For the first time ever, writer / performer Mark Farrelly brings all three of his highly-acclaimed portraits of major creative figures together in a special rep season for the Bridge House Theatre. Book for two shows in the season and get £5 off, book for all 3 and get £10 off!

Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope

From a conventional upbringing to global notoriety via The Naked Civil Servant, Quentin Crisp was one of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century. Openly gay as early as the 1930s, Quentin spent decades being beaten up on London’s streets for his refusal to be anything less than himself. His courage, and the philosophy that evolved from those experiences, inspire to the present day.

Naked Hope depicts Quentin at two phases of his extraordinary life: alone in his Chelsea flat in the 1960s, certain that life has passed him by, and thirty years later, giving a performance of his one man show An Evening with Quentin Crisp in New York. Packed with witty gems on everything from cleaning (“Don’t bother – after the first four years the dust won’t get any worse”) to marriage (“Is there life after marriage? The answer is no”), Naked Hope is a glorious, uplifting celebration of the urgent necessity to be your true self.

Jarman

A mighty spirit is about to reawaken. Yours.

Derek Jarman: film-maker, painter, gardener at Prospect Cottage, activist, writer…his influence remains as strong as it was on the day AIDS killed him in 1994. But his story, one of the most extraordinary lives ever lived, has never been told. Until now.

This vibrant new solo play written and performed by Mark Farrelly (Quentin Crisp: Naked Hope, Howerd’s End) brings Derek back into being for a passionate, daring reminder of the courage it takes to truly live while you’re alive. A journey from Dungeness to deepest, brightest Soho and into the heart of one of our most iconoclastic artists.

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton

Patrick Hamilton was a dazzling success in his twenties, producing hit plays Rope (filmed by Hitchcock) and Gaslight, and classic novels Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude. But Hamilton was also an alcoholic, whose wit darkened as his inner and outer worlds collapsed. 

Covering the entire sweep of Hamilton’s thrilling life and writing, The Silence of Snow entertains and challenges, asking: why do so many of us get through life without feeling we ever truly knew another person?