Liverpool Everyman will open its new building on Hope Street on 1 March 2014 with a "Housewarming" before beginning its season with artistic director Gemma Bodinetz's production of Twelfth Night a week later.
This night of Shakespearean misrule will bring back two members of the 1974 Everyman company of this play, with Nick Woodeson as Malvolio and Matthew Kelly as Sir Toby Belch. Also in the cast are Neil Caple, Pauline Daniels, Paul Duckworth, Adam Keast, Adam Levy, Jodie McNee and Alan Stocks.
The inaugural season will also include a brand new show in collaboration with Kneehigh Theatre Company based on John Gay's The Beggar's Opera entitled Dead Dog in a Suitcase, written by Kneehigh regular Carl Grose and directed by Kneehigh founder Mike Shepherd with music by Charles Hazlewood.
Between these, Birkenhead-born playwright Michael Wynne (The Priory at the Royal Court, Being Eileen for the BBC) will make his Liverpool debut with the world première of Hope Place, specially commissioned for the Everyman's first season, a story of myths, memories and secrets.
Over at the Playhouse, Everyman and Playhouse associate director Charlotte Gwinner will direct Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge featuring Lloyd Hutchinson (Collaborators at the National Theatre, Utopia on Channel 4) as Eddie Carbone and Julia Ford (Mogadishu at the Royal Exchange and Lyric, Hammersmith, The Paradise for BBC) as his wife Beatrice.
As we reported two weeks ago, Liverpool Playhouse will collaborate with Mercury Theatre Colchester, Salisbury Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse on a revival of the musical Betty Blue Eyes, written by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe based on Alan Bennett's screenplay for A Private Function.
The Everyman season will also feature David Greig’s Edinburgh Fringe First Award-winning The Events, involving six local community choirs, and the Playhouse will host touring productions including Northern Stage’s Catch 22, Dial M for Murder from producers Fiery Angel, Under Milk Wood by Clwyd Theatre Cymru, the return of Headlong with Spring Awakening and Northern Broadsides will bring An August Bank Holiday Lark.
Bookings for the new season will open on Thursday 28 November at the box office and on the Everyman and Playhouse web site.