WHAT'S ON at WHITE BEAR THEATRE
Click on titles for direct link to box office
10 % off your food bill with a paper or digital ticket
Theatre Reviva! Presents
Were you anyone before Dad's Army?
Written by Nicolas Ridley
29th April - 3rd May 2025
Today the actor Arnold Ridley is best remembered as the much-loved Dad’s Army character, Private Godfrey, but the part of Godfrey came towards the end of a long theatrical career and a truly remarkable life.
Having survived the horrors of the First World War and a stuttering start to his theatrical career, he began writing plays, one of which, The Ghost Train, enjoyed immense success. Many more successful West End plays followed alongside an involvement in the movie-making business which resulted in his financial ruin.
Evacuated from France in 1940, he was invalided out of the British Army for a second time, and then began his struggle to find a place in the new theatrical landscape. There followed many anxious years until the miracle of Dad’s Army restored his faith in himself and at last provided him with a modest measure of renewed celebrity and security.
A well-drawn character can easily seem so complete that it’s difficult to distinguish the fictional character from the actor. Were You Anyone Before Dad’s Army? draws back the curtain and provides a touching, life-affirming account of one man’s unwavering courage and resilience: a true hero although he himself would certainly have disclaimed the label!
Wedding of the Century
By Lucy Sargent
6th - 10th May 2025
Gareth and Georgia are getting married today. Which Ro and Mac are fine with. Really.
They’re fine with how Georgia (Mac’s ex) and Gareth (both Ro and Mac’s ex) met through them, fell in love, and happily left the two of them behind. They’re fine with how their own 15-year friendship was entirely wrecked through the creation of this rather confusing love quadrilateral. What they are not fine with, however, is how, instead of being at the wedding, they’re stuck in the storeroom of the sub-par Italian restaurant Ro works at, with nothing to do but finally talk to each other, and work through some of the things they’re potentially, just maybe, not so fine with after all.
Coming to the White Bear for its London premiere after an incredibly successful run in Cambridge, Wedding of the Century is a hopeful comedy exploring love and friendship, and what happens when the two really fail to work together nicely.
Suckling
by Scott Horgan
8th - 10th May 2025
"Suckling" delves into the dark and unsettling realities of parenthood—and the true horrors of raising a child.
An unplanned pregnancy catapults a couple into parenthood, but their deepest fears pale in comparison to the reality that awaits. Something is disturbingly wrong.
Laced with biting dark humour and razor-sharp dialogue, "Suckling" warps the realities of parenthood in shocking and surprising ways. This play explores trauma, unconditional love, and the paradox of children who complete us—and consume us.
An Acquired Taste
Written and directed by L. T. Hewitt
13th - 17th May 2025
Leah's food blog doesn't pay the bills, but being mentored by London's most pretentious food critic could open new doors – if only she can stomach the ethical dilemmas at turn in the world of fine dining. Marvin, meanwhile, uses his coding skills on a number of madcap schemes, from AI sheep to interactive tables – all to fund a school for interspecies communication. But how much can they each compromise on their values before there's nothing left?
***
From the award-winning writer-director of 2024's Slush Pile, Outing and Conflicted (also at The White Bear) An Acquired Taste explores the ethics of the meat and textile industries through five hilarious and manipulative individuals.
Leah's positive outlook and joyful approach to dining do little to convince the famed Emile Dempsey that she's cut out to be part of the next generation of food critics. Furthermore, what begin as ethical questions about what we consumer slowly eat away at her and limit what food she feels comfortable with – something of a pitfall to a food critic.
Meanwhile, Marvin tries every tactic possible to impress heartless entrepreneur Ophelia Murray, but works low-waged jobs at every restaurant he can to pay the bills. His goal, though, is something radical: opening a school for the Deaf in Indonesia which doubles as a research centre for great ape communication, resulting in a community where two species can live and speak sign language side by side.
Harmony
Written by Sam Thorpe-Spinks
20th - 31st May 2025
The year is 2035, and as the waves gently lap the ground floor windows of a block of flats, on the 9th floor, a machine-learning relationship therapy bot intervenes in a couple’s argument in an attempt to save their relationship.
In a world where technology has become fully integrated into even the most intimate parts of our lives; Harmony will ask whether in an uncertain future, with rising sea levels and scorching temperatures, if the uncontrollable advancement of technology will save humanity, or remove humanity from the equation entirely.
'It is October the 31st. There is an amber weather warning. The weather outside will be 33 degrees with a chance of heavy showers in the afternoon. There is a moderate to high risk of flooding. Would you like me to remind you to bring your washing in?'
A brand new play by actor and writer, Sam Thorpe-Spinks.
Directed by Noah Marullo
Funny, sexy and catastrophic, Harmony is a breathless interrogation of a couple, navigating the newly intimate parts of their relationship while the climate catastrophe rages outside their door.
Candy
3rd - 14th June
During a Sydney summer in the 1980's, a beautiful young artist named Candy meets Dan, a charismatic junkie. Their love blossoms quickly, and in their desire to share everything, Candy tries heroin. This marks the beginning of their descent, as heroin becomes a constant and demanding presence in their relationship.
Candy is the stage adaptation of Luke Davies’ novel Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction, which was first adapted for the screen in 2006, starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. This production marks the second run of the stage adaptation after a sold-out run at the Old Red Lion in August 2024.
Witnessing Candy and Dan's love story unfold on stage serves as a powerful tool for audiences to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of addiction.
Clap Trap Theatre in association with York Theatre Royal presents
Switcheroo
A story told twice
22nd & 23rd June 2025
When it comes to scattering their mother’s ashes, three siblings are hit with a bombshell revelation that turns their world upside down
This remarkable play is based on the very simple premise that ‘it’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it’
The first act is a full-blown, larger than life comedy. Then, after the interval, the actors swap characters and it’s repeated as a serious drama.
The difference between the two Acts is astonishing.
How can the same story, performed by the same actors, saying the same words be so different?
There is only one way to find out…
Golden Age Theatre Company Presents
Toxic & Hermione's Dinner
17th - 28th June 2025
Toxic
Written by Ian Dixon Potter
Directed by Phoebe White
A monumental ego and a self seeking ruthlessness have propelled Fletcher to the top of his profession. An 'alpha male' in every sense, Fletcher surrounds himself with flatterers and sycophants who fear and loathe him. Knowing his reputation for preying on young female employees, Caroline keeps her distance but an opportunity to advance her career propels her into Fletcher's lascivious clutches.
REVIEWS (of an earlier version of the play).
“Melanie Thompson's easy articulacy is engaging” “Fertile ground for debate in a way similar to Mamet’s “Oleanna” – where the lines and boundaries of morality are a valid subject for heated argument” “To say more would spoil the interest in this piece. Writing and acting are strong.”
★★★★★ (four and a half Stars) Theatre Monkey
Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London
Written & Performed by Alison Skilbeck
Directed by Lucy Skilbeck
6th - 7th July 2025
In October 1942, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the President, takes a dangerous trip to wartime London, to visit US troops, and see how the British, most importantly the women, are coping.
In her last days, as the Cuban Missile Crisis pushes the world to the brink of final catastrophe, Eleanor relives her journey, from bomb-damaged Buckingham Palace to midnight factories, but also recalls her life, from unhappy child, to unconventional wife, to becoming, in President Truman's words 'First Lady of the World'.
Today, all she stood for is under attack throughout our dangerous world. Her voice of sanity and compassion echoes down more than 80 years as she tours Britain at the height of WWII.
Returning to The White Bear Theatre following her solo show “Alison Skilbeck’s Uncommon Ground” last year, Alison Skilbeck was nominated for a Best Female Performance Offie Award (Off West End Theatre Awards) for her performance as Mrs Roosevelt and granted special permission by the Roosevelt Estate to use Eleanor's writings. Her one-woman show explores the public, and hidden life of one of the most extraordinary women of the 20th century.
“A tour de force.” ***** British Theatre Guide
The White Bear Theatre presents a rare revival of
TO SEE OURSELVES
by E. M. Delafield
1st – 12th July 2025
E. M. Delafield, is now best known for the comic classic The Diary of a Provincial Lady, which has never been out of print since it was first published in 1931. She was also a successful playwright, with productions in the West End, on Broadway and on the radio.
To See Ourselves premiered at The Ambassadors Theatre in London in 1931 and at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York in 1935.
Productions were seen around Britain and heard on the radio. Maybe it was because Elizabeth Monica Dashwood had to hide her gender behind initials and a pseudonym; maybe it was because Noël Coward’s Private Lives opened in London at the same time as To See Ourselves; whatever the reason, Delafield’s plays were eclipsed and are now forgotten. Yet, To See Ourselves is a lost theatrical gem, as witty, engaging and thought provoking as anything by Coward, and with a depth of feeling and an engagement with issues of love, relationships, gender and politics that are as pertinent today as they were in the nineteen thirties.
It is also very funny.
