Primavera Productions is a professional theatre company founded in 2003 by

Tom Littler Tom Littler is a British theatre director and the Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London. He was the founder of theatre company Primavera Productions, a former Associate Director of Theatre503 formerly Artistic Director ...

, who is also the Artistic Director. It is based in London, UK. Primavera is particularly noted for its revivals of rarely performed plays, although this does not seem to be its exclusive focus. This has included the "Forgotten Classics" series of rehearsed readings at The King's Head Theatre, Islington. These have featured a performance of

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

's Manfred starring young British actor

Harry Lloyd Harry Charles Salusbury Lloyd (born 17 November 1983) is an English actor. His performance in the Channel 4 miniseries '' The Fear'' (2012) earned him a British Academy Television Award nomination. He gained prominence through his roles as Wil ...

, of

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

's Freshwater starring Edmund Kingsley, John Lyly's

Gallathea ''Gallathea'' or ''Galatea'' is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy by John Lyly. The first record of the play's performance was at Greenwich Palace on New Year's Day, 1588 where it was performed before Queen Elizabeth I and her court by th ...

starring Mary Nighy, and Charles Dickens's

No Thoroughfare ''No Thoroughfare'' is a stage play and novel by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, both released in December 1867. Background In 1867 Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated to produce a stage play titled ''No Thoroughfare: A Drama: ...

starring

Louise Brealey Louise Brealey (born 27 March 1979), also credited as Loo Brealey, is an English actress, writer and journalist. She played Molly Hooper in '' Sherlock'', Cass in ''Back'', Scottish professor Jude McDermid in ''Clique'', Gillian Chamberlain in ...

, all directed by Tom Littler. Other plays in the series not directed by Tom Littler included the first play in English by a woman (''Mariam'') and early works by American playwrights. In 2008 Primavera Productions announced a second "Forgotten Classics" series, including the 50th anniversary reading of T.S. Eliot's The Elder Statesman, starring

Christopher Timothy Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει� ...

, Joanna Christie, and

David Burt David Burt (1953) is a British actor, known primarily for his many and wide-ranging West End performances. David Burt is the son of Pip Hinton, better known for her role in '' Crackerjack'' alongside Eamonn Andrews and later Leslie Crowther. ...

; an unperformed play by John Osborne, "A Place Calling Itself Rome", which rewrites Shakespeare's

Coriolanus ''Coriolanus'' ( or ) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same yea ...

; and Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White. Primavera Productions also produced at the

Finborough Theatre The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world pr ...

where its 2007 work includes an opera by

Ethel Smyth Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended t ...

and a play by T. S. Eliot, '' The Confidential Clerk''. In 2008, Tom Littler directed the first ever revival of ''Jingo: A Farce of War'', a comedy by Charles Wood set in the last days of British occupation of Singapore before the humiliating surrender to the Japanese. Susannah Harker played Gwendoline and Anthony Howell played her ex-husband Ian. The revival was hailed as a rediscovery of a major playwright. Primavera's past productions have also included the Scottish premiere of Stephen Sondheim's ''Passion'' at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival (Scotsman Critics' Choice for Musicals / Opera), Into the Woods and

A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pers ...

at the Oxford Playhouse, a production of Frank McGuinness' version of Ibsen's ''

A Doll's House ''A Doll's House'' ( Danish and nb, Et dukkehjem; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having be ...

'' on tour, and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''As You Like It'' as the inaugural production at the Said Business School in Oxford. All of these productions were directed by Tom Littler. In 2009, Primavera Productions produced the first revival of Stephen Sondheim's first musical '' Saturday Night'' at the Jermyn Street Theatre. The show sold out for its run and successfully transferred to the

Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamber ...

in the West End and to Theatre Royal, Windsor. Primavera also produced Bryony Lavery's play ''Origin of the Species'' later that year at the Arcola Theatre.News article on Origin of the Species
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References

{{Reflist

External links

Primavera Productions website

The King's Head website

Talent agency profile of Director/Founder Tom Littler, and other folks involved with UK theatre

Review of The Confidential Clerk

Review of As You Like It

Times review of Jingo

Theatre companies in London British companies established in 2003 Organizations established in 2003 2003 establishments in England