WITH PLAYS FROM Tom Stoppard, Stephen Jeffreys, Bryony Lavery and Victoria Wood
In February 2022, The Kings Head Theatre will
present ‘Barstools to Broadway’, a celebration to mark the successes of the
world-renowned pub theatre’s first 50 years, and it looks forward to the next
50 years in a new purpose-built 220 seat Islington theatre due to open in late
2022.
Over the course of a week from 14 – 19 February, KTH50
Barstools to Broadway will see readings of five plays that started their lives
in the Upper Street theatre, many for the first time since their original
productions, with creative teams with links to the playwrights and original
shows. Full creative teams and casting will be announced in the new year.
Ticket prices will range from £10 - £250, with funds going towards supporting
and sustaining the theatre’s work in the future.
Founded by original Artistic Director Dan Crawford, The
King’s Head Theatre opened its doors behind a pub on Upper Street in 1970. Over
the last 50 years, playwrights, plays and creatives that have passed through
its doors have gone onto great heights: spring-boarding them from the Fringe
into the West-End, Broadway and beyond.
The celebration will kick off on Monday 14 February with an
event at the V&A in South Kensington, including a reading of Timberlake
Wertenbaker’s The Third. Timberlake
Wertenbaker was part of a generation of female playwrights whose early shows,
such as “The Third” (1980), were staged as part of the King’s Head
Theatre’s lunchtime theatre program. [In the 70s and 80s, lunchtime theatre was
not an uncommon proposition, and this programming offered a platform to a group
of people – including many women – which allowed them to experiment and grow as
writers, and progress to main show success. Ten years after her lunchtime
play at the Kings Head, Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good opened on Broadway.
The first of the plays to be read at the Upper Street venue
will be Artist Descending a Staircase by Tom Stoppard, directed
by Tim Luscombe, on Tuesday 15 February at 7.00pm. In addition to
early career first chances, the theatre also maintained several long-term
working relationships, such as that with Tom Stoppard. Artist Descending
a Staircase (1988) began life as a radio play but Dan Crawford saw an
opportunity to bring it to the stage. It also marked the return of Tim Luscombe
to the venue, after working with them on a production of Noel Coward’s Easy
Virtue, that had transferred to the West End. Stoppard’s play received
similar acclaim and duly transferred to the West End as well, followed by a
transfer to Broadway.
On Wednesday 16 February at 7.00pm, Stephen Jeffreys’ Like
Dolls or Angels will be directed by Annabel Arden. Like Dolls or
Angels (1977) transferred to the King’s Head Theatre after a successful
run at the National Student Drama Festival. This marked Stephen Jeffrey’s first
professional production, another example of the King’s Head Theatre championing
early career playwrights. Jeffrey’s 1994 play The Libertine became a film
starring John Malkovich and Johnny Depp.
Bryony Lavery’s Grandmother’s Steps will play Thursday 17 February at 7.00pm. Lavery’s second
play, Grandmother’s Steps (1977), was also a lunchtime
production. Les Oeufs Malades, the company that Bryony co-founded
alongside Gerard Bell in 1976 was created to create roles for women. Bryony is
also part of an extensive line-up of LGBT theatre makers that the King’s Head
Theatre has supported in their early career. Lavery’s adaptation of
Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust recently opened at the Bridge Theatre.
The celebration climaxes on Friday 18 February at 7.00pm
with Victoria Wood’s Good Fun.
Dan Crawford was an early supporter of Wood, transferring
this, her second play, (1980) to the theatre in 1980. She would go on to repay
this early support of her career by hosting many fundraising galas that were
vital to keeping the theatre afloat in the latter years of Dan’s tenure.
Co-Artistic Director Mark Ravenhill
said, “It’s been fascinating to rummage
in the Kings Head archives. This week of readings is a fantastic celebration of
some of our best work with audiences who have fond memories of the original
productions and to others who were too young to enjoy them first time
around. It’s a great way to begin the process of saying goodbye to our
beloved but knackered pub theatre as we prepare for our move next door to a
purpose built 220 seat theatre, a space for the next generation of theatre-makers who I’m hoping will have the same cultural impact as the playwrights
we’re celebrating in Kings Head 50’.
Twitter: @KingsHeadThtr / #KHT50
Instagram: @kingheadtheatre / #KHT50
VENUES:
THE V&A, Cromwell Road,
SW7 2RL (Monday 14 February 2022)
The Kings Head Theatre, 115,
Upper Street, N1 1QN (Tuesday 15 – Friday 18 February 2022)
PERFORMANCE TIME: 7.00PM
BOOKING: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on
