Simon Donaldson | Brennan Artists

The Lost King opens in cinemas on 7th October and features some hilarious performances by Simon Donaldson, Alison Peebles and Bruce Fummey.

In 2012, having been lost for over 500 years, the remains of King Richard III were discovered beneath a car park in Leicester. The search had been orchestrated by an amateur historian, Philippa Langley, whose unrelenting research had been met with incomprehension by her friends and family and with scepticism by experts and academics.

Co-written by Steve Coogan, The Lost King is the life-affirming true story of a woman who refused to be ignored and who took on the country’s most eminent historians, forcing them to think again about one of the most controversial kings in England’s history.

Super-talented Brennan Creatives client Andy McGregor’s Sleeping Warrior Theatre is embarking on a tour with both Crocodile Rock and A New Life.

A New Life features BAA’s Simon Donaldson as Robbie, one half of an overwhelmed pair of brand new parents. This heartfelt, surreal and truthful musical comedy may or may not feature a tap-dancing baby, and kicks off its tour on Saturday 24th September.

Crocodile Rock is a one-man musical featuring original music – a story about finding yourself, understanding others and being true to those you love.

Underwood Lane is a new John Byrne musical play written in the vintage style that audiences have come to love through his classic masterpieces The Slab Boys trilogy and TV hits Your Cheatin’ Heart and Tutti Frutti. This exciting new play features BAA clients Scott Fletcher, Julia Murray, Simon Donaldson, and Harry Ward.

Telling the tale of a young skiffle band trying to make it, Underwood Lane has it all: style, fierce love rivalry, broken hearts, dodgy dealers, religion, sex, death, and is written in memory of John’s Paisley buddy, Gerry Rafferty, who was born and brought up on the titular street.

Brilliantly funny and packed with iconic songs from the early sixties played live by a cast of ten actor-musicians under the musical direction of Hilary Brooks (Sunshine on Leith, Glasgow Girls), Underwood Lane, with set design by Becky Minto and costume design by John himself, promises to be a very special production for all lovers of Scottish theatre.

Screw is a new six-part drama coming to Channel 4 on Thursday 6th January, 2022. Set in fictional Long Marsh prison, Screw follows rookie officer, Rose (Derry Girls’ Jamie Lee O’Donnell) as she finds her way in the challenging world of men’s prisons. Filmed in Glasgow, Screw features BAA’s Simon Donaldson, Neil Leiper and Stephen Clyde, and will be available to view on demand on All4 straight after airing.

The Edinburgh Book Festival’s celebrated co-productions with the Royal Lyceum Theatre are back with more theatrical and musical explorations of scenes from much-loved books followed by discussions with the author and creative teams. BAA’s Simon Donaldson will feature in dramatic scenes from Denise Mina’s award-winning true crime novel The Long Drop.

Pay-what-you-can tickets for the online event (available live, then on-demand until 28 August) are on sale now. The in-person performances for this event are now sold-out, although ticket returns may be available nearer the time.

Alison Peebles, Bruce Fummey and Simon Donaldson are currently filming THE LOST KING directed by Stephen Frears, co-written by Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan and produced by Baby Cow.

The Lost King is based on the true story of how Richard III’s grave was discovered below a non-descript council-owned car park in Leicester a decade ago. The movie focuses on the story of Philippa Langley, the amateur historian and secretary of the Scottish branch of the Richard III Society whose passion and drive pushed the project forward – despite objection and ridicule from historians and academics. The king, killed in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, was successfully exhumed in 2012.

Penny is a 46-year-old teacher who has it sussed. She can deal with the stresses of the job, including the children, colleagues and parents through the art of Complete Disengagement. She relates much of her advice to the audience, illustrated by interactions she has with those she meets on a daily basis. But is her plan as fool proof as it seems?

Cora Bissett’s What Girls Are Made Of is returning, going out on tour from 9th April and features BAA’s Simon Donaldson and Harry Ward.

It’s 1992. In a small town in Fife, a girl is busting out of her skin to get out into the world and see what’s on offer. And an ad in the local paper declares: Band Seeks Singer.

Grunge has just gone global, scruffy indie kids are inheriting the earth, and a schoolgirl from Glenrothes is catapulted to a rock star lifestyle as the singer in a hot new indie band. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur, she was living the dream. Until she wasn’t.
Based on her meticulously detailed, pull-no-punches teenage diaries, this is the true story of Cora Bissett’s rollercoaster journey from the girl she was to the woman she wanted to be.

The tour kicks off at Citizens Theatre @ Tramway – for tickets and more info, click here

You couldn’t wish for a better Christmas treat than this year’s magical Webster Theatre pantomime, Aladdin, which features BAA’s Simon Donaldson.

Packed full with the spectacular mix of silliness, song & dance, goodies, baddies and amazing costumes that pantomime fans have come to expect, this year there’s also a magic carpet, a beautiful princess, an all-powerful genie and a lamp full of magic!

Ballyturk is Enda Walsh’s moving meditation on the brevity of our existence – a mundane village with echoes of Dylan Thomas’s Llareggub in Under Milk Wood, viewed through a Truman Show style filter of confined artificiality.

Explosions both literal and imagined, music and exhilarating physical comedy punctuate beautifully poetic renderings of life in the type of small town we have all visited, and, more likely, lived in. The result is exuberant, surreal, funny and gut-wrenchingly sad.

In 1992 a schoolgirl from Fife was catapulted to a rock star life in an indie band. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur, she was living the dream. Until she wasn’t. Based on her teenage diaries, this is the true story of Cora Bissett’s rollercoaster journey from the girl she was to the woman she wanted to be.

Margaret Holt embarked on a holiday romance with a difference and it changed her life. Falling in love with Scotland filled her with a burning desire to liberate the country from the English yoke. But what could a nine-year-old lass from Yorkshire do to make that dream come true? Join Margaret as she embarks on the journey of a lifetime.
Cast includes Tori Burgess and Simon Donaldson
Runs from 9th – 14th April
More information can be found here.

A story of true love , adventure and lots of laughter along the way. Join Belle as she falls in love with an unlikely suitor. Meet Aunt Jolly, Gastoff and the rest of the cast as they whisk you along in this all singing all dancing production of Beauty and the Beast.

Featuring our BAA client Simon Donaldson. The run begins 9th December. More information can be found here.

Simon Donaldson plays the role of ‘The Devil’ in Eastern Angles touring production of ‘The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart’ from 15th March – 27th May 2017.

Follow Prudencia – an academic on her way to attend a conference in Kelso. As snow starts to fall, she begins a mystical adventure of self-discovery accompanied by plenty of folky musical moments. The strange and beautiful Scottish tale is told by four mischievous storytellers. Sometimes they speak in boombastic rhyming verse, sometimes through beguiling traditional folk songs, which will set your toes tapping and your heart racing!

Originally produced by National Theatre of Scotland in 2011, Eastern Angles’ production will tour across the East from 15th March starting at the John Peel Centre in Stowmarket. Part live folk-gig, part folk tale, part barn-storming comedy – David Greig’s modern play will thrill and haunt in equal measure.

Kevin Lennon and Simon Donaldson are performing as Dusty Springfield’s two band members in the new Play, Pie, Pint production DUSTY WON’T PLAY all this week.

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