James Dean Is Dead! (Long Live James Dean)
This powerful, no-holds-barred one-man show at the Kings Head Theatre begins as James Dean, one of Hollywood’s hottest ever actors, steps out of his crashed car before looking back on his short, iconic life.
Starring Kit Edwards and directed by Peter Darney, James Dean Is Dead! (Long Live James Dean) is a timely look at how the film industry uses sex, drugs and power to make and break careers. And interestingly, the play’s author, Jackie Skarvellis, passed away in 2016, but Jackie had left money to help fund this production.
Book tickets via the box office on 0207 226 8561 or online at kingsheadtheatre.com
The show will also be at the Edinburgh Festival, C Venues Aquila, from 19 until 29 August.
James Dean Is Dead! (Long Live James Dean) runs from Thursday (26 Jul) until Sunday (29 Jul) at the Kings Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 1QN.
Club Swizzle
Club Swizzle is a brand new show from the multi-award winning creators of La Soirée that takes over the Roundhouse from Tuesday (31 Jul) for its UK and European premiere.
The production encompasses all-new cabaret, air-defying acrobatics and infectious musical revelry, backed by a live band.
Taking place around, across and above a central, functioning bar, the show had its world premiere at Sydney Opera House and has since played to sell-out audiences across Australia.
Special guest host, cabaret wunderkind and Café de Paris regular, Reuben Kaye, welcomes to the stage award-winning burlesque firecracker Laurie Hagen, the impeccable jazz and Big Band triple threat, Dandy Wellington, and the sexy, seductive and infamous aerialist Yammel Rodriguez, with her innovative and show-stopping single-strap performance.
Shaking things up behind and on top of the bar will be The Swizzle Boys, including Ben Lewis and Joren Dawson – acrobatic and charismatic in equal measure. A show not to be missed!
Book tickets via 0300 6789 222 or online at roundhouse.org.uk/clubswizzle
Club Swizzle runs from Tuesday (31 Jul) until 26 August at the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, London, NW1 8EH.
A Little Hero
The White Bear Theatre in Kennington presents the world premiere and three-week run of Russian play A Little Hero from Tuesday 7 August.
Written by Valeriy Pecheykin, a talented young, gay Russian playwright, in January 2014 – and published in Russian in the alternative literary magazine, Mitin Journal – A Little Hero tells the story of 14-year-old Vovochka, who idolises president Putin, and seeks to put the world to rights after learning about homosexuality in school. The play presents the difficult reality of being gay in Putin’s Russia with a literal interpretation of this sentiment – a surreal crematorium disguised as an experimental ‘treatment’ device.
Writer Valeriy told Boyz, “I was ‘inspired’ by the anti-gay law passed in Russia in 2013. After that, attacks on gays from right wing radicals began in Russia. I decided that it is important to fix this moment in the history of my country. Then in Russia, the government began to artificially increase homophobia and justify it ‘in the interests of children’. So I invented a homophobic child named Vovochka, a diminutive name for Vladimir.
“Everywhere in Russia there were such boys. It seems to me that people always need to know exactly how evil develops. It is important to understand the ‘mechanics of evil’ and see how an anecdote can turn into a tragedy. My hero also wants to find a mission, but can not distinguish between good and evil, because adults have lost this difference.”
And although A Little Hero was published in Mitin Journal, because of a 2013 law banning distribution of propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors, the magazine must be sold in a black plastic cover with a note announcing that it contains information unsuitable for persons under 18. For the same reason, the play stands no chance of being staged in Russia in the foreseeable future.
To book tickets, call 0333 012 4963 or visit whitebeartheatre.co.uk
A Little Hero runs from 7 – 25 August at the White Bear Theatre, 138 Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4DJ.
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