All Years - Arts Week (2020): Remote Learning Highlights

From 7pm 28 May until 4 June

Running Time: 2 hours 40 minutes with a very short interval
 

Enjoying two sold-out National Theatre runs, filmed live on stage in 2013, and a West End transfer, This House is a timely, moving and funny insight into the workings of British politics by James Graham. It’s 1974, and Britain has a hung Parliament. The corridors of Westminster ring with the sound of infighting and backstabbing as the political parties battle to change the future of the nation. During this era of chaos, when a staggering number of politicians die and age-old traditions are thrown aside, MPs find they must roll up their sleeves, and bend the rules, to navigate a way through the Mother of all Parliaments.

‘It has taken four years for James Graham’s enthralling play to make it from the National to the West End. It has been worth the wait because it enables us to see the work from a fresh perspective. In recording the struggle of the Labour government of 1974-79 to simply survive, the play offers a fascinating slice of history. Yet as we enter a new age of fractured opposition, the play raises serious questions about whether our current parliamentary system is fit for purpose. By studiously re-creating the past, Graham’s play forces us to ponder the future.’

- Michael Billington

Website: www.digitaltheatreplus.com

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“ Can a parent a love their children too much? Is it unwise to project all aspirations onto their futures? These are the questions which hover troublingly over Things We Know to Be True, a poetic and deeply poignant play from Andrew Bovell, the Australian writer best known for the film Lantana, adapted from his own play Speaking in Tongues, and for co-writing Strictly Ballroom with Baz Luhrmann.

In a suburb of Adelaide, working-class couple, Bob and Fran, have scrimped and saved all their lives to give their four children the things that they never had. Now, the brood have all achieved a degree of success born of too much choice. Tough Pip has a high-powered job in educational strategy, sensitive Mark is an IT specialist, brash Ben makes pots of money from the financial sector (his gift to his parents of a Nespresso machine is an unseen sign of bourgeois intrusion), and adored youngest child Rosie is in the middle of an extended gap year. Each is unhappy in their own way.” 

-Ben Lawrence. The Telegraph 2018

With a link to Frantic Assembly’s digital work on Things I Know to Be True:

https://www.franticassembly.co.uk/frantic-digital/things-1

“ I love improv shows but I hate reviewing them; the best improv is incredibly difficult to review because each performance is so wildly different, but I’ll give it my best whack. Showstoppers’ improvised musical aptly named Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, is a real delight.

It shouldn’t work, but it does, and it does so spectacularly. The cast are so well attuned with each other (pun intended) that even in moments where things fall slightly out of key, as is inevitable at any improv show, the harmony (last one, I promise) between them is unmistakable.

The numbers are fabulous, I found myself wishing I was able to find a cast recording for a number of them for later listening. The characters are so well-rounded and fleshed out; it is such a great experience watching them come to life before our eyes.”

- Tricia Way 2017.