Cardiff’s pub theatre The Other Room’s Autumn/Winter 2018 season features: a new play by Wales Theatre Awards winner Matthew Bulgo; touring productions from In Bed With My Brother, Rive Productions, and the Bush Theatre and Antler; a full production of Chippy Lane Productions scratch night winner Cardiff Boy by Kevin Jones; and a Christmas show from Big Loop Theatre Company.
The Other Room’s Artistic Director Dan Jones said, “It will come as no surprise to those who know me best that fitting in has never been my forte. Perhaps this is the root cause of an unofficial theme that has crept in unnoticed or perhaps an insight into our time. How do we negotiate the fires of youth, the impossibilities of intimacy and our place in the world? These are just a taster of the questions posed throughout this season. This year we are delighted to host a diverse assortment of companies and creatives; with a refreshing contingent of female artists at the heart of it which we are immensely excited about.”
The opening show will be Matthew Bulgo’s The Awkward Years. Dan added, “There are tons of inspiring artists here in Cardiff, but very few are as elemental as Matthew Bulgo. For a writer to independently produce his own work in Cardiff is inspiring and we are proud to be supporting him in his endeavor. I regard Matthew as a national treasure of Welsh theatre and believe championing his work to be deeply important. The Awkward Years is a brilliant example of Matthew’s craft and the introduction of both a physical and sonic dimension will hopefully mean a whole new flavour of his work for Cardiff to enjoy.”
The Awkward Years will be directed by Dan Jones and runs Monday 17 – Saturday 29 September. A visceral solo drama about being young and lost, The Awkward Years will fuse a muscular text with frenetic movement and an evocative sound and lighting design to produce a breakneck-speed show about grief, hope and staying alive.
Matthew said, “As soon as the play started to take shape, I knew that TOR would be the perfect home for it. The venue’s ambition and desire to create ‘visionary, distinctive’ theatre very much tessellates with the brand of work I currently want to make. I’m looking forward to working with Dan Jones again for the first time since Constellation Street and I’m particularly excited to collaborate with movement director Jess Williams who I first worked with as an actor on Praxis Makes Perfect for National Theatre Wales.”
From Thursday 4 – Saturday 6 October, In Bed With My Brother bring their award-winning show about the British rave movement, We Are Ian, to The Other Room. A technicolour trip through the highs and lows of Britain’s last proper youth movement, We Are Ian is a rallying cry to the disenfranchised and disengaged to band together when society seems, well, up the swanny.
On Monday 8 – Saturday 13 October, Rive Productions present Skin A Cat. Putting a young woman’s struggle with her sexuality front and centre, Skin A Cat is a personal, unflinching and funny look at the pressures of fitting in; an alternative coming of age story about going all the way.
On Thursday 18 – Saturday 20 October, Antler bring their sell out Edinburgh Fringe show Lands to The Other Room. With two performers, a mini trampoline and a 1000 piece puzzle,Lands is a playful, intimate dissection of a relationship teetering on the edge of collapse, and explores our inability to understand one another and the hills we’re willing to die on
On Tuesday 30 October – Sunday 11 November, Red Oak Theatre present Cardiff Boy by Kevin Jones at The Other Room. Originally presented by Chippy Lane productions at their ‘Chippy and Scratch’ Night, when it was selected as overall winner, Cardiff Boy is a dynamic one-man show set in Cardiff in the ‘90’s. A study of male friendship, the love and the violence, the codes, the loyalties and rituals, Cardiff Boy follows a group of young lads, desperate to make an impression in an ever-changing city.
A new anarchic anti-panto Cheer will be presented by Big Loop Theatre Company as The Other Room’s Christmas show (Tuesday 27 November – Saturday 15 December). Set in a world where the elite purchase extortionately priced Christmas licenses from the state, while the poor resort to the synthetically produced ‘Cheer’, a black market substance dealt in pill form, Cheer is a challenging display of how far people will go in order to get their festive fix.
Tickets for The Other Room’s Autumn 2018 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/
Mon 17 – Sat 29 September, 7.30pm
Matthew Bulgo in association with The Other Room and Chapter presents
The Awkward Years
By Matthew Bulgo
Directed by Dan Jones
Thu 4 – Sat 6 October, 7.30pm
In Bed With My Brother presents
We Are Ian
Devised and performed by Dora Lynn, Nora Alexander and Kat Cory
Mon 8 – Sat 13 October, 7.30pm
Rive Productions presents
Skin A Cat
By Isley Lynn
Directed by Blythe Stewart
Performed by Lydia Larson, Libby Rodliffe and Joe Eyre
Thu 18 – Sat 20 October, 7.30pm
Bush Theatre and Antler present
Lands
Directed and devised by Jaz Woodcock-Stewart
Performed and devised by Leah Brotherhead and Sophie Steer
Additional devising with Richard Perryman and Nasi Voutsas
Tue 30 October – Sun 11 November, 7.30pm
Red Oak Theatre presents
Cardiff Boy
By Kevin Jones
Directed by Matthew Holmquist
Performed by Jack Hammett
Tue 27 November – Sat 15 December, 7.30pm
Big Loop Theatre Company presents
Cheer
By Kitty Hughes
Directed by Duncan Hallis
The Other Room at Porter’s, Cardiff
Tickets – www.otherroomtheatre.com
The Independent Voice of Artists and Reviewers in Wales / Llais Artistiaid ac Adolygwyr yng Nghymru