We Anchor In Hope
by Anna Jordan
At The Bunker 25 September to 19 October 2019

Director Chris Sonnex

Set and Costume Designer Zoe Hurwitz
Lighting Designer Jess Bernberg
Sound Designer Emily Legg
Movement Director Louise Kempton
Assistant Director Rosemary Maltezos
Stage Manager Crystal Gayle
Production Manager Zara Janmohamed

Cast
Valentine Hanson
Alex Jarrett
Daniel Kendrick
David Killick
Alan Turkington

“This is a locals pub. And what’s the problem with locals? They die.”
“Inconsiderate bastards.”

All over London public houses become private flats. Tomorrow The Anchor closes for good. It’s the end of an era, but Kenny and the gang are going out with a bang. There’s a blow-up sheep, karaoke and a lot of Campari. There’s secrets and grudges and forgotten dreams. As the front doors are locked and the bar is drunk dry, there’s a lot more to lose than just a pub.

Kindly supported by The Carne Trust and the Arts Council

Tickets: https://www.bunkertheatre.com/whats-on/we-anchor-in-hope/book-now

BOX CLEVER

by Monsay Whitney

Director Stef O’Driscoll

Cast Redd Lily Roche

and

KILLYMUCK

by Kat Woods

Director Caitriona Shoobridge

Cast Aoife Lennon 

Designer Minglu Wang

Sound designer Benjamin Grant

Lighting designer Joe Price

Associate Lighting Designer Gareth Weaver

Movement Director Louise Kempton

Puppetry Consultant Hattie Thomas

Vocal Coach Josh Hunter

Production Manager Zara Janmohamed

Stage Manager Micaëla Corcoran

Rehearsal and production photography Craig Sugden

At The Bunker Theatre 26 March - 13 April 2019

We are not all born equal. If you're born into a benefits or working class family, you have less, less money, less support, less respect and more poignantly, less opportunity. These two plays explore the politcial cause and effect of what being born with less means. Killymuck gives an insight into how growing up on a council estate effects the present and informs the future. Boxclever confronts us with the repercussions of systemic failure in politics to care about the benefits and working class from the offset. Written with humour, care and urgency, this double bill of one woman shows put the female benefits and working class voices front and centre. 

KILLYMUCK

Written By Kat Woods

Directed by Caitriona Shoobridge

Inspired by real events, Killymuck is a housing estate built on a paupers graveyard in 1970s Ireland. Niamh navigates life through the parameters of growing up, with the trials and tribulations of being a kid from the benefit class system. Lack of opportunity, educational barriers, impoverishment, addiction and depression are the norms as the struggle to escape the underclass stereotype becomes a priority. From school trips organised as cross-community excursions to unite a fractured post troubles town, to finding the humour within an estate crippled with misfortune.

BOX CLEVER

Written by Monsay Whitney

Directed by Stef O’Driscoll. 

“Ever get the feeling you’re going round in one big circle? Ten years. Back and forth between a trio of arseholes and nothing to show for it except a baby, an Argos ring and a busted nose. At the refuge they call that a pattern.”

Moving, truthful and darkly comic, Box Clever is about about one woman’s experience of a refuge and a Mother’s commitment to do the best for her daughter.

The production is kindly supported by the Arts Council and the Carne Trust

★★★★★ A Younger Theatre

Performance and direction bring to life the already impressive words of Woods and Whitney. Both actors skilfully and deftly embody a whole host of different characters, invoking many laugh-out-loud moments amidst some very difficult material.

★★★★★ From Page to Stage

With confident, faultless performances from the two actresses, Box Clever and Killymuck are essential and painfully realistic plays that must be seen, and are sure to stay with you for a long, long time.

★★★★★ Plays to See

★★★★ The Upcoming

★★★★ London City Nights

★★★★ Paul in London 

★★★ Everything Theatre 

The Political History of Smack and Crack

by Ed Edwards

A co-production between Most Wanted and Offstage Theatre in association with W14 Productions and Alastair Michael, co-commissioned by Soho Theatre.

3 – 26 August 2018 at 5.30pm, Paines Plough's Roundabout @ Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival

4 – 22 September 2018, Soho Theatre in London

1 - 17 November 2018, The Mustard Tree refuge in Manchester

We also worked with Synergy Theatre Project

Director                         Cressida Brown

Lighting Designer          Richard Williamson

Sound Designer            Jon McLeod

Movement Director        Kate Sagovsky

Costume Consultant         Esteniah Williams

Cast

Neil Bell

Eve Steele

“The history of England jumps off its axis. 2am, 8th July, 1981, every major city in England burn."

The night of the Manchester uprising. That night changed everything.  That night two kids locked eyes. Mandy and Neil. Years later they meet again, but revolution is not in the air. All that was crushed by Thatcher.  Or by a heroin epidemic. This is an epic love song to a lost generation.

Drawing from his own personal experience, Ed Edwards' script crackles with anger, humour and authenticity about the road to recovery.

★★★★★ The Stage ‘There's maybe nothing better at the whole festival– than Ed Edwards’ The Political History of Smack and Crack, a riotously entertaining and deeply moving drama-cum-documentary exploring the history of heroin use in Manchester.’

★★★★★ The 730 Review ‘The simplicity and passion of the story-telling left me inspired; it relied on nothing more than a well-written script, a good heart and beautiful performances.’

★★★★★ Backstage on the Fringe

★★★★★ Morning Star

★★★★ The Guardian

★★★★ The Scotsman ‘As a love story it’s unexpectedly tender; as a social history its shockingly dark; as a piece of theatre it’s excellent’

★★★★ Financial Times

★★★★ Whats On Stage

★★★★ The Independent 

★★★★ The List 

★★★★ The Upcoming

★★★★ Spy in the Stalls

★★★★ Edinburgh Festivals Magazine 

★★★★ Fest Magazine

★★★★ British theatre.com

Off West End Nominations for Best Play and Director

Thank you to our funders :

The Fidelio Charitable Trust

The Unity Trust

Arts Council England

31 Hours

by Kieran Knowles

3 October - 28 October 2017 at the Bunker Theatre

Director Abigail Graham

Designer Andrew D Edwards

Lighting Designer Sally Ferguson

Sound Designer Adrienne Quartly

Cast

Salvatore D’Aquila

Abdul Salis

Jack Sunderland

James Wallwork

"100 years ago the biggest killer of young men was war, now they kill themselves."

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK.

Every 31 hours someone takes their own life by jumping in front of a train.

They are ten times more likely to be a man.

'Man. Up.  Man - Up.

Literally, what do you mean?

Is this how I walk as a man, or stand? Or do I do it like this?

Please fucking tell me what that instruction means!'

31 Hours is the story of four men who clean up the aftermath of rail suicides. Filled with humour and humanity, it takes us on a high-speed kaleidoscope journey through masculinity, mental health and  messy aftermaths in modern Britain. 

★★★★★ LondonTheatre1 "intriguing and informative"

★★★★★ ActDrop "Flawlessly performed"

★★★★★ LoveLondonCulture "immensely important play"

★★★★★ Pocket Size Theatre "explosive" "thrilling"

★★★★★ The Tung "quietly shattering"

★★★★★ Stage Reviews "darkly witty and haunting story" "outstanding performances"

★★★★ TheatreWeekly "incredibly powerful and urgent"

★★★★ Everything Theatre "a surprisingly thoughtful play"

Kieran Knowles  Offie Nomination for Most Promising New Playwright

Kindly supported by the Carne Trust and Arco

In support of the Campaign Against Living Miserably CALM

Jam
by Matt Parvin
23 May - 17 June 2017  at the Finborough Theatre

Director Tommo Fowler

Designer Emma Bailey 

Lighting Designer Peter Harrison

Sound Designer and Composer Alexandra Faye Braithwaite

Movement and Fight Director Ailin Conant

Second Fight Director Yarit Dor

Photography Mathew Foster

Cast

Jasmine Hyde

Harry Melling

Ten years ago, Bella Soroush’s life was ruined by one of her pupils – Kane McCarthy. She has gradually rebuilt things – new school, new town, new friends – and finally feels at home in the depths of the countryside.

Now Kane is back in her classroom, armed with relics of the past and claiming to want forgiveness. 

As the truths they've clung to begin to collapse, teacher and pupil are forced to confront their prejudices and the shared history that has bound them together.

Set over a single evening, Jam is a relentless, incendiary new drama that interrogates social fault-lines in Britain today, and the tension between truth and justice.

The Brink
by Brad Birch
7-30 April 2016 at the Orange Tree

History teacher Nick is on the edge.

A hidden secret lies under the Brink. Nick can’t get it out of his mind. A series of visions force Nick to investigate what lies beneath. Nick’s girlfriend doesn’t understand. Neither do his fellow teachers. Frustrated, he confides in a Year 10 student but can she be expected to have all the answers.

A co-production between the Orange Tree Theatre, W14 Productions and Theatre Bench, in association with the National Theatre Studio: The J.P. Morgan Award for Emerging Directors production

Director Mel Hillyard
Designer Hyemi Shin
Lighting Designer Lizzie Powell
Sound Designer and Composer Tom Gibbons
Movement Director Carolina Valdés

Photographer Helen Warner

Cast

Alice Haig
Vince Leigh
Shvorne Marks
Ciarán Owens

Reviews

★★★★ "Playwright Brad Birch has just been announced as the recipient of the Harold Pinter Commission to write a play for the Royal Court, and The Brink – given a wonderfully jittery, skittery production by Mel Hillyard to match the text – shows exactly why. It has a distinctive ping, like an alarm clock on the blink. It’s very funny, too... a short, sharp, shockingly entertaining play that dances along the tightrope between reality and unreality."
Lyn Gardner, Guardian

★★★★ "a taut psychological thriller and a searingly astute parable about life in Generation Y... Birch’s script is howl-inducingly funny" 
Lucinda Everett, The Telegraph

★★★★ "Brad Birch remorselessly skewers the inertia of a man struggling with his role as a teacher while failing to grow up. But while the jokes come thick and fast, The Brink also dissects its protagonist with precision and refuses to provide easy answers... a knotty but entertaining mix of stylised staging and naturalistic writing."
Lauren Mooney, The Stage

★★★★ "Mel Hillyard, the recipient of the 2015 JP Morgan Emerging Director Award, deftly translates Birch’s offbeat poeticism"
Marianka Swain, The Arts Desk

★★★★"Mel Hillyard’s pacy and uncluttered in-the-round production catches the tone of Birch’s writing perfectly and snappy well-timed delivery of his sharp dialogue brings an abundance of laughs, The Brink is a little gem, the lightness of the comedy on its surface contrasting beautifully with the darkness of its underlying themes."
Stephen Bates, Reviews Hub

★★★★"Birch’s script is unsettlingly authentic and is packed to the brim with humour, even in the darkest moments.." "a must-see"
Lily Hayes, A Younger Theatre

The Late Henry Moss
by Sam Shepard
2-26 September 2015 at Southwark Playhouse

Two brothers, Earl and Ray, return to their home town in Bernalillo New Mexico upon the mysterious death of their estranged father, Henry. Over a bottle of bourbon and a box of old photographs, they try to reconcile their very different childhood memories.  Earl's version of Henry's death doesn't add up; so Ray determines to find the truth.  As Ray plays detective we encounter Henry's bizarre collection of friends as the story of his last days is uncovered.  Family tensions are blown apart as Ray discovers more than he’d bargained for…

Director Mel Hillyard
Designer Cecilia Carey
Lighting Designer Christopher Nairne
Composer and Sound Designer Keir Vine
Movement Director Lucie Pankhurst
Fight Director Terry King
Dialect Coach Kara Tsiaperas
Associate Designer Patti Porteous
Rehearsal Photographer Jack Sain
Production Photographer Mathew Foster

Cast

Joseph Arkley
Harry Ditson
Joe Evans
Chris Jared
Jack Sandle
Carolina Valdés 

★★★★★ "Mel Hillyard’s directing gets the tempo just right and Cecilia Carey’s simple design adds to the atmosphere of decay that slowly destroys the characters, creating an unbearable feeling of suffocation and a need for catharsis"
The London Box Office

★★★★★ "Hillyard’s direction is wonderfully subtle" "a masterpiece in human behaviour, and a must see for any theatregoer"
London Theatre 1

★★★★ "Uncertainty as to what to expect next gives it a natural tension that is harnessed beautifully in director Mel Hillyard’s powerful production." The Public Reviews

Off West End Award nomination for Cecilia Carey Best Design

Upper Cut
by Juliet Gilkes Romero
14 January to 7 February 2015 at Southwark Playhouse

Shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Audience Award 2015

"Seventy percent of my constituents are white, Karen. I have to be a politician, who 'happens' to be black. Not a black man who 'happens' to be a politician."

Karen loves politics.  Karen’s a rising star but on the eve of a general election she risks her career and reputation in a bitter and contentious fight over whether to allow short lists for black Parliamentary candidates.
 
Deselected by her Party,  and betrayed by the men she loves, Karen must embark on a relentless road to power and political redemption. 
 

Director Lotte Wakeham
Designer Rachel Stone
Lighting Designer Derek Anderson
Composer and Sound Designer Andy Graham
Rehearsal Photographer Jack Sain
Production Photographer Robert Workman

Cast

Emma Dennis-Edwards
Akemnji Ndifornyen
Andrew Scarborough 

★★★★"The dialogue is snappy, lucid and forceful throughout."
Plays to See

"A resonant production"
The Stage

"an entertaining and lively play"
A Younger Theatre

"Don’t miss this incisive and intelligent new play, which gives a voice to the voiceless."
Culture Whisper