Category: News

A petition organised by Equity’s Northern Ireland branch protesting against proposed cuts of 10% in annual funding to the region’s arts and culture sector has reached nearly 12,000 signatures in one week. Growing support comes after Equity presented 11,000 signatures to Colum Boyle, the senior civil servant in the region’s Department for Communities, on April… Continue reading Equity petition against Northern Ireland arts cuts nears 12,000

Birmingham Hippodrome is to have “the first in-house musical theatre department at a UK venue” in which it will develop new musicals. The Hippodrome says that by 2028, it wants to be recognised as the UK’s national theatre of new musicals. The department will be led by a head of new musical theatre whose specialist… Continue reading Hippodrome creates department for new musicals

Worcestershire-based socially engaged arts company Mobilise and Worcester Theatres are to present the INSANE Festival, a free festival of arts and well-being for young people aged from 10 to 18 which will coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week. The festival will feature the première of Sickkk Icarus, a contemporary reimagining of the myth of Icarus. Presented… Continue reading Worcester theatre to host festival for young people

Having won pretty much every award available, for her performance in Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie Jodie Comer may have been considered a shoe-in for the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards too, but the big news is the Best Actress gong going to Patsy Ferran. Ferran joined the cast of Rebecca Frecknall’s A Streetcar Named Desire just four days before the… Continue reading Critics’ Circle Theatre Award winners

A new production of Lauren Gunderson’s award-winning comedy The Book of Will is coming to UK audiences this year in its European première. This love letter to theatre is a co-production from Octagon Theatre Bolton, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Shakespeare North Playhouse. Opening at Hornchurch from April 27–May 13, before transferring to Bolton from May 17–June 3… Continue reading The Book of Will to tour

Anne Hegerty, The Governess from the ITV quiz programme The Chase, will play the Empress in Aladdin, the 2023 pantomime at Chesterfield’s Winding Wheel Theatre. Hegerty, a favourite with fans of The Chase in both the UK and Australia, has also appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Loose Women and This Morning. Panto producer Paul Holman said, “Anne is… Continue reading Anne to govern in Chesterfield panto

Staffordshire’s New Vic Theatre and circus company Upswing are to begin an annual programme of work fusing theatre with contemporary circus. The two organisations will develop their creative collaborations which began in 2009 with Bryony Lavery’s adaptation of Magdalen King-Hall’s novel The Wicked Lady. The partnership aims to bring circus home to Newcastle-under-Lyme where Philip Astley, father of the modern… Continue reading New Vic and Upswing to fuse theatre with circus

Would you trade five years of your life for the perfect body? A new play touring the UK this spring asks audiences this question and tells the story of one woman prepared to do just that. 5 Years, which comes to The Dukes in Lancaster May 4, uses hologram technology to turn the spotlight on… Continue reading Body positive?

A world première stage adaptation of I, Daniel Blake that exposes the reality behind the cost-of-living crisis headlines will open at Northern Stage (May 25–June 10) before touring. The first stage adaptation of Ken Loach’s award-winning film will be written by actor and comedian Dave Johns who won a best actor and best newcomer awards for his… Continue reading I, Daniel Blake on stage

Geraldine James will make her Royal Shakespeare Company debut as Rosalind in director Omar Elerian’s production of As You Like It which runs in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford in summer 2023. In Elerian’s new take on the play, a company of veteran actors—many of whom are likely to have a long and close association with the… Continue reading Geraldine James joins RSC for As You Like It