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What's On

now:
Così
29th July – 24th August
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next:
Under the Eagle
26th – 31st August

Freestate
2nd – 6th September

A Great Undertaking in Little America
2nd – 6th September
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Fringe theatre at its best
- Michael Billington in ‘The Guardian’
Current Production(s):
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Così
By Louis Nowra
29th July – 24th August
Tues - Sat @ 7:30pm
Sun @ 5:00pm

Presented by Good Night Out Presents, in association with The White Bear Theatre Club

Set in the early 70's, Così is the touching and hilarious story of Lewis, a fresh-faced theatre director, in his first job: directing patients in a Melbourne mental asylum in Mozart's Così fan Tutte. But no one, including ringleader Roy (Mark Little), sing or speak Italian. Meanwhile, pressure on Lewis from his university friends to organise Australia's largest Vietnam War protest makes him question where true madness lies: inside or outside the asylum. Mark Little is known as Joe Mangel from Neighbours. Since moving to the UK in 1992, he's performed as a comdedian and starred in a Laurence Olivier-winning one-man production in 2000.

"Nowra has written a terrific play about theatre, madness, illusion, sanity, life; it’s a big splendidly Australian epic..."
–Frank Gauntlett, Telegraph Mirror
 
Next Production(s):
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Under the Eagle
By Andrew Cartmel
26th – 31st August 2008
Tues - Sat @ 7:30pm
Sun @ 5:00pm

Presented by LS1 Productions

Back for one week only after its successful White Bear debut in March, Under the Eagle is a darkly humorous satirical drama exploring Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the United States. When stand-up comic Vi Hooper becomes the reluctant guest of the Prime Minister’s wife, she encounters the US President and gains an unexpected insight into the corridors of power. As well as a playwright, Andrew Cartmel is a television writer, script editor and novelist. He has worked on Casualty, Torchwood, Dark Knight and, most famously, Doctor Who.

"Bitingly funny."
– Robert Shore, Time Out
 
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Freestate
By Russell Mardell
2nd – 6th September
Tues - Sat @ 7:30pm
Presented by Lappaman Productions

Following their production of ‘The Seventeenth Valentine’ earlier this year, Lappaman Productions return to The White Bear Theatre with‘Freestate’ a new play written and directed by Russell Mardell. Two women meet on a London train station. Mel is an ineffectual beggar, and Frankie a woman with a secretive past. They are strangers with nothing in common but soon a peculiar and ultimately dangerous friendship develops… A darkly comic tale of loneliness and identity where things aren’t always what they seem.

"Very quick witted and certainly funny"
– Rachel Sheridan, Remotegoat.co.uk, Review quote for 'The Seventeenth Valentine'
 
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A Great Undertaking in Little America
By Dominic Rowe
2nd – 6th September
Tues - Sat @ 9:00pm
Presented by Edible Theatre

Short-listed for the Amnesty International ‘Protect the Humans’ playwriting competition, ‘Little America’ is set in the Green Zone in Baghdad. Once home to Saddam Hussein’s presidential complex, this heavily guarded compound now plays host to the international embassies and the new Iraqi government. With twenty-foot blast walls at the perimeter, the Green Zone provides a relative safe haven for those inside. Boasting karaoke bars and restaurants, running water and constant electricity, it strikes a bold contrast to the rest of Baghdad. The lives of a soldier, a journalist, an undertaker and

"‘…Each character is truly enaging.’‘Rowe portrays the Green Zone as a last bastion of Western values holding out in the Middle East.‘…snappy exchanges… concise, engaging dialogue." **** (four stars)
– John Holmes, Metro
 
Some Past Productions:
Life's a dream
by Calderan de la Barca
directed by Loveday Ingram
"Bold Production of Calderons heady exploration of the nature of reality and human foibles … rare, visionary theatre"
  - Time Out critics choice
The return of the soldier
by Rebecca West adapted by Ansuz Theatre Company
directed by Andrea Brooks
"Boldly theatrical and intense adaptation of wests novel"
  - Time Out critics choice
"Taut, imaginative and very moving"
  - Independent on Sunday
Transferred to BAC for the Timeout season.
The card index
by Tadeusz Rozewicz
directed by Peter Czaijowski
"Challenging, relentlessly hilarious. It makes you wonder what writers have been doing in the theatre for the last forty years"
"Dangerous, deliriously absurd"
  - Time Out critics choice
Transfer to BAC for the Time Out season.
Spin
by Robert Sherwood
directed by John Lawler
"The white bears Canadian discovery"
-   The Independent
"Sherwood has created one of the most memorable stage monsters of recent years"
-   The Guardian
"This is a hard, fast and viciously funny work"
-   The Evening Standard
"Gloriously politically incorrect"
-   Time Out Critics Choice
I only want to be with you
by Barry Keefe
"Fringe theatre of the first order"
-   Time Out
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