‘DANCE’, a new play written by Dr Matthew Morrison, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader on the Creative Writing and English Language BA Honours course, will be shown at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington between 12-17 July.
DANCE originally premiered online as a lockdown drama in 2020, and has since been viewed over 1,500 times with commendations from the Guardian’s Hottest Front-Row Seats and the BBC Culture in Quarantine site. The play is set to make its first in-person appearance at The King’s Head Theatre’s annual festival of new-writing ‘Playmill’, where it will run from Monday 12 until Saturday 17 July.
Directed by Charlotte Peters, DANCE follows a father and daughter’s story starring Saffron Cooper (Tracey Beaker Returns, Emilia) and Christopher Harper (Coronation Street, Dial M for Murder). Cooper’s Kemi is being bullied and it is getting out of control; her dad, Richard, played by Harper, tries to help but only makes it worse. But when Kemi is humiliatingly thrust into the limelight, the pair concoct a dark revenge that might just go viral.
DANCE is a captivating, funny and unpredictable story about how far people will go to take back control, and explores how online bullying impacts young people in today’s society. The play follows the dark and unpredictable lengths a father and daughter will go to and the pressure and fear that mistakes made when young will define us forever.
The new play is written by Dr Matthew Morrison, whose previous productions include ‘Through the Night’, a Papatango award runner up, produced at the Finborough Theatre; ‘Inside Out’, produced at the HighTide festival; and ‘The Shelter’, commissioned by LAMDA and produced at The Riverside Studios. His recent play, ‘The Bounds’, was shortlisted for the Theatre503 playwriting award and was chosen by the Arcola for its Playwrought scheme.
Talking about the play’s in-person debut, Dr Morrison said: “I am absolutely thrilled that DANCE can be part of the return of live theatre. The play has a brilliant director, Charlotte Peters, and well-known TV actors Christopher Harper and Saffron Coomber.
“It is also particularly exciting to be at the King’s Head. The historic theatre was an early home for the Soho theatre, which ties in really well with the work Professor Guy Osborn and I are doing to restore the Soho Poly. Huge thanks to the Schools of Law and Humanities at Westminster which both supported the project, and the Arts, Communication and Culture research community which funded the online version of the play during lockdown.”
Book tickets to see DANCE live on the King’s Head Theatre website.
