SCARY BIKERS, starring the BAFTA Award-winning duo of John Godber and Jane Thornton, makes its London debut in April 2019 at the famous Trafalgar Studios on Whitehall. Produced by The John Godber Company and Theatre Royal Wakefield, and written and directed by Godber, SCARY BIKERS is a new comedy that was commissioned by Sky Arts in 2018 as part of their ART 50 project which explored the idea of what it is to be British in a post-Brexit world. When retired miner Don (Godber) and former … [Read more...]
Trafalgar Studios London Reviews & News - Book Tickets Online
Trafalgar Studios
Venue and Travel Information
Nearest Tube: Charing Cross
Tube Lines: Bakerloo, Northern
Directions from nearest tube: Turn left on the main road Strand. Follow Trafalgar Square around onto Whitehall and the theatre’s on your right.
Railway Station: Charing Cross
Within Congestion Zone: Yes
Venue Facilities: Air conditioned, Bar, Infrared hearing loop, Toilets
Trafalgar Studios London: Formerly the Whitehall Theatre, Trafalgar Studios is now two modern theatre studios in one building close to Trafalgar Square in the West End. Architects Tim Foster and John Muir have created two new intimate and dynamic theatre studios that has injected vibrancy and excitement into the venue. The Trafalgar Studios opened with the RSC’s production of Othello, which was followed by the Watermill Theatre’s acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd.
The Whitehall theatre originally opened in 1930 with a transfer of The Way to Treat a Woman by Walter Hackett (who was also the theatre’s licensee). He presented several more very successful plays of his own until leaving in 1934. The theatre continued to build its reputation for popular modern comedies throughout the 1930s and is today at the forefront of West End theatre.
During the war this tried and tested formula was rejected in favour of revue shows, which were very popular elsewhere in the West End. In 1942 The Whitehall Follies was launched, featuring a non-stop performance by Phyllis Dixey, and audiences flocked in, mostly due to the fact that the celebrated Miss Dixey was the first stripper in the West End! In the 1980s under Ian B Albery, there was extensive refurbishment to match the new regime of high-quality theatre. Many of the building’s unique art deco features were retained, and the Whitehall reopened with a successful revival of J B Priestley’s When We are Married.
Highlights of the late eighties and early nineties include Run for Your Wife, Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular and A Tribute to the Blues Brothers. Other popular productions include Cooking With Elvis starring Frank Skinner, Only the Lonely, Trainspotting and John Godber’s Bouncers. The theatre has also played host to radio and television shows and live theatre running concurrently.
Black is the Color of my Voice and Soul Sessions at Trafalgar Studios
Black is the Color of My Voice is ‘inspired by the life of Nina Simone’, which isn’t quite the same as being a biographically accurate representation of Nina Simone’s life. That said, it’s not quite the life of ‘Mena Bordeaux’ (Apphia Campbell) instead of the life of Simone; there are many similarities between the two, but the separate and distinct Mena character allows for some creative freedom. More than that, it also removes from the equation any sort of analysis with regards to how accurate … [Read more...]
Kevin Elyot’s Coming Clean at Trafalgar Studios | Review
It’s always good to see a production transfer from the fringe into the West End, so I was really pleased to be invited along to review Kevin Elyot’s Coming Clean which following a successful revival at the King’s Head Theatre in July 2017, has now opened at the Trafalgar Studios. Tony (Lee Knight) and Greg (Stanton Plummer-Cambridge) have been together for five years and seem to be happy in their relationship. Although they are a couple, they are open, which leaves Tony free to hit the discos … [Read more...]
Alex Kingston stars in Admissions at Trafalgar Studios
Alex Kingston (ER, Doctor Who) stars in this award-winning and bitingly funny new comedy from the writer of acclaimed hit Bad Jews, direct from New York's Lincoln Centre Theater, the producers of Oslo. Following its hugely successful run at LCT, Admissions will open at London’s Trafalgar Studios on 28 February (Press Night 12 March) for a strictly limited season until 25 May, before embarking on a UK tour. The production will be directed by Daniel Aukin, further casting will be announced … [Read more...]
Nine Night by Natasha Gordon at Trafalgar Studios | Review
The whole show is set in the kitchen of a London home, although some scene changes still take a little time, as there are props that need shifting. Audiences at Nine Night do not see the funeral of Lorraine’s (Natasha Gordon) mother Gloria: just as well, as someone with Caribbean roots said to me afterwards, as the play runs without an interval. (I’ve been to one such funeral before – it was fairly elaborate and went on for hours with all the various tributes, hymns, songs and speeches. They … [Read more...]
Review: Misty at Trafalgar Studios, London
There’s a lovely preface in the Misty programme that explores the concept of what some people would call a ‘black play’, before deconstructing such a notion: after all, a play is a play is a play. In the show proper, there’s a subplot about Arinzé Kene’s battles with getting his play finished – in the writing process, “apparently” (his choice of word, not mine) there were too many people saying he ought to do X or Y, when all he wanted to do was – well, tell a story, a series of events that … [Read more...]
Dust by Milly Thomas at Trafalgar Studios | Review
It’s tough to know where to start writing about Dust, a play expertly written and performed by Milly Thomas. The subject matter is macabre; Milly plays Alice, a young woman who has taken her own life and from the vantage point of the afterlife, observes those she’s left behind. On one level, suicide can seem like a topic that has been explored infinite times before. But Dust is no mere tracing of old ground. Thomas has created a play that will hit you hard in the gut and leave you reeling. Death … [Read more...]