Macbeth and Dream, Parting Glass, Hot Flush, Border, Bleak House
Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream – tour starts 10 September
Newbury’s Watermill Theatre tours its productions of Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream playing side-by-side.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream features of the music of Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, whilst Macbeth has a soundtrack of Jonny Cash and The Rolling Stones performed live by the cast of actor musicians.
Both are directed by Paul Hart with movement by Tom Jackson Greaves. Macbeth has video projection design by Louise Rhoades-Brown.
The Watermill Ensemble is led by Billy Postlethwaite who revives his performance of Macbeth and plays Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Emma McDonald plays Lady Macbeth and Titania / Hippolyta, Peter Mooney plays Donalbain and Quince, Offue Okegbe plays Lennox and Theseus, Mike Slader plays Macduff and Demetrius, Molly Chesworth plays Malcolm and Puck, Robyn Sinclair plays Banquo and Helena, Emma Barclay plays Lady Macduff and Bottom, Jamie Satterthwaite plays Duncan and Oberon and Lucy Keirl plays Fleance / Porter and Hermia.
Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream visit Northern Stage Newcastle, Oxford Playhouse, The Lighthouse Poole, Everyman Theatre Cheltenham, New Theatre Cardiff and Theatre Royal Norwich.
The Parting Glass – tour starts 12 September
The Parting Glass is a new play developed from Leeds-based writer Chris O’Connor's shorter piece, The Life and Soul.
An intimate two-hander, it explores mental health, masculinity and human connection with post-show Q&As facilitated by a mental health specialist.
Rod Dixon directs Leeds actor Tom Swift who makes his professional debut and Huddersfield’s Alyce Liburd.
The Parting Glass is presented by Red Ladder Theatre Company.
It visits Hawksworth Wood Village Hall Leeds, St John's Parish Hall Barnsley, The Cluntergate Centre Horbury, Gipton WMC Leeds, BITMOs GATE Community Centre Leeds, Shaw Lane Sports Club Barnsley, The Grove Hall Pontefract, Hunslet RLFC Leeds and Queens Mill Heritage Centre Castleford.
Hot Flush the Musical – tour starts 12 September
Hit comedy Hot Flush The Musical stars Su Pollard, Helen Pearson, Melanie Gutteridge and Ruth Keeling as Myra, Sylvia, Helen and Jessica hitting the menopause years disgracefully.
They are joined by Matt Slack who plays all nine male characters.
Alan Cohen directs with choreography by Lorna Amy Sullivan and musical supervision by Olly Ashmore.
The show is produced by Chris Moreno and Michael Courtney for Story Book Productions.
Hot Flush the Musical visits New Theatre Royal Lincoln, The Winding Wheel Chesterfield, Alexandra Theatre Birmingham, The Regent Theatre Stoke on Trent, The Playhouse Epsom, The Courtyard Hereford, Barnstaple Queen’s Theatre, The Wyvern Swindon, Grand Opera House York, St George’s Hall Bradford, Grimsby Auditorium, The Swan High Wycombe, The Capitol Horsham, Colosseum Watford, The Spotlight Broxbourne, Theatre Royal Wakefield, The Waterside Aylesbury, The Beck Theatre Hayes, The Hawth Crawley, Corn Exchange Kings Lynn, The Churchill Theatre Bromley, Princess Theatre Torquay, White Rock Theatre Hastings, The Grand Theatre Blackpool, The Garrick Lichfield, The New Theatre Cardiff and New Victoria Theatre Woking.
The Border – tour starts 12 September
Afsaneh Gray's The Border is an "outrageous and thought-provoking Brechtian parable" for young audiences highlighting the absurdity of borders.
Provoking a conversation about the meaning of borders and the lines drawn between people and including a live break out debate, it tours to theatres and schools.
Afsaneh Gray developed the play in collaboration with young people from Croydon and Bedworth and dramaturg Sarah Dickenson.
The cast is made up of Jazmine Wilkinson, Lucie Capel, Matt Littleson and Rujenne Green.
The Border is directed by Natalie Wilson with movement director Ingrid Mackinnon and has an original score by Ted Barnes; it is presented by Theatre Centre.
The play tours to Redbridge Drama Centre London, Wanstead Festival Aldersbrook Community Centre, The North Wall Arts Centre Oxford, Theatre Peckham London, Edge Theatre and Arts Centre Manchester and Sunderland Library.
Bleak House – tour starts 12 September
The reformed David Glass Ensemble returns to present its physical adaptation of Bleak House.
This gothic retelling of Charles Dickens's novel highlights themes of love, power, poverty and choice in the story of a young woman trying to find her identity as she struggles in male-dominated Victorian London.
Bleak House is a Theatre Royal Winchester and New Theatre Royal Portsmouth co-commission by the David Glass Ensemble with support from Konzept Arts and Ideas, Bath Spa University and Santander Universities.
It visits Theatre Royal Winchester, New Theatre Royal Portsmouth, Bath Spa University Theatre, Lakeside Theatre Colchester, Exeter Northcott and New Wolsey Ipswich.