If you’re in London tomorrow (March 7) give yourself a treat. Theatre Centre is having an Open Day at the Drill Hall, 16 Chenies Street, WC1, where the young people’s theatre company will be presenting Under the Bed by Brendan Murray in collaboration with the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff.
It’s a play for four to six-year-olds featuring a friendly hot-water bottle, a cockney monkey and a magic bed and will be preceded at 11.30am by a workshop. It’s a good opportunity for those not acquainted with the centre to see its high-quality work. The company is touring the show until the end of term. For a free place, ring Jo Hemmant on 0171 377 0379.
Soho Theatre Company is presenting winners of their Westminster schools playwrighting competition on March 16 at the ArtsUnicorn Theatre, Great Newport Street, London W1. Hosted by Richard (Victor Meldrew) Wilson, it will be the culmination of a pilot scheme involving 30 primary schools in workshops exploring creative writing in the national curriculum, run by Soho’s associate director Jonathan Lloyd. The scheme, funded by Marks amp; Spencer, is what the theatre company hopes is the first of many. For more information, ring 0171 493 8050.
Watershed Productions is touring an adaptation of E B White’s Charlotte’s Webb, written and directed by Chris Wallis. The play is on tour until April 18 at venues including: Poole Arts Centre from March 10-14 (01202 685222), the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon from March 4-April 4 (0181 688 9291), and the Arts Theatre, Cambridge from April 14-18 (01223 503333). For further information on the tour, ring Paul Tyrer on 0171 387 1555.
Quicksilver Theatre, one of the country’s leading children’s theatre companies, is presenting All By My Own, written and performed by Carey English, with a tour extension until July. It’s for under-fives and about a woman on a train who draws her audiencefellow passengers into helping prepare for her first meeting with her grand-daughter. For bookings, ring 0171 241 2942.
Cuckoo Time is Pop Up and Birmingham Rep’s joint production for four to eight-year-olds touring theatres, arts centres and schools until May. For details, ring 0171 837 7588.
Happy 25th Birthday to Nottingham’s Roundabout Theatre in Education, which enters its spring season with three shows for different age groups. They include The Knockout Solution by Rob Wetheridge, about alcohol, aimed at 13 to 16-year-olds. Ring 0115 947 6202.
Just one more week left to catch The Whizz Kid at the Dukes Theatre, Lancaster. Written by Dutch writer Suzanne Van Lohuizen and aimed at four to eight-year-olds, it’s a piece of physical theatre about a couple who go in search of their missing boy. For bookings, ring 01524 66645.
Greenwich Theatre is in the most ironic position: having failed to secure pound;90,000 funding from the London Arts Board, it is to close - in the shadow of the multi-million pound Millennium Dome. Its last production, Romeo and Juliet, features Nicholas Irons and Kate Fleetwood as the lovers, and director Rupert Goold. Until March 28; tel: 0181 858 7755. (The number for Greenwich Young People’s Theatre is 0181 854 1316, and not as published on February 20.) Shakespeare’s Globe has announced its 1998 season, with As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice as the choice of plays by Shakespeare. There will be numerous activities associated with the plays, beginning with a lecture by James Shapiro, author of Shakespeare and the Jews on March 9 at 7pm. Box office: 0171 401 9919.
