Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre has announced details of the final shows in its spring 2015 season including the UK premiere of a new musical comedy and a new children’s drama.
Only A Day, a “funny, sad and thought-provoking new play” for children aged seven and under, was written by German children’s author and illustrator Martin Baltscheit. David Henry Wilson is the translator. It can be seen in the Belgrade’s B2 auditorium from 7 until 21 February.
It will be followed by a co-production with Tamasha Theatre Company of Em Hussain’s Blood, a “searing tale of love, lust and betrayal” which is based on Lorca’s Blood Wedding. It offers an “urgent and deeply affecting study of fractured family ties and the conflicts operating at the very heart of contemporary Pakistani communities in Britain”. Blood runs in B2 from 28 March until 11 April.
The Belgrade will join forces with Coventry-based opera company Hightime for a new English translation of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. It will play on the B2 stage from 7 until 9 May.
Belgrade creative associate Patricia Benecke will direct a new work by American playwright Donna Moore, Cougar – the Musical which makes its UK première in Coventry from 16 May until 6 June.
Crush is a new musical comedy from the pen of Maureen Chadwick, creator and writer of the television dramas Waterloo Road, Footballers’ Wives and Bad Girls. Set in a girls’ boarding school at the start of the swinging ‘60s, Crush features music and lyrics by Kath Gotts. It will be directed by Anna Linstrum. It runs from 4 until 19 September 2015.
The Belgrade has also announced details of a number of touring productions visiting the theatre.
They include The Mist in the Mirror, adapted from the novel by Susan Hill, from 14 until 18 April, the Watermill Theatre Company’s production of Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary from 28 April until 2 May and Arnold Ridley’s comedy thriller The Ghost Train from 12 until 16 May.
The full programme is available at the Belgrade’s web site.