What’s on

Jarred Christmas & Hobbit: The Mighty Kids Beatbox Comedy Show

Wed 27 Oct • 2pm • Full £8 Family Ticket £30 • Comedy

Proudly Presented by Blue Jeans Management

Calling kids aged 5 to 100, join our MIGHTY gang! A sensational interactive show, where the worlds of comedy and beatboxing collide with electrifying results. Pick-up beatboxing tips to impress your friends, make mind-blowing music, win prizes and laugh through your pantaloons!

Direct from a sell-out run at the Edinburgh festival; fantastic family fun and silliness galore, with award-winning comedian Jarred Christmas (as seen on CBBC’s Joke Machine and The Dog Ate My Homework) and world champion beatboxer & UK Loopstation Champion, Hobbit.

‘Best Kids Show’ nominee – Leicester Comedy Festival.
★★★★★ “A must see. The kids loved every second of it. Definitely recommended but it does come with a warning – by the end of it your kids may believe that they too are world class beatboxers or stand-up comedians” – Families Edinburgh Magazine
★★★★ “Phenomenal…children are captivated. Fast & Furious. Raw talent and pure entertainment” – The Wee Review
★★★★ “Who knew comedy and beatboxing went so well together? This fun show for children of all ages (and their grown-ups) fuses the two seamlessly” – The List

Please note that we have temporarily increased our theatre restoration levy from £1 to £1.50 per ticket, due to the coronovirus pandemic. This levy applies to all transactions, whether made in person at our Box Office, by post or by phone, for all payment types. Telephone bookings incur an additional £1.75 booking fee per transaction.

Steve Hughes: Are you Serious?

Wed 27 Oct • 8pm • Full £17 • Comedy

Proudly Presented by Blue Jeans Management

Returning to the UK for his first full length tour in six years, Australian (and adopted Brit) comedy legend Steve Hughes is known the world over for his hard hitting, take no prisoners stand up.

Internationally renowned as a comedy powerhouse, Steve has spent the past 5 years confronting his demons, recovering from a crippling breakdown and severe depression. He’s lucky to be alive, let alone funny. But when your life turns to hell there has to be a few laughs in there somewhere…

Having been to the abyss, Steve now returns to the UK better – and more lucid than ever before. He’s recently played to sell-out crowds and great critical acclaim around Australia, now catch his highly-anticipated return to the UK. Join him as he offers a hilarious ride through the dark night of the soul and presents his inciteful interpretation of an insane world. Free-thinking, intelligent, opinionated; this is Steve doing what he’s always done best; making the uncomfortable acceptable and the horrifying hilarious.

As seen on BBC One’s Live At The Apollo and The Michael McIntyre Show

“His insights are spot on, his opinions are intelligent, and his jokes are top class” Guardian
“Intelligent, provocative, profound, and topped off with good, solid gags. See him while it’s still legal” Chortle

★★★★★ HERALD SUN ★★★★★ METRO ★★★★ CHORTLE ★★★★ THE AGE

Please note that we have temporarily increased our theatre restoration levy from £1 to £1.50 per ticket, due to the coronavirus pandemic. This levy applies to all transactions, whether made in person at our Box Office, by post or by phone, for all payment types. Telephone bookings incur an additional £1.75 booking fee per transaction.

Howerd’s End

Thu 28 Oct • 7:30pm • Full £16 Concs £14 • Professional Theatre

Written by Mark Farrelly
With Simon Cartwright as Frankie Howerd and Mark Farrelly as Dennis Heymer
Directed by Joe Harmston

Frankie Howerd was one of Britain’s most loved comedians for half a century. But he had a secret. And the secret’s name was Dennis.

This brand-new play by Mark Farrelly (Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope and The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton) takes you to the heart of Frankie and Dennis’ clandestine relationship, which lasted from the 1950s until Frankie’s death in 1992. It also affords a glorious opportunity to encounter Frankie in full flight stand up mode.

★★★★★ London Living Large ★★★★ Theatre Weekly ★★★★ London Pub Theatres ★★★★ Libby Purves ★★★★ Sardines Magazine ★★★★ The Reviews Hub ★★★★ Reviews Gate ★★★★ Theatre Vibe ★★★★ London Theatre 1 ★★★★ British Theatre Guide ★★★★ North West End

Bike to the Future

Fri 29 Oct • 8pm • Full £12 Concs £10 • Music

By Brian Madigan

Presented by A Band Named Brian

Brian is on a two-wheeled mission. His aim: “to save the planet – one gig at a time”. But before he peddles off into the sunset, he’s bringing an exclusive, special preview to the Rondo. Can we amend our ways in time to avert catastrophe? Is technology a help or a hindrance? And who is it that keeps interrupting?
Challenging the norms of music and theatrical performance, Brian’s blend of songs, spoken word and surprises are guaranteed to confound, amuse and – above all – entertain.

‘Genuinely like nothing else out there… pushing the boundaries of what ‘performance’ means’ – Theatre Bath

The White Heart Inn

Sat 30 Oct • 7:30pm • Full £14 Concs £10 • Professional Theatre

Written by Tiffany Rhodes, CJ Turner-McMullan and Russell Eccleston
Presented by Apricity Theatre, Black Dog Productions and Dumb Blonde Theatre

‘Situated in the Cornish countryside, The White Heart Inn is ideal for a Christian getaway. Marvel at the Grade II listed building, built in 1609 for the Bishop of Exeter. Enjoy what the quaint village has to offer. But please, for your own safety, stay away from the marshlands.’

Five guests arrive at the inn, each with a different expectation. To sleep, to explore, to hunt for ghosts. Things take a turn when they hear about the violent past of the grounds they are staying on. The eccentric owners of the inn, Bethel and Hector, seem obsessed by the marshes next door. Local pride? Or something more sinister?

★★★★★ ‘unlike anything we have experienced’ 365 Bristol on Between the Armies
★★★★★ ‘nail-biting tension’ Bath Chronicle on Howl
‘startlingly visceral’ Bristol 24/7 on There’s Nothing There
‘shocking and unexpected’ Glos Writers on There’s Nothing There

Contains violence, strangulation, death, homophobia, sexual references, threat to pregnant women, religious trauma, pregnancy, strong language, and flashing lights.

Our Man In Havana

Wed 3 – Sat 6 Nov • 7:30pm • Full £14 Concs £12 • Community Theatre

Written by Graham Greene & Adapted by Clive Francis

Presented by Playing Up Theatre Company

Wormold, a hapless Hoover salesman for Phastcleaners, is unwittingly recruited by the British secret service. Having nothing of genuine interest to report, he invents agents and situations (submitting diagrams copied from vacuum cleaner manuals) to boost his expenses account, but finds that fiction is strangely hijacked by reality.

Clive Francis’ stage adaptation turns Greene’s novel into a fast-moving, four-handed farce that, like Patrick Barlow’s 39 Steps, features three actors who play a bewildering number of agents, nuns, brothel madams and a sadistic chief of police.

Nhair

Wed 10 Nov • 8pm • Full £12 Concs £10 • Professional Theatre

Written & Performed by Conny Hancock

Conny can’t get her garden to grow. She’s tried everything and honestly? It’s beginning to piss her off. On top of that, she’s trying to navigate tricky love interests, frustrating doctor appointments, and a new career.

Oh. And she’s also really hairy.

Conny Hancock presents a light-hearted one-woman show touching on her lived experience with having polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Nhair is a hilarious, empowering and brutally honest ode to self-love, exploring what it’s like to not quite fit into the mould of the stereotypical woman.

Expect laughs, cries and awful ukulele playing.

“Nhair is a joy to watch” ★★★★ Alexandra Ricou

Tez Ilyas: The Vicked Tour

Thu 11 Nov • 8pm • Full £15 • Comedy

Presented by Live Nation in association with UTC Artist Management

The brand-new stand-up show from the star of The Tez O’Clock Show (Channel 4), TEZ Talks (BBC Radio 4) and the multi-award-winning Man Like Mobeen (BBC Three).

Join Tez as he uses his trademark silly, smart and subversive humour to celebrate all that we still have.

Expect mega laughs, happy groans and cheeky provocations, as Tez guarantees a vicked time.

★★★★ ‘Radiantly entertaining’ The Times

★★★★ ‘Blackburn’s Chris Rock’ The Guardian
★★★★ ‘Tez Ilyas’s political stand-up takes serious talent to pull off’ The Telegraph

@tezilyas
www.tezilyas.com

The People’s String Foundation: The Virtual Orchestra

Fri 12 Nov • 8pm • Full £15 Concs £12 • Music

The Virtual Orchestra is a brand-new musical touring performance from brilliant South-West band The People’s String Foundation (violinist Ben Sutcliffe and co-founder and composer Zaid Al-Rikabi).

This Autumn, the virtuoso duo are packing a 32-piece Gypsy Orchestra into a suitcase and taking it on tour to perform their newest album release to audiences nationwide. Using music, puppetry, art, cinematography and animation, this unique show combines many art forms to create one immersive piece – sure to set your heart racing, get your toes tapping and warm the soul.

The People’s String Foundation are fast becoming the musical heavyweight of the South-West and wider folk circles, bringing to life all the dynamism, rhythm and vitality of the true Gypsy spirit in spellbinding performances. Led by Ben Sutcliffe (musical director for Rogue, Kneehigh and Bish Bash Bosh theatre companies) whose dazzling violin style has seen him playing with the likes of The Levellers, The Stranglers and The Yardbirds.

★★★★★ The Times

‘Surely these musicians and this piece are worthy of consideration for this year’s Mercury prize.’ – Ralph McTell

Scream Phone

Sat 13 Nov • 8pm • Full £15 Concs £13 • Professional Theatre

Presented by Swipe Right Theatre

Swipe Right present their deliciously dark 80’s musical Scream Phone – directed by Pappy‘s Tom Parry!

The girls are having a sleepover and you’re like, totally invited! Pillow fights in their underwear, singing into hairbrushes, and gossiping about their crushes, what could possibly go wrong? As long as they don’t answer the oversized pink phone… dun dun duuun! Based on the retro game Dream Phone, they’ll take you on a killer journey back to the 80s with an infectious original soundtrack. Scream meets Clueless in this hilarious spoof horror musical!

“Spiky, Spunky, and Smart” Recommended by The Guardian

★★★★★ “Only a cold-hearted fun-phobe could fail to be won over by this horror-pastiche romp” To Do List

★★★★★ “This is a show that won’t just tickle and tantalise, it’s an absolute thrilling treat” North West End

★★★★ “This trio can rightfully lay claim to the camp musical comedy crown at the fringe this year.” The Stage