As part of Derby Theatre’s RETOLD programme—a series of new one-woman plays commissioned from “some of the most exciting female voices in contemporary theatre today”—Lucy Jane Parkinson performs Lucy Skilbeck’s Joan about “what it means to stand out, stand up and stand alone”, in the Studio at Derby Theatre on Friday and Saturday.
The third Birmingham Fest, featuring artists and companies from across the UK, takes place at four venues, Blue Orange Theatre, Crescent Theatre, Old Joint Stock Theatre and @A E Harris, from Friday until Sunday 2 August.
Touring company Heartbreak Productions takes Jane Austen’s Emma to Hanbury Hall, Droitwich, Worcestershire on Saturday.
The “nation’s favourite rock ‘n’ roll variety show” That’ll Be The Day returns to the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham on Saturday.
A festival of plays inspired by the Staffordshire Hoard—the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found—continues at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre, with double bills of Theresa Heskins’s Unearthed and The Gift by Jemma Kennedy, and The Throne by Frazer Flintham and Chris Bush’s Larksong continuing on the main stage until Saturday 25 July while in the Studio Gold, written and performed by Francesca Millican-Slater, opens on Wednesday and also continues until 25 July.
Brian Conley takes the lead role in Barnum at Birmingham Hippodrome which continues until Saturday 1 August.
At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Hugh Quarshie and Lucian Msamati team up to play Othello and Iago in Iqbal Khan’s production of Othello which continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until Friday 28 August and plays in repertoire with The Merchant of Venice which continues until Wednesday 2 September; in the Swan Theatre, Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta continues until Tuesday 8 September and Volpone until Saturday 12 September.