ARTISTIC NEWS ROUND UP FOR FEBRUARY 2025
What a stellar start to the year it has been. We are so thrilled that our audiences were inspired to come and experience Greek tragedy with a contemporary twist. Our reviews and audience feedback for Medea was exceptional and many sentences started with “mesmerising” and “best production ever”.
Enormous thanks go to Craig Shelton and his outstanding company for creating and performing with such skill. We are hugely attracted as a theatre company to courageous choices, so it is heartening to have these choices endorsed in such a positive way. Thank you all for your feedback.
Hot on the heals of Medea we welcomed the return of Down for the Count, bringing their show Swing That Music to us. This cool jazz swing band are always a sell-out and this year was no exception. They lit up the theatre. In constant touring mode, it is so hard to get them in our diary, but you will be pleased to know that they are booked for the same slot in 2026 before heading on an adventure to New York.
Next up I am in the director’s chair for Nick Payne’s Constellations. A compelling love story which starts with a girl and a boy meeting, but what happens next as their story plays out challenges the boundaries of the world we think we know; a world of infinite possibilities for their relationship and raising questions about the difference between the choices we make and destiny. As the character Marianne says in the play “Imagine rolling a dice 6,000 times”. It is a gorgeous play, with a fascinating structure and is beautifully written by Nick Payne. It is a deeply researched piece and he wrote it after the death of his father but also when meeting the woman who he was to go on to marry. It is a supremely articulate play about chance and consequences, but above all a love story. It celebrates living in the moment.
As the New York Times’ critic said when it transferred from London to Broadway, “Who knew that higher physics could be so sexy, so accessible – and so emotionally devastating?” Don’t miss the chance to see this special play with two outstanding actors, who will enthral you.
Across the rest of the season, we are now cast up to July 2025. Spring Awakening has awakened and started rehearsals and the buzz around musical theatre stepping into the building has begun. I will hold on to my uber enthusiasm for this amazing musical for a while, but feedback from the very first read/sing through produced goosebumps in the company from the kick off. If you see me with the broadest grin on my face for the next month or so, it is probably down to my over excitement.
We continue to invest in our company and have recently taken possession of a new projector and lenses. These are top of the range new additions to the tech team and underline the increasing use and importance to us of using video and projection in many productions. Building box sets has rather taken a back seat for us and most of the productions we stage require a rather more contemporary treatment.
I saw A Streetcar Named Desire in the West End last week and it was stripped back to the actors – no set, no props, no furniture – just a cast and a script – both powerful in equal measure. It is inspiring to see what the best in the country do. I love to be in a professional auditorium somewhere every week to witness this. It see it as a fundamental part of my role at the Loft. That’s my excuse! Last week it also gave me the chance to sit at the next table to Bjorn from Abba when we were having breakfast at our hotel……..and no, I didn’t go over and ‘thank him for the music’.
As we slowly emerge from the gloom and the cold of winter and hopefully turn our faces to the long awaited sunshine of the spring, we hope we see you at Constellations. We shall be lighting up the night sky from 26th February.
Thank you for all your support in 2025 so far. We value every ticket sold, every evening of support from our incredible team of volunteers and for the playwrights who allow us to create such compelling theatre to bring their texts alive.
SUE MOORE
February, 2025
