindberg. He was in fact only the 104th person to fly the Atlantic. Eight years earlier, two Englishmen made the maiden nonstop flight from Newfoundland to Ireland. Their names may now be remembered only by ‘weirdoes,…
There are certain constants in theatre. Latecomers will always have tickets in the middle of a row, the person behind you will always have the noisiest of sweets to unwrap, and a glance at the cast biographies in the programme will reveal several ex-cast members from The Bill. Now that esteemed TV drama has come…
There’s two sides to every story. Dick Turpin. Romantic hero or thief and murderer? As history passes and tales get embellished what’s real and what has been embellished to fit the agenda of the storytellers themselves? Just a few days short of the 306th anniversary of his baptism we still owe much of what we…
All the worlds a stage, and the current touring cast of The Globe Theatre’s As You Like It have certainly taken the Bard at his word, taking their Elizabethan booth theatre up and down the country playing in stately homes, gardens and castle grounds. As autumn sets in, they head indoors, bringing the Forest of…
One of the frustrations with Shakespeare is, despite his prodigious output, there are often scenes and characters we fleetingly see in his works that we yearn to hear more about. Vividly drawn sketches who appear as mere supports to his better known characters but whom one feels have a fascinating back-story of their own to…
There is an odd moment in Cabaret when the audience is uncertain if it should applaud a song or not. It’s no reflection on the cast or the production but rather a deliberate move by the composers to unsettle their audience. Indeed, in Suffolk Young People’s Theatre production of Kander and Ebb’s look at the…
We may still be waiting for summer to arrive but in theatre land, thoughts are already turning to autumn and winter. It is a challenging time for venues as they come to terms with a shifting funding landscape while trying to ensure their programme will meet increasing audience expectations. The topic is one Simon Daykin, Executive…
Some plays seem destined to give theatre marketing departments a headache. How, for example, do you sell a one woman show based on the murder of the actress’ elder sister? Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister is that very challenge but, far from being a depressing evening, it turns out to be an evening of…
We’ve had musical theatre, we’ve even had chic flic theatre but now it seems nerd theatre has truly landed. Last year Canadian actor Charlie Ross impressed Bury St Edmunds audiences with his One Man Lord Of The Rings, a condensing of Peter Jackson’s opus into just over an hour. Now he returns to the Theatre…
Stage and Church have been intrinsically linked over the centuries. Occasionally in conflict over content and ideology, there is also something overtly theatrical involved in many religious rites; the tradition the ceremony and the oration of the sermon all containing elements of performance. In this Easter week, it is therefore perhaps appropriate that George Dillon…
Sometimes in our everyday grey lives all we need is a little injection of colour. That’s certainly the case for Bet and Al. They’ve been married for 25 years and virtually all the joy has been drained from their lives. He’s unemployed and spends most of his time taking refuge in the garden shed, she…
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey was her first completed work, yet it shows a writer already on top form. A biting look at social manners and the dangers of mixing fact and fiction, it provides strong material for a stage adaptation. Tim Luscombe makes full use of Austen’s source material, bringing her vivid characters colourfully to…
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive”. Sir Walter Scott’s famous line could so easily be the subtitle for J.B Priestley’s first play, Dangerous Corner. First performed in 1932, Priestley takes a carefully constructed look at how one seemingly innocent throw away line can unearth a hornetss nest of…
Barbershop four part harmony and the battle between Heaven and Hell may seem unlikely bedfellows but the two subjects gel perfectly in musical comedy Barbershopera: Apocalypse No! God has decided that the human race should be wiped from the face of the earth and another species be given the chance to make a better job…
2011 seems to be the year for Much Ado About Nothing. The much-publicised David Tennant/Catherine Tate production, the Shakespeare’s Globe staging and, first out of the blocks, the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. Director Abigail Anderson has embraced the intimacy of the Regency playhouse and produced a chamber version of Shakespeare’s battle of the sexes….
It is a welcoming trend to see local companies tackling new musical material. Sure, classics such as The Sound of Music and Oklahoma! have their place but there is a wealth of new material out there that deserves to be seen. Jason Robert Brown’s The Last 5 Years is one such jewel. A one-act, two-hander…
You don’t go to a Caryl Churchill for an easy ride. Her trademark is to use complex structure and dialogue that require an audience to work to follow plot and character. Her 1994 piece The Skriker is perhaps one of her most surreal works. Outwardly it seems that a malevolent spirit is causing havoc with…
In these times of fiscal prudence and a national obsession with glamour and celebrity, a tale of temptation by the twin evils of gold and glamour is strangely topical. Mother Goose is the panto for our times and, in the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds production, it’s never been better. Fairy Fortuna and Demon Discordo…
You have to admire the bravery of the folk at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. When you have the only surviving Regency playhouse in the country, the last thing you would normally do is start altering the fabric of the building, removing seats and making the auditorium into ‘theatre in the round’. Before the…
School-days are supposedly the happiest days of our lives and, for those of us who left school far too many years ago to recall, still provide some vivid memories. Despite changes in fashions and teaching practices, the same character traits still inhabit our classrooms. The bullies, the nerdy, the under-achievers, the ones lacking self confidence…
As the recent productions of Spring Storm and Beyond The Horizon show, first works by well known authors often give a fascinating insight into how a writers own distinctive voices developed. The Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds production of Michael Frayn’s first published play, The Two Of Us, also shows a writer finding his voice for the stage, but unlike…
Cole Porter’s classic Kiss Me Kate is a bit like a vintage wine, despite its age it still feels as fresh and hilarious today. It may have been written in 1948 but is still ranks as one of Porter’s finest works. It is also deceptively complex, despite the superficial light and frothy appearance. The lyrics…
It was George Washington’s favourite play and possibly the first Broadway Musical so The Poor Soldier comes with a strong pedigree, so why is this possibly the first professional production in a couple of hundred years? Presented as part of the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds’ Restoring The Repertoire initiative to resurrect classics of Georgian…
Arriving at the Ipswich Council Chamber audience members are handed a white forensic suit to wear and a pair of paint covered goggles. So Reykjavik isn’t going to be your traditional theatre experience. Nor is it a play about the banking crisis or Eyjafjallajokull, but a powerful and emotional exploration of love and memory. This…
Arriving at the Ipswich Council Chamber audience members are handed a white forensic suit to wear and a pair of paint covered goggles. So Reykjavik isn’t going to be your traditional theatre experience. Nor is it a play about the banking crisis or Eyjafjallajokull, but a powerful and emotional exploration of love and memory. This…
One of the joys of drama is that it can be both therapeutic and educational. In Between The Cracks elements of both are there; a collaboration between The Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and Suffolk Mind and shaped by those with experience of Borderline Personality Disorder. Given the potential it is therefore a shame that…
One of the joys of drama is that it can be both therapeutic and educational. In Between The Cracks elements of both are there; a collaboration between The Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and Suffolk Mind and shaped by those with experience of Borderline Personality Disorder. Given the potential it is therefore a shame that…
It’s an inspired piece of casting. Cast a son of Birmingham who made his name playing a much loved TV character in the 70s and 80s to play an equally loved Birmingham born TV comic and actor of the 50s and 60s. Paul Henry may have become a household name playing Benny in Crossroads (the…
It’s an inspired piece of casting. Cast a son of Birmingham who made his name playing a much loved TV character in the 70s and 80s to play an equally loved Birmingham born TV comic and actor of the 50s and 60s. Paul Henry may have become a household name playing Benny in Crossroads (the…