Midlands

Cinderella

David Bintley, Music by Sergei Prokofiev

New play gives voice to Mansfield’s young women

30 September 2020

Mansfield Palace Theatre is to support local theatre makers to develop SHEWOLVES, a new play about “young women’s voices in an increasingly complex world”.

Scary, fun show is first for seven months at Coventry’s Belgrade

29 September 2020

Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre is to stage its first live show since March 2020, imitating the dog and Leeds Playhouse’s outdoor production of Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show.

Birmingham REP commissions 10-minute pop-up plays

28 September 2020

Birmingham REP has announced 12 new commissions, The Park Bench Plays: a series of short works from “some of UK theatre’s biggest writing talents and comedians alongside emerging playwrights”.

Sleeping Beauty to go ahead in Birmingham

26 September 2020

Birmingham’s Blue Orange Theatre has announced that its 2020 panto Sleeping Beauty will go ahead with a reduced number of seats due to COVID-19 safety precautions.

Derby Theatre pays tribute to youth theatre member Lewis

24 September 2020

Derby Theatre is to pay tribute to former youth theatre member Lewis Sewell, who died aged 18 in summer 2020 from a rare cancer, by sharing a recording of a production in which he appeared.

Outdoors, and in the dark, at Lowry

24 September 2020

Digital theatre specialists imitating the dog and Leeds Playhouse join forces once again to stage, outdoors, the première of Dr Blood’s Old Travelling Show.

Playwright attends opening night at Malvern

24 September 2020

Playwright Peter Terson met the cast of his play Mooney and His Caravans, Malvern Theatres’ inaugural show after the lockdown, at the production’s opening night.

Live and Local to stage first post-lockdown touring show

24 September 2020

An organisation which co-ordinates live entertainment across the Midlands is to stage a trial run of its first touring event post-lockdown, Townsend Productions’ The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

Students and staff return to Elmhurst

19 September 2020

After five months of lockdown, students and staff are to return to Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham.

Birmingham REP puts back Nativity for 12 months

19 September 2020

Birmingham REP’s management team has delayed for a year “with heavy hearts” its Christmas 2020 show, Debbie Isitt’s Nativity! The Musical.

RSC's Simon Trinder introduces the Bard to US actors

18 September 2020

Veteran Royal Shakespeare Company actor Simon Trinder is to expand his work by leading a series of free Introduction to Shakespeare sessions which will be exclusively for actors in the United States.

Heartbreak turns children’s lockdown stories into films

18 September 2020

Heartbreak Productions has completed “possibly the most ambitious creative project to be see in the UK for the past seven months”: a series of short films with children aged from 8 to 14.

Let's Dance International Frontiers live and online

18 September 2020

Serendipity is to present a live online preview of the Leicester-based Let's Dance International Frontiers festival for 2021 in October 2020.

Season of work to reopen New Vic auditorium

16 September 2020

Staffordshire's New Vic Theatre is to produce a season of work to reopen its newly refurbished auditorium and invite audiences safely back to performances.

Paperback Theatre books Birmingham festival

16 September 2020

Birmingham-based company Paperback Theatre is to hold an outdoor festival, Little But LIVE!, in Moseley Park to bring together Moseley residents and the wider Birmingham community through a programme of artistic events.

Cast revealed for Belgrade’s hosting of new Rice musical

15 September 2020

Casting has been confirmed for Romantics Anonymous, the new musical from director Emma Rice, which is to go on a virtual tour and will be co-hosted online by Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre on Wednesday 23 September.

Two Derby Christmas shows postponed for a year

11 September 2020

Derby’s two major 2020 Christmas shows have been postponed for 12 months, Derby Theatre putting off Aladdin and the city council delaying Sleeping Beauty which should have been staged at Derby Arena.

Birmingham to host Van Gogh exhibition

8 September 2020

Birmingham Hippodrome is to host the UK première of Van Gogh Alive, a “multi-sensory arts and entertainment experience for the whole family”.

Triple play season as Chesterfield Pomegranate reopens

8 September 2020

Chesterfield Theatres is to reintroduce live performances with a triple play season at the Grade II-listed Pomegranate Theatre in the Derbyshire town.

Malvern Theatres to reopen with Terson drama

4 September 2020

Malvern Theatres’ Young Company is to present Peter Terson's drama Mooney and his Caravans—the first production to be staged at the venue for six months because of the COVID-19 lockdown.

More outdoor theatre from the RSC throughout September

4 September 2020

The Royal Shakespeare Company has extended its pop-up programme of outdoor performances to run throughout September in the Dell Gardens, Stratford.

My Beautiful Laundrette: co-production now online

4 September 2020

Nikolai Foster’s staging of My Beautiful Laundrette, based on Hanif Kureishi’s Oscar-nominated 1985 screenplay, is available to watch online for free.

New pieces unveiled as Derby eases out of quarantine

2 September 2020

Derby Theatre and Derby Creative Arts Network have revealed that newly commissioned artistic pieces, community-based workshops and an evening of celebration and entertainment will be held to celebrate the city’s easing out of quarantine.

New Perspectives to stream Lars von Trier comedy drama

1 September 2020

Josie Lawrence is to play the title character in a streamed version of the cult Lars von Trier film, The Boss of it All, which has been adapted by Nottinghamshire theatre company New Perspectives.

Three-week festival as Nottingham Playhouse reopens

1 September 2020

Nottingham Playhouse is to open its doors for the first time since March for a three-week festival of live and live-streamed events.

REP man completes walk from Birmingham to London

1 September 2020

Birmingham REP associate director Steve Ball raised more than £3,700 by walking 116 miles from the theatre to London’s Leicester Square in seven days.

The gardener shot my colleagues: two decades of reviewing the RSC

1 May 2020

Colin Davison looks back on twenty years or more of reviewing the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford: the highlights, some low points, and a nod to his critical heroes.

A Great Night Out: David Tennant in Hamlet at the RSC

18 April 2020

Theatres and producers are constantly looking at new ways of getting people through the doors for the first time as well as attracting younger audience members. In 2008, the Royal Shakespeare Company spectacularly achieved this: by offering David Tennant the part of Hamlet.