WHAT'S ON UPSTAIRS AT THE GATEHOUSE
Share
TOP PICK
29 Oct 2024 - 17 Nov 2024
Drama - Modern
Production by:
Stephen Leslie Productions
Stephen Leslie Productions
presents
FAST
by Kate Barton and Stephen Bennett
“How far would you go to find the perfect cure?”
Celebrity influencers, protein shake peddlers, diet pill pushers… we tell ourselves it’s a modern phenomenon. But is it really?
Fast is the true story of ‘Dr’ Linda Hazzard — complex, charismatic and utterly driven — whose promotion, in the early 1900s, of her own radical fasting cure, gripped the press and divided a nation.
Was she vilified merely as an interfering woman in a man’s world... or were there darker forces at play?
Following huge success in Brighton, Edinburgh and London, playwright Kate Barton and award-winning screenwriter Stephen Bennett have developed the original one-act play to bring you this full-length psychological thriller.
"In Kate Barton, the writer of Fast, they (The Park Theatre) have once again identified an important new voice. We will surely hear more, much more, from Kate Barton"★★★★★ LONDONTHEATRE1
3 Nov 2024
Live Music
Production by:
Susan Black
After a sold out performance Upstairs at the Gatehouse in February, Susan Black returns with THE PIAF STORY to relate the anecdotes and sing the songs that changed the course of Edith Piaf’s career.
From the slums of Paris Bellville as a street singer to the top of Eiffel Tower in the last year of her life singing Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, Susan takes us on a journey through the highs and lows of this remarkable woman’s life whose voice and legacy for over 100 years still have an impact on our modern day society.
Susan Black is a singer songwriter of many genres who has appeared at some of the top theatres and venues in London including Jermyn St Theatre, London Coliseum, Cadogan Hall and The Royal Albert Hall where she appeared alongside Dame Shirley Bassey and Beverly Knight for Rocco Buonvino’s production Beatles Go Classical with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
She also supported the late Robin Gibb at The London Palladium, Toyah Wilcox at Leicester Theatre, and Sylvester Stallone for a special Q&A at Manchester Arena. Earlier in her career, she created a one woman show with original material which won her an award at The Edinburgh Festival and then many appearances on the late Paul O’Grady’s Lily Savage theatre shows where she would include some Piaf songs in her repertoire. It was the audience’s overwhelming response to these songs that inspired Susan to learn more about Piaf’s life which eventually led to The Piaf Story
10 Nov 2024
Voila! Festival
Production by:
Seyyar Company
Voila! Festival & Seyyar Company present
MIGRANT SHAKESPEARE
Think you know your Shakespeare? Think again! This is Shakespeare as you’ve never seen him before – ‘trippingly on the tongue’...
★★★★★
"Migrant Shakespeare and Seyyar Theatre are a gift… Naz Yeni has created something truly wonderful."
BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE
11 Nov 2024
Voila! Festival
Production by:
Lara van Huyssteen
Voila! Festival 2024 and Lara van Huyssteen present THAT BOY HAS NO SHOES.
Following a four-star run at Camden Fringe 2024, THAT BOY HAS NO SHOES, “an immersive and emotional” performance comes to Upstairs at the Gatehouse for one night only as part of Voila! Festival.
South African theatre maker, Lara van Huyssteen, reflects on the horrors of Apartheid from the perspective of a young person who was born in the democracy. With folksong and narrative storytelling, this “poignant production” highlights riots, forced removals, and protests that shaped the cultural and economic landscapes of democratic South Africa.
On four illuminated plinths appear an axe, an eviction notice, a passbook, and a camera who each take their turn with the microphone. In the performance, Lara facilitates the space and the objects become repositories for the Apartheid struggle; they tell stories of who they saw, what they did, and where they were left behind. The result is “compelling” and “powerful”.
Praise for THAT BOY HAS NO SHOES:
★★★★
“Instructive, moving and horrific”
EVERYTHING THEATRE
★★★★
“Thought-provoking”
THE REVIEWS HUB
★★★★
“An interesting work of art, That Boy Has No Shoes is a moving retrospective”
A YOUNG(ISH) PERSPECTIVE
16 Nov 2024
Musical
Stephen Sondheim dies on your 21st birthday. So what do you do? How do you move on? How do you stop yourself losing your mind when your hero’s life ends the day your journey into adulthood begins?
The answer is to take it as a sign from the universe to write a song cycle. Following three dreamers navigating the hazy journey into adulthood, Anywhere You Go explores themes of dreams ending and beginning, heroes, and love,
This is the first presentation of a work on its way to being developed into a full-scale musical, so come and enjoy the first steps inspired by the man who taught us "anything you do / let it come from you / then it will be new."
Music, Book, and Lyrics: Lizzie Jones
Additional Music, Lyrics, and Musical Direction: Em Strang
Cast: Lizzie Jones, Isabel Hinchcliffe, Calum Isaacs
21 - 24 Nov 2024
Drama
Production by:
Garden Suburb Theatre
Garden Suburb Theatre present
HOLDING THE MAN
Tommy Murphy’s classic adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s award-winning memoir is a hilarious, warm and heartbreaking masterpiece.
Amongst the normalised chaos at a 1970s Melbourne High School, young Tim falls hopelessly in love with John, the captain of the football team, starting an unconventional love story that rockets through changing times.
24 Nov 2024
Voila! Festival
Production by:
Xi Chen & Julian Maynard Smith
Voila! Festival, Xi Chen, & Julian Maynard Smith present
EVERYBODY HAS TO BE SOMEWHERE
An intergenerational collaboration between a young emerging Chinese artist and a semi-retired old-timer from the UK - two performers who find their identities as physical beings merging - challenged by the unexplained accidents involved in their coming together.
Simple structures of time and causality develop into complex interactions that evoke the roles that memory, culture and difference have in their relationship. Everybody Has To Be Somewhere grows organically from a seed and shows how our perception of time shapes and fragments our reality, making each performance unique and unrepeatable.
Created and performed by Xi Chen and Julian Maynard Smith
Running Time: 45min - 1 hour
26 Nov - 1 Dec
Musical
Production by:
Lambco Productions
The sensational court case of Edith Thompson in 1923 was a cause célèbre with people queuing outside The Old Bailey for days to get tickets. Edith stood accused of colluding with her lover to murder her husband. But did she do it?!
This brand new murder mystery musical investigates the scandal.
Watch a 'live' recording of a true crime podcast as the truth is revealed in this torrid tale of lies, lust, love letters... and laudanum.
Entertaining Murder is the latest production from Chris Burgess, the writer behind ten shows that have premiered at Upstairs at the Gatehouse: Only Make Believe, Iceberg – Right Ahead, Jewish Legends, Jewish-American Songbook, That’s Jewish Entertainment, Bette Midler and Me, A Night at the Oscars, The MGM Story, It’s a Little Bit Funny, and Jewish Hollywood.
FESTIVE SEASON TOP PICK
Sondeim and Weidman Road Show
12 Dec 2024 – 12 Jan 2025
Production by:
Chromolume Productions
ROAD SHOW
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick
12 December 2024 – 12 January 2025
Tuesdays - Saturdays 7.30pm | Saturdays 3pm | Sundays 4pm
At the dawn of the 20th century, two brothers driven by their dying father’s charge to seize the boundless opportunities of the New World set off to find their fortune. From the frenzy of the Gold Rush to the real estate boom in Florida, Sondheim and Weidman’s complex, catchy, and darkly funny tale based on the true story of the Mizner Brothers chronicles the curdling of the American Dream.
From the team that brought us Assassins and Pacific Overtures, Sondheim's final finished work is brought to life in all its sharp, vaudevillian glory.
We are very proud to announce that LONDON PUB THEATRES MAGAZINE is now an OFFIE AWARD WINNING publication
A ONEOFF Special Award has been awarded to London Pub Theatres Magazine and Editor Heather Jeffery for providing a vital forum for highlighting the excellent work that happens in rooms in pubs, with sensitive editing, and an acute sense of the importance of tiny fringe venues to the health and development of British Theatre