Soho Theatre announces packed summer season of political shows

Soho Theatre has announced a brand new summer season, featuring international political performances.

Steve Marmion, Artistic Director of Soho Theatre said: “I'm thrilled to announce our summer of international political performances, with a Soho twist. We are working across different languages, with new work referencing events across the globe and history, shining a light on our here and now. There is a lot of theatre and performance to take in, and we hope we have found a way of offering entertaining, genre-defying work that can provoke deep thought and has real political resonance”

First up is Soho Theatre’s international production of Address Unknown. How strong are the bonds of friendship when your world is overturned? A successful art dealer returns to his native Germany, keeping a correspondence with his close Jewish friend back in America. Against a backdrop of austerity, recession and rising nationalism, their former allegiances become distorted beyond recognition. 

Kathrine Kressmann Taylor’s classic pre-war text is brought to life in a powerful new production directed by Steve Marmion. Written as an anti-Fascist call to arms, Address Unknown was banned in 30s Germany for dramatically exposing the threat of Nazism. It became an international literary sensation and social phenomenon. Today it is a timely warning of how humanity can fail in the face of extreme ideology.

Address Unknown will be performed in French and English, the French production will star theatre and film legends Christian Clavier (Napoléon, Les Visiteurs, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre), and Thierry Lhermitte (An American Werewolf in Paris, Les Papas du dimanche, Le noir (te)vous va si bien).

Soho Theatre is proud to present this unique theatrical event in partnership with Institut français, JW3, the Jewish Community Centre London. Thanks also to generous funding from the Mohamed S. Farsi Foundation 1,000 tickets have been made available to under 26s for just £10.

As the French cast leaves us the Belgians arrive with Valentijn Dhaenens’ acclaimedBigmouth. The one-man multi-lingual show blew audiences away in Edinburgh. Proving the spoken word can be as dangerous as the written; Bigmouth examines 2,500 years of oratory from Socrates to Osama bin Laden. Performing fragments of famous and lesser known speeches to show how the tricks of the rhetorical trade have hardly changed over time.

After the rhetoric comes the silence as Soho’s own Doctor Brown returns for a four-week run of Befrdfgth. The voice of diverse new playwrights come to the fore in Soho Upstairs with Glory Dazed written with ex servicemen prisoners, Irish Theatre Award Nominee The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle, and in a nearby courtroom above a restaurant there is Kali Theatre's tale of a young Muslim barrister, My Daughter’s Trial.

The man who helped make stand-up comedy the political force it has become – Alexei Sayle returns to Soho Downstairs. Chief political correspondent for The Independent, Steve Richards takes you on a hilarious behind the scenes tour of the great political dramas of our time.

And Soho Theatre continue their reputation of showcasing the best new international voices with Eddie Pepitone making his London debut with Electrified, German sensationMichael Mittermeier, Francesca Martinez asks us What the **** is Normal?! and Australia’s finest comic Wil Anderson returns to Soho Theatre. All distinctive voices ready to offer their sideways look at our world.

Please visit www.sohotheatre.com

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