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CHICHESTER FESTIVAL THEATRE ANNOUNCES FESTIVAL 2017 SEASON

Daniel Evans and Rachel Tackley announce Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2017 season – the first under their leadership as Artistic Director and Executive Director.

 Chichester’s Festival 2017 embraces classic and contemporary plays and musicals, with headline actors including Sharon D. Clarke, Omid Djalili, Marcia Gay Harden, Ian McKellen, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Brian J. Smith and Richard Wilson

 New plays by Deborah Bruce, James Graham and Edna O’Brien

 Directors are Lisa Blair, Daniel Evans, Richard Eyre, Jeremy Herrin, Jonathan Kent, Michael Longhurst, Blanche McIntyre, Jonathan Munby and Dale Rooks

 10,000 tickets available at £10, and 10,000 PROLOGUE tickets for 16 – 25 year olds at £5

 Major revivals:

 Richard Wilson leads the cast in Alan Bennett’s FORTY YEARS ON, directed by Daniel Evans

 Academy and Tony Award-winner Marcia Gay Harden makes her UK theatre debut with Brian J. Smith in Tennessee Williams’ SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, directed by Jonathan Kent

 Jonathan Munby directs KING LEAR with an ensemble cast including Ian McKellen

 Githa Sowerby’s THE STEPMOTHER is directed by Richard Eyre

 Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy THE NORMAN CONQUESTS is directed by Blanche McIntyre

 Two musicals:  Michael Longhurst directs Sharon D. Clarke in the first new UK production of

Tony Kushner & Jeanine Tesori’s CAROLINE, OR CHANGE

 Daniel Evans directs FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, with Omid Djalili and TracyAnn Oberman

 Three new plays:

 QUIZ by James Graham, directed by Daniel Evans

 THE HOUSE THEY GREW UP IN by Deborah Bruce, directed by Jeremy Herrin in a co-production with Headlong

 THE COUNTRY GIRLS by Edna O’Brien, directed by Lisa Blair

 Chichester Festival Youth Theatre presents Philip Pullman’s GRIMM TALES at Cass Sculpture Foundation, and a new adaptation of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in the Festival Theatre for Christmas, both directed by Dale Rooks

Festival 2017 marks the beginning of a new era at Chichester Festival Theatre under the leadership of Artistic Director Daniel Evans and Executive Director Rachel Tackley.

Their first season, which stretches from April to November, sees directors Lisa Blair, Michael Longhurst and Blanche McIntyre making their Chichester debuts, while welcoming back Richard Eyre, Jeremy Herrin, Jonathan Kent, Jonathan Munby and Dale Rooks. Among the leading actors announced so far are Sharon D. Clarke, Omid Djalili, Marcia Gay Harden, Ian McKellen, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Brian J. Smith and Richard Wilson.

Daniel Evans and Rachel Tackley said: ‘We are thrilled to introduce our first season at the helm of Chichester Festival Theatre. It’s been a joy to put together a variety of work created by some of the most exciting artists in the country.

‘We’re delighted to welcome those who are new to Chichester, such as Marcia Gay Harden, Sharon D. Clarke, Omid Djalili and Edna O’Brien, and the many who are making return visits – among them Ian McKellen, Richard Wilson, Jonathan Kent and Richard Eyre. ‘It’s a particular pleasure that some of the UK’s most talented young designers and creative artists will be working on this year’s productions, and we’re also offering new opportunities for six assistant directors at the start of their careers.

‘There will be over 10,000 tickets available at £10 in the Festival Theatre, and the price of tickets for 16 to 25 year olds has been reduced to £5. For the first time there will be a Relaxed Performance of our summer musical, Fiddler on the Roof; there’ll be free entertainment for everyone in Oaklands Park and a Fun Palace weekend in October. We hope that everyone will find something to enjoy.’

FESTIVAL 2017 PRODUCTIONS – APRIL TO NOVEMBER 2017

FORTY YEARS ON by Alan Bennett

Directed by Daniel Evans 21 April – 20 May,

Festival Theatre Press night: Wednesday 26 April

1968. A public school on the South Downs. The Headmaster is retiring and today is his last day. His final task is to appear in the school play. The problem is: he’s yet to read the script. It soon becomes clear that ‘Speak for England, Arthur’ is not quite the celebration of school tradition the headmaster might have expected.

A glorious comedy, Alan Bennett’s first play is a hilarious and at times unnerving enquiry into Englishness, nostalgia and identity. Written at a time of tumultuous social change it explores, with great satirical verve, the impact of the past on the present.

Alan Bennett is one of our most cherished writers, internationally famous for classics such as Talking Heads,The Madness of George III, The History Boys and The Lady in the Van.

Daniel Evans, Chichester’s new Artistic Director, opens Festival 2017 directing a cast which will include over 50 local young people. For the last seven years he was Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, which was named Regional Theatre of the Year for the third time in The Stage 2017 Awards.

The company will be led by Richard Wilson as the Headmaster. Having directed FRACKED! for Festival 2016, the much-loved star of TV’s One Foot in the Grave appears as an actor at Chichester for the first time; his recent stage work includes Krapp’s Last Tape (Sheffield Theatres).

Forty Years On will be designed by Lez Brotherston, with musical direction and arrangements by Tom Brady, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by Emma Laxton, video by Nina Dunn and movement by Naomi Said.

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE

Book and lyrics by Tony Kushner

Music by Jeanine Tesori

Directed by Michael Longhurst

6 May – 3 June, Minerva Theatre

Press night: Thursday 11 May

1963. Lake Charles, Louisiana. Caroline Thibodeaux is an African American maid earning thirty dollars a week working for the Jewish Gellman family. She is thirty-nine, a single parent and the mother of four children.

Eight-year-old Noah Gellman visits Caroline in the basement as she works, washing and ironing. But when the boy begins leaving loose change in his laundry, his stepmother Rose devises a deterrent with revealing and far-reaching consequences.

This Olivier Award-winning musical mixes blues, soul, Motown, classical music and Jewish folk songs to create a beautiful, uplifting and deeply moving portrait of America at a time of momentous social upheaval spurred by the civil rights movement. The Broadway production was re-staged at the National Theatre in 2006; this will be the first new UK production.

Author of the ground-breaking Angels in America (which is revived at the National Theatre this spring), Tony Kushner’s book and lyrics were partly inspired by his own boyhood. The score is by Jeanine Tesori, whose musical Fun Home won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score.

Michael Longhurst’s acclaimed 2016 revival of Amadeus at the National Theatre will return there next year. His previous productions include Nick Payne’s plays Constellations (London and New York) and If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet (Broadway), and Simon Stephens’ Carmen Disruption (Almeida).

Sharon D. Clarke makes her Chichester debut in the title role. Equally renowned as a singer and actor, her Olivier Award-winning stage and screen work encompasses Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Amen Corner at the National Theatre, Ghost the Musical and We Will Rock You in the West End, and Holby City on TV.

Caroline, Or Change will be designed by Fly Davis, with choreography by Ann Yee, musical direction by Nigel Lilley, lighting by Jack Knowles and sound by Paul Arditti.

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH

by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Jonathan Kent

2 – 24 June, Festival Theatre

Press night: Friday 9 June

1956, a hotel on the Gulf of Mexico. Alexandra del Lago, a fading Hollywood legend, has fled the ridicule that greeted the premiere of her come-back movie. Desperate for anonymity and forgetfulness, she is holed up in a small seaside town on the Gulf of Mexico.

With her is Chance Wayne – a young hustler, trying to lend his wasted, disreputable life some meaning and now returning home to reclaim his childhood love from her ruthless father, the corrupt politician ‘Boss’ Finley.

In perhaps his most searing and personal of plays, Tennessee Williams examines failed ambition, lost youth and love, and the corruption and bigotry that lurks beneath the American Dream. As the present-day United States faces uncertainty and momentous change, Sweet Bird of Youth is a portrayal of the degradation of American values and the corrosive lure of celebrity.

Director Jonathan Kent returns to Chichester following his acclaimed productions of the Young Chekhov Trilogy, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd and Private Lives, all of which transferred to London.

Oscar and Tony Award-winning actor Marcia Gay Harden makes her UK theatre debut as Alexandra. Her films include Miller’s Crossing, Pollock, Mystic River and the Fifty Shades trilogy, while television includes Law and Order: SVU and Code Black. She made an acclaimed Broadway debut in Angels in America and won a Tony Award for God of Carnage.

Brian J. Smith, who plays Chance, is currently reprising his Tony-nominated Broadway role as the Gentleman Caller in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie in the West End. His screen work includes Hate Crime, Stargate Universe and Netflix’s Sense8.

The production will be designed by Anthony Ward, with lighting by Mark Henderson, music by Debbie Wiseman, sound by Paul Groothuis and video by Andrzej Goulding.

THE COUNTRY GIRLS

by Edna O’Brien

Directed by Lisa Blair

9 June – 8 July, Minerva Theatre

Press night: Wednesday 14 June

The 1950s. Rural Ireland. Kate and Baba are best friends who long to escape their traditional families and convent school. When they finally rebel and make a break for it, their lives burst open.

As they forge new identities in Dublin, the childhood friends must discover if it is possible to grow up without growing apart.

Edna O’Brien’s novel The Country Girls was controversially banned in Ireland on publication in 1960. From her much-loved book, she has created a new free-flowing play which is a frank, lyrical and wrenching exploration of young women, the loss of innocence and the tenacity of love and hope.

Edna O’Brien’s novels also include The Lonely Girl, Girls in Their Married Bliss and The Little Red Chairs; non-fiction includes her memoir Country Girl.

Director Lisa Blair makes her debut at Chichester; her recent productions include Mike Bartlett’s Contractions at Sheffield Crucible and Faust X2 at the Watermill, Newbury.

The Country Girls will be designed by Richard Kent, with lighting by Lizzie Powell, music by Isobel Waller-Bridge and sound by Christopher Shutt.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

Based on the Sholem Aleichem Stories, By Special Permission of Arnold Perl

Book by Joseph Stein

Music by Jerry Bock

Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Produced on the New York Stage by Harold Prince

Original New York Stage Production Directed by and Choreographed by Jerome Robbins

Directed by Daniel Evans

10 July – 26 August, Festival Theatre

Press night: Tuesday 18 July

1905. A small village in Imperial Russia. Tevye, a poor dairyman, and his wife, Golde, are blessed with five witty and beautiful daughters. The matchmaker Yente, who believes any husband is better than no husband, is busy making sensible marriage plans for them all.

But Tevye’s bold daughters have their own ideas about who to marry. And as change and new ideas roll in from the big cities, dissolving the old ways of life, the sisters are not alone in their lust for something new.

This celebrated and much loved musical is packed with show-stopping songs including the hits If I Were A Rich Man, Tradition and Matchmaker. The original record-breaking Broadway production won nine Tony Awards including Best Musical. This brand new staging is directed by Daniel Evans, whose hit productions at Sheffield Theatres included Show Boat, My Fair Lady and Flowers for Mrs Harris. His outstanding creative team includes designer Lez Brotherston (Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Sister Act) and choreographer Alistair David (Show Boat, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers).

Omid Djalili makes his Chichester debut playing Tevye. A multi award-winning comedian and actor, his stage credits include Oliver! in the West End and, on film, The Infidel, Shaun the Sheep and Casanova.

Tracy-Ann Oberman plays Golde; her stage credits include Boeing-Boeing and Stepping Out in the West End, while her extensive TV work includes New Tricks, EastEnders and Friday Night Dinner.

The musical supervisor and orchestrator will be David White, the co-orchestrator will be Andy Massey and the musical director, Tom Brady; with lighting by David Hersey and sound by Carolyn Downing.

There will be a Relaxed Performance of Fiddler on the Roof on 26 July at 2.30pm, especially suitable for individuals, groups and families with children on the autistic spectrum, sensory and communication disorders or anyone who would benefit from a more relaxed theatre environment.

THE HOUSE THEY GREW UP IN

A new play by Deborah Bruce

Directed by Jeremy Herrin

A co-production with Headlong

14 July – 5 August, Minerva Theatre

Press night: Friday 21 July

The present day. A residential street in South East London. The house where reclusive siblings Peppy and Daniel were born is now stuffed full of everything they have ever owned. This hoard, their eccentric appearance and rampant garden hedge, set them conspicuously apart from others on their road.

When young Ben visits from next door he is simply looking for friendship; but what happens next challenges everyone’s idea of neighbourliness.

The House They Grew Up In is a tender, dark and funny look at a co-dependent relationship between a brother and a sister, and how they cope when the world bursts in on them. It explores how, in an age of anxiety, we live alongside those different to us.

Deborah Bruce’s first play was Godchild (Hampstead 2013); her second, The Distance, premiered at the Orange Tree Theatre and was revived there and in Sheffield in 2015 and nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Artistic Director of Headlong Jeremy Herrin returns to Chichester where his recent work includes This House, South Downs and Another Country.

The production will be designed by Max Jones, with lighting by Natasha Chivers.

Chichester Festival Youth Theatre present

Philip Pullman’s GRIMM TALES for Young and Old

Adapted by Philip Wilson

Directed by Dale Rooks

4 – 19 August, Cass Sculpture Foundation

Press performances: Wednesday 9 August, 7.15pm & Thursday 17 August, 3pm

Once upon a time, in a land far away… In a fantastical fairy tale world, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel and Rapunzel follow their destinies alongside other, stranger folk: mythical creatures, proud princesses, wicked witches and bold princes.

This bewitching and eerie patchwork of tales is woven by an ensemble of quirky storytellers and a troupe of musicians. Follow them through the enchanted pathways and darker twists and turns of the beautifully landscaped Cass Sculpture Foundation – if you dare….

Author of His Dark Materials and The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, Philip Pullman’s retelling of the original stories by the Brothers Grimm appeals to adults as much as children, preserving their macabre simplicity and legendary fascination.

Directed by Dale Rooks, the renowned Chichester Festival Youth Theatre return to Cass Sculpture Foundation where they staged Running Wild in 2015, winning the UK Theatre Award for Best Show for Children and Young People.

The audience will follow the production on foot through a variety of locations, including some steep and uneven ground. Suitable for ages 8+.

Grimm Tales will be designed by Ryan Dawson Laight, with music by Eamonn O’Dwyer.

THE STEPMOTHER

by Githa Sowerby

Directed by Richard Eyre

11 August – 9 September, Minerva Theatre

Press night: Thursday 17 August

1924. A comfortable house in Surrey. When the orphaned Lois Relph accepts a marriage proposal from an older man, Eustace Gaydon, she believes she’s been rescued from an uncertain future. Establishing a successful business as a dress designer, Lois leaves her fortune in her husband’s hands.

But when one of her devoted step-daughters needs her help, Lois is forced to address what drew Eustace to her in the first place – and, at last, to face the dark truth at the heart of her marriage.

This gripping drama is a searing look at manipulation, money and matrimony. What price a woman’s autonomy within a man’s world?

Playwright Githa Sowerby’s most famous play, Rutherford and Son, is acknowledged as one of the most influential plays of the 20th century.

Richard Eyre returns to Chichester to direct this rediscovered gem; formerly Director of the National Theatre, his work at Chichester includes The Pajama Game and The Last Cigarette, while recent productions also include his award-winning revival of Ghosts (Almeida, West End & New York).

The production will be designed by Tim Hatley, with lighting by Peter Mumford and sound by John Leonard.

KING LEAR

by William Shakespeare

Directed by Jonathan Munby

22 September – 28 October, Minerva Theatre

Press night: Friday 29 September

Two ageing fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery – and their worlds crumble.

Tender, violent, moving and shocking, King Lear is considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written. This will be an explosive, charged and contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s epic masterpiece in the intimate setting of the Minerva Theatre.

Jonathan Munby directs, following his acclaimed production of First Light for Festival 2016. His work for Shakespeare’s Globe includes All the Angels, The Merchant of Venice and Antony and Cleopatra; his recent work for the RSC includes Wendy & Peter Pan.

The ensemble of actors includes Ian McKellen in the title role, who last appeared at Chichester in The Syndicate in 2011. His recent stage work includes No Man’s Land in the West End and on Broadway.

King Lear will be designed by Paul Wills, with lighting by Oliver Fenwick, music and sound by Ben and Max Ringham, and movement by Lucy Cullingford

THE NORMAN CONQUESTS A trilogy of plays by Alan Ayckbourn

Directed by Blanche McIntyre

18 September – 28 October, Festival Theatre

Press performances: Tuesday 3 October at 11am, 3pm & 7pm

An English country house. A summer weekend. A family gathering. Norman would like to seduce Annie, though he’s married to her sister, Ruth. He’s also got his eye on Sarah, though she’s married to Reg – who is Annie and Ruth’s brother. Tom, from next door, isn’t married to anyone: though he too nurses secret hopes beneath his stoical surface.

With pungent wit and sparkling ingenuity, Alan Ayckbourn fashions the thwarted desires and bittersweet absurdity of family life into a comic masterpiece.

This classic trio of interconnecting plays, seen from hilariously differing perspectives, is performed by one ensemble of actors. Each play can be enjoyed as a single performance or seen as one event in any sequence, either over different days or on trilogy days.

Table Manners

Saturday. 6pm. The dining room. Where no-one is looking forward to Annie’s limp salad, or her mother’s lethal home-made dandelion, parsnip or carrot wine.

Living Together

Saturday. 6.30pm. The sitting room. With a wind-up gramophone, a pouffe, magazines, and a very, very inviting fur rug.

Round and Round the Garden

Saturday. 5.30pm. The garden. It’s not the only thing that’s looking wild and very, very tangled.

Alan Ayckbourn is Britain’s most prolific and popular contemporary playwright with over eighty plays to his name. Recent productions at Chichester include Way Upstream, Absurd Person Singular and Surprises.

Blanche McIntyre directs at Chichester for the first time; an Associate Director at Nuffield Theatre, her recent work includes Titus Andronicus and Two Noble Kinsmen (RSC), Anouilh’s Welcome Home Captain Fox! (Donmar Warehouse) and Stoppard’s Arcadia (ETT).

The Norman Conquests will be designed by Simon Higlett with lighting by Johanna Town, music by Olly Fox and sound by George Dennis.

QUIZ A new play by James Graham

Directed by Daniel Evans

3 November – 2 December, Minerva Theatre

Press night: Friday 10 November

Is Quiz:

A) The world premiere of a new play by acclaimed writer James Graham?

B) A provocative re-examination of the conviction of Charles Ingram, ‘the coughing Major’, for cheating, following his appearance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

C) A hilarious celebration of the great tradition of the British quiz show?

D) A razor-sharp analysis of the 21st century’s dangerous new attitude to truth and lies?

Answer: You decide.

James Graham’s This House transferred to the West End following sell-out runs during Festival 2016 and at the National Theatre. His work for theatre in the UK and US includes The Vote and Privacy for the Donmar Warehouse, Finding Neverland on Broadway, Coalition for Channel 4 and the screenplay X+Y.

Daniel Evans recently directed David Mamet’s American Buffalo in the West End; his productions at Sheffield Theatres included Lucy Prebble’s The Effect and David Hare’s Racing Demon.

Quiz will be designed by Robert Jones, with music and sound by Ben and Max Ringham, and video by Tim Reid.

Chichester Festival Youth Theatre present

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST A new adaptation from the original fairy tale

Directed by Dale Rooks

16 – 31 December, Festival Theatre

Press night: Tuesday 19 December

A cursed prince sits alone in an enchanted castle, destined to remain in monstrous form until he can learn to love and be loved in return. But who could ever love a Beast?

Offered a gift by her father, a kind and beautiful young girl asks only for a rose while her brothers and sisters demand jewels and fashionable clothes. But the fulfilment of Beauty’s simple wish puts her in the Beast’s power. He offers her luxury and riches in return for her hand; but can she bring herself to accept his proposals of marriage?

The award-winning Chichester Festival Youth Theatre present a brand new adaptation of the much loved classic in this year’s Christmas production. Prejudice, jealousy, compassion and love are woven through this magical story, studded with enchanting and deliciously scary characters.

Dale Rooks, whose work with CFYT includes Running Wild, A Christmas Carol and Peter Pan, directs a visually spectacular show featuring newly composed songs and wonderfully inventive designs, suitable for ages 7+.

Set design for Beauty and the Beast will be by Simon Higlett, with costumes by Ryan Dawson Laight, lighting by James Whiteside and sound by Gregory Clarke.

There will be a Relaxed Performance of Beauty and the Beast on 31 December at 11am.

FESTIVAL 2017 EVENTS

Talks, tours, performances and hands-on activities for all ages will offer additional insights into Festival 2017. Highlights include talks with Marcia Gay Harden, Alan Bennett and Edna O’Brien; debates and discussion on subjects including The State of Education and The Trump Effect; Inua Ellams’ An Evening with an Immigrant; a Late Night Cabaret and a Theatre Quiz.

Free musical events inspired by the productions will take place in Oaklands Park, including Music and Food for the Soul and A Fiddler on the Roof. In October, the Festival Theatre will take part in Fun Palaces, the nationwide celebration of arts and culture.

Events for 16 to 25 year olds include a conversation with Daniel Evans. CFT’s Learning, Education and Participation (LEAP) team lead an insight into careers in theatre with Creative Choices, and events for Living Well with Dementia. Workshops for families include Once Upon A Time and Shakespeare for Families.

BEYOND CHICHESTER

Earlier productions originated at Chichester are continuing their lives beyond West Sussex: Michael Morpurgo’s Running Wild, adapted by Samuel Adamson, is on tour with the Children’s Touring Partnership until June, while Half A Sixpence is currently booking at the Noël Coward Theatre until 2 September 2017. James Graham’s This House ends its limited run at the Garrick Theatre on 25 February, while Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing end their runs at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 18 March.

BOOKING INFORMATION

Priority booking for Friends of Chichester Festival Theatre opens:

Saturday 25 February (online and booking forms only)

Wednesday 1 March (phone and in person)

Public booking opens:

Saturday 4 March (online only)

Tuesday 7 March (phone and in person)

(For Grimm Tales at Cass Sculpture Foundation, Friends’ priority booking opens Monday 3 April, public booking opens Thursday 6 April.)

cft.org.uk Box Office 01243 781312

Tickets from £10

Prologue:

£5 tickets for 16 – 25s 10,000 £5 tickets are available for 16 to 25 year-olds for all productions throughout Festival 2017; sign up for free at cft.org.uk/prologue. Members also have access to a range of exclusive events.

Twitter @ChichesterFT

Facebook ChichesterFestivalTheatre

Instagram ChichesterFT

YouTube ChichesterTheatre

#Festival2017

Festival 2017 sponsors

Forty Years On is sponsored by Jackson-Stops & Staff, Oldham Seals Group and Wiley

Caroline, Or Change is sponsored by Genesis Town Planning and Lancing College

Sweet Bird of Youth is sponsored by Covers Timber & Builders Merchant and Harwoods Group

The Country Girls is sponsored by University of Chichester

Fiddler on the Roof is sponsored by Henry Adams, ITD Consultants, Reynolds Fine Furniture and Seaward Properties

The House They Grew Up In is sponsored by Bishops Printers Grimm Tales is sponsored by Kenwood and Mercer

The Stepmother is sponsored by Hentys Corporate

King Lear is sponsored by Domusea Developments

The Norman Conquests is sponsored by Conquest Bespoke Furniture and Irwin Mitchell Quiz is sponsored by De’Longhi

Beauty and the Beast is sponsored by Kenwood and Mercer

Festival 2017 press nights

Forty Years On, Festival Theatre Wednesday 26 April, 7.00pm

Caroline, Or Change, Minerva Theatre Thursday 11 May, 7.00pm

Sweet Bird of Youth, Festival Theatre Friday 9 June, 7.00pm

The Country Girls, Minerva Theatre Wednesday 14 June, 7.00pm

Fiddler on the Roof, Festival Theatre Tuesday 18 July, 7.00pm

The House They Grew Up In, Minerva Theatre Friday 21 July, 7.00pm

Grimm Tales (CFYT), Cass Sculpture Foundation Wednesday 9 August, 7.15pm/ Thursday 17 August, 3pm

The Stepmother, Minerva Theatre Thursday 17 August, 7.00pm

King Lear, Minerva Theatre Friday 29 September, 7.00pm

The Norman Conquests, Festival Theatre Tuesday 3 October,11.00am, 3.00pm, 7.00pm

Quiz, Minerva Theatre Friday 10 November, 7.00pm

Beauty and the Beast (CFYT), Festival Theatre Tuesday 19 December, 7.00pm

Get Connected… with theatre and science at this year’s
Edinburgh International Science Festival

Girl in the machine presented by Traverse Theatre Company

The 2017 Edinburgh International Science Festival gets underway on 1 April, with a packed programme of events for all ages.

This year’s theatre programme is the biggest-ever, bringing together the wonder of theatre with the explosive world of science and technology. New work includes Girl in the Machine by Traverse Associate Artist Stef Smith, directed by Traverse Artistic Director Orla O’Loughlin, and for young audiences, Grid Iron and Lung Ha Theatre Company have teamed up to produce Dr Stirlingshire’s Discovery, a walking production at Edinburgh Zoo.

The Bunker 11 February – 11 March.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

Max Gill’s new adaptation of Schnitzler’s La Ronde is bold and entertaining. The cycle of sexual encounters sticks roughly to Schnitzler’s original characters, the most inspired change being the replacement of the soldier with a bus driver.

The cast of four’s fate lies in the spin of the wheel that dominates the stage, determining who plays each character in each scene. This is the aspect that could divide an audience. The spin can be overlong if the actor gets carried away, and a few people around me were initially unimpressed. On press night, the wheel failed to stop on Leemore Marrett Jr at all, meaning he only appeared in the final scenes by default – leading to laughter and groans from the audience as he kept missing out by mere inches. The roles are gender non-specific, resulting in a show that celebrates diversity and explores the shifting balance of power in relationships. This also makes you think about the possible combinations and your reaction if the genders of the actors were changed. Would you be laughing quite so much? There are some darker moments, where the characters seem to be about to reveal something more about themselves, but then, with an awkward faux pas or flippant one liner it slips back into comedy. I don’t know whether Gill is consciously making a statement about the typical British avoidance of serious issues by hiding behind humour, but there was a lot of that going on in the play.

The cast do a fine job, having to know every role inside out, and make sure that the brief time each character has on stage is relevant. Lauren Samuels, selected for the most overtly comedic roles on the night, was fantastic; Amanda Wilkin and Alex Vlahos had more variety in the characters they played and both were impressive and charming. Leemore Marrett Jr – who knows? But that’s the thing about this production. You leave thinking about the different combinations and who you’d like to see play certain roles, meaning that maybe a second viewing is needed.

MIRANDA HART TO MAKE WEST END THEATRE DEBUT AS MISS HANNIGAN IN

A N N I E

OPENING AT THE PICCADILLY THEATRE MAY 2017

CHILDREN’S TICKETS HALF PRICE MONDAY TO THURSDAY

Multi award-winning comedy writer, actor and author Miranda Hart, will make her West End Theatre debut as Miss Hannigan in Annie opening in the West End in May 2017.  Previews at the Piccadilly Theatre will begin on 23 May 2017 with opening night on 5 June 2017.  The production, directed by Nikolai Foster, will be produced by Michael Harrison and David Ian.  Further casting will be announced shortly.

Miranda Hart said: “Miss Hannigan is a dream role, and certainly has been for me, but I never thought it would be a reality.  But here we are and I have a newly found musical theatre-esque spring in my step!  I hope people will leave the theatre feeling life is a little better and dreamier and jollier after watching it, as much as we feel that performing it.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some leg-warmers to put on…”

Public booking for Annie opens on Monday 27 February 2017 at 10am with the production initially booking to 6 January 2018.  Children’s tickets will be half price for Monday to Thursday performances (see listings information below).

Set in 1930s New York during The Great Depression, brave young Annie is forced to live a life of misery and torment at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage. Her luck changes when she is chosen to spend Christmas at the residence of famous billionaire, Oliver Warbucks. Meanwhile, spiteful Miss Hannigan has other ideas and hatches a plan to spoil Annie’s search for her true family…

Annie has book by Thomas Meehan adapted from the comic strip Little Orphan Annie, music byCharles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin.  The West End production will have sets and costumes designed by Colin Richmond, choreography by Nick Winston, lighting by Ben Cracknell, sound design by Richard Brooker and orchestration and musical direction byGeorge Dyer. 

Foster’s production arrives in the West End 40 years after the original Broadway production opened in 1977 and received seven Tony awards including the Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book.  The last West End production of Annie opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre in 1998. In 1982, Annie was adapted for the big screen directed by John Huston with a cast including Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters and Albert Finney and in 2014 a further feature film was released, directed by Will Gluck, with a cast including Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx.  The much-loved score includes the classics It’s A Hard Knock Life, Tomorrow and Easy Street.

Miranda Hart is best known on television for her hugely successful, semi-auto-biographical and multi award-wining BBC sitcom Miranda which ran from 2009 for 3 series and 2 specials. She was the recipient of a BAFTA nomination, an NTA Award and two TV Choice Awards for her performance as Chummy in the BBC television drama Call the Midwife.  In 2014 she completed her first sell out stand-up arena tour My, What I Call, Live Show culminating in five shows at London’s 02 Arena.  As a best-selling author her first book Is It Just Me? was the biggest selling non-fiction hardback of 2013 winning Non-Fiction Book of the Year at The National Book Awards. She followed this in 2014 with The Best of Miranda and last year released her third book Peggy and Me.  Her theatre credits include Cruising for The Bush Theatre, Come Out Eli for Battersea Arts Centre, All About Me for Soho Theatre as well as multiple appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her film credits include Spy, The Infidel, Magicians as well as upcoming The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018).   

Nikolai Foster is Artistic Director at Curve. Since taking up his post in 2015, he has directed Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s Grease, Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Spring Awakening,Legally Blonde, Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (also Theatre Royal Haymarket and on tour nationally), Roald Dahl’s The Witches, adapted by David Wood, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Shakespeare’s Richard III, Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing and Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, a performance to celebrate the reveal of the tomb of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral.  Foster has also served as an Associate Director at West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds as trained at Drama Centre London and at the Crucible, Sheffield, supported by the Regional Theatre Young Director scheme.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Theatre:                  Piccadilly Theatre, 16 Denman St, Soho, London W1D 7DY

Dates:                    Booking from 23 May 2017 to 6 January 2018

Press night:              5 June 2017 at 7pm

Performances:          Tuesday 23 May at 7.30pm, Wednesday 24 May at 7.30pm, Thursday 25 May at 7.30pm, Friday 26 May at 7.30pm, Saturday 27 May at 3pm and 7.30pm.

Then Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7.30pm, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm

Miranda Hart will be performing the role of Miss Hannigan until 17 September 2017

Prices:                    Tickets from £20 which include a restoration levy of £1.75.  No booking or transaction fees through official sales outlets

Children Go Half-Price (Monday to Thursday performances, top price only, subject to a maximum of 2 children aged 16 or under with each full paying adult, and subject to availability)

Box Office:              0844 871 7630

Twitter:                   @AnnieMusicalUK

Facebook:               AnnieMusicalUK

Instagram:              anniemusicaluk

Website:                 www.AnnieWestEnd.com

Theatregoers invited to experience paranormal encounters at Ordsall Hal

The Woman in Black Ghost Night
The Lowry and Ordsall Hall
Friday 24 March 2017

Following the performance of Susan Hill’s iconic The Woman In Black at The Lowry on Friday 24 March theatregoers are invited to continue their evening with a spine-chilling late-night experience contacting the spirits that haunt Ordsall Hall.

With its own ominous history, Ordsall Hall is home to paranormal encounters which have been experienced first-hand by visitors and staff alike. A medium will guide guests through the Tudor manor, famous for supernatural communication, sudden drops in temperature and sightings of the mysterious White Lady and the figure of a young girl on the stairs.

The Woman In Black Ghost Night Package includes show ticket, a post-show drink, travel to Ordsall Hall and the ghost tour itself.

Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s best-selling novel has terrified over 64,400 theatregoers across its previous seven visits to The Lowry. The show will make its eighth visit from Mon 20 – Sat 25 March 2017.  

Robin Herford’s gripping production is a brilliantly successfully study in atmosphere, illusion and controlled horror.

Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel tells the story of a lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over him and his family by the spectre of a ‘Woman in Black’. He engages a young actor to help him tell his story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul. It begins innocently enough, but as they delve further into his darkest memories, they find themselves caught up in a world of eerie marshes and moaning winds. The borders between make believe and reality begin to blur and the flesh begins to creep.

David Acton will play the role of Mr Kipps and The Actor will be playedMatthew Spencer.

The production’s huge popularity has reached a global level, having toured to the United States, South America, Tokyo and Singapore. In 2012, Susan Hill’s novel The Woman in Black was released as a major motion picture, starring Daniel Radcliffe, which became the highest grossing British horror film in 20 years. The sequel to that film, The Woman in Black 2: Angel Of Death, came out in 2014.

The West End show and tour are produced by PW Productions – the company behind the New Arts Theatre at Leicester Square.

Peter Wilson comments, “Everyone at PWP Is proud to continue presenting this perfect piece of theatre. The 2016/17 tour of The Woman in Black is dedicated to the Herford family who have done so much to support, love and create this landmark production.”

The production is directed by Robin Herford, with designs by Michael Holt, lighting by Kevin Sleep and sound by Gareth Owen.

The UK tour runs concurrently with the West End production.

Listings Info
The Woman in Black Ghost Night Package
Friday 24 March
The Lowry

Details:
7.30pm: The Woman In Black at The Lowry
9.45pm: Post-show drink at Pier Eight
10.15pm: Bus to Ordsall Hall
10.30pm: Ghost Night
2.30am Finish / Return bus to The Lowry if required
PLEASE NOTE: The Lowry Outlet car park will close at 1am. If guests are driving they are advised to remove their car from the car park prior to the Ghost Night.

Tickets: £62.50 (Including booking fees)
Box office: 0843 208 6000
Website

Jonathan Church, Oliver Mackwood and Oxford Playhouse Present

SAND IN THE SANDWICHES

@BetjemanUKTour / #JohnBetjeman

·         EDWARD FOX RETURNS TO THE WEST END IN SAND IN THE SANDWICHES, A PLAY CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND WORK OF FORMER POET LAUREATE, JOHN BETJEMAN

·         WRITTEN BY HUGH WHITEMORE, THE PRODUCTION WILL PLAY MAY 30^th – JUNE 3^rd AT THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET BEFORE CONTINUING ON A UK TOUR

·         TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE VIA WWW.SANDINTHESANDWICHES.COM

Fresh from a sell-out 2016 UK Tour, Edward Fox is to return to the West End in the celebrated one-man play exploring the life and work of John Betjeman, Sand in the Sandwiches, for a strictly limited London run. A journey through memory and verse, the play collates the work of the twentieth century’s most treasured poet. Written by Hugh Whitemore and directed by Gareth Armstrong, it will visit Northampton before its London premiere at Theatre Royal Haymarket between May 30^th and June 3^rd 2017, followed by an extended UK tour visiting Cambridge, Malvern, Woking, Brighton and Bath.

Edward Fox said “It is lovely to be returning to one of the great theatres of the world and to the role of John Betjeman, even now at the age of 80. All of us involved are working to magnify the voice of one of the greatest minds in England. Betjeman once said that ‘poetry is life’, and I agree. You can’t live without it.”

John Betjeman was the nation’s favourite poet. Sand in the Sandwiches celebrates a man famous not only for light verse and laughter, but for his passions, his sense of purpose and his unforgettable poetry. Through boyhood, his adolescence, to life as Britain’s Poet Laureate, Sand in the Sandwiches presents a hugely entertaining insight into the world of this much-loved irreverent writer. Triple BAFTA winner Edward Fox (OBE) stars in this new one-man play, bringing Betjeman’s poetry and vivacious personality to life.

Edward Fox’s distinguished career counts iconic British films including the Oscar winningGhandi, The Day of the Jackal, A Bridge Too Far, Oh! What a Lovely War, The Dresser, The Go-Between, A Doll’s House, Pride and Prejudice, Robin Hood, Nicholas Nickleby, Force 10 from Navarone and James Bond’s Never Say Never Again. His stage credits include: The Audience, Four Quartets, Hamlet, An Evening with Anthony Trollope, Letter of Resignation and many more. His film credits have won him three BAFTA Awards and in 2003 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contribution to stage and cinema.

Hugh Whitemore, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, is an award-winning writer whose work spans stage and screen. Theatre credits include: As you Desire Me, Stevie, Pack of Lies (which won Judi Dench the Olivier Award for Best Female Actor), The Best of Friends, Breaking the Code, God Only Knows, Disposing of the Body, The Last Cigarette playing at acclaimed theatre across the UK and internationally. His films credits include: Jane Eyre (1996), 84 Charing Cross Road, Stevie, The Return of the Soldier, Bluebird, Man at the Top, and All Neat in Black Stockings. With over 70 television credits, Whitemore has written for broadcasters in both the UK and USA, winning two Writers Guild of Great Britain Awards and two Emmy Awards.

Director Gareth Armstrong specialises in solo performance and has helped to create a dozen such theatre pieces, including Hugh Whitemore’s My Darling Clemmie starring Rohan McCulloch as Winston Churchill’s wife, and his own dramatisation of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, calledWilde Without the Boy. As an Associate Artist at Salisbury Playhouse under the Directorship of Jonathan Church, he premiered his own one-man show, Shylock. The play toured for over a decade to more than forty countries and has been translated and performed in Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Mandarin Chinese. Armstrong also co-founded The Made in Wales Theatre Company to premiere new plays and was Artistic Director of Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre.

Sand in the Sandwiches will play at Theatre Royal Haymarket between Tuesday May 30^th and Saturday June 3^rd. This week is available at the theatre due to a pre-contractual, prior engagement, which means that Damian Lewis is unavailable to perform in Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? The producers took the decision to suspend the run of The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? for that week. The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? will recommence performances on 5 June.

Sand in the Sandwiches by Hugh Whitemore is directed by Gareth Armstrong with designs by BAFTA award-winning Fotini Dimou, lighting by double Olivier award-winning Howard Harrisonand sound by Olivier award & Ivor Novello award nominated composer Simon Slater. Sand in the Sandwiches is produced by Jonathan Church, Oliver Mackwood Productions and Oxford Playhouse.

Clockschool Theatre presents: