Two of the UK's most popular film and TV stars are teaming up to perform in a highly-anticipated new theatre production that will head to Manchester fresh from a West End run. The Serpent and Dr Who star Jenna Coleman and Poldark and The Hobbit star Aidan Turner take the leading roles in the provocative play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons.
In a theatre exclusive for Manchester, it has been announced that the show will head from the West End to just two other venues named so far - at Manchester Opera House and then on to the Theatre Royal Brighton. It will play for an initial limited run at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End from 18 January - 18 March, 2023 before heading to Manchester.
It will unite two of the biggest names in the acting world with both Aidan and Jenna known for their raft of prime-time performances in recent years. The play, by Sam Steiner, is known for being both provocative and hilarious in equal measure and shows what happens in a word-starved world.
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Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons is billed as a "tender and funny romantic comedy about what we say, how we say it, and what happens when we can’t say anything anymore". Steiner's debut play received great acclaim when it was first staged at Warwick Arts Centre in 2015, winning three Judges' Awards at the National Student Drama Festival.
It has since been performed at Latitude Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Camden People's Theatre. His other works for theatre include You Stupid Darkness! (Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth), Kanye the First (HighTide) and A Table Tennis Play (Walrus Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe).
It will be directed by Josie Rourke (BAFTA and Oscar nominated Mary Queen of Scots, currently directing As You Like It, Soho Place).
Sam Steiner said: "Writing ‘Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons’ taught me how to be a playwright. The opportunity to revisit and grow the play all these years later and bring it to a larger audience with Josie, Aidan, Jenna and an alarmingly inspiring creative team is thrilling and confounding in equal measure. I hope it speaks to now in a way that I couldn’t have predicted then. And I hope to keep learning."
Josie Rourke said: "I’m thrilled to be working with these electric actors on this brilliant play. I feel we are in a moment where - however indirectly - theatre might help us digest how we lived and changed through the extremes of the past few years. Sam’s play finds the humanity in how people and couples work through extreme situations. There is the potential for great joy, fun, reflection and healing in that. "
Following a strictly limited run at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End from 18 January - 18 March 2023, the production will play at Manchester Opera House from 21 - 25 March 2023 and Theatre Royal Brighton from 28 March – 1 April 2023. Tickets are on sale from today, November 8, and you can buy them for the Manchester Opera House dates here now.
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