The UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre is proud to announce full details of its programme for the coming autumn and winter. Nottingham Playhouse, which won the accolade in the recent TMA awards, continues to create bold and thrilling theatre, made in Nottingham: work that once again will be seen far and wide, with one London transfer and co-productions with two of the UK’s leading touring companies. Artistic Director Giles Croft and Chief Executive Stephanie Sirr have lined up a powerful array of work that spans the centuries:

• Ancient Greece in outstanding modern words, as Seamus Heaney’s version of Antigone THE BURIAL AT THEBES returns
• Jacobean-style madness, mayhem and murderous passion in THE CHANGELING by Middleton and Rowley 
• A contemporary classic receives its first mainstage UK production: worldwide hit BEAST ON THE MOON by Richard Kalinoski
• Time-honoured panto tradition in DICK WHITTINGTON: the magical Kenneth Alan Taylor conjures cats, rats and mad old bats
• An epic panorama of 19^th-century Russia as Tolstoy’s WAR AND PEACE is condensed into two parts by Helen Edmundson
• PLUS: indefinable hilarity from theatre troupes Rejects Revenge and Forkbeard Fantasy
• The last fifty years of British history through the lives of one Black family in visiting drama ANGEL HOUSE by Roy Williams
• Dance from Russell Maliphant, New English Contemporary Ballet, Theatre Rites, Henri Oguike and Fabulous Beast
• Frank Skinner, Sean Lock, Ardal O’Hanlon and Jenny Eclair, among ten nights of top-name comedy
• And for the very young, Christmas holiday fun with THE UGLY DUCKLING – plus Saturday and half-term treats too

NOTTINGHAM PLAYHOUSE THEATRE COMPANY presents…

Ancient drama finds a 21^st-century voice in THE BURIAL AT THEBES, the tale of Sophocles’ tragic heroine Antigone as adapted by Nobel prizewinner Seamus Heaney. This is a chance for still wider audiences to see one of Nottingham Playhouse’s greatest successes of recent seasons; the UK premiere production found great favour with critics and audiences in 2005. Forbidden to bury her outcast brother, one bold young woman confronts a tyrant: it is a battle that neither can win. Abby Ford (Coram Boy) stars as Antigone and Paul Bentall as Creon, King of Thebes. Nominated for Best Director in the TMA Awards for the original staging, Lucy Pitman-Wallace once again helms this elemental story, retold in muscular yet lyrical modern speech. Designer Jessica Curtis and Composer/Musical Director Mick Sands also return to reimagine the production for a tour which encompasses Oxford Playhouse and a London transfer to the Barbican Pit. Sponsored by the University of Nottingham, THE BURIAL AT THEBES is at Nottingham Playhouse from Friday 31 August to Saturday 15 September.

After Greek tragedy comes Jacobean, no less steeped in blood. A deadly dance of lust and lunacy holds the stage in THE CHANGELING, the 17th-century classic by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. Only one thing stands between Beatrice and the man she loves: the bridegroom arranged by her father. Obsessed with Beatrice, her hideous manservant De Flores agrees to rid her of this obstacle, but she cannot guess the terrible price he will exact… A torrid tale of deception and disguise that sweeps from the state room to the lunatic asylum, THE CHANGELING is described by director Stephen Unwin as the greatest tragedy in English after Shakespeare. Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company enters into partnership with English Touring Theatre to premiere this full-blooded new production, designed by Paul Wills, from Friday 28 September to Saturday 13 October prior to a UK tour.

A neglected chapter of 20^th-century history lies behind BEAST ON THE MOON, but its tender tale of a husband and wife gradually learning to love one another is somehow timeless. In 1920s Milwaukee, young Aram greets a mail-order bride from his native Armenia. Aram’s attempt to rebuild his lost family is doomed, but an unlikely young stranger may yet help the couple to overcome past traumas and embrace a new world. Inspired by the oft-forgotten Armenian genocide of 1915-18, Richard Kalinoski’s play has already touched hearts in 17 countries and 12 tongues, taking over 40 international prizes including Best Play in the leading French and Argentinian theatre awards. Nottingham Playhouse’s Artistic Director Giles Croft directs the first production on a major UK stage at Nottingham Playhouse from Friday 2 to Saturday 17 November.

For centuries pantomime audiences have thrilled to the story of DICK WHITTINGTON, the hick with a stick who hits it big in old London town. The 24^th Playhouse panto from irrepressible Writer and Director Kenneth Alan Taylor preserves the best of festive tradition: pantomime animals, a thigh-slapping principal boy, and a double dose of damehood. The drop-dead gruesome double act of Jeffrey Longmore and John Elkington follow last year’s Ugly Sisters with the roles of Sarah the Cook and Mrs Fitzwarren in a family-oriented frolic full of cats, rats and daft old bats. Designer Tim Meacock contributes fabulous sets and costumes with an authentic medieval touch, but introduces a spec-tacular new dimension of action when Dick and his friends set sail – and the audience dons its 3-D glasses! Set to be the cat’s pyjamas this Christmas, DICK WHITTINGTON runs from Friday 30 November to Saturday 19 January.

The greatest of all 19^th-century novels comes teeming to life in WAR AND PEACE, adapted from Leon Tolstoy’s epic saga by Helen Edmundson. Five aristocratic families discover that status is no protection against the force of history, as Russia finds itself devastated by Napoleon’s armies. Presented in two parts, the production marks the second collaboration between Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company and the renowned Shared Experience, following the success of A Passage to India in 2004. Director Nancy Meckler returns to develop her acclaimed production, originally staged at the National Theatre in 1996 as a single evening, with Helen Edmundson reworking the text and Angela Simpson revisiting the crumbling mirrored set and Yvonne Milnes the costumes, both originally designed by Bunny Christie. WAR AND PEACE, also co-produced with Hampstead Theatre, premieres at Nottingham Playhouse from Friday 1 to Sunday 17 February before embarking on its tour, with four opportunities to experience both Part 1 and Part 2 in a single, gripping day.

VISITING WORK

The art of improvisation reaches new comic heights in HOOF! Rejects Revenge Theatre Company and Spike Theatre have come together to field five of the country’s finest comic inventors and one musical virtuoso. Stepping out onto a bare stage, they create two whole plays, entirely unplanned and armed only with their imagination. This unrepeatable event unfolds on Thursday 20 September.

A different trip to the wilder reaches of theatrical comedy follows on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 September, when Forkbeard Fantasy presents INVISIBLE BONFIRES. Four actors, one horse, fifteen projectors and a live band combine efforts to unveil the funny side of global warming. From the comfort of the moon, the brylcreemed Brittonioni brothers spout hot air as the Earth suffocates below.

Nottingham Playhouse continues to support the work of Eclipse Theatre by hosting its new production ANGEL HOUSE, commissioned from Roy Williams, the writer of Little Sweet Thing and Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads. The Vincent family have lived in Craven Court since the day it opened, living and breathing 50 years of history, from Enoch Powell’s River of Blood speech and the Notting Hill riots to the Iraq war and the London bombings. This searing insight into the human dimension of multicultural Britain comes to the Playhouse from Tuesday 26 February to Saturday 1 March.

Nottingham Playhouse cements its reputation as a leading dance venue, and for the first time has commissioned as a member of the Dance Touring Partnership two pieces from renowned companies Theatre Rites and Fabulous Beast:

• Sensuality and strength epitomise a programme from choreographer Russell Maliphant on Tuesday 16 October
• New English Contemporary Ballet presents four works, from Balanchine to a new commission, on Wednesday 24 October
• Theatre Rites provide a magical introduction to dance for children aged 7+ in Mischief on Thursday 22 November
• Energy, invention and musicality mark the return of Henri Oguike Dance Company on Tuesday 19 February
• Ireland’s hottest dance company Fabulous Beast in James, Son of James from Thursday 21 – Saturday 23 February

Another dazzling assortment of stand-up comedians make room in their tour schedules for Nottingham Playhouse:

• The face of Red Dwarf’s Holly tours the great sights in Norman Lovett’s Slide Show on Tuesday 18 September
• British Comedy Award winner Sean Lock brings his inimitable brand of humour on Sunday 7 October
• Fast selling out, Frank Skinner makes his long-awaited return to live stand-up on Monday 8 October
• Quirky satire and manic musings at the piano keyboard from the amazing Tim Minchin on Sunday 14 October
• Ardal O’Hanlon returns to the Playhouse with acute observations and unexpected twists on Wednesday 17 October
• A Grumpy Old Woman steps out alone in Jenny Eclair’s "Because I forgot to get a pension" tour on Thursday 18 October
• Sean Hughes promises a night like no other in his long overdue return to the comedy circuit on Saturday 20 October
• TV and radio’s sharp-suited satirists Punt & Dennis appear in the flesh on Thursday 25 October
• Bloodbaths don’t come any funnier than Mark Steel’s lecture on the French Revolution on Sunday 11 November
• Lee Mack, BAFTA award-winning star of Not Going Out, is indoors and onstage on Tuesday 20 November

BIG DRAMA FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

Nottingham Playhouse continues to programme top-quality work for the youngest of theatregoers:

• Nottingham Playhouse Roundabout presents an egg-stra special daytime Christmas treat with THE UGLY DUCKLING, a funny and heart-warming adaptation of the beloved Hans Christian Andersen story by Neil Duffield, for children aged 5-8. A co-production with Sheffield Theatres, THE UGLY DUCKLING waddles into town from Thursday 24 December to Saturday 5 January, sponsored by Nottingham’s Ark Day Nursery.
• The popular Saturday Club showings for the under-8s continue with DNA Theatre Company’s CHICKEN LICKEN on Saturday 6 October and Nononsensetheatre’s take on ROMEO AND JULIET on Saturday 3 November.
• For the first time, Nottingham Playhouse takes some of the pain out of Half Term with a quartet of shows for the February holiday week, sponsored by Child’s Play Day Nursery. On Wednesday 13 February, Nottingham Playhouse Roundabout and AJTC present WEDDING STORY, Sara Clifford’s charming fantasy of a lost boy who is found again. Then Krazy Kat Theatre returns to the Playhouse with three magical extravaganzas complete with Sign Language: THE MAGIC FLUTE on Thursday 14 February, CLOWNDERELLA on Friday 15 February, and on Saturday 16, GROWING, GROWING… GONE!

PRESS NIGHT DIARY