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Following hot on the heels of a hugely successful winter season featuring the highly acclaimed production of Arthur Millers’ timeless classic Death of a Salesman, and the ever popular pantomime from legendary dame Berwick Kaler, who this year celebrated 30 glorious year’s as Dame/ Writer/Director with Dick Turpin – The Panto. York Theatre Royal's exciting spring season is set to offer once again a diverse range of great events for everyone.
Highlights include the return of the The Railway Children, back due to popular demand for a second season at the NRM on 23 Jul to 5 Sep, again directed by the theatre’s Artistic Director Damian Cruden. Certainly one not to be missed and is promising to be one of the hottest tickets in the region.
Shows for Children
Other family shows include If Only the Lonely Were Home, by Finnegan Kruckemeyer, a fabulous new production by the ever popular Tutti Frutti telling the story of loss, loneliness and love. For children aged 4-7 and their families, in The Studio 27 Mar- 25 Apr.
York Theatre Royal present their brand new production of Hansel and Gretel, adapted by Nick Lane, 11- 27 June 2009 in The Studio, set to be a zany new twist on an old classic.
Created by Theatre-Rites and Ockham’s Razor Hang On catapults you into an aerial new world of dizzying new thrills where the impossible becomes possible. “The company has produced some of our most outstanding theatre of the past decade” The Guardian on Theatre-Rites. 4-11 Apr in The Main House; perfect family fun for the Easter Holidays.
Drama
Fans of Belt up Theatre will be delighted to know that they are staging The Oresteia in The Studio 10- 14 Feb. A relentlessly fast paced reincarnation of Aeschylus’ classic tragic trilogy, this dark and dramatic play is set to be another success for the Edinburgh International Festival award winners.
York Settlement Players return with The House of Bernarda Alba, a tragic tale of frustration and explosive passions in a household of women ruled by a tyrannical mother, written by Federico Garcia Lorca. Directed by Andy Love, the amateur production will run in The Studio 18- 28 Feb.
This season is offering up two contrasting Shakespeare productions exploring adventure and comedy; Pericles and Twelfth Night.
York Youth Theatre present Pericles in the Main House 16- 18 Apr. A whirlwind journey through strange kingdoms and across perilous oceans adapted by Juliet Foster and directed by Julian Ollive, both form York Theatre Royal’s Education Department.
Twelfth Night is a tale of cross-dressing, mistaken identity, love romance, infatuation, confusion, revenge and madness, all the elements of a classic comedy and will be directed by Associate Director, Juliet Foster in the Main House 25 Apr- 16 May.
A very topical one night production is coming to York Theatre Royal: Carbon Detox on 3 Mar. Are you concerned about climate change but bored by the graphs, indifferent to polar bears, and sick of being told to give up the things you like by the people you don’t like? George Marshall’s fast moving and irreverent one man show will challenge your assumptions and help you to find fresh ways to think about action on climate change. “Fresh and original, vital, witty, bold and clear. Carbon Detox will rock your world.” Rob Newman, comedian and campaigner.
English Touring Theatre present Georges Feydeau’s much anticipated Where There’s a Will, in the Main House 10- 14 Mar. A farce adapted by Nicki Frei and directed by Peter Hall. “Hall is enjoying a blaze of glory, directing magnificently with freshness and superb precision.” Daily Telegraph on ETT’s Uncle Vanya directed by Peter Hall.
Scott Davidson productions present Future Me, by Stephen Brown, the story of Peter a promising young barrister who’s life is changed when his computer sends an e-mail out to everyone he knows, with an attachment that no one can bear to look at. “A slick, sharply intelligent look at desire and the forbidden.” The Guardian. Future Me runs in The Studio 12-14th March.
On the Shore of the Wide World by Simon Stephens won the Olivier Best Play award in 2005 at the National Theatre and local company Old Bomb Theatre return to present this contemporary tale of family fragility in the aftermath of unexpected tragedy in the Studio, 17-21 Mar.
York Theatre Royal presents The Homecoming, Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter at his darkest and most brilliant. The Homecoming won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play and will be showing in the Main House 30 May-20 Jun. Directed by York Theatre Royals Artistic Director Damian Cruden.
‘Life isn’t an exact science, why can’t it be when we have the means?’ York Theatre Royal Young Actors Company present a devised performance about the ethics of genetics, identity and life: An Exact Science. Directed by Julian Ollive, in The Studio, 28-30 May.
York Theatre Royals Youth Theatre 11-13s present three evenings of exciting Double Bills including: Metamorphosis, Kafka’s terrifying story of a man transformed into a bug and The Chrysalids. The story of one boy and his friends who share a secret that threatens to change their lives forever. In The Studio, 4-6 Jun.
The White Crown: Eichmann in Jerusalem is a dramatic play set in the post- war and post-holocaust 1960’s. In a basement room of an Israeli police building, Adolph Karl Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal is being held and interrogated. A gripping tension filled drama from award-winning playwright Donald Freed, essential viewing in a world where despite the lessons of the Holocaust, genocide and ethnic cleansing still exist. Directed by Damian Cruden in the Studio 1-21 May.
Comedy
On a lighter note the Theatre Royal has some explosive comedy for a fun filled night out, Boeing Boeing is landing in York 24- 28 Feb after its run in London’s West End, directed by Olivier Award winner Matthew Warchus the show stars; Martin Marquez (Hotel Babylon), Susie Blake (Coronation Street), John Marquez (Doc Martin), Sarah Jayne Dunn (Hollyoaks) among others. Bernard a successful architect living in Paris, thinks he can easily cope with his three air-hostess fiancés. Bernard hits some turbulence and things start to unravel.
The theatre’s ownComedy Nights continue this season, with Comedy Nights 5, 6, 7 and 8 adding to the great line-up of Comedy Night 5 featuring BBC’s 4 The Now Show Writer and Performer Mitch Benn, former snooker player Jongleurs headliner Sean Meo and the inspired John Gorillo, compered by Trevor Lock. Book in anticipation as the line up is still to be announced for 6, 7 and 8! Comedy Night 5- Sat 7 Feb, Comedy Night 6- Wed 4 Mar, Comedy Night 7- Mon 11 May, Comedy Night 8- Mon 15 Jun.
LipService are back, and in association with The Lowry present Tony and Twizzle: The Glory Years, a warts and all look back at showbiz careers, move over Richard and Judy, Tony and Twizzle are name dropping their way through an evening of hilarious showbiz gossip. Running in The Main House 5-7 Mar.
Fans of Hull Truck Theatre will be delighted to hear that their new production of Lucky Sods will be showing in The Main House 17- 21 Mar. Written by the BAFTA award winner John Godber and directed by Theatre Royal regular Nick Lane. A satirical and outrageous comedy about a family who have nothing on Friday and 2 Million on Saturday. They sat, they watched, they won…
Following the huge success of the BBC sitcom, Dinnerladies, by Victoria Wood, has been adapted to the stage and is coming to York as part of a national tour featuring Andrew Dunn and Shobna Gulatii, from the original cast of the TV series. In The Main House 24-28th March.
Music and Performing Arts
The new season starts with 42nd Street, an amateur production directed by York Light Opera’s artistic director Martyn Knight, and runs in the main house from 10- 21 Feb. Sure to leave you tapping your toes all the way home.
Back by popular demand York Musical Theatre Company present When the Lights Go On Again, devised and directed by Paul Laidlaw, this is another chance to see the hilarious, light-hearted and nostalgic look back to the sketches and songs that lightened the dark days of the war. An amateur production in The Main House 21-23 May.
Birmingham Royal Ballet is a company of world class standing returning to York Theatre Royal’s main stage 19 -20 May to perform three pieces from their repertoire: Gallantries, The Dance House and Elite Syncopations.
York Theatre Royal are co-producing a new play with music with award winning company LipService. Desperate to be Doris will, not only feature some of Doris Days best known hits but we will be recruiting a choir especially from York to take part in the performance. In The Main House 26 Jun- 4 Jul.
This year the city of York is again holding the Yorkshire Literature Festival, which comprises different literary events around the city, York Theatre Royal are holding three events as part of the festival: Café Cabaret: A Great Gallic Evening, in The Studio, 3-4 Mar, Subterranean Homesick Yorkshire Blues: Celebrating Bob Dylan in Yorkshire 6-7 Mar and Script Factor: All Winners Final, local playwrights group Script Yorkshire is presenting it’s 4 finalists to perform and the audience will be invited to discuss, debate and vote on the scripts in a secret ballot, taking place in The Studio, 5 Mar.
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