By Harry Tennison

AS we enter into the new year, I delve into the programmes of some of the towns theatres to see what they have in store for 2016.
The Harlow Playhouse has just seen the culmination of its most successful pantomime ever, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A key feature we can see in its upcoming season is a series of ‘Pay-What-You-Can’ nights, which will see some more experimental and fringe theatre paying Harlow a visit. BOUND, on the 3rd of February, shares real life stories of human trafficking, whilst The Chairs, a revival of Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist play, comes on the 3rd of April.

In between, Blackeyed Theatre bring a new adaptation of The Great Gatsby, running from the 29th of February through to the 2nd of March. We also see the double bill of Playing Maggie – a live audience with the Iron Lady – and Spine, which stars the Playhouse’s own Kirstie Brough as the play consults cross-generational politics in an austerity fuelled conflict. Work Play (24/5) and Women’s Hour (26/5) complete my top tips to catch for this part of the Playhouse’s season.
At Moot Hall, the town’s longest running amateur theatre group, the Moot House Players present their second production of the 15/16 season on the 28th of January, running until the 30th of January. Laying the Ghost, directed by Anne Farr, is a comedy set in a care home for retired-actors. It is followed by Dan Powell’s production of Bryony Laverson’s thriller, Frozen. The play follows the mother of ten-year-old girl, Rhona who has disappeared, and her killer, whilst a scientist investigates what causes men to commit such crimes.

Seasoned director, Jon McNamara, returns with a production of Alan Ackybourn’s Neighbourhood Watch. The local community warden group goes out of control in their fight against petty crime. The season finale comes in the form of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect, directed by myself. Two volunteers agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, they manage to throw the trial off-course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved. Moot House have, again, succeeded in creating one of the most varied programmes of theatre in the town.
Harlow Theatre Company have a very interesting year ahead full of some real modern classic plays. Jez Butterworth’s Mojo arrives in March, directed by Jane Miles. Billed as ‘a savagely funny, swaggering story about six terrified men, two dead bodies, a navy cutlass and a dollop of Rock and Roll’, this looks to be a real treat! Dolly Howlett directs Pinter’s, Betrayal. One of the playwrights major works, it shows that the very capacity for love itself is sometimes based on betraying not only other loved ones, but ourselves.

In September, some of the younger HTC members collaborate to launch their piece of new writing, The Darcaelan Casebook, which is something, I believe, we do not see enough of in the town. Finally, Brenda Jones directs Henrik Ibsen’s classic play, Ghosts. HTC again show their daringness in taking on some really superb plays, and hopefully this will pay off into some equally superb productions.