Multi award-winning playwright and novelist Barney Norris (Visitors, Nightfall) returns to the Arcola with a raucous and tender new story full of music. Celebrating growing up, coming home, and making noise, The Band Back Together’s London premiere follows its rural tour of England and Wales in spring 2024.
Directed by the playwright, the cast is Royce Cronin (Gran Turismo, Bohemian Rhapsody), Laura Evelyn (Sex Education, Good Omens), and James Westphal (Driftwood, Pentabus).
Joe: I think the local community’s supportive.
Ellie: Yeah, of like, good stuff. Bric-a-brac sales and choral singing and local elections and swingers’ parties, not you and me messing about with a drum kit.
Joe, Ross and Ellie used to be in a band. They were pretty good too, making waves across a rugged patchwork of pubs and clubs. But time has thrown the three friends far from their younger selves. Back together for one night only to play a benefit gig in their hometown of Salisbury, they find a community reeling from an infamous poisoning and a pandemic. And as they rehearse the old songs together, their stories and secrets must also be excavated.
Barney Norris, Playwright/Director: “I wrote this play for anyone who’s grappling with being young, and getting less young, and not being young anymore. It’s about friendship, and secrets, and letting go, and it’s a love story about the way people who love each other laugh and remember together. It’s the story of a band that never quite happened, not quite happening one last time. And the way that the magic of lighting up a room with music never disappears, no matter what happens to you.”
The Band Back Together was commissioned and first produced by Farnham Maltings.
Venue: Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, London, E8 3DL
Dates + times: 4 – 28 September 2024, 7pm + 3pm Sat mats
Tickets: Previews £20/£15; standard: £20/£30 (£28 conc) / Pay What You Can Tuesday (limited allocation, available in person from 6pm)
Box office: 020 7503 1646 / boxoffice@arcolatheatre.com
Age guidance: 12+
