Cap Theatres to re-open!

Apr 9 2021 | By More

Kings and Festival Theatres announce first dates for 16 months.

The King’s theatre has announced its first  live theatre production – to be witnessed live in person with actors performing live on stage – after being dark for 16 months since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

The King’s will stage A Splinter of Ice from Tue 13 to Sat 17 July 2021, albeit with a reduced audience capacity due to two metre social distancing in the 1,300 seat venue.

Before that, however, the Festival Theatre will be opening its doors again to in person audience with the Donmar Warehouse production of immersive sound installation Blindness running from Tue 29 June to Sat 3 July.

The audience during a performance of Blindness. Pic: Helen Maybanks

Blindness, is not your conventional theatre production, but a sound installation that will take place four times daily, playing to 44 people at a time on the stage of the 1,900 seat Festival theatre.

Audiences will listen on headphones as Simon Stephens’ adaptation of José Saramago’s dystopian novel unfolds around them. It is directed by Walter Meierjohann with immersive binaural sound design by Ben and Max Ringham.

This blindness is infectious

When a driver in a car goes blind, suddenly without warning or cause, it soon becomes clear that this is an affliction like no other. This blindness is infectious. The government tries to quarantine the contagion by herding the newly blind people into an empty asylum. But their attempts are futile. The city is in panic.

Juliet Stevenson voices the Storyteller/Doctor’s wife in this gripping story of the rise and, ultimately, profoundly hopeful end of an unimaginable global pandemic.

Oliver Ford Davies and Stephen Boxer. Pic: James Findlay

The Original Theatre Company’s production of Ben Brown’s new political drama A Splinter of Ice at the King’s is conventional theatre: on the stage with scenery and live actors – there in person.

A Splinter of Ice is set in Moscow 1987 as the cold war begins to thaw and Britain’s greatest living novelist Graham Greene meets with his old MI6 boss, Kim Philby, Britain’s greatest spy – and traitor.

Oliver Ford Davies stars as the novelist Graham Greene and Stephen Boxer as his friend Kim Philby. It is directed by Alan Strachan with Alastair Whatley.

Under the watchful eye of Rufa, Russian memoir writer and Kim’s last wife, the two men set about catching up on old times. With a new world order breaking around them how much did the writer of The Third Man know about Philby’s secret life as a spy? Did Philby betray his friend as well as his country? And who is listening-in from the room next door?

nail-biting challenges

Announcing the new productions, Capital Theatres’ Gary Smith said: “We are very excited that after months of nail-biting challenges and waiting we are now on the point of reopening the theatres and welcoming back our audiences.

The Director of Marketing and Communications added: “This moment means so much to the whole team here at Capital Theatres and we have been planning meticulously to ensure that we do it as thoughtfully and as safely as possible.

“Of course, instead of 1,900 people in the Festival Theatre auditorium we will have 44 on stage for this performance and challenges will remain firmly in place around sustaining the operation until we can welcome back full auditoriums, nonetheless it is a landmark that we are delighted to make.”

Listings

Blindness
Festival Theatre 13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000
Tue 29 June – Sat 3 July 2021
Four performances daily: 1pm, 3.15pm, 6.15pm & 8.30pm
Tickets and details: Book here.

A Splinter of Ice
King’s Theatre 2 Leven Street EH3 9LQ. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000
Tue 13 – Sat 17 July 2021.
Evenings: 7.30pm; Matinees Wed & Sat: 2.30pm
Tickets and details: Book here.

ENDS

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