Shook – tour starts 1 November
Shook is the winning play from the 11th Papatango New Writing Prize.
It is written by Samuel Bailey, a participant of the Old Vic 12 and Orange Tree Writers’ Collective and MGCfutures bursary programme. This is the first full production of his work.
Papatango co-founder and artistic director George Turvey directs a cast made up of Josef Davies, Josh Finan, Andrea Hall and Ivan Oyik. The assistant director is Lisa Diveney.
Papatango is a charity which discovers and supports new playwrights. Over the past five years, the world premières of the Papatango New Writing Prize winning works have received nine Off West End Award nominations including Best New Play and Most Promising Playwright.
Shook opens at Southwark Playhouse London and then visits Hope Street Theatre Liverpool, Theatr Clwyd, Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough and Marlowe Theatre Canterbury.
My Cousin Rachel – tour starts 13 November
Daphne du Maurier's international bestselling novel, My Cousin Rachel, which was adapted for the stage by award winning novelist, screenwriter, playwright and broadcaster Joseph O’Connor, now tours presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions.
It is a Gothic romance in which the exotic Countess Rachel Sangalletti arrives at the Cornwall home of her recently deceased husband to face suspicion from some and the desire of others but is she the seducer and enchantress that they believe her to be.
Helen George, who will be known to viewers of the BBC's Call The Midwife, leads the cast in the title role.
Sharing the stage are Simon Shepherd, Jack Holden, Christopher Hollis, John Lumsden, Sean Murray and Aruhan Galieva. Anthony Banks directs.
After opening at Theatre Royal Bath, My Cousin Rachel visits Eden Court Inverness, Malvern Theatres, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Sheffield Lyceum, Chichester Festival Theatre and Richmond Theatre Twickenham.
A Little Space – tour starts 21 November
A Little Space is a show which looks at being alone, spending time on your own and connecting and disconnecting with people and places.
This devised piece is the result of a year-long collaboration between award-winning physical theatre company Gecko and Bradford based Mind the Gap, a company known for their work in the field of learning disability arts.
A Little Space has been created by Dan Watson, Rich Rusk, Charli Ward and Karen Bartholomew and the devising performers are Paul Bates, Lorraine Brown, Alison Colborne, JoAnne Haines and Charlotte Jones.
The show has original music by Dave Price and is directed by Gecko artistic director Amit Lahav with associate director Helen Baggett.
A Little Space is a HOME Manchester commission presented by Mind the Gap and Gecko. It visits Square Chapel Arts Centre Halifax, Cambridge Junction, The Gulbenkian Canterbury, The Old Market Brighton and HOME Manchester.
Oor Wullie! Your Wullie! A’body’s Wullie! – tour starts 23 November
DC Thomson Media’s Oor Wullie, a comic strip that has been entertaining Scotland's Sunday Post readers across generations, now makes it to the stage in a musical.
This story of the lovable, mischievous Wullie and his mates Fat Boab, Soapy Soutar, Wee Eck, has been adapted by Noisemaker, the award-winning partnership of book writer-lyricist Scott Gilmour and composer Claire McKenzie.
In the cast are Martin Quinn as the scallywag Wullie, Dundee Rep graduate actors Bailey Newsome as Soapy Soutar and Leah Byrne as Primrose, Dan Buckley as Fat Boab and Grant McIntyre as Wee Eck.
They share the stage with Ann Louis Ross and Irene Macdougall and former graduate Leanne Traynor as a reimagined Basher Mackenzie. George Brennan completes the cast.
The show is directed by Dundee Rep artistic director Andrew Panton.
Oor Wullie! Your Wullie! A’body’s Wullie! is presented by Dundee Rep Ensemble and Selladoor Productions in association with Noisemaker. It opens at Dundee Rep Theatre then visits Theatre Royal Glasgow, Edinburgh Kings Theatre, Ayr Gaiety Theatre, Inverness Eden Court, Macrobert Theatre Stirling with further venues to be announced.
A Christmas Carol – tour starts 27 November
European Arts Company delivers heart-warming seasonal spirit with its production of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
The work was first performed by Dickens and, under the direction of Peter Craze, actor John O’Connor uses the same script to recreate this now classic Christmas story.
Dickens was a supporter of Great Ormond Street Hospital and this tour continues in this vein, raising money for the institution.
A Christmas Carol visits Theatre Royal Margate, Trinity Theatre Tunbridge Wells, Discovery Centre Winchester, Stantonbury Theatre Milton Keynes, Mumford Theatre Cambridge, Stafford Gatehouse Theatre Stafford, The Lights Andover, Old Town Hall Hemel Hempstead, The Old Courtroom Brighton, Greenwich Theatre Studio London, Stamford Arts Centre, The Courtyard Hereford, Loughborough Town Hall and York Theatre Royal.
Check web sites for information regarding post–show Q&As, captioned, signed, relaxed and parent and baby performances, the use of smoke/haze and flashing lights, and age suitability. At the time of going to press, some dates may not yet be on sale.