Darlington Hippodrome Round-Up

SOMETHING TO SINK YOUR TEETH INTO AT DARLINGTON HIPPODROME.

After a critically acclaimed season at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Seabright Productions are delighted to present the highly anticipated UK & Ireland Tour of Brendan Murphy’s brand new show – Buffy Revamped.

Coming hot on the heels of Murphy’s last show, Friend (The One with Gunther), which recently won the award for Best Play in the World Wide Comedy Awards, the award-winning success (Darkchat Awards 2022: Best Comedy Performer and Best One-Person Show) of Buffy Revamped has confirmed him as one of the country’s most talented young writer/ performers with both critics and audiences.

In this fast-paced new production we bring you the entire 144 episodes of the hit 90s TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as told through the eyes of the one person who knows it inside out… Spike. Funny, satirical and bursting with 90s pop-culture references, it’s the perfect parody for Buffy aficionados and those who never enrolled at Sunnydale High alike.

Brendan Murphy is a London based actor, improviser and comedian. He has toured extensively across the US and Canada as part of the Olivier Award nominated Potted Potter.

An experienced improviser, Brendan is a member of BBC Radio One’s BattleActs! and has been a guest player for Second City and Monkey Toast Players. He is co-writer of the satirical comedy podcast NonCensored with Rosie Holt, and the upcoming musical comedy The Last Library with Oliver Izod.

Buffy Revamped is at Darlington Hippodrome on Wednesday 25 January. To book call the Box Office on 01325 405405 or visit www. darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk Photo Credit: Alexa Viscius

CAST ANNOUNCED FOR UK TOUR OF AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS COMING TO DARLINGTON HIPPODROME IN MARCH

Tilted Wig (Murder, Margaret, and Me; Lady Chatterley’s Lover; The Picture of Dorian Gray) have announced the cast of their tour of Around the World in 80 Days, in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, adapted and directed by Juliet Forster (Cinderella, York Theatre Royal; The York Radio Mystery Plays, BBC Radio and York Theatre Royal). Circus meets theatre in Around the World in 80 Days, a brand-new adaptation of Jules Verne’s iconic story, set to tour the UK from February - July 2023.

Each member of the cast will multi-roll as a rag-tag band of travelling circus performers that embark on a daring mission to recreate Phileas Fogg’s race around the world. Alex Phelps (As You Like It, Shakespeare’s Globe/ CBeebies; When Darkness Falls, Park Theatre/UK Tour; Hamlet, Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre) will be playing the determined Ringmaster, Phileas Fogg. Taking on the role of the Acrobat, Nellie Bly, is actor and puppeteer Katriona Brown (There’s a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom and Other Stories, Little Angel Theatre; Chum-o-logues, Southwark Playhouse).

Genevieve Sabherwal (My Grandma’s a Walrus, Southwark Playhouse; Speed Dial, Pleasance; Spooky Ship, Bristol Old Vic) will be performing as the Aouda, The Trick Rider. Wilson Benedito (50 Ways to Kill Your Lover, Amazon; Alan Carr’s New Year Specstacular, Channel 4) provides comedic relief as The Clown, Passepartout. Rounding off the cast as the sharpwitted Knife Thrower, Detective Fix, is Eddie Mann (Rocketman, Paramount; Macbeth, Three Inch Fools; Back to The Future, Secret Cinema).

Juliet Forster, creative director of The York Theatre Royal and director of Around the World in 80 Days, comments, “I was amazed that we generally know more about Jules Verne’s fictional characters than we do about the real woman, Nellie Bly, who set the record for circumnavigating the globe in 1889 (and did the journey in less time…) I knew I had to tell her story. I found that this approach allowed interesting themes to emerge around whose stories get told, whose stories dominate and who should stand aside to give space to the untold ones.”

Jules Verne’s original characters are transformed in Forster’s adaptation, embracing different modes of transport as they journey across the globe. Audiences can join the Ringmaster, the Acrobat, the Clown, the Trick Rider, and the Knife Thrower on their frantic

race to travel Around the World in 80 Days.

Tilted Wig Productions was formed in 2017 by Katherine Senior and Matthew Parish, who have over fifteen years of experience producing and touring plays throughout the UK, taking over 20 productions out on the road. Their shows now tour around some of the biggest theatres in the UK, yet their original ethos has always remained the same: whether Titled Wig is producing a classic play or a vibrant new adaptation, they always aim to inspire a bright and innovative creative team to take their stories UK-wide.

Around The World in 80 Days runs at Darlington Hippodrome from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 March 2023. For more information or to book visit www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01325 405405