NUFFIELD SOUTHAMPTON THEATRES ANNOUNCES
2018 SEASON INCLUDING INAUGURAL PROGRAMMING FOR THEIR BRAND NEW VENUE – NST CITY
Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Samuel Hodges, today announces their new season for 2018. This announcement also marks the opening of the brand new NST City, NST’s newly builttheatre in Southampton’s city centre. Their 2018 season of work will be spread across both the new venue and their original home, NST Campus.
The season is comprised of four world premières: Howard Brenton’s The Shadow Factory, which launches the new season in NST City; SS Mendi Dancing the Death Drill, adapted from the book by Fred Khumalo and part of 14-18 NOW the UK’s arts programme for the WW1 centenary; a new version of Aristophanes’ comedy Women in Power; and a new musical adaptation of David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy.
A bold new revival of Tennessee Williams’ classic, A Streetcar Named Desire, is the second production staged in the new venue. Directed by 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award winner Chelsea Walker, this co-production with Theatr Clwyd and English Touring Theatre opens at NST on 23 March before heading out on a major UK tour.
This is followed by SS Mendi Dancing the Death, adapted by Gbolahan Obisesan and created with the Capetown-based Isango Ensemble, commemorating an untold tragedy from WW1, that took place off the coast of Southampton. The play opens on 29 June, in a co-production with Hackney Empire and co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW. This will be followed by the second Now-Here festival, which this year focuses on historical whitewashing.
Women in Power, inspired by the Aristophanes comedy, Assemblywomen, will feature music, dance, poetry and stand-up comedy, written by a company of leading female voices. NST Associate, Blanche McIntyre returns to NST for the fifth time to direct the production opening on 8 September.
Tom Burke stars in a co-production of Don Carlos with Exeter Northcott and Rose Theatre Kingston. Friedrich Schiller’s masterpiece, translated by Robert David MacDonald opens on 16 October at Exeter Northcott, 23 October at NST City and 6 November at Rose Theatre Kingston. Gadi Roll directs.
Finally, NST have commissioned the first ever stage adaptation of David Walliams’ bestseller Billionaire Boy. Luke Sheppard (In The Heights, Adrian Mole) directs the production which opens on 19 November. Miranda Cooper, one of the UK’s most successful pop writers of all time, will write the music.
In addition, May brings a workshop musical adaptation of hit cult film, Son of Rambow, directed by Hodges, featuring an original 80s pop soundtrack by Cooper and book by Richard Marsh. This runs at London’s The Other Palace.
NST will also be expanding its core programme to introduce music, film, dance and circus, as well as continuing and expanding its comedy and spoken word strands. To underpin this expansion, NST is excited to announce two new associates to join its existing roster, rising dance star Drew McOnie, will join as Dance Associate and Nigerian poet Inua Ellams joins as Poetry and Spoken Word Associate.
NST will launch a new pop-up music collective, The Space Between Collective, to accompany leading rock and pop acts from around the country. The opening Space Between concert will feature the rock group Band of Skulls. NST City will also host Blueprint, a new festival of jazz and The Gateway Sessions, regular monthly music events showcasing the very best of local musical talent across multiple genres. Full line-ups will be announced every month.
A brand new dance programme will see the world-renowned Hofesh Shechter Company perform in Southampton for the first time, alongside Sleuth, a new show by NST’s new resident dance company, ZoieLogic.
The nascent film programme will feature an event cinema strand, including NT Live screenings, and a new season of Best of Bollywood, with entries voted for in a regional competition.
Finally, NST are proud to open a new studio theatre as part of NST City, which will feature the very best studio scale theatre from all over the country two of which, Palmyra and Noisy Holiday, were supported through NST’s artist development programme, Laboratory.
NST are also delighted to announce a new partnership with Digital Theatre +, which will feature the creation of new digital content and documentary, educational workshops and screenings, and a commitment to pool resources in order to innovate in the field of digital storytelling.
NST will continue to build and grow its artist development programme, Laboratory, providing local and national opportunities through scratch performances, research and development support and the Laboratory Associates scheme now going into its third year, which uniquely attaches a director, producer and full design team to the theatre in order to create peer-to-peer relationships.
Following the appointment of Annelie Powell as Head of Casting, NST will look to establish a pool of local professional actors and will be running auditions for actors who currently live in the post code areas of SO, PO and BH. NST will also be interested to hear from professional actors who are originally from the area but no longer live locally. Full detail will be available on our website in mid December.
Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Samuel Hodges, said today ‘’2018 is an exciting year for the theatre as we open Southampton’s brand new city-centre theatre, NST City, a second venue to build on the success of NST Campus. I am very proud of our inaugural season that features four world premieres, international collaborations, both new talent and household names, untold local stories of national significance, and a brand new programme of studio theatre, music, comedy, film, circus and dance across our two venues.
This season marks a seismic step change for NST and for the city of Southampton’s cultural life. It is a season which champions new work, in the knowledge that theatre can respond most urgently to the world we live in today. A season which looks back to ancient Greece, to 16th century Spain, to both World Wars, and even to 1980s Reading in order to talk about what’s important today. It asks questions about historical whitewashing, about consent, about community, and about faith. It’s going to be a big year.”
NST City
A Nuffield Southampton Theatres production
THE SHADOW FACTORY
Written by Howard Brenton
Directed by Samuel Hodges
7 February – 3 March 2018
Press Night: 15 February 2018
Autumn 1940. The Battle of Britain rages in the skies. Southampton is home to our only hope of victory, the Spitfire. But when the Luftwaffe drops 2,300 bombs in three devastating raids, the city goes up in flames and the Woolston Supermarine Spitfire factory is destroyed.
Jackie is the third generation of Dimmock at her family-run laundry. Polly is the first and only draughtswoman in the Spitfire design office. How will each woman forge her own path in this evolving landscape?
From the ashes, a story of chaos, courage and community spirit emerges.
One of Britain’s greatest living playwrights, Hampshire-born Howard Brenton, tells the remarkable and little known story of how Southampton stepped up when the chips were down.
This spectacular world première will open Southampton’s brand-new theatre, NST City, conceived by NST’s director Samuel Hodges and 59 Productions, the Tony Award-winning artists behind the video design of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Howard Brenton has written over 50 plays. His most recent credits include Paul (National Theatre), In Extremis (Shakespeare’s Globe and tour retitled Eternal Love), Never So Good (National Theatre), Anne Boleyn (Shakespeare’s Globe, plus revival and tour, winner of the Whatsonstage Best Play Award and UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production), 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre), #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei (Hampstead Theatre), The Guffin (one act play, NT Connections), Drawing The Line (Hampstead Theatre), Doctor Scroggy’s War (Shakespeare’s Globe), Ransomed (one act play, Salisbury Playhouse), Lawrence After Arabia (Hampstead Theatre) and The Blinding Light (Jermyn Street Theatre). Versions of classics include The Life of Galileo and Danton’s Death (National Theatre) and Goethe’s Faust (RSC). Other adaptations include The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Liverpool Everyman and Chichester Festival Theatre) and Dances Of Death (Gate Theatre). His version of Strindberg’s Miss Julie is playing at The Theatre By The Lake, Keswick and will come to The Jermyn Street Theatre in November. For television, he wrote 13 episodes of the first four series of the BBC Television Drama Spooks (winner of the BAFTA Best Television Drama Series 2003).
NST City
A Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Theatr Clwyd and English Touring Theatre co-production
Supported by a grant from The Royal Theatrical Support Trust
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
by Tennessee Williams
Directed by 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Winner Chelsea Walker
23 – 31 March & 5 – 16 June
Press night: 28 March
“Every man is a king.” Stanley is no exception.
Until one summer, when his sister-in-law Blanche comes to stay.
Anxious, seductive and fiercely clever, Blanche is just about keeping it together.
But her arrival threatens Stanley’s entire way of life.
As the summer heats up, and the games turn savage, a burning desire threatens to tear their world apart.
A bold new revival of Tennessee Williams’ timeless classic, this is a raging portrayal of what it means to be an outsider, in a society where we’re all desperate to belong.
After the run at Nuffield Southampton Theatres, A Streetcar Named Desire goes on tour to Theatre by the Lake, Malvern Theatres, Bristol Old Vic, New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Oxford Playhouse and Theatr Clywd before returning to Southampton.
Supported by a grant from The Royal Theatrical Support Trust.
Chelsea Walker directs A Streetcar Named Desire as the winner of the 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award. She directed the first major revival of Low Level Panic by Clare McIntyre at the Orange Tree earlier this year. Her previous directing credits include P’yongyang by In-Sook Chappell and Chicken Dust by Ben Weatherill (Finborough Theatre), Klippies by Jess Sian (Southwark Playhouse) and Lean by Isley Lynn (Tristan Bates). She has also assistant directed on Wild by Mike Bartlett (Hampstead Theatre), Routes by Rachel de-lahay (Royal Court) and The Little Mermaid, adapted by Joel Horwood (Bristol Old Vic). She was a runner up in the JMK Young Directors’ Award 2016, is a director on the Old Vic 12, and is a script reader for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
Royal Theatrical Support Trust
The Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST) operates an annual award scheme for up-and-coming theatre directors, the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme. The Scheme provides a rare opportunity for an up-and-coming director who succeeds in a competitive process to direct a fully-funded production of a play as part of a main season of productions at a British regional theatre. The RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme is designed for the benefit of directors who have already built up a track record of professional directing experience and who are ready for the opportunity provided by the Scheme to progress to directing a production in the main house, or a comparably high-profile auditorium, of a regional theatre.
The Scheme involves a collaboration between the RTST and a regional theatre selected by the RTST. The RTST makes a significant grant to the participating regional theatre to be applied towards the costs of the Award winner’s production. It is a condition of the grant that the regional theatre facilitates the implementation of the Scheme and the realisation of that production.
This year, the RTST ran the Scheme with Nuffield Southampton Theatres. At the end of a rigorous competitive process, Chelsea Walker was selected as the winner of the 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award by a highly distinguished panel of panel of theatre professionals comprising Sam Hodges (Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres), Howard Brenton, Tamara Harvey (Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd), Patricia Hodge, Stephanie Street, Richard Twyman (Artistic Director of English Touring Theatre) and Danny Lee Wynter. Walker won the opportunity to direct A Streetcar Named Desire. The RTST is making a significant grant to Nuffield Southampton Theatres towards the production costs.
A Nuffield Southampton Theatres workshop production in association with The Other Palace
SON OF RAMBOW THE MUSICAL
Book by Richard Marsh
Music by Miranda Cooper and Nick Coler; Lyrics by Miranda Cooper and Richard Marsh
Adapted from the film by Garth Jennings, Nick Goldsmith and Paramount Pictures
Directed by Samuel Hodges
22 May – 2 June
At The Other Palace, London
Son of Rambow is a work in progress production working with feedback from the audience each day.
Winter 1982. Two boys are about to form an unlikely friendship.
Will Proudfoot is a member of the Plymouth Brethren, forbidden from watching TV or films. Lee Carter is the wild child, school trouble-maker. When Lee blows Will’s mind with a pirate copy of Rambo: First Blood, this unlikely pair collaborate on a homemade sequel.
Their movie changes the lives of all around them. Will’s recently-widowed mum, Sarah, begins to question her faith as family friend Joshua confesses his love for her. Lee’s brother Barry fights for the love of his girlfriend Tina, who must choose between Barry, University or the French exchange sexpot, Didier.
Based on the cult hit film, Son of Rambow is a heart-warming and hilarious story about two boys with a big video camera and even bigger ambitions. Set to an original 80s pop soundtrack from two of the UK’s most successful pop writers, Miranda Cooper and Nick Coler.
Nick Coler is a British songwriter. His credits alongside Miranda Cooper include 35 top 10 hits for acts such as Girls Aloud, The Sugababes, Gabriella Cilmi, Alesha Dixon and numerous other artists. In addition, he co-wrote a song with Alastair Lloyd Webber for Starlight Express as well as numerous films and TV shows including Wayne’s World where he wrote Feed my Frankenstein. He has also been nominated three times for an Ivor Novello Award and has won producer of the year.
Miranda Cooper is a British songwriter. Her credits alongside Nick Coler include writing for Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, Alesha Dixon, Gabriella Cilmi, and Kylie Minogue. Cooper’s songs have spent more years on the UK chart than any other female songwriter in history, and she has penned four number one hits – Round Round, Sound of the Underground, Hole in the Head and The Promise.
Richard Marsh is a writer and performer. His one-man play Skittles was commissioned for Radio 4 as Love & Sweets, and won Best Scripted Comedy in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Dirty Great Love Story won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe before transferring to Bristol Old Vic, Soho Theatre and 59E59 Theatres, NYC, and most recently to the Arts Theatre. Wingman played to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe before touring the UK and to LA, and is in development for TV. He wrote the Radio 4 poetry comedy series Cardboard Heart and his poetry can currently be heard in the national tour of Tango Moderno. He is a former London poetry slam champion and was a member of Theatre503’s 503/5 writers group.
NST City
A Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Isango Ensemble, Repons Foundation and Hackney Empire
co-production
Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary
The world première of
SS MENDI DANCING THE DEATH DRILL
by Gbolahan Obisesan with Isango Ensemble
Adapted from the book by Fred Khumalo
Directed by Mark Dornford-May
29 June – 14 July
Press night: 4 July
Most had never seen the sea, many couldn’t swim, few returned.
January 1917, 823 South African men board the SS Mendi in Cape Town, volunteers for the British Army bound for the Western Front. Through a tragic twist of fate, Pitso Motaung finds himself aboard.
Months later, the ship sails off the coast of Southampton. Heavy pre-dawn fog shrouds the impending disaster. The collision comes with such force the SS Mendi sinks in minutes. By the time rescue arrives it is too late for most.
Paris, 1958. Two men are dead in a restaurant, attacked by the head waiter Pitso Motaung. Dark memories etched in Pitso’s mind are resurfacing decades later to devastating effect.
Dubbed the ‘Black Titanic’, the sinking of SS Mendi was one of the worst maritime disasters in the 20th century in UK waters. Yet, a startling story of hope and courage emerges. Brought to life, with live music by the critically acclaimed Cape Town based Isango Ensemble and part of 14-18 NOW, the UK’s Cultural Programme for the First World War Centenary.
Since 2001 Isango Ensemble has toured its productions to Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Singapore, Turkey, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, Canada and the United States. Productions include The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso which had two runs in the West End; uCarmenwhich toured to many of the world’s major festivals; The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingofeaturing Mozart’s score transposed for an orchestra of marimbas, which won both an Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival and the Globes de Cristal for Best Opera following a sold-out season at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; Venus & Adonis in partnership with Shakespeare’s Globe and in 2016 A Man of Good Hope co-produced by Young Vic, Royal Opera, Repons Foundation, BAM and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. Films created by the ensemble include uCarmen eKhayelitsha which won the Golden Bear at The Berlin International Film Festival as well as many other Best Feature Awards.
Fred Khumalo is the author of the novels Bitches Brew, which was a joint winner of the 2006 European Union Literary Award, and Seven Steps to Heaven. His memoir, Touch My Blood, was shortlisted for the Alan Paton Prize for Non-fiction in 2007, and his most recent book, #ZuptasMustFall and Other Rants, was published in 2016. His short fiction has appeared in various anthologies, literary journals and magazines.
Mark Dornford-May is co-founder and Artistic Director of Isango Ensemble and has worked in South Africa with members of the company since 2000. He has directed all of Isango’s stage productions including The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso, The Snow Queen, Der Silbersee, The Beggars Opera – Ibali Loo Tsotsi, Carmen, The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingo, A Christmas Carol – iKrismas Kherol, Aesop’s Fables, La Boheme – Abanxaxhi, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – Izigwili Ezidlakazelayo, Venus and Adonis; and the films he has directed are uCarmen eKhayelitsha, Son of Man, Unogumbe – Noye’s and Breathe – Umphefumlo.
SS Mendi Dancing the Death Drill is co-commissioned by 1418NOW: WW1 Centenary Arts Commissions, Repons Foundation, Nuffield Southampton Theatres and Hackney Empire, with support from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and from the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
NST City
Now-Here: Hidden Histories
Supported by Black History Month South
10 – 12 July
An annual festival of performance, exhibitions, storytelling, music, workshops and lunch time talks. Now-Herereturns to explore the themes from NST’s production of SS Mendi, a story hidden for decades underplaying the contribution the Commonwealth countries made to the First World War.
Hidden stories of race, the whitewashing of history, those forgotten and celebrating the reclamation of identity and people’s true place in history.
NST City
A Nuffield Southampton Theatres production
WOMEN IN POWER
Created by an Assembly of Women
Based on Assemblywomen by Aristophanes
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
8 – 29 September
Press night: 13 September
350 BC. Athens.
The country is in political turmoil. Recent wars and alliances have left Athenians no option but to take the most extreme action. The most radical… a government of women.
Praxagora masterminds and leads a daring coup d’etat, outlining her utopian vision of total equality to her crowd of cross-dressing collaborators. A world where power imbalance is eradicated and with it, debt, greed, theft, and…also marriage, love and consent. Oh, and camping.
NST Associate Blanche McIntyre returns to Southampton to direct this raucous comedy with songs, dance, music and women taking the lead.
Blanche McIntyre directs. Previous credits for Nuffield Southampton Theatres include Noises Off, Tonight at 8.30 and The Nutcracker. Other theatre credits include The Norman Conquests(Chichester Festival Theatre), Titus Andronicus and The Two Noble Kinsmen (RSC), Welcome Home Captain Fox! (Donmar Warehouse), The Oresteia (HOME Manchester), As You Like It and The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe), Arcadia (Ambassador Theatre Group), The Seagull(Headlong), Accolade (St James Theatre), Repentance/Behind the Lines (Bush Theatre), Ciphers(Out of Joint), The Birthday Party (Manchester Royal Exchange), Foxfinder, Accolade and Moliere or The League of Hypocrites (Finborough Theatre), Liar Liar (Unicorn Theatre), The Only True History of Lizzie Finn and Open Heart Surgery (Southwark Playhouse), The Seven Year Itch (Salisbury Playhouse), When Did You Last See My Mother? (Trafalgar Studios); and for film as a writer, The Hippopotamus.
NST City
An Exeter Northcott, Nuffield Southampton Theatres and Rose Theatre Kingston co-production
DON CARLOS
Written by Friedrich Schiller
Translated by Robert David MacDonald
Directed by Gadi Roll
23 October – 3 November
‘Love is only known by him who hopelessly persists in love.’
Don Carlos faces the most profound of dilemmas.
In a cruel twist of fate, his former fiancé and the love of his life, Elizabeth, has recently become his stepmother. His father and usurper is the tyrannical Philip II.
Abandoned by both man and decree, Don Carlos must fend for himself.
But one man, Rodrigo Marquis of Posa, has never forgotten the childhood act of sacrifice that the Prince made on his behalf. Dreaming of freedom for his people, Rodrigo becomes an unlikely power broker in the King’s duplicitous court.
A double edged story of loyalty, love and friendship, and the abuses of power and statesmanship, Don Carlos is as resonant today as it was at the time.
Starring Tom Burke, Israeli theatre director Gadi Roll brings his trademark dynamic imagery and haunting soundscapes to Schiller’s masterpiece.
Press night: 15 October at Exeter Northcott
Friedrich Schiller’s (1759 – 1805) principal works for the stage include The Robbers, Intrigue and Love, The Wallenstein Trilogy, Mary Stuart and William Tell.
Robert David MacDonald (1929-2004) was a playwright, translator and director. He was co-director of the Citizens’ Theatre Company, Glasgow and wrote fifteen plays for the company including Dracula, Camille, De Sade Show, Chinchilla, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, Summit Conference, A Waste of Time, Don Juan, Webster, Anna Karenina, and Conundrum. As a translator he translated/adapted over seventy operas and plays from ten different languages, including such operas as, The Threepenny Opera (Glasgow/ENO North), Tamerlano, Flight from The Harem, The Barber of Seville, Aida (WNOC), Marschner’s Vampire!, Cosi Fan Tutti (Hintlesham); and plays, Figaro, Orpheus, The Human Voice, Conversation at Night, Achterloo, Shadow of Angels, The Balcony, The Blacks, The Screens, The Government Inspector, Tasso, Faust I & II, Brand, Hedda Gabler, Maskerade, The House of Bernada Alba, School for Wives, DonJuan, Enrico Four, Phedra, Mary Stuart, The Seagull, Around The World in Eighty Days, Lulu and Clavigo.
Tom Burke plays Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa. His theatre work includes The Deep Blue Sea, The Doctor’s Dilemma (National Theatre), Reasons to be Happy (Hampstead Theatre), Reasons to be Pretty, Macbeth (Almeida Theatre), Design for Living (The Old Vic), for the Donmar Warehouse, Creditors (also New York, winner of the Ian Charleson Award) and The Cut, and Romeo and Juliet(Shakespeare’s Globe). His television work includes Strike, The Musketeers, War and Peace, Utopia, The Hour and Great Expectations; and for film, The Libertine, The Enlightenment, The Collectors, Donkey Punch, Telstar, Chéri, An Enemy to Die For, Cleanskin, Only God Forgives, The Invisible Woman and The Hooligan Factory.
Gadi Roll has directed over sixty productions for the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Teatr Polski, Wroclaw, American Repertory Theatre Boston, Stari Teatr Krakow, Habima National Theatre, Cameri and Beit-Lessin Theatres Tel Aviv, Jerusalem Khan Theatre, Haifa Theatre and Beer-Sheva Theatre, Israel. Credits include Iphigenia at Aulis, The House of Bernarda Alba, Les Parents Terrible, Don Juan Comes Back from the War, Pains of Youth, Romeo and Juliet, The Duchess of Malfi, Measure for Measure, ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore, The Robbers, Don Carlos, Spring Awakening, Waiting for Godot, 1913, The Park, Quei Oust, A View from the Bridge, The Lady from the Sea, No End of Blame, Amadeus and Saved.
NST Campus
A Nuffield Southampton Theatres production
The World Première of
BILLIONAIRE BOY
Adapted from the book by David Walliams
Music and Lyrics by Miranda Cooper
Directed by Luke Sheppard
19 November – 6 January 2019
Press night: 28 November
Imagine being the wealthiest child in the land!
One-day factory worker Len Spud invents a new loo roll “Bum Fresh – wet on one side, dry on the other.” The wiping-wonder is an instant hit. Len, and his son Joe, become overnight billionaires, turning their lives upside down.
Whilst Mr Spud spends, spends, spends on fast cars, 100-inch TVs, and lavish gifts for his glamorous new girlfriend, Sapphire Diamond, Joe is left to fend for himself.
In the unforgiving world of the school playground, things are about to get more complicated. With his new best friend, Bob, at his side, Joe navigates an assault course of school bullies and dangerously inedible canteen food. To make matters worse, is the impossibly pretty new girl Lauren all that she appears to be?
But can money really buy happiness? This hilarious new musical adaptation is a triumphant treat for the whole family, based on the bestselling book by David Walliams, and presented by the NST team following their award-winning “whisker – licking treat” Fantastic Mr Fox.
David Walliams is a global phenomenon in the world of children’s literature with worldwide sales of over 19.5 million books in more than 53 languages. He is the first children’s author to spend 100 weeks in the number one position in the UK children’s book charts, beating his nearest rivals by over 20 weeks. Three of his books have been awarded Children’s Book of the Year at the National Book Awards. Additionally, The Boy in the Dress, Ratburger, Mr Stink and Gangsta Granny have all been adapted for TV. As well as being a bestselling children’s author, David is one of Britain’s most popular writers and comic actors. Along with Matt Lucas, he created the BAFTA award-winning Little Britain which also played to over 1 million people on tour across the UK, Ireland and Australia. He starred in the Agatha Christie TV series Partners in Crime and as Frankie Howerd in the biopic Rather You Than Me. He is also a judge on one of the biggest shows on TV, Britain’s Got Talent.
Miranda Cooper is a British songwriter. Her credits alongside Nick Coler include writing for Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, Alesha Dixon, Gabriella Cilmi, and Kylie Minogue. Cooper’s songs have spent more years on the UK chart than any other female songwriter in history, and she has penned four number one hits – Round Round, Sound of the Underground, Hole in the Head and The Promise.
Luke Sheppard directs. His credits include The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Age 13 ¾ The Musical(Menier Chocolate Factory), Working, Casa Valentina (Southwark Playhouse), Jersey Boys(international tour), Murder for Two, Oliver! (Watermill Newbury), In The Heights (Southwark Playhouse and King Cross Theatre – winner of 3 Olivier Awards), Peter and the Starcatcher (Theatre Royal Northampton), Night Must Fall (Salisbury Playhouse), Stig of the Dump (Arts Theatre), The History Boys (South Hill Park), 101 Dalmatians (Castle Theatre) and Soho Cinders (Arts Ed). As Associate Director, Sheppard has worked on Singin’ in the Rain (Palace Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre) and Matilda (RSC) and as Assistant Director on Into The Woods (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
YOUTH THEATRE PROGRAMME:
Love and Information
By Caryl Churchill
Directed by Max Lindsay
NST City
18 -20 January
Dungeness
by Chris Thompson
NST City
5-7 April
Much Ado about Nothing
By William Shakespeare
NST City
19-21 July
VISITING PRODUCTIONS:
Studio productions include an ARC Stockton Production of Instructions For Border Crossing written and performed by Daniel Bye; Your Best Guess written and performed by Chris Thorpe – a Mala Voadora and Chris Thorpe production in association with ARC Stockton; The Believers Are But Brothers written by Javaad Alipoor; John Osborne’s Circled in the Radio Times; Quarter Life Crisiswritten and performed by Yolanda Mercy; and Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas’s Palmyra, developed with support from Croquis_BCN (Barcelona), Bristol Ferment, MAYK, Tobacco Factory Theatres, Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Ovalhouse and HOME.
NST City will also stage two dance productions, ZoieLogic Dance Theatre’s production of Sleuth and Clowns / New Creation by Hofesh Shechter. NST Campus will also stage two family productions, the Curve and Rose Theatre Kingston co-production of George’s Marvellous Medicine and an MEI Theatrical and Polka Theatre production, Sarah and Duck. In addition, music acts performed in the theatre will include Band of Skulls with The Space Between Collective, The Gateway Sessions, showcasing the very best of local music talent and Blueprint a new festival of jazz.
Listing
Nuffield Southampton Theatres
NST Campus, University Rd, Southampton, SO17 1TR
NST City, Above Bar Street, Guildhall Square, Southampton, SO14 7DU
Twitter: @nstheatres
Facebook: /nstheatres
Box Office: 023 8067 1771
Monday – Friday: 10am – 6pm
SEASON AT A GLANCE
The Shadow Factory
NST City
7 February – 3 March
Press night: 15 February
A Streetcar Named Desire
NST City
23 – 31 March & 5 – 16 June
Press night: 28 March
SS Mendi, Dancing the Death Drill
NST City
29 June – 14 July
Press night: 4 July
Son of Rambow The Musical
Workshop at The Other Palace, London
22 May – 2 June
Women in Power
NST City
8 – 29 September
Press night: 13 September
Don Carlos
NST City
23 October – 3 November
Press night: 15 October at Exeter Northcott
Billionaire Boy
NST Campus
19 November – 6 January 2019
Press night: 28 November