YORK’S LEGENDARY DAME BERWICK KALER ANNOUNCES THE NAME OF THE 2016 PANTOMIME.
York Theatre Royal’s once-in-a-lifetime pantomime Dick Whittington (and his meerkat) closed on Sunday 24 January following an incredibly successful run in its temporary home The Signal Box Theatre at the National Railway Museum. According to tradition, writer, co-director and the UK’s longest serving panto dame Berwick Kaler announced the name of the pantomime for 2016-17:
CINDERELLA
Dick Whittington (and his meerkat) was Berwick Kaler’s 37th outing as dame in what is believed to have been the first ever pantomime in a traverse theatre. York Theatre Royal was forced to move its famous pantomime to The Signal Box Theatre following unique architectural discoveries during the theatre’s £4.1million redevelopment project. The theatre has received its largest ever number of letters, messages, phone calls and social media posts praising the production, which has been seen by an audience of almost 50,000.
Berwick Kaler said:
It’s everyone’s favourite and it just seems fitting to celebrate the newly restored theatre with a title that has all the ingredients for magnificent sets and costumes, pathos, slapstick, inventive lunacy. I’ll even retain the plot – mind you, I’ve not written it yet so don’t quote me!
Tickets for CINDERELLA will go on sale in person only on Tuesday 1 March from the York Theatre Royal Box Office in the De Grey Rooms, St Leonard’s Place.
The theatre’s re-opening spring 2016 season will feature two world premiere co-productions, starting with an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited with English Touring Theatre from Friday 22 to Saturday 30 April. This sparkling re-imagining of the classic novel by writer Bryony Lavery and director Damian Cruden will tour nationally before returning to York Theatre Royal from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 June. From Friday 13 May to Saturday 4 June York Theatre Royal and Pilot Theatre will present The Machine Stops, based on the 1909 short story by E.M. Forster. The story has been adapted for the stage by Neil Duffield and will be directed by Juliet Forster and features a brand new soundtrack composed by John Foxx, pioneer of electronic music and founder of Ultravox and analogue synth specialist Benge. In addition a wide range of top class touring companies including Northern Broadsides, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English Touring Opera will bring their productions to the newly renovated theatre.
Tickets for the spring 2016 season are on sale now in person at the York Theatre Royal Box Office, by phone on 01904 623568 or securely online at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.