The Rose Playhouse announces live-streamed play to save the theatre

It will be free to view from 21 November at 7.30pm, but donations to The Rose Playhouse are welcomed. The recording will be available after the live-stream on the playhouse’s YouTube channel. 

Based on verbatim accounts and historical documents, the performance is led by Dame Janet Suzman (as Queen Elizabeth I and Margaret Thatcher) and Michael Pennington (as an historical puritan and an archetypal famous actor from the demonstrations). 

Video testimonials from Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench will introduce the play, retelling their experiences of the fight to save The Rose. 

Alongside Dame Janet Suzman and Michael Pennington, cast members include Jeff Rawle, Lily Nichol, Sir Simon Hughes and members of the Rose community who were interviewed for the project. The play was written and directed by Ben Prusiner. 

Prusiner said, ‘Plagues have closed down our theatres before and they have always found a way to survive. The fight for The Rose is a reminder that theatre is for everyone and that it takes all of us to save it.

‘This production not only celebrates the history of The Rose Playhouse and the community that came together around it, but will help to raise much-needed funds for the Rose Revealed project. This will finish the excavation after three decades, properly conserve the site and exhibit it for everyone to enjoy for generations to come.’

The play will be available live at www.roseplayhouse.org.uk