New Diorama Theatre announces New Season

The New Diorama Theatre, a fringe venue near Warren Street, central London, has announced its new season to 11 May 2013!

4 to 22 Sep 2012
Mary Stuart by Schiller, in a new version by Daniel Millar & Mark Leipacher. Presented by The Faction Theatre Company. A political prisoner is accused of religious extremism, incitement of war and masterminding assassination. She has been retrospectively charged with a law that was invented specifically for her. She has been denied access to witnesses and found guilty by a jury - but not a jury of her peers. That would be impossible; her only peer is Queen Elizabeth I. This presents Elizabeth with a terrifying dilemma: to reign in fear for the rest of her life or to have her cousin and fellow queen executed.

25 Sep to 13 Oct 2012
The Woyzeck by Buchner. Translated and adapted by Sebastian Rex. Presented by Acting Like Mad, directed by Sebastian Rex. The Woyzeck only wants to live his life and support his lover and their child. But society has other ideas for him.

16 to 20 Oct 2012
Stacey by Jack Thorne. Presented by All The Pigs, directed by Sam Miller. So before you judge him, as you inevitably will, Rob invites you to hear his side of the story, as he probably won't get many more chances to tell it. It's confusing in a world of unwritten rules, and when there's no-one around to tell you right from wrong, you just have to guess.

23 Oct to 3 Nov 2012
Bunnies a dark comedy by Kieran Lynn. Presented by Bike Shed Theatre, directed by David Lockwood. Concerning a farmer's radical attempt to restore his land to its supposed former glory, and the differing reactions of his children: Or Bunnies (for short).

6 to 10 Nov 2012
The Asphalt Kiss by Nelson Rodrigues. Presented by StoneCrabs, directed by Franko Figueiredo. As a pedestrian hit by a bus lies dying on a Rio street, a passer-by, Arandir, stops to cradle him in his arms. He kisses him on the lips - a last request from the dying man as a parting gesture of human solidarity. The scene is witnessed by an unscrupulous reporter who turns the compassionate act into salacious front-page news. Tabloid journalism spins into overdrive, and Arandir's life is torn apart as his friends and family slowly turn against him.

13 Nov to 1 Dec 2012
One Hour Eighteen Minutes by Elena Gremina. Presented by Sputnik, directed by Noah Birksted-Breen. A few years ago, a team of Russian lawyers discovered evidence of corruption by the Russian government - proving the theft of £145m of public money. Understanding the risk to their lives, the lawyers took asylum abroad. Except for one of them. 37-year old Sergei Magnitsky stayed in Moscow to testify against the Russian government. But before he could do so, Magnitsky was arrested and held without charge. A year later, he was dead.

4 to 22 Dec 2012
Mysteries: Creation/Passion/Eternity (In repertoire) by Secret/Heart. Directed by Seb Harcombe. From the enigmatic birth of the world and the struggles of the first generations of human beings in Creation; to the hope and possibility that spring from the suffering of Jesus in Passion; to Eternity, which ties up all loose ends, leads us to the very threshold of death and gives an intimation of something beyond.

5 Jan to 23 Feb 2013 (In repertoire)
Fiesco by Schiller. In a new version by Daniel Millar and Mark Leipacher. Presented by The Faction Theatre Company, directed by Mark Leipacher. A tyrant has had a grip on Genoa for decades. A Republican conspiracy attempts to overthrow him. To be successful they need to convert a playboy count to their cause. The danger is that if Fiesco abandons his hedonistic lifestyle, he will see himself as the ideal candidate for power.

11 Jan to 23 Feb 2013 (In repertoire)
Three Sisters by Chekhov. In a new version by Ranjit Bolt. Presented by The Faction Theatre Company, directed by Mark Leipacher. In a backwater town in rural Russia, the Prozorov sisters contend with mind-numbing boredom by aspiring to a return to city life in Moscow.

29 Jan to 23 Feb 2013 (In repertoire)
Blood Wedding By Lorca. In a new version by Gareth Jandrell. Presented by The Faction Theatre Company, directed by Rachel Valentine Smit. Set against the backdrop of rural Andalusia, the community spirit has been overshad- owed by ongoing family feuds and violence. As desire takes hold of the Bride and her ex lover, vengeance must be sought and the world gets darker still...

26 Feb to 2 Mar 2013
A Strange Wild Song by Rhum and Clay. Starring Christopher Harrisson, Julian Spooner, Matthew Wells & Daniel Wilcox. Left a single roll of film after his grandfather's death, a man searches for meaning through the photographs inside. He discovers a surreal world of childhood and memory, where fragments of a half- remembered war explode into the present day calm.

12 to 16 Mar 2013
Dissolve text by Amy Lewis & Steve Spicer, inspired by true stories Presented by Awkward City. Starring Carla Lewis. One-woman show that explores the interplay between memory and identity. What happens when, without warning, your brain suddenly switches 'offline'? You look in a mirror and see a face. You look down and see a body. You speak and hear a voice. But who are you? Olivia has spent her career mapping the heavens but when her memories suddenly abandon her she has to redraw the map of her own life in the hope of finding herself somewhere in the middle.

19 to 23 Mar 2013
Rut / The Vacant (Double Bill) by Night Light Theatre. Part of The (Kindling) Project. Directed by Rich Rusk / Grace Williams & Philippa Hogg. RUT: The story of two theatre makers who undertook a year long period of competition with each other out in the real world. Applying for the same jobs, joining the same dating websites, entering cooking contests etc. Once they even walked the streets with placards reading 'who do you think is nicer, me or him?'to find out where they stood.
THE VACANT: Features two young women grappling with tantalisingly humungous ideas. Investigating the beautiful possibility of an afterlife, the true meaning of paradise and the mind boggling vastness of space.

26 to 30 Mar 2013
Certain Dark Things by You Need Me Theatre Company. Directed by Emily Watson Howes. A claustrophobic exploration of an illicit sexual relationship under Franco's religious dictatorship of the 1950s. The story of a young Basque boy and his sexual awakening under a brutally repressive regime.

2 to 6 April 2013
Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki, Dramaturg by Polly Boon. Presented by Whole Hog Theatre, directed by Alexandra Rutter. Young warrior Ashitaka is a marked man. Cursed by a demon god whilst defending his village, he must leave his home forever to seek a cure. In the forbidding forests to the west, he is forced to reconcile the warring human forces and the animal deities of times past. In the midst of this bitter and bloody conflict, he meets the wolf god Moro and her human child San: Princess Mononoke. (Using giant puppets made from recycled materials, visceral, physical storytelling and original live music. Puppet Master Charlie Hoare)

16 April to 11 May 2013
The Universal Machine a new musical written by David Byrne, music by Dominic Brennan. Presented Pit Theatre Company, directed by David Byrne.
It's 1927. Young Alan Turing is at school developing the work of Einstein and Newton while doing anything to get out of PE.
It's 1942. Newly engaged Alan Turing has done the impossible and broken the Nazi Naval Enigma Machine and secured the Battle of the Atlantic for the Allied Foreces.
It's 1954. After being arrested for homosexuality and chemically castrated, Alan Turing is found dead at his home next to a half-eaten apple laced with cyanide.