A Potteries tale, an Alan Ayckbourn world première and classic John Godber will be served up at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre in autumn 2014.
The season opens with Ugly Duck, a new comedy from Deborah McAndrew, writer of An August Bank Holiday Lark which played at the New Vic earlier in 2014.
Ugly Duck is a “warm-hearted comedy about life, friendship and the painful pleasures of supporting Port Vale”. It runs at the New Vic from 3 until 13 September.
Richard Eyre’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, “the original Scandinavian noir”, moves to the Staffordshire theatre-in-the-round from 19 September until 4 October.
Alan Ayckbourn arrives for his annual New Vic visit in October with the world première of Roundelay. Five interconnected plays “showcase his genius for story, character and theatrical time travel”. Ayckbourn also directs Roundelay, which can be seen in north Staffordshire from 7 until 25 October.
The John Godber Company and Theatre Royal Wakefield are reviving Godber’s comedy On the Piste—a look at ski-resort shenanigans as Brits head off on holiday to the French Alps—which tours to the New Vic from 28 October until 1 November.
Northern Broadsides returns to the New Vic with Oliver Goldsmith’s flamboyant period comedy She Stoops to Conquer from 4 until 15 November.
The Christmas production will be Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, adapted by the New Vic’s artistic director Theresa Heskins, from 22 November until 31 January.