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Live Encounters with even more history, hilarity and hidden stories!...

New Historical Discoveries load Backstage Past: Live Encounters with even more history, hilarity and hidden stories!

Having made some fascinating new discoveries, the Theatre Royal will this Summer be unveiling an all-new Backstage Past: Live Encounters tour with previously unknown tales and unseen characters from the Theatre’s varied past from 6th - 16th Aug!

Now in its third year, Backstage Past: Live Encounters has proved incredibly popular, even making the BBC’s 50 Things in Suffolk list of the best things to do in Suffolk!

Previous years have seen Monsieur Gouffe, the renowned man-monkey swing from gallery to stage on a rope, and members of the 1960s theatre-renovation campaign take a call from Noel Coward, but this year’s characters and guests remain a well-guarded mystery. With just some whispers of such intriguing characters as Eade Montefiore and possibly even some Baptists and Methodists inexplicably appearing, it looks as though this year will be as exciting as ever (if not more so!)  

The new Backstage Past: Live Encounters will, of course, still tell the familiar stories, but this year expect a different perspective and different characters. Some scenes are completely fresh, having been written after recent research has turned up exciting and fascinating new pieces in the jigsaw of the theatre’s past!  Discovered in newly found articles from crumbling old newspapers; in descriptions of a remodelling of the building that have not been seen or referred to in previous literature; in previews and reviews that haven’t been highlighted before… The new script tells the story right up to the present day using a range of performance and technical skills including lots of audience interaction. And whilst the highlights of the building’s history remain the same – it hasn’t changed that the Theatre’s architect was William Wilkins nor that Charley’s Aunt opened on the Theatre’s stage before going on to perennial success all over the world – the effects and the angles from which audiences will look at such things have changed and will be a whole new dazzling historical and theatrical adventure!

For tickets and further details please call the Box Office on 01284 769505 or visit www.theatreroyal.org.