Extra shows in 2024

We are excited to reveal five more productions for our Spring 2024 season, including the compelling production Silence directed by Associate Director Iqbal Khan.

Silence, (Tue 23 – Sat 27 Apr) is adapted from Kavita Puri’s acclaimed book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories and was originally co-produced with the Donmar Warehouse and directed by Abdul Shayek, who died in August this year aged 39.

The work is inspired by the remarkable personal testimonies of people who lived through the last days of the British Raj and was commissioned to mark the 75th anniversary of Partition.

Associate Director Iqbal Khan said of the project:

I saw a version of this piece at the Donmar and was struck then with the power and ambition of Abdul’s initiative. He was a generous and radical artist, a leader keen to find new ways to embrace the unacknowledged or excluded.

His being taken from us is a terrible rupture, both personally and to the new community of artists and audiences he was engaging. It is a great privilege be asked by Tara Theatre to attempt to continue this work on Silence and make it all he hoped it could be as a production and urgent testimony.”

Joining this powerful production is three new works that explore different facets of society.

Fifth Word and Nottingham Playhouse, in association with Brixton House, present Liberation Squares (Thu 15 – Sat 18 May). This exciting production tells the story of three British Muslim schoolgirls, whose adolescence is as complex, infuriating and joyous as any other teenagers, but with the added complications of Islamophobia and cultural erasure. This funny, playful and deeply humane play puts young female agency centre stage.

We will also be welcoming back the joyous RUSH. (Tue 25 – Fri 28 May) This fantastic production, from the Rush Theatre Company that last visited in April this year, takes the audience on a powerful journey through the history of Jamaica, highlighting Caribbean traditions, the influence of calypso, gospel, reggae, ska, lovers’ rock and the impact it has had on Black British culture.

Sean Foley, Artistic Director at The Rep, said;

We’re thrilled to stage Silence – so brilliantly received at the Donmar Warehouse, and a key part of the enormous legacy that Abdul Shayek left us. That Rep Associate Director, Iqbal Khan, is developing a new version of this show makes these performances especially meaningful to the City.

The return of RUSH, which is back by popular demand, is another great example of the spectrum of work here at the Rep – from entertainment to education and back again.

The Rep continues to stage thought-provoking work with Liberation Squares and No More Mr Nice Guy. and I’m proud to be able to add these four very special shows to our already announced spring programme. We look forward to welcoming all audiences to enjoy the experience of live theatre.”

Uncommon Wealth (Wed 24 Jan) is presented by BOLDtext playwrights, Liz John, Helen Kelly, Vanessa Oakes and Tim Stimpson. The production is a series of short sharings that ask questions of what type of society we all want to live in.

Nouveau Riche embarks on national tour with Cal-I Jonel’s new award-winning experimental theatre show, No More Mr Nice Guy (Wed 27 – Sat 30 Mar). It chronicles the life of Keloughn Douglas, a British-Caribbean music teacher caught in a love cube: his aspiration for senior leadership; his passion to become a successful musician, and his desire to marry the woman of his dreams.