Today, Cardiff’s pub theatre The Other Room, located in Porter’s and winner of The Stage’s Fringe Theatre of the Year Award, announces its Spring 2017 season, entitled Outliers. The season is The Other Room’s most ambitious to date, and sees the company partnering with Gagglebabble, Theatr Clwyd, Mongrel Thumb and Theatre503 to produce three brand new plays by Lucy Rivers, Hywel John and Titas Halder.
Artistic Director of The Other Room, Kate Wasserberg, said, “Political, incendiary and suspenseful, Outliers is a snapshot of modern Britain seen through the eyes of those who stand outside the mainstream. Continuing our commitment to new writing, Outliers features the world premieres of three new thrillers from the most exciting voices in the UK. This season is outward looking and ambitious, and sees The Other Room collaborating with a range of fantastic companies for the very first time, taking our work UK wide.”
Outliers opens with Sinners Club by Lucy Rivers (Tue 7 – Fri 24 February), a 1950s style music gig which careers through the life, loves and confessions of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. A co-production between The Other Room, Gagglebabble (Wonderman, The Forsythe Sisters, The Bloody Ballad) and Theatr Clwyd, Sinners Club will be directed by Adele Thomas (The Knight of the Burning Pestle, The Bloody Ballad) and promises blood and guts music washed down with a cocktail of stories about lives lost to sin… After the run at The Other Room, Sinners Club will transfer to Theatr Clwyd from Thu 2 – Sat 18 March.
From Tue 14 March – Sat 1 April, The Other Room’s Artistic Director Kate Wasserberg will direct Seanmhair by Hywel John (Pieces – 4 stars in The Guardian, and Rose – 4 stars in The Telegraph, The Times and The Evening Standard). A chance meeting between two children on the streets of Edinburgh leads to a terrible reckoning, leaving Jenny and Tommy forever bound together by blood and fate. Brutal and beautiful, Seanmhair (Scots Gaelic for Grandmother and pronounced ‘Shen-a-var’) glimmers and cuts like a jewel, fusing raw epic romance with guttural urban poetry to tell the story of a secret generational legacy of love, violence and fury.
The final play of the season will be Escape The Scaffold by Titas Halder, a co-production between The Other Room, Mongrel Thumb and Theatre503. Escape The Scaffold will run at The Other Room Wed 19 April – Sat 6 May, following its run at Theatre503 in London (Wed 22 March – Sat 15 April) as part of new Artistic Director Lisa Spirling’s first season. A dark and dangerous psychological thriller set against the background of a rapidly changing world, Escape The Scaffold sees three best friends’ youthful idealism melt into a nightmare world – the basement is filling with water and there is a monster in the house. Writer Titas is an Associate Artist at The Other Room and directed Silence and St. Nicholas in The Other Room’s Insomnia season, and Director Hannah Price is Co-Artistic Director and Founder of Theatre Uncut.
The Outliers season will also include The Other Room’s popular ‘Scratch Sundays’; ‘TOR Presents…’ talk back events and the continuation of the much loved Pay What You Can Previews. Each production in the season will feature a BSL interpreted performance.
Tickets for The Other Room’s Spring 2017 season are available now from www.otherroomtheatre.com. To keep updated on The Other Room, you can also follow the team on Twitter @TORtheatre and Facebook www.facebook.com/otherroomtheatre
Tue 7 – Fri 24 February, 7.30pm – The Other Room, Cardiff
Thu 2 – Sat 18 March, 7.45pm – Theatr Clwyd, Mold
Co-produced by The Other Room, Gagglebabble and Theatr Clwyd
Sinners Club
By Lucy Rivers
Directed by Adele Thomas
Tue 14 March – Sat 1 April, 7.30pm
Produced by The Other Room
Seanmhair
By Hywel John
Directed by Kate Wasserberg
Wed 22 March – Sat 15 April, 7.45pm (Matinees Wed and Sat 3pm) – Theatre503, London
Wed 19 April – Sat 6 May, 7.30pm – The Other Room, Cardiff
Co-produced by The Other Room, Mongrel Thumb and Theatre503
Escape The Scaffold
By Titas Halder
Directed by Hannah Price
The Other Room at Porter’s, Cardiff
Tickets – www.otherroomtheatre.com