Other Palace, London
Running time: 2hr 40min (including interval)
Age Restrictions: 14+
Tickets from £28.25
If you'd like to be the first to know when new events are announced, you can follow Soldier On below.
Soldier On is inspired by the stories writer/director Jonathan Lewis (writer of multi award-winning Our Boys) workshopped with British servicemen and women and their families over a five year period. The play returns to London following a sold out national tour to commemorate the end of the First World War.
The result is “as funny as it is heart-breaking” and lifts the lid on the vastness and complexity of Britain’s often overlooked and incredibly broad military community, the wives, partners, mothers, children and, of course, the servicemen and women themselves, and how they cope with the emotional, mental and physical effects and stresses of modern military service and its after effects.
In a bold initiative, and putting the play’s premise into action, the cast includes ex-service personnel as well as professional actors from Producer Amanda Faber’s Award Winning Theatre Company, The Soldiers’ Arts Academy cic.
The mixed cast brings a veracity and a genuine emotion seldom achieved in theatre. Audiences say they cannot tell who is an actor, or who is the veteran, and that question has them gripped from start to finish.
The play employs music, dance and mixed media. It is by turns viscerally realistic, shockingly funny, and intensely emotional.
Other Palace
Other Palace
12 Palace Street
London
SW1E 5JA
The Other Palace, formerly known as the St. James Theatre is a London West End theatre, and the first newly built theatre complex in central London for 30 years. It features a 312 seat theatre, a 100 seat studio theatre, a brasserie and lobby bar offering delicious food, fine wines and cocktails. Its location in SW1 alongside Buckingham Palace offers visitors the chance to step away from the crowded pavements of the West End and take sanctuary in the peaceful neighbourhood of the modern St James Theatre.
The Other Palace also incorporates a full broadcast TV facility enabling shows to be broadcast on BSkyB and to a worldwide audiences via online television.
The building was designed by Foster Wilson Architects and features a sculptured staircase designed by international award winning artist designer, Mark Humphrey. Crafted in Pietra Santa, by Porcelli Marmi, where Michelangelo carved David, the work of art staircase celebrates the best of British design alongside Italian craftsmanship.
The Other Palace's Creative Director Robert Mackintosh had been looking for the opportunity to create a smaller, off-Broadway type theatre for smaller shows or show just starting out. He'd felt that London was lacking in this type of venue for some time and so set out to make his dream a reality. Eventually, just the opportunity he had been looking for sprung up: a smaller theatre site on 12 Palace Street. He jumped on it and started developing his vision of the venue's future. The venue ended up being even more than he could have hoped for, not only did it have a theatre but also a studio and space besides for the lobby, bar, brasserie, and all the amenities The Other Palace offers today.
In September 2012 the theatre opened its doors for the first time with a performance of Sandi Toksvig’s Bully Boy, starring Anthony Andrews and Joshua Miles and shortly afterwards the The Other Palace studio space began showcasing excellent comedy, jazz and cabaret.
Travel by train: Victoria. Nearest tube: Victoria
