Review: Red Velvet at the Garrick Theatre

Red Velvet
Garrick Theatre
Reviewed on Tuesday 2nd February 2016
★★★★

Having premiered at the Tricycle Theatre in 2012, Lolita Chakrabarti's debut play Red Velvet has arrived in the West End as part of the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company's Plays At The Garrick season.

Tricycle Theatre announces £5.5 million capital development project

Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre Indhu Rubasingham has announced plans for an ambitious £5.5 million capital development project that will see the theatre’s auditorium and front of house spaces transformed, with work scheduled to take place from summer 2016. Arts Council England has contributed £3.1 million to the scheme with a public campaign to raise additional funds set to be announced in due course.

Rubasingham said: “This vital upgrade will help us to secure The Tricycle’s future and enable us to realise our ambitious vision by ensuring our venue is truly accessible and open to all. We are hugely excited about this and are deeply grateful to all those who have contributed to date.”

Tricycle Theatre announces new season

The Tricycle has announced its new season, which is set to open with a month of comedy when Mark Thomas and Sean Hughes return to the theatre with rising talent Shazia Mirza in her Tricycle debut. These performances are complemented by a short run of Ravi and Asha Jain’s A Brimful of Asha, fresh from a world tour.

The centrepiece of the season is the world première of A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes – a new adaptation of Molière’s Tartuffe. This wicked comedy sees artistic director Indhu Rubasingham continue her collaboration with the award-winning American playwright Marcus Gardley following the success of The House That Will Not Stand in 2014.

This Christmas, the team behind the award-winning The 39 Steps bring their production of Ben Hur, based on General Lew Wallace’s timeless classic, to the Tricycle stage. Also at Christmas Tamsin Waley-Cohen returns with her candlelit classical music concerts.

Tricycle Theatre announces new 2015 season

The Tricycle Theatre has announced its new 2015 season.

As well as the previously announced A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts and Happy Birthday Without You, Lover’s Rock Monologues sees Janet Kay, Carroll Thompson and Victor Romero Evans, return to the Tricycle following their successful run in 2012. Lover’s Rock Monologues illustrates the intimate inside story behind this trailblazing cultural phenomenon, interspersed with the music that defined it. Also returning to the Tricycle stage is Nina Conti, with her new show from this year’s Edinburgh Festival, In Your Face.

As the centrepiece of the new season, Indhu Rubasingham (Artistic Director) will direct the world première of John Hollingworth’s Multitudes – this timely play set in Hollingworth’s home town of Bradford examines one family’s conflict of faith and identity set against the backdrop of a nation questioning immigration policies and confronting who gets to call themselves British.