What's on in the Midlands

Published: 2 February 2020
Reporter: Steve Orme

Jeremy Cobb and Ashley D Gayle in Holes at Nottingham Playhouse Credit: Manuel Harlan
2FACED DANCE with EVERYTHING (but the girl) in the Patrick Studio at Birmingham Hippodrome
Rosie Sheehy in the title role of King John in the Swan Theatre, Stratford Credit: Steve Tanner

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance presents Jeyasingh’s 2017 work Material Men Redux, a duet created for two dancers of the Indian diaspora, Sooraj Subramaniam and Shailesh Bahoran, at Curve, Leicester on Tuesday.

Tabs Productions and Rumpus Theatre Company continue their spring play season at the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield with Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps from Tuesday until Saturday.

Northampton’s Derngate hosts Beautiful the Carole King Musical from Tuesday until Saturday while the première of Alone in Berlin, Alistair Beaton’s adaptation of Hans Fallada’s novel, can be seen in the Royal from Saturday until Saturday 29 February.

Louis Sachar’s Holes, a Children's Theatre Partnership and Royal and Derngate with Nottingham Playhouse production, which is on tour returns home to Nottingham Playhouse from Wednesday until Saturday.

HFH Productions stages …If We’ve Never Been to the Moon?, “one man’s quest in search of hope, sanity and 250 quid”, which integrates creative captions for D/deaf and hearing impaired audience members, in the Foyle Studio at MAC Birmingham on Thursday.

OperaUpClose performs the première of its English version of Puccini’s classic Madam Butterfly, told from a female, East Asian perspective and transposed to 1980s Japan, at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry on Thursday.

Physical theatre company 2FACED DANCE celebrates its 20th anniversary with a tour of EVERYTHING (but the girl), a triple bill that has its world première in the Patrick Studio at Birmingham Hippodrome on Thursday and Friday.

The Gary Clarke Company looks at how two generations coped in the aftermath of the closure of Grimethorpe Colliery in Wasteland at Derby Theatre on Thursday and Friday.

Oily Cart takes its inclusive and multi-sensory show for the under-fives All Wrapped Up to Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry from Thursday until Saturday.

Elmhurst Ballet Company's Synergy, an evening of excerpts by some of the most influential figures in ballet including Ninette de Valois’s Checkmate, Frederick Ashton’s Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Peter Wright’s Swan Lake and David Bintley’s Take Five, dances into Elmhurst Ballet School, Birmingham on Friday and Saturday.

Oddsocks Productions presents its “laugh-a-minute” production The Adventures of Pinocchio! in the theatre at Landau Forte College, Derby on Friday and Saturday and Mansfield Palace Theatre on Sunday.

Emteaz Hussain’s adaptation of Alex Wheatle’s novel Crongton Knights has its world première in the B2 auditorium at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Saturday until Saturday 22 February before a UK tour (hear directors Esther Richardson and Corey Campbell talking about this production for the BTG podcast).

An adaptation of Irish author Louise O'Neill's novel about sexual consent, Asking For It, continues at Birmingham REP until Saturday 15 February.

Jimmy Fairhurst and Samantha Robinson play all 14 characters in Jim Cartwright’s Two which continues at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 22 February.

At the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, David Walliams’s The Boy in the Dress featuring music by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers continues until Sunday 8 March; in the Swan Theatre, The Whip, Juliet Gilkes Romero’s “provocative” new play which is set at the turn of the 19th century when politicians meet in London to abolish the slave trade, continues until Saturday 21 March (press night Tuesday 11 February) and Shakespeare's rarely-performed history play King John featuring Rosie Sheehy in the title role continues until Saturday 21 March.

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