Cast: Patrick Brennan, Katie Elin-Salt, Daniel Hawksford, Lauren Roberts, Rhys ap William, Bethan Witcomb
Director: Max Stafford-Clark Writer: Robin Soans Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Duration: 120 minutes Start Date: March 31, 2015 End Date: March 4, 2015 National Theatre Wales and Out of Joint bring Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage to West Yorkshire Playhouse this month. Based on the life story of Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas, the play follows the team captain’s growth to stardom and his struggle to come to terms with a hidden identity. A day prior to a huge game against England, Thomas receives a tipoff that tabloids are to splash a story outing the player as gay – something almost unknown in contact sport at the time. Following the breakup of a marriage and fearing that his sexuality will not be accepted, Thomas attempts to take his life. Deciding to face the struggles head on by working with his teammates and family, the pride of Welsh rugby eventually discovers a pride within himself.
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Cast: James Gow, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Dyfrig Morris, Jess Murphy, Robert Pickavance, Beverly Rudd, Paksie Vernon
Director: Max Webster Writer: Roald Dahl adapted by David Wood Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Duration: 95 minutes Start Date: December 5, 2014 End Date: January 24, 2015 West Yorkshire Playhouse brings Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel James and the Giant Peach to stage this season. James is an orphan living with his two acerbic aunts when a mysterious old man offers a bag of seeds which promise James amazing opportunities. When the seeds are spilt in the grounds of his home, a peach tree bears fruit the size of a house. Within the peach live similarly oversized insects who quickly become James’ friends on an odyssey across the Atlantic through sea and air. Cast: Andy Daniel
Director: Simon Reade Writer: Michael Morpurgo Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Duration: 135 minutes Start Date: October 27, 2014 End Date: October 28, 2014 Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful demobilizes at West Yorkshire Playhouse this season as part of a national tour which completes in November. It is 1914 and Tommo Peaceful, a Devonshire teenager, follows his elder brother into the trenches of The Great War. Following severe shellshock, the young soldier finds himself accused of desertion, a charge which often results in the death sentence. An evocation of childhood and a testament to the horrors of conflict, Private Peaceful is a play set to resonate with audiences of all ages. Cast: Lucy Ellinson
Director: Christopher Haydon Writer: George Brant Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Duration: 65 minutes Start Date: October 23, 2014 End Date: October 25, 2014 Gate Theatre’s production of Grounded by George Brant touches down at West Yorkshire Playhouse this month. It is a soliloquy in the life of a hot shot F-16 pilot who becomes a lover and mother during a war of nerves. Grounded is an unconventional tale of a bird whose wings are clipped, whose expectations fall down to earth and whose social freedoms become restrained. In all, the title of the show encompasses every literal meaning of the word. Cast: Martin Marquez, Kate Phillips, Susie Trayling, Joseph Mydell, Alan Williams, Corinna Powlesland, Daniel Poyser, David Killick, Dominic Gately, Jim Bywater, Lynette Clarke, Marlene Sidaway, Steven Beard, Tim Chipping.
Director: James Brining Writer: Arthur Miller Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Start Date: September 29, 2014 End Date: October 25, 2014 This season sees Arthur Miller’s celebrated drama of social paranoia reinterpreted by the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Tracing the Salem witch trials of the 17th century, The Crucible is an allegorical protest and social commentary reflecting anxieties of the 1950s and beyond. Abigail Williams is a girl who has been sexually awakened and rejected by her employer, John Proctor. When Williams and her friends are accused of practicing satanic crafts, Proctor is tangled in a dark web of accusation, sin and social cleansing. Soon his wife and dozens of townsfolk become embroiled through Williams’ vindictive manipulations, forcing Proctor make his own, ultimate sacrifice. Cast: Reece Dinsdale, Kate Anthony, John Arthur, Simon Roberts, Marjorie Yates
Director: Mark Rosenblatt Writer: Alan Bennett Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Duration: 110 minutes Start Date: June 2, 2014 End Date: June 21, 2014 Continuing a season dedicated to Alan Bennett, West Yorkshire Playhouse presents a double bill of the Leeds-born author’s work in Untold Stories. Bringing together Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, the show is anchored by Bennett as portrayed by Reece Dinsdale. Untold Stories begins as an intimate monologue recorded in a studio environment. Bennett reflects on his experiences growing up with music and his desire to perform and conform, underscored by the rousing strings of the Ligeti Quartet. Whilst brief and minimal, the piece is a rosy evocation, presenting Bennett in his older years as the confident orator. Composed of Cello, Viola and Violins, the Ligeti Quartet are seamlessly harmonized with Bennett’s lilting recollections, where days of violin lessons and escapades to distant churches on the West Riding are vividly described. As a palate-cleansing apéritif, Hymn prepares the table for Untold Stories’ main event; Cocktail Sticks. Cast: Laura Baldwin, Tobias Beer, Kit Benjamin, Adam C Booth, Amy Booth-Steel, Jenni Bowden, Ricky Butt, Matt Harrop, Oliver Izod, Rachel Knowles, Lauren Logan, Rebecca Louis, Sally Mates, Joe Maxwell, Haydn Oakley, Anthony Ray.
Director: Daniel Buckroyd Writer: Alan Bennett Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Duration: 130 minutes Betty Blue Eyes transfers to the West Yorkshire Playhouse this month as part of their ongoing Alan Bennett season. Adapted by the author from his film, A Private Function, the musical tells the tale of a Yorkshire community suffering the woes of post-war rationing. When opportunities arise for the procurement of some unlicensed meat, a farce ensues with a Betty the pig at its centre. Cast: Philip Martin Brown, Christopher Chilton, Rob Delaney, Richard Gittins, Daniel Pape, Sian Reese-Williams, Vanessa Rosenthal, Marlene Sidaway, Samuel Baxter, Lawrence Guntert, Alex James McLeod, Shadan Noori, Jacob Philips, Liam Robbins
Director: James Brining Writer: Alan Bennett Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Duration: 150 minutes Start Date: May 19, 2014 End Date: June 7, 2014 Enjoy opened in 1980, fated to become Alan Bennett’s singular flop at the time. Over thirty years later, the infamously experimental show launches a new season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in honour of the Leeds-born writer. Set in the early Eighties, Enjoy traces the effect of council housing redevelopment in one of the few remaining back-to-back red brick terraces in Leeds. The tenants, Mam and Dad, are chosen to be documented during the transitional process by the mysterious Ms Craig from the council. As a normal day gives way to extraordinary events, the world of Mam, Dad and their offspring becomes emblazoned in a social media whirlwind of experimentation, extortion and exploitation. It is clear to see why an early Eighties’ audience rejected the wild ideas which Enjoy presents. The media machine which governs so many social habits of a new generation, such as Big Brother and Vlogging through YouTube, are staples of modern entertainment. The concepts of fly-on-the-wall documentaries and live feeds from people’s homes are commonplace forms of entertainment today. In 1980, however, things were very different. Television boasted three channels, documentaries were educational, news was functionally informative, and drama was just that. Enjoy not only blurs the lines of these standards, it blends them together into the horror we now recognise as reality television. Cast: Barrie Rutter, Andrew Whitehead, Jack Quarton, Ben Burman, Darren Kuppan, Brett Lee Roberts, Mark Thomas, Russell Richardson, Elizabeth Eves, Emily Butterfield, Sophia Hatfield, Lauryn Redding.
Director: Barrie Rutter Writer: Deborah McAndrew Theatre: West Yorkshire Playhouse Duration: 140 minutes Start Date: April 8, 2014 End Date: April 19, 2014 Northern Broadsides in partnership with the New Vic Theatre bring An August Bank Holiday Lark to West Yorkshire Playhouse this month. Set during the outbreak of World War I, the play examines the effect of distant conflict on a small Lancashire community. New writing comes from the pen of Deborah McAndrew. Written with a rich Northern voice and warm sardonic wit, McAndrew successfully recreates an ensemble of early 20th century Lancastrian characters recognisable through universal identifiers; there is the family man, the ambitious poet, a reckless adventurer, a pushy single mill girl and a waiflike spinster. Naturally there is also the secret love affair which is interrupted by war. The community is centred on the Squire, a widower who fills his time tending his garden and co-ordinating Morris Men. John Farrar is a petty tyrant with petty concerns, all of which become subverted by tragedy on a global scale. Cast: Anna O'Grady, Jane Lambert, Lewis Collier, Rachel Barry, Paul Brightwell, Alistair McGowan, Charlotte Page, Jamie Foreman, Rula Lenska, Katie Hawgarth, Andrew McDonald
Director: David Grindley Writer: Bernard Shaw Theatre: The Grand Theatre Leeds Duration: 140 minutes Start Date: April 1, 2014 End Date: April 5, 2014 Bernard Shaw’s most famous play, Pygmalion, visits the Grand Theatre Leeds this month. Drawing its title from the Greek myth about an artist who falls in love with his own sculpture, Pygmalion has influenced a body of cultural work in the past century, including adaptations such as My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman and more subtle derivations in Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes. It has even had artificial intelligence programs named after its leading lady. Pygmalion follows the story of Henry Higgins as he meets Eliza Doolittle, a waiflike cockney flower seller with aspirations to improve her diction and become ladylike. She visits Higgins with a view to gaining elocution lessons, but he readily sees Doolittle as an opportunity for a great linguistic experiment. As remarkable transformations take place at his home on Wimpole Street, neither foresee the challenge, conflict and division which her cultural evolution will soon create. |
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