Hamlet, Pacifist’s Guide, Mice and Men, Birdsong, Wicked
Hamlet – tour starts 26 January
The Royal Shakespeare Company 's 2016 production of Hamlet tours with associate artist Paapa Essiedu reprising his performance in the title role for which he won Best Performance in a Play at the UK Theatre Awards.
Also in the cast are Romayne Andrews as Rosencrantz, Lorna Brown as Gertrude, James Cooney as Horatio, Patrick Elue as Fortinbras, Kevin N Golding as Player King, Tracy-Anne Green as Player, Maureen Hibbert as Player Queen, Whitney Kehinde as Cornelia, Byron Mondahl as Professor of Wittenberg, Joseph Mydell as Polonius, Mimi Ndiweni as Ophelia, Esther Niles as Osric, John Omole as Voltemand, Clarence Smith as Claudius, Buom Tihngang as Laertes, Ewart James Walters as Ghost and Eleanor Wyld as Guildenstern.
Simon Godwin directs this production which features music composed by Jamiroquai, the percussionist is Sola Akingbola.
Hamlet visits The Lowry Salford, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Hull New Theatre, Northern Stage Newcastle upon Tyne, Royal & Derngate Northampton and Hackney Empire.
A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer – tour starts 26 January
Complicité is touring a reimagined version of A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer around the UK and Australia.
Written by Complicité associate Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel with Kirsty Housley, this funny and moving play has music by Tom Parkinson.
Kirsty Housley will direct, with writer Bryony Kimmings performing in the production.
Complicité has reintroduced the accent on the company name in reaction to the EU referendum result.
A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer visits Liverpool Playhouse, Northern Stage, Belgrade Coventry and dates in Australia.
Of Mice and Men – tour starts 29 January
Of Mice and Men is to embark on a ten-week UK tour with Richard Keightley, whose credits include The Mousetrap as George, and Matthew Wynn, whose credits include Hamlet and Measure for Measure, as Lennie.
Andrew Boyer plays Candy, Cameron Robertson plays Slim, Darren Bancroft plays Carlson, Kevin Mathurin plays Crooks, Harry Egan plays Whit, Kamran Darabi Ford plays Curley,Rosemary Boyle plays as Curley’s wife, and Robert Ashe plays as The Boss.
Of Mice and Men is by Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck. It is a story of two men forced to leave their home to find work, based on his own experiences of struggle in the Great Depression of the 1920s.
This new adaptation is directed by Guys Unsworth. Composition is by Mark Aspinall. It is presented by Selladoor Productions with the Marlowe Theatre Canterbury.
Of Mice and Men visit Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, Northampton Royal, Theatre Clywd, Theatre Royal Glasgow, Salisbury Playhouse, Theatre Royal Brighton, Wimbledon New Theatre, Tunbridge Wells Assembly Halls, Manchester Opera House and Swansea Grand Theatre.
Birdsong – tour starts 31 January
Birdsong, adapted from Sebastian Faulks's best-selling World War I novel, by Rachel Wagstaff is to tour one last time to mark the Armistice in 1918.
Tom Kay and Madeleine Knight lead the cast and are joined by Olivia Bernstone, Alice Brittain, Alfie Browne-Sykes, Martin Carroll, Riley Carter-Millington, James Findlay, Liz Garland, Jeffrey Harmer and Simon Lloyd, with further casting to be announced.
The play is directed by Alastair Whatley with Charlotte Peters.
Birdsong visits Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Crewe Lyceum Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Cheltenham Everyman, New Brighton Floral Pavilion, New Victoria Theatre Woking, Wyvern Theatre Swindon, Theatre Royal Windsor, The Lowry Salford, Nuffield Southampton Theatres, The Capitol Horsham, Churchill Theatre Bromley, King’s Theatre Edinburgh, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Gala Theatre Durham, Theatre Royal Glasgow, York Theatre Royal, Derby Theatre, New Alexandra Theatre Birmingham, Malvern Theatres, Assembly Hall Theatre Tunbridge Wells and Bristol Old Vic.
Wicked – tour starts 31 January
Musical mega-hit Wicked tours with EastEnders' Aaron Sidwell as Fiyero, Amy Ross as Elphaba and Helen Woolf in the role of Glinda.
Also in the cast are Steven Pinder as The Wizard and Doctor Dillamond, Kim Ismay as Madame Morrible, Emily Shaw as Nessarose and Iddon Jones as Boq, Nikki Bentley as standby Elphaba with Charli Baptie, Jason Broderick, Samantha Brown, Hannah Cadec, Grace Chapman, James Davies-Williams, Howard Ellis, Amy Goodwin, Daniel James Greenaway, Jack Harrison-Cooper, Charlie Karlsen, Nicole Lupino, Stuart MacIver, Stacey McGuire, Sara Morley, Emily Olive Boyd, Georgia Rae Briggs, Paul Saunders, James Titchener, Helen Walsh, Amy Webb, Luke Woollaston and Benjamin Yates.
Wicked is based on the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire which has been adapted by Winnie Holzman. The show has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz; it is directed by Joe Mantello.
Wicked visits Bristol Hippodrome, Liverpool Empire, Birmingham Hippodrome, Edinburgh Playhouse, Leeds Grand Theatre, Dublin Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Sunderland Empire, Southampton Mayflower Theatre, Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre and Manchester Palace Theatre.
Check web sites for information regarding post–show Q&As, captioned, signed and relaxed performances, and age suitability. At the time of going to press, some dates may not yet be on sale.