The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds celebrates its 21st birthday
on 8th March, 2011. On that day tickets for two productions, The
Deep Blue Sea and Yerma, will be available to 1990s prices.
To celebrate the centenary of Terence Rattigan’s birth, the
Quarry stage will be transformed into a post-war boarding house for
his heart-breaking exploration of all consuming love in The Deep
Blue Sea. Directed by Sarah Esdaile, Rattigan’s play lays
bare the impossible burdens of a dying passion in this emotionally
revealing and complex play. It runs from 22nd February (previews from
18th) to 12th March.
Federico Garcia Lorca’s Yerma is retold in a new version
by Ursula Rani Sarma, co-commissioned by the Playhouse. Yerma longs
for a child with every fibre of her being. Now that is denied to her,
the world ceases to make sense. It is directed by Róisín
McBrinn and runs from 10th to 25th March (previews form 5th).
From 11th to 28th May (previews from 7th) Jonathan Munby directs
John Ford’s controversial drama ‘Tis Pity She's a Whore.
Telling of an incestuous relationship between brother and sister,
of their tumultuous passion and unabashed love, this most shocking
of Renaissance classics can end only in vengeful tragedy.
The Courtyard at the Playhouse is changing, it will trans•form
under the guidance of five curators invited in by Ian Brown to re-imagine
this space. trans•form has been created to challenge,
reinvent, reconfigure and produce new pieces of work which push the
boundaries of theatre both physically and critically. Alan Lane for
Slung Low and Kully Thiarai alongside Shared Experience, NT Studio
and Peepolykus will create, present and develop work which will trans•form
the Courtyard Theatre.
Armed only with a pair of silver slippers, hope in her heart, and
the knowledge that she is the best wicked-witch killer in all of Oz,
Dorothy goes off in search of The Wiz. This Motown- inspired
retelling of The Wizard of Oz, including a 30 strong community
cast and directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo, runs from 28th June (previews
from 24th) to 16th July.
Borderlines, the Anglo-German exchange project, comes to a close
with the staging of No Man's Land, a tender drama written by
Aisha Khan and directed by Lajos Talamonti, in which boundaries are
crossed and unlikely friendships are made in a elderly man’s
garden in Armley, Leeds. This is a co-production between West Yorkshire
Playhouse and Theater an der Parkaue and features two German and two
British actors, directed by German director Lajos Talamonti. It runs
from 3rd to 7th May (previews from 29th April) after premiering in
Germany.
