WHAT'S ON at WHITE BEAR THEATRE
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Author, Composer, Soldier-of-a-sort
written & performed by Jan Carey
2nd - 3rd November 2025
A celebration of the enduring friendship between the brilliant and tragic composer and World War I poet, Ivor Gurney, and Marion Scott, writer and trailblazer of women musicians, written and performed by Jan Carey. It was to Scott that Gurney sent his music and poetry from the trenches. The horror of The Great War, contrasted with his deep love for his native Gloucester, coloured his writings. Yet Gurney's slow deterioration into madness after being gassed at Passchendaele showed that, despite their very different backgrounds, their friendship withstood war, illness and despair, as well as triumph, madness and joy.
Directed by Michael McCaffery, the story is brought to life through the rich material of Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott’s memories, poems and letters, interweaved with some of Gurney’s most loved songs from the recordings of Ian Partridge, tenor and Jennifer Partridge, piano.
‘A masterclass’ ★★★★★ broadwaybaby.com
‘a delicate and moving piece of storytelling’ ★★★★ The Stage
Nonsense Theatre Presents
A Night of Nonsense: Shirts, Ties and Spooky School Supplies
10th November 2025 7.30PM
Nonsense Theatre are back at school after the October Half-Term for some 'educationally' spooky fun. Our timetables are filled with variety acts from the worlds of comedy, music dance, and whatever planet Jed and Cara are on when they're writing this show! We can not guarantee that you will actually learn anything, but we can guarantee a night full of Nonsense. Brought to you by Fcuk, for all your Fcuking needs*
*Disclaimer: After a very lengthy court case in which Jed faked his own death for tax purposes, the court ruled in favour of Fcuk. If we continute to insist on our associated branding deal with Fcuk, we will be inprisoned for a minimum term of 3-5 working days. But, you know, banter
19th Street Productions Present
The Problem with the Seventh Year
THE LONDON PREMIERE
28th October - 15th November
"You’ve got to throw every punch with ‘bad intentions.’ If you don’t, you’re better off becoming an educated gentleman and not a boxer. And don’t kid yourself: you can’t be both”
A young man's boxing career conflicts with his life as a medical student.
Working as a cut-man, the consequences of his double-life catch up with him.
THE PROBLEM WITH THE SEVENTH YEAR is a bloody, unflinching drama about the fine line between being clever and being a coward.
WRITTEN BY NICHOLAS PIERPAN
Nicholas Pierpan is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. THE PROBLEM WITH THE SEVENTH YEAR won the Cameron Mackintosh Award for New Writing. Nick has won a Peggy Ramsay Award, and was shortlisted for the Yale Drama Prize. He won the 2013 Off West End Award for Most Promising Playwright and was nominated for an Evening Standard Award for his play You Can Still Make a Killing, directed by Matthew Dunster. He was selected for the BBC Drama Production Writers’ Scheme and won the Script Factory Serious Screenwriting Award. After a BBC Sparks Radio Residency, Nicholas’ radio plays have been broadcast on BBC3, BBC4 and BBC6. In 2017 he was named to the BBC's New Talent Hotlist, created by BBC Director-General Tony Hall and actor Idris Elba, and in 2020/21 was a member of the Serial Eyes programme for television writers at the DFFB in Berlin.
Fourplay
18th - 20th November 2025
Two perfectly ordinary couples - David and Caroline, and their guests Helene and Edward - are enjoying a dinner party. Beneath the civilised veneer, dark secrets lurk, and tensions start to emerge as the evening progresses. Once the cat is out of the bag, there is no way to stop the evening from developing into a battleground of recriminations, explanations and cruel home truths. Enjoy this taut and often comic psychological examination of marital life.
Olive: Fame in Flames
21st - 22nd November 2025
Olive Knight has thirty thousand followers, one viral song, and a dream - to become immortal, or at least algorithmically unforgettable. As she live-streams yet another “how-to” on fame, Olive spirals into a desperate séance for relevance in a world where everyone’s already famous.
Olive: Fame in Flames follows the award-winning 2022 short film Olive (Best Micro Short, Birmingham Film Festival). Now reimagined for the stage with Window Zebra Productions, this darkly funny one-woman show asks: when we’re drowning in content and nothing’s rare, what does fame even mean anymore?
Co-Creator, Writer & Director: Flora Lopategui
Co-Creator, Writer & ‘Olive’: Lucy Nicholson
Shed Theatre Presents
Ring Ring
By Gary Owen
25th Nov - 6th Dec 2025
“What if it gets easier? What if we can cope? What if everything we think is us going wrong is actually just how hard it is coping with all this and it isn’t going to be hard any more? What if, actually, if we just hold on, what if actually… we’re alright?”
Gary Owen’s Ring Ring, inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde, spins a series of chance encounters and tangled relationships into a witty, poignant exploration of connection, hope and human resilience.
Owen, one of Wales’ most celebrated playwrights, is known for Violence and Son (Royal Court), Romeo and Julie(National Theatre), Killology (Sherman Theatre / Royal Court) and Iphigenia in Splott (Sherman Cymru). His upcoming work Owain and Henry will be staged by National Theatre Wales starring Michael Sheen.
Originally commissioned by the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, this marks the first professional productionof Ring Ring.
Openside presents
WHAT'S THE TRADE?
16th - 20th December 2025
ABOUT
A meeting room at an investment bank.
James is an successful FX Trader. Sarah is new to the Human Resources department.
They collide during an investigation into the absence of their collegue, Scarlett. A game of power and deceit which questions morals and challenges the professional and social lives of the young corporate world. It asks the question - who is actually in control?
Industry meets Mike Bartlett's Bull
PREVIOUS WORK
JOCK (Writer/Performer)
"A gripping exploration of toxic masculinity with a brilliant central performance – JOCK is a triumph that earns its place in the spotlight."
- Squirrp
"Howard's control of his play is pitched perfectly"
- The Reviews Hub
Maybe I Should Stop (Producer/Director)
Nominated for two 2025 Fringe Theatre Awards (Solo Performance & New Writing)
'A triumph from start to finish […] Director Esalan gates ensures every scene is distinctive, optimising the space and the performer’s remarkable range.’
★★★★★ London Pub Theatres
Pop Goes the Dollar (Writer/Director/Producer)
‘A fabulously entertaining and cleverly staged exposé'
★★★★½ The Reviews Hub
‘Everyone remains absolutely hooked by the spiralling storyline and fast-paced action.’
★★★★½ RatedReviewed
Brother Wolf presents
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
21st December 2025
During his final lecture on the duality of humankind, the respectable Dr Jekyll reveals his strange association with the mysterious Edward Hyde and the shocking truth about his identity: that Hyde, unlike other human beings, is not only fundamentally evil, but also the very definition of it. Combining edge-of-your-seat thrills with stunning physical theatre, Robert Louis Stevenson's classic "boogey tale" is brought chillingly to life in this award-winning one-man show.
Presented by Brother Wolf
Based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson
Adapted and Performed by James Hyland
Directed by Phil Lowe
Music by Chris Warner
"A creative and bold masterpiece... truly magnificent" ★★★★★ (A Youngish Perspective)
"The best piece of acting I've seen... outstanding" ★★★★★ (Pink Prince Theatre)
"Hyland is a genius. He has to be... extraordinary" ★★★★★ (Everything Theatre)
"the outstandingly talented James Hyland" ★★★★★ (What's On Stage)
"outstanding and original... extremely impressive" ★★★★★ (What's Peen Seen)
"A fantastic actor... Go and see it wherever you can." ★★★★★ (Stafford Radio)
"A masterpiece in every respect... Utterly unmissable." ★★★★★ (British Theatre Journal)
"not for the faint hearted... a spine tingling piece of theatre" ★★★★★ (The Theatre Twittic)
