Midlands productions

Published: 11 March 2012
Reporter: Steve Orme

Margi Clarke takes the lead role in Julie Coombe's Hormonal Housewives which tours to Derby's Assembly Rooms tomorrow (Monday);
13 undergraduates of De Montfort University will bring to life The Laramie Project, a pioneering piece of American theatre based on real-life events in the town of Laramie, Wyoming, in the Studio at Leicester's Curve from tomorrow until Saturday;
Bette Davis confronts the ghost of Joan Crawford in Bette & Joan: The Final Curtain, a new play by Foursight Theatre, which tours to Wolverhampton's Arena Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday;
the Ukrainian National Opera of Kharkiv performs Puccini's La Boheme at De Montfort Hall, Leicester on Tuesday and Verdi's La Traviata at Derby's Assembly Rooms on Thursday;
the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Taming of the Shrew tours to Nottingham's Theatre Royal from Tuesday until Saturday;
Graham Seed plays Prime Minister Jim Hacker and Michael Simkins is Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes, Prime Minister which should get audiences' votes at Buxton Opera House from Tuesday until Saturday;
Neil Morrissey and Brian Conley share the role of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's new production of Oliver! at Birmingham Hippodrome from Tuesday until 21 April;
Red Cape Theatre's exploration of the metaphorical connections between Alzheimer's and coastal erosion, 1 Beach Road, visits Northampton Royal on Wednesday;
Gecko Theatre Company returns to Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry with Missing, "a journey into the depths of a person's psyche", a show first seen there as a work-in-progress last year, from Wednesday until Saturday;
three unwitting heroes compete in the ancient Olympics with epic results in The Games, "an undiscovered Aristophanes comedy", presented by Spike Theatre in association with Unity Theatre and The Met, at Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham on Thursday;
Vamos Theatre finds there's Much Ado About Wenlock in Nottinghamshire at Eastwood Theatre on Thursday, Crescent Centre, Mansfield on Friday and Southwell Bramley Centre on Saturday;
the new youth theatre group at Nottingham's Lakeside Arts Centre tackles Rory Mullarkey's The Grandfathers in the centre's Djanogly Theatre on Friday and Saturday;
Chris Larner's story about how he accompanied his wife to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, An Instinct for Kindness, is at Northampton Royal on Saturday;
Leicester's "premier Bollywood dance company" Desi Masti returns to the city's De Montfort Hall with Dance of Olympia on Saturday;
Derby's Assembly Rooms hosts An Evening of Burlesque on Saturday;
Stoke's Regent Theatre expects some more enchanted evenings as South Pacific continues until Saturday;
Bill Naughton's classic Alfie continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday;
Michael Pennington takes his one-man show about the life and works of William Shakespeare, Sweet William, to Northampton Royal next Sunday;
Sell a Door Theatre Company stages Nigel Williams' adaptation of William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies at Buxton Opera House next Sunday;
Chapterhouse presents an evening of Regency wonderment in a new adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility at Mansfield Palace Theatre next Sunday;
Moscow City Ballet performs two of the world's most famous traditional ballets at Derby Assembly Rooms, Romeo and Juliet next Sunday and Swan Lake on Monday and Tuesday, 19 and 20 March;
Leicester's Curve continues to host a revival of Gypsy until Sunday, 15 April; and
at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, The Comedy of Errors opens on Friday and continues until 14 May while Twelfth Night continues until 15 May.