Midlands productions

Published: 14 October 2012
Reporter: Steve Orme

Haunting Julia at Wolverhampton Grand until Saturday
Bones at Key Theatre, Peterborough on Wednesday
Fagin's Last Hour at Riverhead Theatre, Louth on Friday

Duncan Preston, Richard O’Callaghan, Joe McFadden and Louise Kempton appear in Alan Ayckbourn’s spooky thriller Haunting Julia at Wolverhampton Grand from tomorrow (Monday) until Saturday.

Lesley Joseph, Kacey Ainsworth, Camilla Dallerup, Helen Fraser, Sue Holderness, Deena Payne, Kathryn Rooney, Ruth Madoc and Kevin Sacre make a date with Calendar Girls at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre from tomorrow until Saturday.

Described as “the most terrifying live theatre experience in the world”, Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel The Woman in Black should have audiences on the edge of their seats at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal from tomorrow until Saturday.

Clare Buckfield, Vicky Entwistle and Chelsee Healey who makes her stage debut relate The Vagina Monologues at Mansfield Palace Theatre on Tuesday.

Richard Alston Dance Company returns to Derngate, Northampton on Tuesday and Wednesday with a diverse programme which includes Madcap, Shimmer and a revival of The Devil in the Detail.

Red Earth Theatre performs the black comedy Famous Five, the story of five girls whose teenage dreams of adventure and heroism are deferred, at mac, Birmingham on Tuesday and Wednesday and at the Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton on Saturday.

Middle Ground Theatre Company discovers The Importance of Being Earnest when it stages Oscar Wilde’s classic at Lichfield Garrick from Tuesday until Saturday.

Buxton Opera House hosts Bill Kenwright’s production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with Keith Jack in the lead role, from Tuesday until Saturday.

Jane Upton’s first play Bones, “an achingly honest portrayal of a boy struggling to find his place in a world that doesn’t want him”, is at the Key Theatre, Peterborough on Wednesday.

Master Juba, the man who invented tap, comes to life in “an urgent, visceral performance that recounts the amazing tale of the greatest dancer who ever lived” at Wolverhampton’s Arena Theatre from Wednesday until Friday.

SMITH dancetheatre stages Agnes And Walter, a love story with physical and visual performance styles, which is inspired by James Thurber’s book The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, at The Core at Corby Cube on Thursday.

Sharon Holland and Alison Pennells’s play Dirty Laundry, about a woman’s recovery from breast cancer, will be aired at Derby’s Guildhall Theatre on Thursday and Friday, with proceeds going to the Royal Derby Hospital’s breast cancer unit.

Originally written for radio, Tom Stoppard’s Artist Descending a Staircase will be a Delirious Theatre production at Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio on Friday.

James Hyland takes his one-man show Fagin’s Last Hour, Charles Dickens’s tale of crime and punishment told from Fagin’s point of view and set an hour before his execution, to the Riverhead Theatre, Victoria Road, Louth, Lincolnshire on Friday.

New Perspectives takes Michael Morpurgo’s Farm Boy, the sequel to War Horse, to Mansfield Palace Theatre on Saturday.

Inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Michael Pinchbeck’s The Beginning, the second in a trilogy of works deconstructing Shakespearean stage directions, enters Derby Theatre Studio on Saturday.

A new one-woman comedy written and performed by Debbie Tracey, Death of a Beauty Saleswoman visits The Studio at Artrix, Bromsgrove on Saturday.

Set in the streets of downtown Kingston and the rich wealthy suburbs of St Andrew in Jamaica, Ricky Rowe’s She Want a Man is at The Drum, Birmingham on Saturday.

Musical comedy Sister Act, produced by Whoopi Goldberg and Stage Entertainment, continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday.

Diary of a Football Nobody, William Ivory’s look at what it was like to play football for Notts County in the 1970s, continues until Saturday.

American producer Harvey Weinstein’s adaptation of Finding Neverland continues at Curve, Leicester until Saturday while in the Studio the world premiere of Obama the Mamba – President of the Slums, a “true life story of fate, power and destiny”, also continues until Saturday.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Ben Power’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet called A Tender Thing continues in the Swan Theatre until Saturday.

Dhanil Ali’s one-act play exploring the love and passion between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, The Liz and Dick Show is a Cheshire Actors Studio presentation in the Pauper’s Pit, Buxton on Saturday and Sunday.

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