The Stable announces the full cast of THE RHYTHM METHOD, an extraordinary new contemporary British musical in the making. A show about the stuff that’s difficult to talk about - sex, relationships and contraception.
The cast of top West End actors are: the award winning Fra Fee (The Ferryman – Royal Court, West End and now Broadway bound, Candide – Menier Chocolate Factory, Les Miserables – West End and film); Melanie Marshall (Guys and Dolls – Royal Exchange Manchester, Jane Eyre – National Theatre, FELA! – National Theatre & Broadway); Emile Ruddock (5 Guys Named Mo – Marble Arch, The Scottsboro Boys – Garrick Theatre); Jennifer Caldwell (Mamma Mia, Shrek The Musical) and Annie Wensak (Half A Sixpence - Noel Coward & Chichester Festival Theatre, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Regents Park Open Air Theatre).
THE RHYTHM METHOD headlines Fertility Fest (12-13 May) at The Bush Theatre – and the show then transfers to The Landor for a run of just six performance showcases with audience discussions from Monday 14 - Friday 18 May 2018.
THE RHYTHM METHOD tells the emotional and physical journey of the friends that meet at Lady Pearl Grey’s (Melanie Marshall) cosy little Tea House, where the brew is hot and the eggs are freshly laid – and all served with love and understanding. After all, the Tea House sports a weathered green plaque outside, for it was once the first Marie Stopes’ Mothers’ Clinic founded in 1921.
As the welfare state fades and austerity kicks in, the Tea House is a life line for the ever-changing facts (and fictions) of life. Pearl and her dearest friend Mimi (Annie Wensak) have shared a life-time of experience in family-planning, and now they are needed more than ever. When grand-daughter Flick (Jennifer Caldwell) arrives and meets Fra Fee's young scientist Sol who is on the brink of medical greatness, can each find their true rhythm and the best method by which to live it?
With only 7 performances at The Landor, the audience will be given an unique musical theatre experience to see THE RHYTHM METHOD showcase, directed by Titania Krimpas. The audience will then play an important role themselves in helping to inform and evolve the musical to the next stage of the show’s life, by joining the creative team and the fertility experts contributing to the development of the project, for a lively discussion!
THE RHYTHM METHOD is the small and perfectly formed chamber musical, by the writing partnership of singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Gwyneth Herbert and playwright Diane Samuels. Their first musical collaboration was The A-Z Of Mrs. P, about the pioneering Phyllis Pearsall mapping an entire city into her 1936 pocket-sized A-Z Street Guide of 23,000 streets + house numbers(!) – Southwark Playhouse (2014). Gwyneth is currently touring Letters I Haven’t Written with her band, and Diane Samuels' hauntingly moving play Kindertransport is currently on national tour. THE RHYTHM METHOD is the headline show at the Fertility Fest 2018 at The Bush Theatre.
THE RHYTHM METHOD is produced by The Stable with development support from The Wellcome Trust.
Fertility experts joining THE RHYTHM METHOD discussions include: Lesley Hall (retired curator at the Wellcome Trust, specialist in Family Planning history); Alana Harris (Catholic academic specialising in religion and contraception); Ann Eady (pioneering family planning nurse, coil specialist) and John Guillebaud (academic in reproductive medicine / population activist).
THE RHYTHM METHOD — Bringing arts and science together.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
THE RHYTHM METHOD – a musical love story (with contraception)
MONDAY 14 — FRIDAY 18 MAY 2018
THE LANDOR (70 Landor Rd, London SW9 9PH)
Monday 14 May 2018, 7.30pm (19:30hrs)
Tuesday 15 May 2018, 7.30pm (19:30hrs)
Wednesday 16 May 2018, 2.30pm (14:30hrs) matinee performance
Wednesday 16 May 2018, 7.30pm (19:30hrs)
Thursday 17 May 2018 7.30pm (19:30hrs)
Friday 18 May 2018, 7.30pm (19:30hrs)
Box Office: www.landorspace.com/rythm-of/
All Tickets: £11.00
The Rhythm Method photography can be accessed here
THE RHYTHM METHOD is produced by The Stable — developing & producing new musicals.
For further information please contact:
Deborah Goodman at DGPR
+44 (0)20 8959 9980
publicity@dgpr.co.uk