by Helen Edmundson

30 May - 8 June 2013

The Clearing is set in Ireland three years after the end of the English Civil War when Cromwell's men are systematically transporting women and children to the colonies and driving both Royalists and Irish families from their homes to the barren wastelands of Connaught – a seventeenth century version of ethnic cleansing.  Against a background of brutality, suffering and deprivation, this powerful drama explores the themes of alienation and the conflict of culture whilst highlighting the essential truth that racial hatred springs from fear. The central characters are an English aristocrat and his Irish-Catholic wife whose passionate and loving relationship is changed irrevocably by the moral dilemmas they must face. The characterisations are rich and memorable and the dialogue is both tense and deeply moving.

by Amy Rosenthal

4 - 13 July 2013

Unmarried sisters in their fifties share a London flat.  Nina is brisk, dynamic and gainfully employed;  Nancy is plump, self conscious and suddenly redundant.  Urged by Nina and their faithful friend Max, to find a hobby, Nancy unwittingly stumbles into a job as a model for a group of eccentric life drawing students, and their philandering teacher, Philip.  Initially horrified to discover that life models pose naked, Nancy is unexpectedly liberated by the experience  which she initially keeps a secret from her sister.  But her new found confidence unsettles Nina's self possession.
This is a very well written, funny and heart-warming play, full of well defined, fun characters.

This production replaces Red Hot & Cole.

by Marc Camoletti (Translated by Beverley Cross and Francis Evans)

12 - 21 September 2013

This is French farce par excellence, at one point holding the record for the most performed French play. It ran for seven years in the West End in the1960s and enjoyed a highly successful revival in 2007-08 in London and on Broadway.  The plot centres around playboy Bernard's crisis  when the three air hostesses he is running as simultaneous fiancées all descend on his Paris apartment at the same time,  just when Robert, his old friend from the provinces, is also visiting. Hilarious chaos ensues as the two men strive with increasing desperation to keep the three girls from meeting.

"An evening of sheer comic pleasure . . ."     Evening Standard

"Fasten your seatbelts for the most deliriously funny flight of your life."    Mail on Sunday