2008/09 Season at BLT
If you wish to book tickets for any production you can do so by clicking the title of the production. Alternatively visit the 'Tickets' section of the website for further details.
All productions start at 7.45pm (unless otherwise indicated).
Tickets are priced at £7.50, with the exception of:
- Festival productions with are priced £8.50 (£7.50 concessions)
- Production at Lewes Castle which is priced at £10 (£8 concessions)
- Youth Group productions £7.50 (£5 concession for under-11s)
The 2009/10 season at BLT has now been announced. Please click here for further infomation.
Entertaining Mr Sloane, by Joe OrtonTuesday 14th October - Saturday 18th October
With its heady cocktail of oedipal sex, abuse of the elderly and bisexual
liaisons, Joe Orton's first play, Entertaining Mr Sloane, caused
considerable scandal on its premiere back in 1964. In the ensuing years it
has become a standard of British theatre, and has certainly retained its
ability to shock and entertain.
Notions of morality have certainly changed considerably in the forty or so years since Orton's play premiered - yet in his brilliant writing audiences are still today shocked by his graphic bisexual liaisons, a middle-aged woman having an affair with a twentysomething man, and even murder - the human ability to dissemble and manipulate still has the power to disturb.
This is probably Orton at his best - way ahead of his time. A powerful black comedy - not to be missed.
Happy Families, by John Godber
Thursday 13th November - Saturday 15th November
John Godber's autobiographical piece recalls his teenage years all the embarrassments, tensions, joys and sorrows of family life.
Full of warmth, humour and understanding "Happy Families" paints an
affectionate and appealing portrait of an ordinary family struggling
with change, bereavement and the generation gap. As John grows older and
becomes better educated, he feels less and less comfortable with his
working-class family who cannot understand his growing intellect and
theatrical aspirations.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart
Tuesday 16th December - Saturday 20th December
The first musical to have both music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is one of the funniest musicals ever written, and one of the few modern musicals to really be true to its description as a musical comedy! Very loosely adapted by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart from the plays by the Ancient Roman playwright, Plautus, A Funny Thing has no moral, no sting in the tail, no villian and no tragedy. Instead, it is full of glorious tunes, silliness, daft one liners, cross-dressing, mistaken identity, children stolen by pirates, courtesans, slaves, actors, solly old men, silly young men and one wily slave running the whole show. And, as Pseudolus the slave says, "it all takes place on a street in Rome, round and about three houses...". Fast, furious and hilarious - the perfect treat for the run-up to Christmas for all the family.
Losing Louis, by Simon Mendes Da Costa
Tuesday 13th January 2009 - Saturday 17th January 2009
Interwoven events from past and present blend together in this touching comedy.
Secrets that refuse to remain buried erupt as Jewish and non-Jewish members are brought together, after years of separation, to face it out in the bedroom – the place where all the confusion began.
‘He’s had the decency to rename the funeral parlour….He provides coffee out front and coffins out back. Apparently not enough people are dying anymore but everyone needs cake.’
Louis Louis was premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in January 2005 and was Louis Mendes Da Costa’s second successful play.
The Browning Version, by Terence Rattigan
Thursday 19th February - Saturday 21st February
Betrayal, dishonesty, infidelity, friendship, love, marriage, expectations, ambition, sex, money, education & intellect. A bit like the West Wing, but in a public school & without the crises of international importance.
Strangely uplifting for a story about life’s disappointments. The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan gives a glimpse into public school life through the eyes of Mr Crocker-Harris. “The Crock”, on the eve of his last day of teaching at the school.
The Crock is the stereotype of everybody’s worst teacher. He is a tyrant & a bully in the classroom who receives little respect from fellow teachers & was never promoted to the position he felt he deserved.
As many of the characters, notably Mrs Crocker-Harris and Taplow (a pupil) are threatened with disappointments, personal integrity & dignity are called into question and the resulting decisions shape the play’s narrative.
A Few Good Men, by Aaron Sorkin
Tuesday 31st March - Saturday 4th April
"The truth? You can't handle the truth!"
Aaron Sorkin's smash hit play was successfully filmed starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon and Keiffer Sutherland.
A young marine is found dead at Gauntanamo Bay, Cuba and two Privates First Class are arraigned for his murder at a court martial. It seems an open and shut case, settled by plea bargaining, until the two claim to have acted under orders and it becomes possible that this action was to cover up whistle-blowing – a Code Red:- an antiquated, honour-based discipline that has no place in the modern military.
A courtroom drama that pits old-fashioned, West Point values against a modern world concerned with diplomacy and borders, the play is from the pen of the writer of The West Wing and has his hallmark incision and wit.
The Haunting of Hill House, adapted by F Andrew Leslie from the novel by Shirley Jackson
Saturday 9th May - Saturday 16th May (Brighton Festival)
PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO ISSUES WITH THE FESTIVAL BOX OFFICE YOU MAY BE TOLD THIS PRODUCTION IS SOLD OUT. IF YOU ARE TOLD THIS, PLEASE CONTACT THE THEATRE'S BOX OFFICE DIRECTLY ON 01273 777748 WHERE A LIMITED SUPPLY OF TICKETS IS STILL AVAILABLE.
Fifty years after its first publication we present this stage adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s classic horror novel, The Haunting of Hill House. Filmed both in 1963 and 1999 as The Haunting.
Welcome to Hill House. Hill House stands by itself against its hills, holding darkness within. It has stood for 130 years and might stand for 130 more. Within, walls continue upright, bricks meet neatly, floors are firm, and doors are sensibly shut; silence lies steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walks there, walks alone.
It has been 50 years since anyone last stayed at Hill House, when a group of researchers into the supernatural came to study the house. Lead by Dr. Montague, an accomplished anthropologist risking ridicule by investigating the paranormal; Theodora, who was famous for identifying 19 cards out of 20 every time; Eleanor Vance, a lonely soul who was once plagued by poltergeist activity; and Luke Sanderson, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. Later they were joined by Dr. Montague’s wife and her companion Arthur who had their own, rather more aggressive, agenda at the House. Not all of these last visitors were ever due to leave Hill House.
Some say Hill House was born bad, others that it imbibed its evil from the people who lived there, whatever the cause it has remained unoccupied and feared to this very day.
Welcome to Hill House. We hope you survive your stay.
Hay Fever, by Noel Coward
Tuesday 23rd June - Saturday 27th June
Hay Fever lifts the lid on the impossible, implausible Bliss family.
Each of them has invited a guest for the weekend.
These hapless visitors are bewildered, humiliated, intimidated and simply
ignored by their hosts who's separate and combined lives are hilariously
bohemian.
This comedy of bad manners was first produced in 1925 when madcap young
ladies were"flappers"
and young men tore along dusty roads in open tourers.It was a bitter sweet,
superficial age recovering from the horrors of one war and heading pell-mell
for another.
Noel Coward thought Hay Fever was his best comedy. The critics have usually
been divided.
The play has never been off the stage for long in the past 83 years because
it's humour is everlasting and it's structure impeccable.
As You Like It, by William Shakespeare
Tuesday 4th August - Saturday 8th August @ BLT
Wednesday 19th August - Saturday 22nd August @ Lewes Castle
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”- the opening line of Jacques’ well known speech from Shakespeare’s delightful comedy.
The play celebrates the enduring power of love in all its many disguises. It is witty and playful, a compelling romantic adventure in which the famous courtship between Rosalind and Orlando is played out against the backdrop of political rivalry, banishment and exile in the Forest of Arden.
As You Like It has all the ingredients of an Elizabethan “romcom”- irrational behaviour, a girl disguised as a boy, romantic love at first sight, and a threatening wild beast - all relocated to the 1920s!
BLT Youth Group
Friday 28th August & Saturday 29th August at 7.45pm and Saturday 29th August at 3pm
Sparkleshark by Philip Ridley (with kind permission of A.P.Watt, 20 John Street, LONDON, WC1N 2DR)
Sparkleshark, commissioned for The National Theatre's New Connections '97, is a play of menace and magic. The action takes place on the roof of a tower block, where Jake, the bullied classroom 'geek', takes refuge from his tormentors. Jake writes stories. When the other teenagers join him they become enmeshed in a fantasy about a princess, a dragon, a forest and a suitor in search of impossible gifts. Communication is the main theme of the play: how we do it, how we fail to do it, how difficult it is and how easy it is to send the wrong signals.
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
Take on rather rotund swagering penniless drunkard, two handsome prosperous married women and a jealous husband and you have the heart of Shakespeare's hilarious comedy. The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of Shakespeare's most farcical plays. Its comic intrigues bring them together in a burgeoning middle class. This production, set in the 1940s (with punk rockers and street dancing for good measure!), will give you some hearty laughs as the playful but virtuous wives take their revenge on their unfortunate suitor.
The Pillow Man, by Martin McDonagh
Tuesday 29th September - Saturday 3rd October (starts at 7.30pm)
"A writer in a totalitarian state is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of child-murders that are happening in his town……"
This disturbing play explores the psyche of both the interrogated and the interrogators; both time and place are unspecified, we could be in Stalinist Russia or Guantanamo Bay. As the action unfolds we see how memory and desire play tricks on us, and how we bury painful childhood memories deep within ourselves but no matter how hard, consciously or unconsciously, we try to run from our past it catches up with us and explodes into the present with sometimes horrifying consequences.
Martin MacDonagh is known for his uncompromising treatment of the human condition. He forces us to contemplate our lives and the way we live them, but he does this with compassion and with a humour which allows us to confront our own shortcomings and thus try to understand them.
"Warning: a viciously funny, seriously disturbing tale."
Please note this play is unsuitable for children.
PLEASE NOTE: this play starts at 7.30pm.