Summer Celebration

A sizzling taste of Shakespeare, Noël Coward and Olympic dreams

THE GRAND TOUR
All aboard for the roaring 20s! Setting out for Europe, our heroine, a doughty American spinster, can't believe her luck when she embarks on her cruise and finds herself in the company of a feast of famous faces. However, it turns out that Noël Coward, Gertrude Stein and George Bernard Shaw, to name but a few, aren't necessarily the friendliest of shipmates. Add stowaways and a rather handsome Chief Steward into the mix and things might get a little... complicated.

Choreographer of many films and hit Broadway shows, American Joe Layton's The Grand Tour is a genuinely funny take on the eccentric celebrities that populated England's stages, screens and newspapers in the 1920s. Accompanied by unique orchestral renditions of Noël Coward songs, the critically-acclaimed The Grand Tour makes a long-overdue return to the stage.


FASTER
A ballet inspired by the Olympic motto, Faster, Higher, Stronger
A brand-new ballet from the award-winning team behind E=mc². After winning the last ever South Bank Show Dance award in 2010 with E=mc², Company Director David Bintley embarks on a second collaboration with renowned Australian composer Matthew Hindson. This ballet of speed, power and athleticism will be a fitting creation for the lead-up to London 2012.

'Bursts on us with tremendous excitement'
The Sunday Times on E=mc²

'Pins you to your seat'
The Independent on E=mc²

'This is a dance masterpiece'
The Stage on E=mc²


THE DREAM
The course of true love never did run smooth... certainly not if a group of mischievous fairies have anything to do with it!

In Frederick Ashton's The Dream, having argued with beautiful Titania, Oberon, king of the fairies, seeks a suitable revenge. He orders the fairy Puck to transform a dopey local peasant into a donkey and cause Titania to fall in love with it. This he does, but things soon get out of hand - over-use of the love potion pits friend against friend and hilariously embroils four poor mortals in the fairies' games.

Felix Mendelsson's tuneful and instantly recognisable music to A Midsummer Night's Dream becomes the basis for Ashton's elfin comedy, as he shows his mastery of dance, theatre and humour, weaving and unravelling an other-worldly web of mischief.

'One of the happiest treats in the Ashton catalogue'
The Times

'A masterpiece of clarity'
The Guardian

'Very funny'
Manchester City Life