Midlands productions

Published: 7 April 2019
Reporter: Steve Orme

Gwyneth Strong (Mrs Boyle) in The Mousetrap at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry Credit: Joe Twigg
Henry Goodman (Constant Coquelin) and Chizzy Akudulo (Maria) in Edmond de Bergerac at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate Credit: Graeme Braidwood
Joshua Lyster (Ben) and Josh Hart (Dan) in Glory at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry Credit: Andrew Billington

Gwyneth Strong plays Mrs Boyle in the latest tour of Agatha Christie’s whodunit The Mousetrap at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Monday until Saturday.

The man behind the nose in the celebrated story of Cyrano de Bergerac is revealed in Edmond de Bergerac, Jeremy Sams’s adaptation of Alexis Michalik’s comedy, featuring Freddie Fox (Edmond Rostand), Henry Goodman (Constant Coquelin), Josie Lawrence (Sarah Bernhardt) and Chizzy Akudulo (Maria), in the Royal, Northampton from Monday until Saturday.

Eve Leigh’s The Trick in which “ghosts, goldfish, mediums and sleight-of-hand collide in this beautiful meditation on ageing and grief” can be seen in The Door at Birmingham REP on Monday and Tuesday while David Judge’s SparkPlug (which he spoke about to the BTG podcast with director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder), a “punchy and poetic exploration of family, race, identity and love”, gets fired up from Wednesday until Saturday.

An “explosive” new British musical with “soaring vocals and spectacular street dance”, In the Willows, Metta Theatre and Exeter Northcott Theatre’s work based on Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows visits Oxford Playhouse on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Janet Dibley and Maggie McCarthy head the cast of Tim Luscombe’s new adaptation of Henry James’s Turn of the Screw at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

The Pantaloons take their "hilarious new verse adaptation of the most epic journey of all time", The Odyssey, to the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield on Wednesday.

Coventry Belgrade Theatre’s B2 stage is transformed into a wrestling ring for Nick Ahad’s new play Glory from Wednesday until Saturday while on the main stage Angela Carter’s Wise Children, adapted and directed by Emma Rice, continues until Saturday.

Michelle Todd reprises her role as Bess of Hardwick in Kevin Fegan’s Bess: The Commoner Queen in the Studio at Key Theatre, Peterborough on Thursday and Friday.

A “shrewd and bitingly funny” send-up of the “spiritual journey”, An Indian Abroad, written and performed by Pariah Khan, which details the exploits of a young Indian man who travels to locations including Bradford, Birmingham and Bristol to discover the culture of the British, visits Upstairs at the Western theatre, Leicester on Thursday and the Studio at Derby Theatre on Saturday.

Written and performed by Therese Ramstedt, Mission Abort “tells the story of one woman’s experience from discovering she is pregnant to making the decision (to abort), following it through and getting on with life afterwards” in the Studio at Derby Theatre on Friday.

Telling the “powerful and deeply moving story of England cricketer Chris Lewis from the edge of glory to the brink of despair”, The Long Walk Back by Dougie Blaxland should hit the audience for six in the Underground studio at Northampton’s Royal and Derngate on Saturday.

Kerry Katona, Tricia Penrose and Basil Brush feature in the Easter panto Beauty and the Beast at the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield on Saturday.

The National Student Drama Festival takes place in venues across Leicester, including the city’s Curve theatre, from Saturday until Friday 19 April while on the main stage at Curve the world première of Rona Munro’s adaptation of Louis de Bernieres’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin runs from Saturday until Saturday 20 April.

The Half God of Rainfall, a “contemporary epic that weaves poetry and storytelling in a majestic journey that transports us from a tiny village in south west Nigeria to Mount Olympus, to the further reaches of our galaxy and beyond”, finds its way into the Studio at Birmingham REP from Saturday until Saturday 20 April.

Celebrating his 80th birthday by touring a new solo show, Ian McKellen on Stage visits Royal and Derngate, Northampton on Sunday.

Written by Oscar Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland, The Trials of Oscar Wilde is a European Arts Company presentation at the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield on Sunday.

Neil Duffield’s The Jungle Book, Derby Theatre’s first in-house production with fully integrated BSL signing (featured in the BTG podcast), continues until Saturday 20 April.

A “moving drama of hope, dreams and close-knit communities amid endemic 19th century societal inequality”, Lizzie Nunnery’s 2007 play Intemperance continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 20 April.

Cameron Mackintosh’s Broadway production of Boublil and Schönberg’s musical Les Misérables continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 11 May.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, a gender-swapped version of The Taming of the Shrew, set in a 1590s matriarchal England in which women hold all the power, and Kimberley Sykes’s “fierce, exhilarating version” of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It both continue in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until Saturday 31 August, while in the Swan Theatre John Kani and Antony Sher perform in the world première of Kani’s play Kunene and the King which continues until Tuesday 23 April.

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