Classic drama, a celebration of a local legend and the return of an old favourite are highlights of summer 2017 at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The season begins with the Original Theatre Company and Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds presentation of Torben Betts’s comedy Invincible which looks at the life of a couple whose new neighbours turn their lives upside down. It runs at the Staffordshire theatre-in-the-round from Tuesday 4 April until Saturday 15 April.
Peter Leslie Wild, who directed Brendan Murray’s Seeing the Lights at the New Vic in 2015 and Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee’s Inherit the Wind in 2014, returns to Newcastle-under-Lyme to direct Dial M for Murder. Frederick Knott’s gripping drama runs from Friday 28 April until Saturday 20 May.
The New Vic then celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of Stoke’s greatest literary legends, Arnold Bennett, with a new version of his novel Anna of the Five Towns. Adapted by Deborah McAndrew and directed by Conrad Nelson, the play tells the love story of a spirited young woman and is set against the backdrop of life in the Potteries. It runs from Friday 26 May until Saturday 17 June.
After two successful runs in 2013 and 2014, Laura Eason’s adaptation of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days is back and opens at the New Vic from Friday 23 June until Saturday 8 July before setting off on a national tour. Andrew Pollard and Michael Hugo reprise their roles as Phileas Fogg and Passepartout. The New Vic’s artistic director Theresa Heskins directs.
The season closes with another offering from hapless New Vic favourite Eric who appears in Strictly Eric. The best hits of the ‘60s are as always included in the show which takes to the stage from Monday 21 August until Saturday 2 September.