Rebus casts long shadow at Birmingham REP

Published: 10 April 2018
Reporter: Steve Orme

REP première: Rebus: Long Shadows
Lesley Garrett, Hugh Dennis and John Marquez in The Messiah

Ian Rankin’s legendary detective John Rebus will be brought to the stage for the first time in Birmingham REP’s 2018 autumn and winter season.

Rebus: Long Shadows will be written by Rankin and playwright Rona Munro. Charles Lawson will play Rebus in a production directed by the REP’s artistic director Roxana Silbert.

Rankin said, "I've long wanted to see John Rebus on a theatre stage, and it was such a privilege to work with Rona Munro in fashioning a new story that could best be told 'in the flesh'.

“Having lived with Rebus for more than 30 years, I know that he has cast many long shadows. This time those same shadows threaten to engulf him in a story that is tense, gripping, deep and thoughtful. I hope audiences will agree.”

Munro added, “adapting one of the most iconic characters in detective fiction was both daunting and exhilarating. It was a collaborative process that completely depended on Ian Rankin’s generosity in sharing the man he made and knows so well.” Rebus: Long Shadows has its world première from 20 September until 6 October.

Speaking about the season, Silbert said, “new work is the life blood of theatre and the REP is honoured to be working with the best writers of their generation, with 11 new plays across our three stages. Six will be premièring at the REP.

“Championing and empowering a diverse range of voices is in the REP’s DNA and as always I’m thrilled with the number of female writers in our season—Rona Munro, Bryony Lavery, Penelope Skinner, Anna Jordan, Selina Thompson, Janice Connolly, Ko Sun Duck and Katori Hall.”

Among the season’s offering is Anna Jordan’s Pop Music, a “euphoric, nostalgic, pop-tastic theatre party for anyone who’s ever made a fool of themselves on the dance floor”. Co-commissioned and co-produced by the REP and Paines Plough, it runs in The Door from 12 until 22 September.

Hugh Dennis, Lesley Garrett and John Marquez will appear in a new staging of Patrick Barlow’s The Messiah from 18 until 27 October. It involves a travelling theatre troupe of two actors and an opera singer arriving on a camel in the biblical town of Birmingham to enact "the greatest story ever told".

Leo Butler’s “exhilarating and original” comedy All You Need Is LSD plays in The Door from 4 until 13 October.

Birmingham comedienne Janice Connolly will collaborate with puppeteer Michael Crouch and REP associate director Daniel Bailey on Stuff in The Door from 17 until 20 October.

A world première from Stan’s Café, The Capital, looks at the lives of five people as they criss-cross a city in pursuit of five different ambitions. It runs in the Studio from 24 until 27 October.

Two 15-year-olds from opposite sides of the world find themselves adrift in a mysterious space, floating like two polar bears on melting icebergs in Orange Polar Bear (The Door, 1 until 10 November), a new bilingual play by Evan Placey and Korean playwright Ko Sun Duck.

Penelope Skinner’s new play Meek (The Door, 4 until 8 September) arrives at the REP after its première at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Mischief Theatre’s The Comedy About a Bank Robbery will celebrate its regional première at the REP from 23 August until 8 September before a UK tour.

Bryony Lavery’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones has been commissioned by the REP and co-produced with Northampton’s Royal and Derngate, Northern Stage and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse. It runs at the REP from 30 October until 10 November.

Festive productions are The Wizard of Oz from 24 November until 13 January 2019 and the return of The Snowman, 25 years after it first came to life at the REP, from 16 until 26 January.

Productions visiting the REP include Birmingham writer / performer Selina Thompson’s solo show about grief, ancestry, home and colonialism, Salt in the Studio on 15 and 16 October and Katori Hall’s play about Martin Luther King, The Mountaintop, in The Door from 27 November until 1 December.

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