The New Diorama Theatre fringe venue in London has announced its new 2024 season.
The season is the first for new Artistic Director and Chief Executive Bec Martin, who started in January 2024, taking over from David Byrne, who has become the new Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre.
First up in the new season is Between the Lines (3 May – 1 June 2024), co-produced with The Big House, a charity who are transforming the lives of care leavers and at-risk young people through the power of performance.
Directed by The Big House’s Artistic Director Maggie Norris and co-written by Grime MC Jammz (Poet in da Corner) and James Meteyard (Electrolyte, Redemption), this play with music examines freedom of expression, the strength of community and the foundations of one of Britain’s most celebrated subcultures of rebel music.
A finalist for the 2024 Women’s Playwriting Prize, King Troll (The Fawn) (4 October – 2 November 2024) is a collaboration between Sonali Bhattacharyya and Milli Bhatia, the award-winning writer/director duo behind works such as Chasing Hares.
In a co-production with Kali Theatre, this dystopian tale about the corrosive impact of state racism and the effect of the UK government’s Hostile Environment policy follows the monster within two migrant sisters. How do we dismantle the master’s house?
The Glorious French Revolution (or: why sometimes it takes a guillotine to get anything done) then runs from 14 November – 14 December 2024.
Award-winning YESYESNONO (we were promised honey!, Five Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist) present the story of the French Revolution, written and directed by Sam Ward.
The show is billed as being “about an angry, hungry peasant girl looking for some bread. It’s a show about rage and violence and taking to the streets. It’s a show with music and dance and other things as well. (It’s not Les Mis). It’s about cutting powerful people’s heads off with a guillotine. It’s about what really happens when you try and change the world. It’s about an insurrection in the past and what they’ve done to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. (It’s really not Les Mis).”
Critically-acclaimed performance duo emma + pj (Ghosts of the Near Future) lead this year’s New Diorama Theatre primary schools touring project with The Shivers.
Also, the Edinburgh Untapped Awards will be announced next week, supporting exceptional companies bringing work to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Artistic Director Bec Martin said in a statement: “This season is about power, what it means to take it, who holds our narratives, how to wrestle them back. Showing tenderness where there hasn’t been any, showing teeth where it’s deserved. In thinking about the theatre landscape there’s something I keep coming back to, it’s the idea of levels. A levelling. At first glance, the season looks like it falls into 3 categories: the main house, the schools show and the Untapped award. We want to dismantle those categories. All the work is of a level: early career artists taken as seriously as industry veterans, schools audiences matter as much as the grown-ups, the fringe is as vital as the centre. New Diorama has historically been a theatre that aimed to level up artists on the fringes, I want to take that energy to new, bigger places. Now it’s not just about levelling up, it’s about levelling the structures above.”
Playwright of King Troll Sonali Bhattacharyya said: “I’m so excited that King Troll (The Fawn), will be part of Bec Martin’s first season at New Diorama Theatre. Her enthusiasm for and commitment to this play – which is, to my knowledge, the first horror comedy about the UK border regime – points to a bold artist-led future for NDT, building on the incredible legacy of this venue.”
YESYESNONO lead artist Sam Ward said: “We’re honoured to be part of Bec’s new season at NDT. This project means a lot to us, and we’re thrilled that it’s happening at this venue, who are willing to take chances on big, exciting ideas.”
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