A European première featuring David Essex, two other premières and a major Brecht celebration are the highlights of the programme at Birmingham REP from January until June 2014.
Roxana Silbert, the REP’s artistic director, says of the new season, “The REP has had an amazing 2013: we’ve celebrated our centenary as well as our reopening alongside the Library of Birmingham. And we had an incredible 170,000 visitors to the building in the month of opening alone.
“But there’s no time for us to sit on our laurels, so I’m announcing our exciting new programme for the first half of 2014. Next year I’m commissioning work from new writers as well as existing major talent.
“I want to use our beautifully refurbished theatre to its full potential, to have it bursting with exciting work, people, exhibitions and to entice new audiences and thrill regular visitors.
“I’m particularly proud to be working with three brilliant young female writers this season: Rachel De-lahay, Francesca Millican-Slater and, in her first work to be produced at the theatre since Behzti (in 2004), Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti.
“There’s also exciting work from established talent, such as Mark Ravenhill and Bryony Lavery, and it’s great to see David Essex, who’s been such a mainstay of West End musicals, getting back to his roots as an actor in The Dishwashers.
“I think this is an exciting and confident step forward for the theatre, showing that we have as much to relish in our future as we do to celebrate in our past.”
Opening the season in the main auditorium will be the European première of The Dishwashers by Canadian playwright Morris Panych (31 January to 15 February). It will tour the UK after opening in Birmingham.
A major celebration of the great German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht will explore his work and influence with a programme, curated by Mark Ravenhill, across the theatre’s three spaces.
At the centre of the celebration will be a revival of Roxana Silbert’s 2013 Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Life of Galileo adapted by Mark Ravenhill and starring Ian McDiarmid (28 February to 4 March). This too will tour the UK after opening in Birmingham.
Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera (27 March to 12 April) will also be performed on the main stage in an anarchic new version co-directed by Jenny Sealey, artistic director of Graeae Theatre and director of the London 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony, and Peter Rowe, artistic director of the New Wolsey, Ipswich.
The Brecht celebration will also feature a large-scale community production of Brecht’s The Mother (15 March), adapted and directed by Mark Ravenhill, as well as exhibitions, films, a cabaret evening, readings and seminars.
The first production in 2014 in the new Studio will be a revival of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen (6 to 15 February), co-produced with The Fingersmiths Ltd—a company committed to bringing modern classics to deaf and non-deaf audiences.
A new collaboration with Told By An Idiot, Never Try This At Home (27 February to 15 March) by Carl Grose is a homage to Saturday morning TV.
Inspired by legendary Saturday morning shows such as Tiswas and Going Live, Never Try This At Home reunites the remaining survivors of an infamous TV show, Shushi, and throws the spotlight on those presenters who are soon to realise the insidious side to fame.
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti returns to the REP with Khandan (Family) (22 May to 7 June), a “bold, warm and extremely funny tale of contemporary extended family life”.
Khandan is co-produced with the Royal Court Theatre where it will run for three weeks immediately after its première in Birmingham.
The world première of Birmingham-born Rachel De-lahay’s Circles takes place in The Door (9 to 24 May).
The play, set on a Birmingham number 11 outer circle bus, explores cycles of violence and what it takes to break them.
Following the REP’s inaugural REP Foundry artists development programme, 2014 will mark the first full production from one of the 2013 Foundry artists.
Francesca Millican-Slater’s Forensics of a Flat (30 to 31 May) traces the history of a Birmingham home and its inhabitants.
The REP will present two productions marking 100 years since the start of World War I: the stage show based on Sebastian Faulk’s novel Birdsong by the Original Theatre Company (17 to 22 March); and Helen Chadwick and Steven Hoggett’s War Correspondents (26 and 27 April), a new play based on interviews with correspondents covering Iraq, Chechnya, Georgia, Afghanistan and Bosnia
A new partnership with Dundee Rep will bring together Dundee’s repertory ensemble and a company of Birmingham actors for Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind (13 to 28 June).
The spring and summer 2014 season will also include work from Talawa Theatre and their co-production with the National Theatre of Errol John’s Moon On A Rainbow Shawl (20 to 22 February).
The REP also welcomes Dial M For Murder (13 to 17 May), directed by Lucy Bailey; Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful (14 to 17 May); Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 (19 to 24 May); Charlie and Lola’s Extremely New Play (28 to 31 May); Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (2 to 7 June); and Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy (8 to 12 April).