Midlands

Midlands theatre podcast episodes

Reviews

Four Quartets

T S Eliot

Theatre Royal Bath and Royal & Derngate, Northampton

Festival Theatre, Malvern

19–24 July 2021

The Comedy of Errors

William Shakespeare

Royal Shakespeare Company

Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

13 July–26 September 2021

Oleanna

David Mamet

Theatre Royal Bath and Jonathan Church Productions

Festival Theatre, Malvern

12–17 July 2021

David Webb (Gerard), Eleanor Dennis (Miranda) and Graeme Broadbent (Don Diego)

The Dancing Master

Malcolm Arnold

Early Opera Company

Buxton Opera House

9–22 July 2021

Haydn Gwynne (Margrethe Bohr) and Malcolm Sinclair (Niels Bohr)

Copenhagen

Michael Frayn

Theatre Royal Bath & Jonathan Church Theatre

Festival Theatre, Malvern

5–10 July 2021

Piaf

Pam Gems

Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company and Leeds Playhouse

Nottingham Playhouse

2–17 July 2021

Father Brown—The Murderer in the Mirror

John Goodrum, adapted from the mysteries of G K Chesterton

Tabs Productions and Theatre Royal Nottingham

Theatre Royal, Nottingham

29 June–3 July 2021

Absurd Person Singular

Alan Ayckbourn

London Classic Theatre

Festival Theatre, Malvern

29 June–3 July 2021

Live Bed Show

Arthur Smith

Tabs Productions

Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield

22–26 June 2021

Susan Earnshaw (Maxine Goodman) and David Callister (Nigel Forbes)

All About Murder

Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner

Tabs Productions and Theatre Royal Nottingham

Theatre Royal, Nottingham

22–26 June 2021

Rosanna Miles (Marion Brewster-Wright), Graham O'Mara (Ronald Brewster-Wright) and Helen Keeley (Eva Jackson)

Absurd Person Singular

Alan Ayckbourn

London Classic Theatre

Derby Theatre

16–19 June 2021

Four Quartets

T S Eliot

Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Royal and Derngate, Northampton

Northampton Royal and Derngate

8–12 June 2021

A splinter of ice

Ben Brown

Original Theatre Company

Festival Theatre, Malvern

8–12 June 2021

Aidy the Awesome

Devised by The Gramophones Theatre Company

The Gramophones Theatre Company

Curve Theatre, Leicester

31 May–1 June 2021

News

Stephen Tompkinson (Frank) and Jessica Johnson (Rita) in Educating Rita at Royal and Derngate, Northampton

What's on in the Midlands

25 July 2021

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 26 July.

“Inspiring stories”: Serendipity’s latest publication

Serendipity discovers whether dance can change the world

25 July 2021

Serendipity is to release its 12th publication focusing on dance from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora, Creating Socially Engaged Art: Can Dance Change the World?

Pandemic: "6,700 jobs lost" in the Midlands

23 July 2021

Creative industries in the West Midlands lost 3,600 jobs and £489 million during the pandemic, according to a report from the Creative Industries Federation and Creative England.

Angharad Jones to lead New Perspectives

21 July 2021

Angharad Jones is the new artistic director of East Midlands theatre company New Perspectives, replacing Jack McNamara who is moving to Newcastle’s Live Theatre.

“Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”: Critical Mass 2022

Dance chance for young West Midlanders

21 July 2021

Young dancers aged between 16 and 30 from across the West Midlands are being given the opportunity to get involved in some of the biggest events of 2022.

Telephone box tales at the Courtyard

20 July 2021

The Courtyard Hereford has commissioned a series of digital films exploring stories connected with telephone boxes.

The B-SIDE Hip-Hop Festival in Birmingham in 2019

Annual hip-hop festival moves to Coventry

20 July 2021

Birmingham Hippodrome and Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 have revealed that the Hippodrome's annual hip-hop festival will open Coventry's CVX Festival.

Maureen to be queen in Stafford panto

20 July 2021

Maureen Nolan will play the Wicked Queen, Rebecca Keatley will take the lead role and Keith Jack will be Prince Joseph in Stafford Gatehouse Theatre’s 2021 panto Snow White.

£25.5 million refurbishment for Warwick Arts Centre

20 July 2021

Coventry venue Warwick Arts Centre has announced a series of events as part of its reopening season after a £25.5 million, four-year transformation.

Tales of a hero and Beauty and Beast at New Vic

18 July 2021

A new play about the life of an everyday hero and a timeless fairytale taken back to its origins will take centre stage at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme as part of the theatre's autumn and winter season.

Romeo and Juliet: confessions revealed at Buxton Fringe

18 July 2021

The story of Romeo and Juliet but not as told by William Shakespeare is to have its première at Buxton Fringe.

Ralph Fiennes in Four Quartets at the Festival Theatre, Malvern

What's on in the Midlands

18 July 2021

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 19 July.

Rose finds her way to Buxton Fringe

18 July 2021

Poet Rose Condo will take audiences at Buxton Fringe on a journey through the “hilarity and heartbreak” of her travels in her solo spoken word show The Geography of Me.

In the can: proceeds from the album will go to Royal and Derngate

Album proceeds help Northampton theatre

17 July 2021

Leading actors have contributed spoken performances to a music album Incidental: Music for the Stage, proceeds of which will go to Northampton’s Royal and Derngate.

“Exploring the influence of the troubles on those who lived through them”: Buttercup

Northern Ireland troubles play gets Buxton Fringe dates

17 July 2021

Northern Ireland company Spanner in the Works will stage Buttercup, a play based on the stories of three friends from growing up during the troubles of the 1970s to the present day.

Belgrade leadership team to step down

16 July 2021

Artistic director Hamish Glen and executive director Joanna Reid who have both been at Coventry’s Belgrade since 2003 are to step down as the theatre reduces its leadership team.

Belgrade arm to make Dirty Dancing tour set

14 July 2021

Belgrade Production Services which manufactures all the sets for Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre is building the set for the UK tour of Dirty Dancing.

New writing prominent at Coventry’s Belgrade

13 July 2021

World premières are among the highlights of the autumn and winter season at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre as the venue produces work for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021.

Jack to make RSC debut in Magician’s Elephant

13 July 2021

Jack Wolfe is to make his Royal Shakespeare Company debut in the lead role in The Magician's Elephant, a new musical which will mark the reopening of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford.

Piano drama to open Birmingham REP new season

13 July 2021

Birmingham REP is to mark the opening of its autumn season with a “unique” event: a film and concert in one that stars everyone from Donald Trump to the Royal Family.

Kuumba Nia Arts and Unlock the Chains Collective’s SOLD

Birmingham Fest returns in smaller form

13 July 2021

An annual performing arts festival in Birmingham is to return, although it will be smaller than usual.

Jonathan Slinger (John) and Rosie Sheehy (Carol) in Oleanna at Malvern Theatres

What's on in the Midlands

10 July 2021

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 12 July.

Nigel Osner in Too Young to Stay in, Too Old to Go Out!

Buxton show for those no longer young

7 July 2021

Former barrister Nigel Osner, who almost died when a routine operation went wrong, has fought back and is to perform his one-man show at Buxton Fringe.

Departure Lounge festival back for ninth year

7 July 2021

Departure Lounge, a summer festival of “fresh and exciting performance”, is to be staged at Derby Theatre for the ninth year.

“Absurd” comedy show to have Buxton première

7 July 2021

Manchester-born Sonja Doubleday writes and appears in Him Indoors, a “laugh-out-loud, absurd comedy show” which will have its première at Buxton Fringe.

Derby bids to be UK City of Culture 2025

7 July 2021

Derby, the birthplace of the industrial revolution and the site of the world’s first factory, is bidding to become UK City of Culture 2025.

Aruhan Galieva and Paksie Vernon in Gin Craze!

Northampton to drink in new gin musical

7 July 2021

Northampton’s Royal and Derngate is to stage the première of April de Angelis and Lucy Rivers’s “ingenious and irreverent” musical Gin Craze!.

Elmhurst cancels summer shows

7 July 2021

Elmhurst Ballet School has confirmed its summer run of shows, including the streamed performance, will not go ahead this year.

“True dream”: New Perspectives’ artistic director Jack McNamara

Nottingham drama festival “shuns digital world”

7 July 2021

East Midlands theatre company New Perspectives is arranging a festival that “shuns the digital world and places emphasis wholly on the tangible and the tactile”.

New Vic toys with promenade performance

7 July 2021

Audiences will be taken on a journey from outside a north Staffordshire theatre inside and then back out again as they discover the secrets of Doctor Coppelius’s toy shop.

First look at new RSC outdoor theatre

6 July 2021

The Royal Shakespeare Company has released images of the Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre, its new outdoor performance space in Stratford, which will open with The Comedy of Errors.

RSC playmaking festival gets new online platform

5 July 2021

The Royal Shakespeare Company has unveiled its new online platform for its annual playmaking festival which for the first time has included submissions from adults as well as the RSC’s associate schools.

Malcolm Sinclair, Philip Arditti and Haydn Gwynne in Copenhagen at Malvern Theatres

What's on in the Midlands

4 July 2021

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 5 July.

Dark feel to Buxton comedy show Tempus Fugit

4 July 2021

Brothers Grimm meets The Sound of Music in comedy duo Nathan and Ida’s show Tempus Fugit which will have three performances at Buxton Festival Fringe.

Drag becomes a drag in Buxton Fringe play

4 July 2021

NoLogoProductions is to return to Buxton Festival Fringe with a new play that takes audiences backstage while a drag artist brings the curtain down on what could be her last show.

John Hewer in Just Like That: The Tommy Cooper Show

Buxton Fringe goes ahead as expected

3 July 2021

Buxton Festival Fringe is to go ahead largely as expected, with many entrants factoring social distancing into their plans for the 2021 event.

Fiennes’ Four Quartets to get West End transfer

1 July 2021

Ralph Fiennes’s world première stage adaptation of T S Eliot’s Four Quartets is to transfer to London’s Harold Pinter Theatre for 36 performances, Northampton’s Royal and Derngate and Theatre Royal Bath Productions have announced.

Suzanne Shaw to be Belle in Chesterfield panto

29 June 2021

Suzanne Shaw will play Belle in Beauty and the Beast, the 2021 panto at Chesterfield’s Pomegranate Theatre.

A previous Next Generation Act production, John Lyly’s Sapho and Phao, presented in The Other Place in 2018

RSC’s young acting company returns to the stage

29 June 2021

The Royal Shakespeare Company's young acting company, Next Generation Act, is to stage All Mirth and No Matter, its response to Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing.

What's on in the Midlands

27 June 2021

Theatre productions in the Midlands for the week beginning Monday 28 June.

Features

Curve season launch

23 May 2021

After 430 days, 'dark', Curve Theatre, Leicester has launched its new season at a special event.