Show Man, Lady Chatterley, seeds, Kite Runner, We Are In Time

Show Man – tour starts 19 February

Strictly Come Dancing 's Brendan Cole returns with his 2019 show, Show Man, as his final big band tour.

Inspired by both theatre and movies, Show Man features five male dancers, three female dancers, choirs, special effects and new staging. Music is from an eight-piece live big band and singers, with dance interspersed with laughter and chat.

Cole's previous live shows include Live & Unjudged, Licence to Thrill and All Night Long.

The show visits Grimsby Auditorium, Southend Cliffs Pavilion, Ipswich Regent, York Grand Opera House, Aberdeen Music Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Dunfermline Alhambra, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Perth Concert Hall, Inverness Eden Court, Dublin Bord Gais, Eastbourne Congress and Wales Millennium Centre.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover – tour starts 20 February

Rupert Hill and Phoebe Marshall are directed by Ciaran McConville in a new adaptation of D H Lawrence classic Lady Chatterley’s Lover, penned by McConville.

The novel was widely banned on grounds of obscenity when it was first published in the late 1920s, and it was the subject of a watershed trial which saw the unedited text finally published in the UK in the 1960s.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover was also considered scandalous because of its use of bad language and its story which is centred around the relationship between an upper class woman and a working class man, her gamekeeper.

In this adaptation presented by A Tilted Wig and Churchill Theatre Bromley, the changes in attitude towards female sexuality, the scars of war and the dangers of toxic masculinity are under the spotlight.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover visits Orchard Theatre Dartford, Kings Theatre Portsmouth, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford, Darlington Hippodrome, Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne, New Theatre Cardiff, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and Theatre by The Lake Keswick.

seeds – tour starts 21 February

This powerful play written by Mel Pennant looks at two mothers united by knife crime and the death of a young man, a son.

Judith Jacob and Penny Layden play the two women. Jacob's credits include television's Dark Heart and The Five, and Layden's include Macbeth and, on television, Belgravia.

Anastasia Osei-Kuffour directs seeds.

Knife crime offences in England and Wales reached record levels at the end of last year, with hate crimes doubling in seven years. More than 75% of these are racial hate crimes.

tiata fahodzi and Wrested Veil in association with Leeds Playhouse, Soho Theatre and Tara Finney Productions present seeds which visits Leeds Playhouse, Live Theatre Newcastle Upon Tyne, Derby Theatre, Warwick Arts Centre, Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh and Soho Theatre London.

The Kite Runner – tour starts 21 February

Having enjoyed two successful runs in London's West End and earlier tours, The Kite Runner takes to the road once more.

The play is based on the 2003 debut novel by Khaled Hosseini which now has sales of some 31 million copies in 60 languages.

Adapted for the stage by Matthew Spangler it tells a story of two childhood friends in Afghanistan, a divided country on the verge of war. Hassan and Amir enjoy the kite flying tournament neither imagining how their lives are about to change.

David Ahmad reprises the role of Amir, and Bhavin Bhatt reprises that of Assef. They are joined by Andrei Costin and Lisa Zahra with Tiran Aakel, Ian Abeyesekera, Adam Samuel Bal, Christopher Glover, Rhian Mclean, Dean Rehman, Stuart Vincent and Stanton Wright completing the cast. Hanif Khan is the onstage Tabla Player.

Giles Croft directs, the movement director is Kitty Winter and the fight director is Philip D’Orléans. Jonathan Girling is the composer and musical director.

The Kite Runner is produced by Martin Dodd for UK Productions and Derek Nicol & Paul Walden for Flying Entertainment. It visits Waterside Theatre Aylesbury, Theatr Clywd Mold, Richmond Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse, Leeds Playhouse, Lowry, Salford, Churchill Theatre, Bromley, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Eastbourne Devonshire Theatre, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Darlington Hippodrome, Cardiff New Theatre, Inverness Eden Court, Woking New Victoria Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, Southampton Nuffield Theatre, Leicester Curve Theatre and Sheffield Lyceum.

We Are In Time – tour starts 25 February

Innovative cross-artform project We Are In Time tours to venues across Scotland.

The work follows the journey of a transplanted heart, told through the stories of the donor and the receiver using song, instrumental music and words delivered by narrator Alison O’Donnell and vocalists Ruby Philogene and Jodie Landau.

The Scottish Ensemble musicians will take on the role of on-stage chorus as well as performing live.

Part of Scottish Ensemble’s 50th Anniversary Season, the collaborators on We Are In Time are Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson, writer Pamela Carter, musical director Jonathan Morton and director Stewart Laing.

We Are In Time is presented in association with Perth Theatre at Horsecross Arts; it visits Perth Theatre, Tramway Glasgow, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh and Eden Court Inverness.