All coming to Riverside

The bill is bring presented by one of GB’s most acclaimed professional touring theatre groups, European Arts, which visited Riverside last year with a bill of one-act comedies by Chekhov. The Pinter double-bill highlights two of the playwright’s most successful plays and they have each been performed all over the world during the last forty years.

The Dumb Waiter is both gripping and simultaneously hilarious – as we see two hired killers preparing to undertake their next hit. The Lover is all about role play between husband and wife. Or are they?

This is followed by Spitfire Solo – a new drama presented by Riverside regular Nick Collett, who has been visiting and performing in Riverside for over 20 years. Nick has just returned from Australia with this play and reaped tremendous reviews from the Australian press and media.

It is June of the new Millennium. For eighty-year old Peter Walker, ex-Battle of Britain pilot, an unexpected new challenge is about to begin. From the comfort of the Silver Birches Retirement Home, he must once again find the resilience, determination and strength to do what must be done. As he re-lives past glories, losses, wartime experiences, family memories and the heady days of blue skies and battles, he searches for the answer to the biggest question so far!

Personal, charming, funny and inventive, Spitfire Solo is one man’s battle for survival, the second time around! Blending theatre, music and film in this multi-layered and textured production, Nicholas Collett plays a multitude of characters and recreates the Battle of Britain - onstage!

And finally, Riverside welcomes an evening of sparkling, professional ballet on the night of Saturday 12 May at 8pm. English-based touring company Ballet Theatre UK will be performing Sleeping Beauty on the theatre’s main stage.

We’d ask you to join Ballet Theatre UK’s internationally acclaimed company of gifted dancers, along with over sixty handcrafted costumes and three glittering stage sets. This spectacular production uses Tchaikovsky’s glorious music and stunning classical choreography to reawaken the magic of the world’s favorite fairy tale in an enchanted world of castles, curses, forests and fairies.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, Princess Aurora lived in an enchanted castle where fairies bestowed her with the magical gifts of beauty, temperament, purity, joy and generosity.

The wicked Fairy Carabosse places a curse on Aurora; to prick her finger on a spinning wheel on her 16th birthday... and die! The beautiful and kind Lilac Fairy casts a spell to counter the curse so that instead of dying Aurora fell asleep for a hundred years. Only the touch of true love’s kiss could awaken her and undo the evil spell…

Tickets for all Riverside’s current productions are available 24/7 from the theatre’s website: www.riversidetheatre.org.uk Telephone bookings can also be made during selected days and times on 02870 123 123.