Actor and comedian Lenny Henry is to headline Birmingham REP’s autumn and winter season.
Born in Dudley, Henry will star in the stage première of Rudy’s Rare Records, on his BBC Radio 4 series.
Written by Danny Robins and co-created by Henry, Rudy’s Rare Records is a comedy set in an old Birmingham reggae record shop which is at risk of re-development.
Henry plays Adam who reluctantly moves home to look after his dad Rudy and help run the shop.
Danny Robins has adapted the show for the stage. Paulette Randall directs. Rudy’s Rare Records is a co-production between Birmingham REP and Hackney Empire where it will run immediately after the première in Birmingham.
The production will feature a live band onstage playing music by Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley and the Sugarhill Gang.
“I’ve performed comedy gigs many times in Birmingham over the years,” said Henry, “but this is my first straight acting role in the city and the first time I’ve been on stage at the REP, which is something I’m really looking forward to.
"Growing up in Dudley, I would come into Birmingham every Saturday to hang out in a record shop not too dissimilar to Rudy’s, so it’s a play that’s very close to my heart."
Birmingham REP artistic director Roxana Silbert added, “We're delighted that Lenny will be bringing this brilliant show about three generations of a Birmingham family back home.
“With Lenny’s inimitable warmth and humour, it promises to be an uplifting evening and I'm looking forward to his REP debut enormously.
“Rudy's Rare Records is one of a wide variety of shows at the REP this autumn in a programme that offers something for everyone. I'm very proud to be working in partnership with some of the finest artists and companies in the country to deliver some world-class theatre to our audiences.”
Rudy's Rare Records runs from 4 until 20 September.
The REP’s autumn and winter programme marks the 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid. Solomon and Marion (16 October until 1 November), featuring South African-born actress Dame Janet Suzman, is a “powerful” story about two injured souls searching for redemption in a fragile, post-apartheid South Africa.
The play will be accompanied by a programme of In Conversations, performances via live link-ups with schools and theatres in South Africa, and films celebrating 20 years of democracy.
The REP season features two new productions of classics. Roxana Silbert directs John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (10 October until 1 November) while Michael Attenborough directs J B Priestley's Dangerous Corner (4 until 8 November) before it has a West End run.
Frantic Assembly’s production of Shakespeare’s Othello (12 until 15 November) visits the REP as part of a UK tour.
The REP will also welcomes the stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner (22 September until 4 October), produced by Nottingham Playhouse with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.
A trilogy of Samuel Beckett plays, Not I, Footfalls and Rockaby, (16 until 20 September) opens the season in The Studio. They will be performed by Lisa Dwan and directed by Walter Asmus, a friend and long-time collaborator of Beckett.
The centenary of World War I continues to be reflected in the season with the UK stage première of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms (19 until 22 November) by Imitating the Dog.
The season in The Door opens with Grounded by George Brant (4 until 6 September), a “searing and beautiful one woman-show that scrutinises the morality of modern warfare through the eyes of a female fighter pilot as an unexpected pregnancy ends her career in the sky”.
Andrew Dawson takes his one-man show The Russian Doctor to The Door (11 until 13 September). Based on Sakhalin Island, Anton Chekhov’s only work of non-fiction, The Russian Doctor brings to life the epic story of Chekhov’s 3,000-mile journey through Siberian wilderness to document the harrowing living conditions of a remote Tsarist penal colony.
Birmingham company Women and Theatre celebrates its 30th anniversary with For The Past 30 Years (9 until 11 October), a new political drama that shines a light on the impact that economics, key events and government policies have had on the working lives of women over the past three decades.
Told By An Idiot returns to the REP with My Perfect Mind (4 until 8 November), a “moving and comic exploration of the resilience of the human spirit through the prism of Shakespeare’s great tragedy” King Lear.