Women & Theatre: Revival
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Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Women & Theatre present Revival, a series of rehearsed readings of key productions from its archive.
Developed from research and buzzing with the energy of real-life experiences, these readings will entertain and provide snapshots of issues, experiences, and viewpoints at specific points over the past 40 years.
Women and Theatre have the knack of conveying an urgent social message…You’d think all this would be terribly grim… but there’s a good deal of hilarity.”
The Guardian
Revival brings back to life deep work about things that have mattered and matter still.
Each performance will reflect work from a different decade and be accompanied by a discussion facilitated by Women & Theatre’s Artistic Director Janice Connolly BEM.
Women and Theatre are never ones to shy away from the grit that makes up our real lives.”
Weekend Notes
Price
From £12
Presented by
Women & Theatre
Content Advice
Please note, these plays contain discussions of some sensitive content. Please click here for further content guidance.
Running times
Thu 8pm – Revive the 1980s – Putting It About
2 hours 15 mins (including interval and discussion)
Fri 8pm – Revive the 1990s – Double Bill
2 hours 20mins (including interval and discussion)
Sat 3pm – Revive the 2000’s – The Bad One
2 hours 40mis (including interval and discussion)
Sat 8pm – Revive the 2010’s – Phyllis
2 hours (including interval and discussion)
Fees and Charges
Please note there is a transaction fee of £2.50 on all payment types.
Thu 8pm - Revive the 1980s – Putting It About
Set in an imagined high security NHS hotel, Putting It About explores the impact of HIV on women. Putting It About captures the apocalyptic horror of the 1980s’ perceptions of the pandemic.
Written in the 80s and set in the 90s, a group of women find themselves quarantined by a faceless government.
Fri 8pm - Revive the 1990s – Double Bill
A humorous and touching double bill of theatre about women’s health and the value of talking.
Christine Goes to the Doctor
This play and it’s in role discussion ran for years across women’s group in Birmingham and surrounding areas it looks at communication between women and GPs (you could see one in those days).
Touchwood
Sheila is 52, a factory worker, wife and mother who is overworked with no time for herself. She gets an appointment to attend the mobile breast screening unit…..Will she go? Brenda, Noreen, Pauline her hairdresser, and the girl in the Wonderbra advert help her make up her mind!
Sat 3pm - Revive the 2000’s – The Bad One
Combining fairytale and folklore and inspired by ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, The Bad One is a chilling gothic fable that explores the impact of suppressing natural desires and extreme emotions.
Presenting the intriguing story of Jackie – a poor, lonely orphan who lived with her grandmother on the edge of town, The Bad One promises to keep audiences gripped as it magically unfolds into a cautionary tale of unrequited life…
Sat 8pm - Revive the 2010’s – Phyllis
Phyllis is a thought-provoking theatre production that tells the story of one woman and her family’s attempt to navigate the complex system of older people’s care. Phyllis, 80, was managing at home with the help of her family. On one of her daily trips to the shops, she falls and ends up in hospital. We see Phyllis’ decline and her family’s struggle to navigate health and social care systems.
Cast
Janice Connolly
Janice Connolly BEM is a founder member of Women & Theatre and has been Artistic Director for over 20 years. She has written, directed and performed in many projects for the company. Janice is a trained teacher and has worked both in mainstream education and as an education project worker for Barnardos. In 2017 Janice was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Community Arts in the West Midlands.
She is also a successful performer in her own right and has featured in series such as Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights (Channel 4), Dead Man Weds (ITV), Thin Ice (BBC) So Awkward (CBBC), Man Like Mobeen (BBC) Doctors (BBC) as well as appearing twice in Coronation Street. Her theatre roles include Glitterball (Rifco Theatre Company), A Taste of Honey (New Vic Theatre, Stoke) and Tartuffe and Anita & Me (The Rep, Birmingham). Her alter-ego, Mrs. Barbara Nice is a well-loved comedy circuit headliner as well as a Birmingham Icon.
Adaya Henry
Adaya Henry
Vicky Pritchard
Vicky Pritchard
Alison Belbin
Alison graduated with a BA Hons in Drama & Theatre Arts from Birmingham University in 1983.
She has worked in theatre and non-theatre contexts as a performer, deviser/writer, director over the last 40 years. Companies include Birmingham Rep, Women & Theatre, Sante, Hearth, Foursight, Red Ladder, Moving Hands, Theatre Centre, Moby Duck, Pentabus, Big Brum, Bold Text, The Playhouse, Other Way Works, Tea and Tenacity, Something and Nothing and Cheltenham Everyman. As a workshop leader she has worked in schools, residential and community settings, mental health settings and probation.
TV experience includes Maggie in ‘Doctors’ (BBC), ‘The Cure’ (Channel 4) and ‘Switch’ (BBC). She has been in many radio plays and won a Norman Beaton Fellowship in 2016 leading to a 6 month contract with BBC’s Radio Drama Company where her credits included Mrs Morland in ‘Northanger Abbey’ and Dolly in ’Clare in the Community’. She plays Beverley Hanson in ‘The Archers’.
Jacoba Williams
Jacoba Williams
Laurence Saunders
Laurence Saunders
Alison Carney
Alison Carney
Julie Baker
Julie Baker
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