Midlands productions

Published: 9 July 2017
Reporter: Steve Orme

Our Man in Havana at Malvern Theatres, Worcestershire
Life’s a Beach at Lightwood’s House and Park, Adkins Lane, Bearwood, West Midlands Credit: Dee Patel
Strictly Murder at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre

Wedding bells are in the air when Betty O’Barley and Harry O’Hay aim to get hitched in Scamp Theatre’s The Scarecrows’ Wedding at Lichfield Garrick on Tuesday.

Split Second Productions’ double bill of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream continues at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire until Tuesday.

Laura Eason’s adaptation of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, a Newcastle-under-Lyme New Vic production, tours to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

Clive Francis’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s spy thriller Our Man in Havana visits Malvern Theatres, Worcestershire from Tuesday until Saturday.

Groups of up to four people are able to experience the stories of three generations of Northampton football fans in The Twelfth Player, a site-specific performance at Northampton Town’s Sixfields stadium, which continues until Wednesday.

Paul Hart, artistic director of Newbury’s Watermill Theatre, takes to Wolverhampton Grand his new productions of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, featuring music by Mumford and Sons and Hozier, on Wednesday and Twelfth Night on Thursday and Friday.

Creatio Youth Theatre performs Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera at Derby Theatre from Wednesday until Saturday.

Adapted by David Wood, Babe—The Sheep Pig, based on the novel by Dick King Smith, goes the whole hog at the Belgrade, Coventry from Thursday until Saturday.

Life’s a Beach, which features stories captured from holidaymakers, residents and daytrippers to the seaside, with each story presented in three specially converted caravans, trundles along to Lightwood’s House and Park, Adkins Lane, Bearwood, West Midlands from Thursday until Sunday.

The Actors Company at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate tackles Declan Donnellan’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations on the Royal stage on Friday and Saturday.

Brian Capron, Corrinne Wicks and Gary Turner appear in the World War II thriller Strictly Murder at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre on Friday and Saturday.

The latest version of “the UK’s number one rock and roll variety production” That'll Be The Day should have audiences at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham dancing in the aisles on Friday and Saturday.

Jenny Wren Productions presents Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, adapted by Elise Heaven and Jenny Wicks, in the open air at Court Lodge, Randwick, Stroud, Gloucestershire on Friday and Saturday, and Cowley Manor, Cheltenham on Sunday.

Twenty-four groups from more than 200 youth and school dance troupes from across the country have been selected for U.Dance 2017, “the nation’s annual youth dance festival”, at Birmingham Hippodrome from Friday until Sunday while the national South Asian youth dance competition Navadal takes place at the Patrick Centre at the Hippodrome on Saturday.

Jumprov, “the UK's first diverse improv theatre company”, returns to the stage with Jumprov 2—The Sequel at the Crescent Theatre, Birmingham on Saturday.

“One of the UK’s best-loved touring theatre companies”, Oddsocks goes outdoors at mac Birmingham with Romeo and Juliet on Saturday and Macbeth on Sunday.

New English Ballet Theatre presents a mixed bill featuring the premiere of Jenna Lee’s choreography for Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and three other newly-choreographed works at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham on Sunday.

Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Boublil and Schönberg’s musical Miss Saigon continues at Leicester’s Curve until Saturday 22 July.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Titus Andronicus continues until Saturday 2 September, Antony and Cleopatra until Thursday 7 September and Julius Caesar until Saturday 9 September; in the Swan Theatre, Oscar Wilde’s lyrical one-act play Salomé, marking 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, continues until Wednesday 6 September and Phil Porter’s new play Vice Versa(or the Decline and Fall of General Braggadocio at the hands of his canny servant Dexter and Terence the monkey) continues until Saturday 9 September.

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