Welcome to The Synergy Theatre

Around the World with Synergy

As Synergy continues its collaboration with Priory School in Lewes, so we get to meet more and more young people who display talents far beyond their years. Our recent production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible was a perfect example of this – we had eight students in the cast (and one valiant teacher!) and we were pleased to welcome young people from other Sussex schools who were invaluable as part of our technical and backstage crew. Thank you to everyone who was involved in the production and also to those who came and supported us – however good a play is, it is nothing without an audience! Miller’s tale of mass hysteria is a complex text and we are all very proud of the maturity displayed by our younger actors in tackling such a difficult piece. Our older actors were fairly mature, too – most of the time!  

After such a harrowing tale, a little light relief is called for and we are delighted to be performing Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest in February, again at Priory School. For more information on this delicious and sparkling comedy of manners, please visit our Current page.  

We return to Kingston Parish Hall in April for our next Synergy Studio production. Our inaugural Studio production of Boston Marriage was very warmly received by our audiences there and we are looking forward to performing our next Studio venture of two shorter pieces – the first, Suzannah, is an ‘imagination’ on the life of Mrs. Henrik Ibsen, written by Norway’s premier contemporary playwright, Jon Fosse. Described as ‘a monologue for three actors’, Suzannah tells the unheard story of Suzannah Thoresen and how she coped with her life as the wife, muse and gatekeeper (!) of Norway’s best known (and potentially its most bad tempered!) playwright.  Our second short piece is one of Alan Bennett’s brilliant Talking Heads – we will be presenting ‘Her Big Chance’, so memorably performed by Julie Walters on screen. ‘Her Big Chance’ is the story of Leslie, a young actress, as she tries to make a career for herself in film. Have a look at our Next page for more information on these two pieces.  

Then we return, in July, to the beautiful setting of Southover Grange gardens for our annual outdoor Shakespeare and, this year, it’s Macbeth. One of Shakespeare’s most familiar plays, Macbeth deals with politics, rivalry and, yes, those three witches who know everything and have a very large cauldron… We will also be taking Macbeth to The Crouch Gardens in Seaford before we go, once again, to Norway in August. Visit our Future page for details about Macbeth.

Why ‘Around the World’? We began our Season in Salem, Massachusetts. We now travel to London and Hertfordshire with Earnest before jetting over the North Sea to Norway to meet Suzannah. We take a mini-break on a film set in Germany with Leslie in ‘Her Big Chance’ before returning to England, via Scotland, with Macbeth – and all without leaving East Sussex!

I look forward to seeing you at a Synergy show soon.

David Parton
Artistic Director
The Synergy Theatre Company