Latest News
Summer 2008 Season
PRESS RELEASE
26 February 2008
Summer 2008 at The Brewhouse – inside and out.
Public booking for The Brewhouse Theatre’s Summer 2008 Season (May - August) opens on Tuesday 4 March. There’s a host of high quality and varied events happening both inside and outside the building this season with Westival, Taunton’s arts fest also returning in July.
Drama includes Proteus Theatre’s The Elephant Man (Wed 7 May), the return of London Classic Theatre with Mike Leigh’s wonderful 70’s classic Abigail’s Party (Tues 13 & Wed 14 May); Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree (Fri 6 & Sat 7 May), a strange and intriguing mix of truth and theatricality; The Lady of Burma (Wed 28 May), which tells the inspirational true story of Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the only Nobel Peace Prize winner who is also a political prisoner; Ian Dickens presents Come On Jeeves (Tues 24 – Sat 28 June), starring Anita Harris and Victor Spinetti and Steven Berkoff recreates some of Shakespeare’s most memorable rogues and scoundrels in Shakespeare’s Villains (Fri 13 June). There’s also an exciting in-house production called The Summer Set (18 – 25 June), which is a show about living, working and playing in and around Somerset and the South West. Five real local residents bare their souls and share their opinions with the audience in an interactive outdoor performance that will provoke, intrigue and entertain.
For live music fans there’s a celebration of the best in Country Music with Country Legends Solid Gold Show (Thurs15 May); eighties icon Howard Jones presents an acoustic set of old and new works (Sat 17 May); Route 66 offers a musical journey through American country, rock, pop and traditional classics and performers from the Royal Opera and English National Opera perform A Night at the Opera (Fri 23 & Sat 24 May). Our Jazz & Blues programme welcomes amazing 10 piece Cuban band Expresion Cubana (Sun 25 May), The Piccadilly Dance Orchestra with Stompin’ at the Savoy (Sun 29 June) and appearing as part of Westival 2008, jazz legend Courtney Pine (Thurs 24 July), whilst Folk & Roots welcomes Eliza Carthy (Thurs 8 May), the Seckou Keita Quartet with rocking kora rhythms from southern Senegal (Thurs 5 June) and Imbongi, live and direct from Zimbabwe (Wed 23 July).
The Brew Ha Ha! Comedy Club * * welcomes the star of BBC1’s Not Going Out, Tim Vine (Mon 2 June), and two of Britain’s best loved comediennes, Jo Brand (Sat 14 June) and Jenny Eclair (Fri 18 July).
For dance fans we welcome physical theatre company Precarious with Druthers (Fri 9 May), a vibrant combination of multimedia and acrobatics; we welcome back Ballet Central with their Graduate Tour 2008 (Wed 4 June); Anurekha Ghosh & Company present Noor (Thurs 12 June), a fusion of classical indian dance, film and music, and Darren Johnston’s Outré is described as a unique event where music hall meets end of the pier freak show (Wed 21 & Thurs 22 May).
The Brewhouse also welcomes household name Peter Sallis (Tues 27 May) and William Dalyrmple presents The Last Mughal (Wed 11 June) for our Royal Geographical Society lecture.
Exhibitions in The Brewhouse Gallery and Link area include Fiona Hingston’s Field Walking (19 April – 31 May), the Somerset Society of Artists Annual Exhibition 2008 (23 April – 30 May), Young People’s Project Chain Reaction (5 – 13 June) and Core – Essential Part (19 – 28 June), sponsored by Pardoes Solicitors, which showcases the diverse work of graduating students from Somerset College and the University of Plymouth. Also in July, as part of Westival is CHINA NOW (5 July – 2 August), a bold new initiative between The Brewhouse and Hestercombe Gardens, to bring international Chinese contemporary art to Taunton.
Finally, July sees the return of the Westival, the South West’s new arts festival, back for its third year (18 – 27 July). Headlining this year’s festival is NoFit State Circus, who return with their spaceship style big top to Somerset College with their new show Tabú (12 – 26 July). Other highlights include the return of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men with an open air Much Ado About Nothing at Taunton Castle, Drive-in Movie Saturday Night Fever at Priory Bridge Car Park, and George Aligiah, Jenny Eclair, Tashi Lhunpo Monks from Tibet, Imbongi and Courtney Pine at The Brewhouse.
Public Booking opens Tues 4 March, 10am. To book tickets or to request a copy of the new Summer 2008 brochure, please contact The Brewhouse Box Office on 01823 283244. Alternatively, you can click here to download a digital version of the brochure and book tickets online.
For further information about The Brewhouse Summer Season, please contact Katherine Scott, Marketing & Communications Manager.
Ends.
* * PLEASE NOTE MICHAEL MCINTYRE (Mon 12 May) is SOLD OUT.
