Theatre Royal Bath is thrilled to announce two new productions which will take to the city’s stage this summer. Henry Goodman will star in Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, directed by Jonathan Church, which visits Bath exclusively in June following its opening at Chichester Festival Theatre. The following month, Tinuke Craig's acclaimed production of August Wilson’s Jitney - a Headlong, Leeds Playhouse and Old Vic production, will tour to the Theatre Royal Bath at the end of July direct from London's Old Vic.
Appearing at Bath’s Theatre Royal from Thursday 9th to Saturday 25th June, Chichester Festival Theatre’s spectacular staging of Murder On The Orient Express is directed by Jonathan Church, Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Bath’s Summer Season (Betrayal, In Praise of Love, The Price) with design by Robert Jones (Oklahoma!, Mack & Mabel). Producers Mark Goucher, Mark Rubinstein and Tulchin Bartner Productions transfer the brand-new production to Bath direct from Chichester.
Henry Goodman stars as the celebrated detective Hercule Poirot, who boards the legendary Orient Express, enjoying the prospect of a luxurious rail journey from Istanbul to Calais in the dead of winter. The train is surprisingly packed for the time of year; only the intervention of the manager secures Poirot a first-class berth, alongside an intriguing and glittering company of international travellers.
But just after midnight, the Orient Express screeches to a halt, marooned by a snowdrift. And by morning, one passenger is dead. Nobody can leave. A guard appears to be missing. A killer is in their midst. And Poirot must deploy his ‘little grey cells’ on the most difficult case of his career: one that will force him to question his deepest beliefs.
Henry Goodman’s many stage roles include his Olivier Award-winning Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Roy Cohn in the UK premiere of Angels in America and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, all at the National Theatre; Volpone for the RSC, and Assassins, for which he won an Olivier Award at the Donmar Warehouse. His numerous screen credits include The New Pope, Watership Down and Yes, Prime Minister. His previous appearances at Bath’s Theatre Royal include Looking At Lucian in 2017, Duet For One in 2009 and The Birthday Party in 2005.
Murder On The Orient Express is adapted by Ken Ludwig whose Olivier and Tony Award-winning stage works include Lend Me A Tenor and Crazy for You. His twenty-eight plays and musicals are performed around the world and throughout the United States.
From Tuesday 26th to Saturday 30th July, a searing new production of August Wilson’s Jitney will tour to the Theatre Royal Bath directed by Tinuke Craig’s (The Colour Purple) starring Geoff Aymer, Leanne Henlon, Wil Johnson, Leemore Marrett Jr and Tony Marshall.
A ground-breaking modern classic from one of America’s greatest and most ambitious writers, Jitney explores the fragile bond between eight men as they live, love and work in a racially segregated, post-Vietnam America.
Jim Becker and his unlicensed drivers take the people of Pittsburgh Hill District where regular taxi cabs won’t venture – healing old wounds and tearing new ones as they pass the time in a condemned taxi rank between pick-ups.
Following its premiere at Leeds Playhouse last Autumn, Tinuke Craig’s critically acclaimed production will have its London premiere at The Old Vic this summer, before visiting the Theatre Royal Bath as part of a UK tour presented by Headlong, Leeds Playhouse and London’s Old Vic.
Multi award-winning playwright August Wilson’s most famous work is The Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of ten plays, each set in a different decade. Jitney, the eighth play in The Pittsburgh Cycle, was written in 1979, first staged in 1982 and premiered on Broadway in 2017. Fences, the sixth play from The Pittsburgh Cycle, was staged at Bath’s Theatre Royal in 2013 starring Lenny Henry and Tanya Moodie, prior to a West End transfer. Following August Wilson’s death in 2005, the Virginia Theatre in New York was renamed in his honour, the first Broadway theatre to be named after an African-American.
General booking for Jitney and Murder On The Orient Express is now open. To book tickets contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or book online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk
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