“How many white men does it take to change a light bulb?”
Rapture Theatre Presents: CLYBOURNE PARK by Bruce Norris
Rapture Theatre, after its critically acclaimed productions of The Red Lion and A Streetcar Named Desire, makes a welcome return
It’s 1959 and President Eisenhower is in the White House. Bev and Russ are moving after the tragic death of their son, and they have inadvertently sold their house to the neighbourhood’s first black family.
Fifty years later, in 2009, with the first Black President just having taken office, a young white couple buy the same house in what is now a predominantly black neighbourhood.
In both instances, racial tensions escalate, the stakes are raised and the play asks the question: have our attitudes to race really changed?
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize,Tony and Olivier Award for Best Play and hailed as “shockingly entertaining” and “appallingly funny”, Clybourne Park is a razor-sharp satire about the politics of race.
by Patrick Marber
The Red Lion FC is an English non-league side who have dreams of the big time.
However, the club’s manager, Kidd, will stop at nothing to realise his own ambitions of achieving money and fame. So, when a talented young player, Jordan, joins the club and ‘plays like a God’, Kidd sees his golden opportunity. However, kit-man, Yates - club legend and footballing ‘hero’- has other ideas. A ‘Clash of the Titans’ ensues between Yates and Kidd over the future of Jordan and the football club.
Patrick Marber’s hit play unfolds like a Greek Tragedy, transcending ‘the beautiful game’, in a tale of heroism, hubris and handballs!
The Red Lion offers a funny, profound and unmissable night at the theatre. Starring Emmerdale and Brookside star John McArdle, Brendan Charleson and Harry McMullen.
(Age recommendation 14+)
By Harold Pintor
Deborah was a lively sixteen-year-old and part of a close-knit family when she fell victim to a strange condition, a sleeping sickness.
Twenty-nine years later, having been watched over by the same doctor, she awakens and gradually tries to adjust to the world around her.
A Kind of Alaska recently had a successful run in London's West End, with Tasmin Greig and Meera Syal in the starring roles.
Now, Rapture presents an unmissable brand new production of this astonishingly prescient play by one of the twentieth centuries most influential writers.
Rapture presents a scintillating one-act satire penned by the Scottish scribe of Peter Pan and What Every Woman Knows.
Harry Sims is about to receive a knighthood for his services to business and the 'art' of making money.
His dutiful wife has enlisted the services of a typist, to respond to the many letters of congratulations Harry has received.
But Harry is in for a shock, as a 'ghost' from his past is about to visit….
Experience the excitement of live theatre in Rapture's vibrant production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.
Join us for a dazzling trip to the whirlwind world of New Orleans with this sultry and sophisticated new production of a timeless American masterpiece. Fading southern belle, Blanche DuBois, seeks solace with her sister, Stella, after her world starts to crumble. But her downward spiral brings her face-to-face with Stella’s husband, the brutal, unforgiving Stanley Kowalski. As temperatures soar and passions rise, Blanche and Stanley battle for Stella’s soul.
Immortalised in the Oscar-winning film starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, this is a rare opportunity to see this iconic play, thrillingly brought to life by Rapture.
Streetcar follows in the wake of Rapture's popular and critically acclaimed productions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Democracy.
Rapture presents a timeless masterpiece of love and regret and the human capacity for change. The Browning Version is set after the Second World War, at a boys’ public school and on the eve of Greek Classics teacher, Andrew Crocker Harris’, retirement.
Moving, humorous and displaying a profound understanding of the human heart, only those made of steel will be able to sit through this play dry-eyed.
A marathon night of drink, debauchery and duplicity develops after Martha and her husband George invite unsuspecting young couple, Nick and Honey, round for a nightcap. Drink flows, spiked with vicious humour, acerbic wit and tempestuous verbal sparring. However, as night turns to morning, searing secrets are exposed.
Putting the ‘fun’ into dysfunctional, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf wryly exposes the dark attraction in relationships and the bitterest ties that bind us all.
Starring Rose Reynolds, Robin Kingsland and Paul Albertson, with Scottish actress Sara Stewart (The Night Manager, Rebus, Batman Begins, Doctor Foster) leading the cast as Martha. Directed by Michael Emans, design by Frances Collier and Lighting by Mark Doubleday.
Following acclaimed productions of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and Michael Frayn’s Tony award-winning Democracy, Rapture returns with Edward Albee’s thrilling play. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the multi-Oscar winning film (Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor), this is a rare opportunity to experience an iconic American masterpiece.
The most talked about play this season. Unmissable!
West Germany, 1969. Charismatic Willy Brandt has been elected Chancellor. When Brandt ‘dares more democracy’, his own party conspires, plots and tries to destroy him. As his enemies tighten the noose around his neck, Brandt believes the only man he can truly trust is Gunter Guillaume, his devoted personal assistant.
But in the world of political intrigue, espionage and betrayal, is anyone to be trusted? Shakespearean in scale but with all the twists and spins of modern politics, Democracy combines the fascination of a John Le Carre thriller (Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Night Manager) with the dynamism of The West Wing and House of Cards.
Witty, thought provoking and highly entertaining, Democracy is a compelling and unmissable night at the theatre.
Following an acclaimed West End run, Michael Frayn’s award-winning play premieres in Scotland in an exciting new production from Scotland’s leading touring theatre company: Rapture Theatre.
To celebrate the centenary of Arthur Miller, Rapture Theatre is producing one of the legendary writer’s last great plays. Leroy Hamilton, a descendant of one of America’s founding fathers and “The Last Yankee”, lives a modest life as a carpenter and has eschewed the pursuit of the American Dream. This has estranged him from his wife, Patricia, who is in hospital and suffering from depression. Over the course of one day, Leroy and Patricia try to come to terms with Leroy’s choices and Patricia’s ‘illness’, and they take a tentative step towards reconciliation and a brave new future. The Last Yankee reflects Miller’s themes of the devastating consequences for those who fail to achieve the mythical riches of the American Dream. Rapture Theatre is proud that The Last Yankee will be part of the Scottish Mental Health Film and Theatre Festival 2015. Humorous and ultimately uplifting, The Last Yankee is classic Miller that is not to be missed.
To honour the centenary of Arthur Miller's birth, Rapture Theatre, with support from Creative Scotland, will produce, in association with The Beacon in Greenock, an Arthur Miller “Season”. This will consist of two classic Miller plays: All My Sons and The Last Yankee.
Set just after the Second World War in the backyard of Joe and Kate Keller, this gripping and passionate drama ranks as one of the classics of our time. The Kellers try to keep alive the memory of their son Larry, who disappeared in the war, by the planting of a tree in his honour. But Larry’s disappearance is not the only part of the family’s past that they can’t put behind them. Not everybody has forgotten the court case that put Joe’s partner in jail or the cracked engine heads Joe’s factory produced, which caused the deaths of twenty-one pilots.
Following a stormy night when Larry’s tree is blown down, the Kellers are threatened by a series of events that could destroy the very foundations of their lives.
With all the tension of a taut thriller, All My Sons is a powerful drama that crackles with emotion and excitement! See the first classic play, from one of the finest playwrights of the twentieth century, in a great production by Scotland’s leading touring theatre.
