The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds has announced its programme from
January to July, 2012:
3 – 25 February
Waiting for Godot
By Samuel Beckett
Director: Ian Brown; designer: Paul Wills
A West Yorkshire Playhouse and Talawa Theatre Company co-production
10 February – 3 March
Angus Thongs and Even More Snogging
By Louise Rennison, adapted for the stage by Mark Catley and Louise
Rennison
Director: Ryan McBryde; Designer: Hannah Clark
A West Yorkshire Playhouse and Micklelou Productions co-production
Georgia is in love! With a Sex God! The lead singer of local band
the Stiff Dylans, whose mortal name is Robbie, sends Georgia all jelloid
knickers, but there is only one problem in the form of Robbie’s
current girlfriend Wet Lindsey. Along with her posse the Ace Gang,
best friend Jaz, and with a little help from her Scottish wildcat
Angus, Georgia makes it her mission to become the girlfriend of the
Sex God, but when Italian luuurve-God Massimo turns up who should
Georgia choose? And then there’s Dave the Laugh, matey type mate,
but just a good laugh…right? Who will Georgia scale the heady
heights of the snogging scale with and will her best laid plans backfire
in this celebratory shindig of her loony teenage life?
16 March – 7 April
Mary Shelley
By Helen Edmundson
Director: Polly Teale; Designer: Naomi Dawson
A West Yorkshire Playhouse, Shared Experience and Nottingham Playhouse
co-production
Losing her mother at the age of 11, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin finds
comfort in reading the family memoir written by her philosophical
father William Godwin. However his honest account of her mother’s
suicide attempt, extra-marital affair and the birth of their illegitimate
elder daughter are regarded by society as shocking. Sharing her father’s
controversially liberal outlook, Mary is herself drawn into scandal
when she falls in love with Percy Bysshe Shelley, a married writer,
and elopes – becoming Mary Shelley. Delving into the writer’s
turbulent personal history, this production sheds light on the personal
background of a bold young woman who came to write a novel so radical
in its ideology that she changed the literary landscape forever.
4 – 26 May
The Real Thing
By Tom Stoppard
Director: Kate Saxon; Designer: Simon Higlett
A West Yorkshire Playhouse and English Touring Theatre Co-Production
Harry is a brilliant playwright, married to Charlotte a charming
actress who is starring in his latest theatrical masterpiece House
Of Cards, a play about the fragility of love and the architecture
of relationships. As life mirrors art, or as art mirrors life, Harry
has begun an affair with Annie the wife of his leading actor Max.
When their affair is discovered they choose to be together, believing
that they have indeed found true love. Yet as Harry struggles with
his latest play his suspicions about Annie, and her relationship with
Broadie, an ex-soldier turned anti-war protester grow. The euphoric
highs and deeply felt torment of true love are explored with unfettered
emotional delicacy, in a play about the philosophy of love.
16 June – 14 July
Loserville
A new musical by Elliot Davis and James Bourne
Director: Steven Dexter; Choreographer: Nick Winston; Designer: Francis
O’Connor; Musical Supervisor: Martin Lowe; Sound Designer: Simon
Baker
A West Yorkshire Playhouse, Kevin Wallace for FIRST ACT! Limited and
Youth Music Theatre UK production
It’s 1971 and computer geek, Michael Dork, is about to change
the world! However, a new complication has just entered his life...
girls! Along with his sci-fi obsessed, social-misfit friends Lucas,
Francis and Marvin, Michael fights to get computers taken seriously
in a world of typewriters. When Holly turns up at school all of Michael’s
dreams seem to be coming true – at last a girl with looks and
brains that actually notices him. But when rich kid Eddie discovers
Holly’s dark secret, he turns his back on girlfriend Leia, and
sets about to ruin Michael and his friends’ future dreams. Loserville
- if you can't predict the future...invent it.
28 June – 8 July
The Giant and the Bear
By Unlimited Theatre, Layla Rosa and Hide&Seek
Developed through Furnace
An Unlimited Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse and imove production
The Giant's Circus rolls into town with world class circus acts,
street performers, storytellers and musicians. As a family or group
of friends, choose your own adventure from a massive menu of games,
stories and experiences before a breathtaking finale in the Giant's
Big Top - erected on Quarry Hill for one week only. And for anyone
who likes a good old fashioned battle between Goodies and Baddies,
keep an eye out for the secret level to go on a special mission. But
don't let The Giant know!
