The Other Room, Cardiff’s vibrant pub theatre space and home to award-winning shows, has announces its Autumn/Winter 2016 season. Curated and programmed by The Other Room, the season features a Christmas production by resident company difficult|stage, alongside original work from new and established companies from all over the UK.
Creative Producer of The Other Room, Ben Atterbury, said, “Autumn/Winter at The Other Room is a season of shows built around talented young companies and individuals making and bringing brilliant work to our little theatre. It has been curated to show off the depth and breadth of work being made in Wales and in the rest of the UK, and we’re delighted to have the opportunity to show them off to all our friends. Autumn/Winter at The Other Room includes our usual mix of great modern drama alongside the most exciting new writing, but with the added excitement that comes from having seven brilliant companies bringing their own unique brand of theatre to Cardiff. We’ve never done a season quite like this at The Other Room, and we can’t wait to share it with our audience.”
The Autumn 2016 season will open with The Mountaintop by Katori Hall (Tue 4 – Sat 15 October), the fictional depiction of the Reverend Martin Luther King’s last night on earth before his assassination on April 4, 1968. Set in a motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, an exhausted King returns from a prophetic speech during the sanitation workers’ strike and is visited by a mysterious maid, Camae, with a much greater mission than delivering his coffee. The Mountaintop is produced by new Cardiff and London-based company Fio and will be directed by its Artistic Director Abdul Shayek, former Creative Associate of National Theatre Wales.
From Mon 17 – Sat 22 October, Walrus Theatre will present their debut show Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons by Sam Steiner, as part of a major UK tour. The piece is a taut two-hander which imagines a world where we’re forced to say less, examining how we express ourselves, personally and politically. It’s about what we say and how we say it; about the things we can only hear in the silence; about dead cats, activism, eye contact and lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons.
Mon 24 October – Sat 5 November sees Those Two Impostors present Blackbird by David Harrower. This Olivier Award-winning play has recently dazzled and shocked audiences on Broadway, and is brought to The Other Room in a brand new production. When Una tracks down Ray in a nowhere town, recriminations and revelations fly in this lacerating and controversial story of betrayal, abandonment and lust.
Critical Ambition (in association with Volcano Theatre Company and The Other Room) will present Blink by Phil Porter Mon 7 – Sat 19 November. Blink is a slightly neurotic comedy about love – but not your love-hearts and red-roses variety; more your secret-stalker and awkward-erections kind of love story. Critical Ambition is a Swansea-based theatre company founded by Tom Myles and Dan Jones. Dan was one of The Other Room’s first Trainee Directors and is now an Associate Director of the company.
Mon 21 – Fri 25 November sees Barrel Organ bring their irreverent and self-aware performance style to The Other Room in the form of Some People Talk About Violence. In a world of globalization and greed, of zero-hour contracts and The Big Bang Theory, violence worms its way into every aspect of our lives. The piece, devised by the company, follows a family as they struggle with these hidden violences in a modern age full of vapid TV sitcoms and ultra-efficient microwaves.
Tue 6 – Fri 23 December sees The Other Room welcome back resident company difficult | stage with a follow-up to their hit 2015 show Alix in Wundergarten. Looking Through Glass re-visits the fated radio recording studio and the big guns have been called in, in the form of the notorious Alison. Dangerous, anarchic and hilarious, this is anti-panto in the extreme.
Tickets for The Other Room’s Autumn 2016 season are available now from www.otherroomtheatre.com. To keep updated on The Other Room, you can also follow the team on Twitter @TORtheatre and Facebook www.facebook.com/otherroomtheatre
Listings
Tue 4 – Sat 15 October, 7.30pm
Fio presents
The Mountaintop
By Katori Hall
Directed by Abdul Shayek
Mon 17 – Sat 22 October, 7.30pm
Walrus Theatre presents
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons
By Sam Steiner
Directed by Ed Madden
Mon 24 October – Sat 5 November, 7.30pm
Those Two Impostors presents
Blackbird
By David Harrower
Directed by Rupert Hands
Mon 7 – Sat 19 November, 7.30pm
Critical Ambition in association with Volcano Theatre Company and The Other Room presents
Blink
By Phil Porter
Directed by Dan Jones
Mon 21 – Fri 25 November, 7.30pm
Barrel Organ presents
Some People Talk About Violence
Devised by the company with text by Lulu Raczka
Directed by Ali Pidsley
Tue 6 – Fri 23 Dec, 7.30pm
difficult|stage presents
Looking Through Glass
Directed by Matthew Blake
The Other Room at Porter’s, Cardiff
Tickets – www.otherroomtheatre.com
The Other Room
The Other Room at Porter’s is Cardiff’s pub theatre. It was founded by Artistic Director Kate Wasserberg and Executive Director Bizzy Day, in response to the exciting opportunity to develop an audience for drama in the heart of Cardiff. An intense, purpose-built space with 47 seats, The Other Room produces new work by Welsh and Wales-based artists and great modern plays and has fast established a reputation for quality and daring. The Other Room won Fringe Theatre of the Year at the 2016 Stage Awards and Best Production, Best Play, Best Director and Best Actor at the recent Welsh Theatre Awards for their opening season in 2015.
Kate Wasserberg – Artistic Director
Kate is the former Associate Director of Clwyd Theatr Cymru. She was previously the Associate Director of the Finborough Theatre in London where she worked extensively with many playwrights including James Graham and Nick Gill. Freelance directing includes forthcoming work at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Gate. Kate is the co-editor (with playwright Tim Price) of Contemporary Welsh Plays, published by Bloomsbury.
Elizabeth Day – The Other Room Executive Director
Young entrepreneur Bizzy Day graduated from Applied Drama at University of Wales, Newport in 2012. A freelance fundraising consultant, she was one of the first recipients of the prestigious Arts and Business Arts Creative Internships and has a wide knowledge of supporting and developing institutions. Bizzy is responsible for the organisational, strategic and fundraising development of the company.