The Egg reopens to audiences as Bath Theatre Academy present a mini-season of new stage productions

This month, Bath Theatre Academy is set to stage four new productions at The Egg with a variety of options for audiences to livestream the performances at home or watch in person across the three-week run.

The Performing Arts students’ mini-season starts with a livestream double bill on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 May featuring two plays, Zero for the Young Dudes! by Alistair McDowall and Chaos by Laura Lomas. Recommended for audiences aged 14+, the double-bill is available for audiences to enjoy online at 7pm from the comfort of their own homes. Presented by 37 first year Performing Arts students from Bath Theatre Academy, both dramas were originally produced by National Theatre Connections, which commissions new plays for young theatre-makers written by some of the UK's most exciting writers. 

Directed by Kate Pasco, Zero for the Young Dudes! is set at a summer camp where there’s revolution in the air and rebellion on the ground. This thought-provoking drama asks if young people can’t control the future, is it time to make a stand?

Bath Theatre Academy’s livestream double bill is completed by Chaos, directed by Josh Whatsize. A fast-paced play combining separate and interconnected scenes, Chaos searches for meaning in a complicated and unstable world. A series of characters find order in disorder as they simultaneously explore love, violence, the universe, physics, and friendship.

Bath Theatre Academy return from Thursday 20 to Saturday 22 May as final year students present Nora: A Doll’s House, written by Stef Smith and directed by Julia Head, followed by Marie Antoinette, written by David Adjmi and directed by Claire O’Reilly, which appears from Thursday 27 to Saturday 29 May. Both productions will be performed in front of live audiences at The Egg for three nights, with the option of watching a Friday night livestream at home. The culmination of two years of study in Performing and Production Arts, these performances are being staged by 22 performers with 4 students involved behind-the-scenes in creative and production roles following mentoring by professionals in the field.   

In Nora: A Doll’s House, Nora is forced to make a choice when a secret from the past threatens to dismantle her carefully constructed world. Stef Smith’s radical re-working of Henrik Ibsen’s play highlights the same struggle across three fights for freedom during three different eras - 1918, 1968 and 2018. Re-framing Ibsen’s drama in a bold new version, Smith asks what it means to be a woman, a wife, a mother, and how you escape a structure designed to lock you in.

Bath Theatre Academy’s mini-season of four productions is completed by Marie Antoinette, David Adjmi’s contemporary take on the young queen who was married at 14, the Queen of France by 21 and declared the most hated person in history by her early thirties. Known for her love of towering wigs, champagne and artificial pastures complete with perfumed sheep, Marie Antoinette’s life isn’t all fun, frolics and French fancies. First staged in his native America in 2012, Adjmi’s entertaining, satirical history examines the excesses of Marie’s era whilst holding a mirror up to our own entertainment obsessed society.

With the support of both Theatre Royal Bath and Bath College, Bath Theatre Academy students have continued to benefit from access to high quality arts provision in spite of restrictions introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Bath Theatre Academy has successfully delivered both in-person and online teaching, employing more than 70 visiting practitioners over the course of the academic year. Projects have ranged from professionally produced audio dramas to industry standard film work. First year students will also complete this year with an additional qualification in armed stage combat.

James Moore, Head of Education at the Theatre Royal Bath, said: “As somebody who experienced training at Bath College first-hand, as well as being a member of the Theatre Royal Bath's Young People's Theatre, it's a privilege to be in a position to re-invest in Bath's creative economy, supporting students and freelancers alike during this turbulent time."

Bath Theatre Academy’s hugely popular Performing and Production Arts course attracts students, aged 16 to 21 years, from both the local area and further afield. Students are now busy with intensive rehearsals ahead of their mini-season of four productions, which will be performed from 13 to 29 May, for both theatregoers at The Egg and online audiences.

Tickets for Bath Theatre Academy’s productions can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844, The Egg on 01225 823 409 and online via www.theatreroyal.org.uk