The Citizens Theatre
The season at The Citizens Theatre has opened with a new production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame.
This is a co–production with Manchester's Home and is directed by Dominic Hill; the cast is led by Coronation Street's David Neilson and Chris Gascoyne who will take the play to Home following the run at the Citizens.
The Theatre's main stage director in residence Gareth Nicholls is directing Blackbird which opens later this month. Written by David Harrower, the play looks at paedophilia and adolescent sexuality and is considered one of the most important works of twenty-first century Scottish drama.
Visitors arrive in March; firstly the tour of British crime drama Get Carter stops off marking the first time that Newcastle’s Northern Stage plays the Citizens. This stage adaptation of Ted Lewis's novel Jack’s Return Home is by Torben Betts; it was also made into a film starring Michael Caine.
For the Glasgow International Comedy Festival later in the month, visitors so far include Jenny Eclair, Richard Herring, Mark Watson, Mark Steel, Shappi Khorsandi, Bridget Christie, Des Clarke, Greg Proops and James Campbell.
Comedy of a different kind is on offer with The Royal Shakespeare Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play For The Nation.
The specially-formed Citizens Dream Players is formed of six amateur Scottish actors taking the role of Bottom and the other Mechanicals, a company of professional RSC actors and pupils from Shawlands Academy.
Part of the Shakespeare 400 anniversary events and directed by RSC deputy artistic director Erica Whyman, the production will also be seen at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon in June.
The Oresteia–inspired This Restless House trilogy of plays by Zinnie Harris from The National Theatre of Scotland plays the venue in April after which the season concludes with a new production of Observe The Sons Of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme.
This co-production between the Citizens, Headlong, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and The Abbey, Dublin commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Battle of The Somme. It is written by Frank McGuinness and directed by Headlong artistic director Jeremy Herrin.
Following its première at the Citizens Theatre, it will tour Great Britain and Northern Ireland and play the Abbey Theatre, Dublin where it was premièred in 1985.
Other news from The Citizens includes the appointment of Judith Kilvington as joint chief executive alongside Dominic Hill.
Kilvington currently acts as artistic director/chief executive having joined as executive director in 2013. Previously she has worked at Graeae, Actors Touring Company, Goldsmiths College and Imperial College, University of London.