Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse's 2024 season comprises world premières, classic plays and projects with their associate companies, celebrating 60 years since the Everyman was founded and 10 years since its current building opened.
At the heart of the Everyman season are three homegrown productions, two of which come from writers supported through the theatres’ playwright programmes.
The Legend of Ned Ludd by Joe Ward Munrow (20 April to 11 May) takes audiences on a whirlwind global commute from the Luddites’ nineteenth century war against new technology through to London, Liverpool, Lagos and beyond. Tell Me How It Ends by Tasha Dowd (12 to 22 June) is about two queer lives intertwining as they each learn to love living, finding the joy in being bound together during a time of growing uncertainty. Mixing cats, killers and casual violence, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (21 September to 12 October) is the shocking, savage and sadistically funny winner of the Olivier Award for Best Comedy from Martin McDonagh.
There will be collaborations on productions with Homotopia and Cardboard Citizens and a co-production with Talawa Theatre Company to be announced in February, and further work with Graeae on its artist development programme, Beyond. Graeae’s Crips with Chips: A Fork in the Road, a showcase of short plays by Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent writers written in response to a predetermined theme, will visit Liverpool (24 February).
The Playhouse season also includes Unfortunate, a musical telling the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch (5 to 9 March); Pilot Theatre's contemporary version of Orpheus in The Song for Ella Grey (13 to 16 March); Curve Theatre’s My Beautiful Laundrette (26 to 30 March); imitating the dog's Frankenstein (17 to 20 April); Tim Rice: I Know Him So Well, My Life in Musicals (2 May); Showstopper: The Improvised Musical (9 to 11 May); and Drop the Dead Donkey the Reawakening (14 to 18 May).
For younger children, there’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea (12 to 17 February), Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book (9 to 13 April) and Tom Fletcher’s There’s A Monster in Your Show (28 May to 1 June).
Mark Da Vanzo, CEO for the theatres, said, “I’m proud to unveil a year that embodies our unwavering dedication to artistic innovation, nurturing talent, and social transformation. The foundations of which were laid back in 1964 when those first creative sparks were lit at the Everyman.”