Derby Theatre’s summer 2015 season promises “an exciting theatrical ride for audiences and participants of all ages”.
Artistic director Sarah Brigham said, “all of us at Derby Theatre are looking forward to a vibrant season this summer. Derby is celebrating a season of city-wide festivals and we’re proud to contribute with the third edition of our own festival, DEparture Lounge, a week of performance and participation.
“In the rest of our season, I’m really looking forward to a contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet presented by Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, Hercules, a brilliantly inventive dance show for families from New Art Club and Every Brilliant Thing from Paines Plough, which was the hit of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year.
“We’ll also be presenting the next in Derby Theatre’s RETOLD series of plays: Joan, a show which looks at the life of Joan of Arc through the medium of a drag king cabaret.”
The venue’s youth theatre will present a double bill of productions which explore the lives of young people and their struggle to find their own voice: Dust by Sarah Daniels and Dreamtime by Stacey Sampson and Derby Youth Theatre, from 2 until 4 April.
On 2 and 3 May, Derby Theatre will be the East Midlands venue hosting the National Theatre’s Connections Festival for young people aged 13 to 25.
The stage show based on Sebastian Faulks’s novel Birdsong, by the Original Theatre Company and Birdsong Productions, returns to Derby Theatre from 27 until 31 May.
Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory and Tobacco Factory Theatres will present Romeo and Juliet from 16 until 20 June.
London Classic Theatre will stage Alan Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends from 7 until 11 July.
DEparture Lounge, Derby Theatre’s “summer festival of theatre with innovative performances, insightful workshops and much more”, returns from 25 until 31 July.
The Reduced Shakespeare Company will stage The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged) on 26 May.
University of Derby Theatre Arts students will present two productions: George Orwell’s A Clockwork Orange from 14 until 16 May and Off With Her Head, a “dark and disorientated” adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, from 21 until 23 May.
Family theatre shows include Birmingham Stage Company’s production of Horrible Histories Incredible Invaders and Groovy Greeks from 5 until 9 May and New Art Club, Dance 4 and Nottingham Playhouse’s Hercules, a modern cabaret for the whole family, on 12 June.
Studio season highlights include Tamasha’s production of Blood by Emteaz Hussain, a new play directed by Esther Richardson, on 19 and 20 June, Every Brilliant Thing on 26 and 27 June and one-woman show Joan from 16 until 18 July.
Further information is available at the Derby Theatre web site.