Missing live theatre performances during the latest lockdown?
A St Albans theatre will make its live stream season debut this spring with a trio of highly entertaining productions packed with humour, pathos, drama and terrific performances.
The Maltings Theatre presents The Regina Monologues, The Removal Service, and Trestle in February and March.
Each play will be performed live on just one Saturday evening, after which it will be available to download for a fortnight.
Adam Nichols, the theatre's artistic director, said: “While we continue to keep the Maltings Theatre closed during lockdown, I’m very excited to announce that we will be live streaming three fantastic plays on our YouTube channel during February and March.
"We dipped our toe in the live water last year when we performed Twelfth Night on Zoom, which was a roller-coaster learning process!
"We sold out for the first run in June and put on extra shows in July, which also sold out. Audiences joined us from all over the UK, which was fantastic."
The live stream programme kicks off online with Anna Franklin’s popular production of The Regina Monologues on Saturday, February 27.
Saturday, March 13 sees the premiere of Luke Adamson’s production of The Removal Service.
On Saturday, March 27, award-winning director Matthew Parker presents the warm two-hander Trestle, which won the Papatango Award for new writing in 2017.
Adam added: “We’re confident of streaming live performances – from the Maltings Theatre itself – to audiences nationally and internationally with our spring programme.
"First off is The Regina Monologues, a clever play that links the experiences of Henry VIII’s six wives with a contemporary audience.
"It was hugely popular when we staged it at the Maltings last year.
“Our second presentation is the international premiere of The Removal Service, a fast-paced, darkly comic tale about family relationships, secrets and lies which has been written by two of our regular Maltings collaborators: Will Pattle and Alice Briganti.
“Completing the trio of mouth-watering events is the award-winning play Trestle, a superb two-hander about finding love in later life.”
During the interval of each performance viewers will see a short film of Adam Nichols interviewing the director and writer of the plays to find out more about their creative process.
Anna Franklin, director of The Regina Monologues, said: “I'm delighted to have an opportunity to revisit our production which was so well received at the Maltings Theatre in October.
"The Regina Monologues is ideal in many ways for translating from the live auditorium to the screen.
"It is simply staged, and the cast addresses the audience throughout – there is no fourth wall – so it's not a huge leap to move that to addressing the camera.
"Theatre and film acting are very different disciplines, and performing a theatre piece for the camera is somewhere between the two, so it's a case of getting the balance right."
Anna, who also plays Katherine (Parr) in the show, added: “The Regina Monologues is such a joy of a play.
"The clever reimagining of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII juxtaposed with those experienced by women in the 21st reminds us that we have much in common with our Tudor sisters.”
Trestle by Stewart Pringle stars Jilly Bond as Denise and Chris Pickles as Harry.
Director Matthew Parker said: “I'm delighted that the whole team involved in Trestle get to stage the piece for an online audience, after working so hard on it last autumn for what was to be a November run (before lockdown).
"The team here at The Maltings have worked wonders, creating a fantastic suite of cameras and technical wizardry to bring this show to the screen.
"Set, costume and performance will be done live with no edits, so it'll have all the adrenaline and electricity of a live performance, just without the live audience.
“And whilst we continue to miss live audiences, especially in a play such as Trestle where there is so much brilliant comedy laced through the script (and the actors are naturally so funny), a live stream and recording really gives us chance to focus in on the beautiful and bittersweet story between the two characters and seat the online audience at the trestle table with them!
"I think online audiences are going to love this delightful two-hander.”
The Regina Monologues can be viewed as a live stream on Saturday, February 27 at 7.30pm.
It will then be available as a download from Sunday, February 28 for a fortnight.
Saturday, March 13 sees the live stream of The Removal Service, with the production available to download from Sunday, March 14.
Trestle will be performed on Saturday, March 27, and then available as a download from Sunday, March 28 for two weeks.
Tickets for the live stream on each date cost £10. Tickets to download each show cost £5.
For tickets, visit www.maltingstheatre.co.uk
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