2009/10 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 which are priced £8.50 (£7.50 concessions)
- Production at Lewes Castle which is priced at £12 (£10 concessions)
- Youth Group productions £7.50 (£5 concession for under-11s)
Details of our 2010/11 Season can be found here.
Blood Brothers, by Willy RussellTuesday 3rd November - Saturday 7th November
"So did you ever hear the story of the Johnston twins,
As like each other as two new pins,
Of one womb born, on the self same day
How one was kept, one given away
Now come judge for yourself, this terrible sin,
Come join the gang, let the story begin.'
Blood Brothers is the hugely popular play by the well-known author of Educating Rita, Willy Russell. It is a fast-moving, thought provoking, highly emotive piece of theatre. Funny yet ultimately tragic. It tells the story of twin brothers born into a large Liverpudlian working class family and what happens when their desperate mother decides to give one of the twins away.
The original production by Willy Russell was written as a schools production in 1981. Russell then developed the work into a full-blown musical, which opened in the Liverpool Playhouse, in 1983, starring Barbara Dickson and Andrew C. Wadsworth. The show transferred to London, where it played for only six months or so before closing, although it won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS THE PLAY VERSION AND NOT THE MUSICAL.
Dracula, by Liz Lochhead based on the novel by Bram Stoker
Saturday 12th December - Saturday 19th December
Liz Lochhead’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula is a tale of tragedy and the madness that comes with desire and power. Jonathan Harker, a hopeful and passionate young man; his innocent fiancée Mina and her sister Lucy are caught, with devastating consequences, in Count Dracula’s deadly web. Lochhead brings this nightmare to life against a backdrop of the death of the 19th Century and a world where the line between sanity and insanity is difficult to distinguish.
CONTAINS NUDITY.
A Murder is Announced, by Agatha Christie adapeted by Leslie Darbon
Monday 1st February - Saturday 6th February
'A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks, at 6.30 pm. Friends accept this, the only intimation’
When the villagers of Little Cleghorn read the small ad in the local rag their curiosity is aroused. Is it a new parlour game or is it for real? At the appointed time a crowd gathers at Little Paddocks when, without warning, the lights go out, a man bursts into the room and three shots are fired.
Inspector Craddock is getting nowhere, but fortunately Miss Marple is visiting a friend in the village and cannot resist poking her nose in.
This is Agatha Christie at her puzzling best. The clues are there for all to see (plus a few well-marintated red herrings) but we defy you to spot the killer before the nation’s favourite sleuth unmasks him or her.
The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov translated by Tom Stoppard
Tuesday 9th March - Saturday 13th March
The Seagull considers the very human tendency to reject love that is freely given and seek it where it is withheld.
Many of its characters are caught in a destructive, triangular relationship that evokes both pathos and humor. What the characters cannot successfully parry is the destructive force of time, the passage of which robs some, like Madame Arkadina, of beauty, and others, like her son Konstantine, of hope.
In Flame, by Charlotte Jones
Tuesday 13th April - Saturday 17th April
In Flame juxtaposes different periods. The present where we see Alex, a young woman, coping with a mother who has Altzheimer’s disease. Not only does she have to cope with her mother but Alex also has to deal with a difficult flatmate and a selfish married lover. Meanwhile in 1908 Yorkshire, Alex’s ancestors have a similarly stressful time: the simple minded Clara and the oppressed Livvy live with their stonily severe Gramma.
In Flame is not one play but two, with scenes intermingled from 1908 and the present day. When performed in the West End The Sunday times wrote “It has some of the best writing I have come across, vigorous, poetic and lethally funny, probing hearts with warmth, compassion and irony”
More than My Wordsworth
Saturday 8th May (as part of Brighton Fringe Festival)
An evening of poetry and prose, old and new, well-loved and unfamiliar. This is a new departure for the Brighton Little Theatre: a celebration of the spoken and written word, devised and presented by members of the Brighton Little Theatre especially for the Brighton Fringe Festival. With works by poets as diverse as Philip Larkin, William Shakespeare, Leonard Cohen, Carol Ann Duffy, Emily Dickinson and Wilfred Owen there’s something for everyone! Poetry has the power to move, to anger, to amuse and to inspire, and this evening will focus on four themes: Love, Death and Aging, The Natural World and ‘Under the Influence’. For one night only, so book early to avoid disappointment!
Beautiful Thing, by Jonathan Harvey
Saturday 15th May - Saturday 22nd May (as part of Brighton Fringe Festival)
PLEASE NOTE IF THE WE GOT TICKETS WEBSITE SAYS THAT TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT, THERE MAY STILL BE A FEW AVAILABLE BY PHONING (01273 77 77 48) OR BY GOING TO THE FRINGE WEBSITE: http://www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk/ticketing/index.aspx?q=beautiful+thing
Leah loves Mama Cass.
Ste loves football.
Jamie loves Ste…
Once upon a time in the 1990s, a long way away in the magical land of Thamesmead Council Estate, South London, two young people fell in love. Here the concrete was covered in graffiti, the air was full of police sirens and shouting, the river swirled with silt and mud and the car fumes slowly choked the life from everything. On the ordinary landing of a block of flats the two young lovers met and their story began.
Leah was the girl next door with a passion for Mama Cass. Ste was the boy next door who loved his sports but was beaten and bullied by his drunken father. Jamie, a quiet shy boy, lived between with his hard working single mother Sandra. Escaping briefly from his father’s clutches, Ste spent a night “top to toe” with Jamie and to the blaring sound of Leah’s sound system romance bloomed.
Brighton Little Theatre presents this renowned play by Jonathan Harvey, that premièred at The Bush Theatre in 1993 before transferring to the West End. It was turned into a very successful feature film in 1995 and has been revived in London several times and has been performed all over the world.
Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
Tuesday 22nd June - Saturday 26th June @ BLT
Monday 5th July - Friday 9th July at the Minack Theatre, Cornwall
Wednesday 21st - Saturday 24th July at Lewes Castle (gates open 6.15pm, performance at 7.15pm)
One of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, the famous story of the "star-crossed" young lovers Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The themes running through the play address the issues of the consequences of immature blind passion, hatred and prejudice.Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are young teenagers who fall deeply in love but their families are bitter enemies. Regardless of the feud between their families they marry in secret. They make every effort to conceal their actions but the story ends in tragedy when Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris all die.
Steel Magnolias, by Robert Harling
Tuesday 3rd August - Saturday 7th August
Steel Magnolias is a sparkling and sombre comedy about the importance of trivia in helping people soldier on. The play is set in a beauty parlour somewhere in Louisiana USA. Four women meet there regularly and engage in small town gossip running the gambit of the birth/death cycle. The dialogue and wit of the women is very funny.However; the play moves towards tragedy when the young woman, (daughter of one of the four clients a diabetic) dies following a kidney-transplant operation. The deep strength and purposefulness underlying the antic banter of the characters is ultimately revealed.
BLT Youth Group
Thursday 19th, Friday 20th and Saturday 21st August at 7.30pm and Saturday 21st August at 2pm
Around the World in 80 Days - adapted by Mark Brown from the novel by Jules Verne
Stampeding elephants! Raging typhoons! Runaway trains! Hold on to your seats for the original amazing race! Join fearless adventurer Phileas Fogg and his faithful servant Passepartout as they race to beat the clock! circling the world in an unheard of 80 days! Danger, romance and comic surprises abound in this whirlwind adaptation of one of the great adventures of all time!
Around the world in 5 Plays - adapted from 'Around the world in 8 Plays' by Patrick Greene and Jason Pizzarello
Travel around the world and explore forgotten myths and unusual legends in five fast-paced, hilarious and tales! Guided by a band of roaming players, the audience is transported from the ancient Far East where a hero must kill a giant centipede to save a dragon king, to the Russina countryside, where a porr orphan must defeat three witches who stole his grandfather's eyes. Always quirky, and sometimes bizarre, these five tales are filled with magic, mystery and morals.
Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
Tuesday 28th September - Saturday 2nd October
Max de Winter brings his shy young bride to Manderley, his fine house in Cornwall.
Everywhere she senses the presence of Rebecca, his first wife, drowned in a sailing accident. Mrs Danvers, the intimidating housekeeper, still devoted to her dead mistress, preys on the new Mrs de Winters shortcomings.
By chance Rebecca,s real remains are found. It seems Max had mis-identified the body of a stranger.Was this deliberate?
He reveals noisome details of Rebecca's depraved life and admits he was responsible for her death.
Then the battle begins to save him from the gallows.
The seething storm-tossed location, the dark suspense and the implacable clash of wills are all retained in this adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's famous novel.