A 50-strong cast of actors from Lichfield and the surrounding district will take to the stage to perform in the Lichfield Garrick’s third annual community musical, Once Upon a Mattress, a musical comedy based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale The Princess and the Pea, from Monday until Saturday.
The annual, four-week Classic Thriller Season at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal gets under way with Peter Gordon’s Sleighed to Death from Tuesday until Saturday (hear Karen Henson, Susan Earnshaw and David Callister talk about the season in the British Theatre Guide podcast).
The Birmingham Stage Company adaptation of David Walliams’s Awful Auntie visits the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham from Tuesday until Saturday.
Stafford Gatehouse Theatre’s summer project is Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jnr which runs in the MET Studio from Wednesday until Saturday.
Jenny Wren Productions presents a “playful” adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma, written by Martin Millar and Doon MacKichan, at Priory Park, Malvern, Worcestershire on Saturday and Scarr Bandstand, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire on Sunday.
Inspired by “funny and moving” stories told by young children from Derby, Holiday, written and directed by Sarah Argent, continues in Derby Theatre Studio until Sunday.
The Royal Shakespeare Company production inspired by Roald Dahl’s book, Matilda the Musical continues at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 8 September.
At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack head the cast of Macbeth which continues until Tuesday 18 September, and Romeo and Juliet continues until Saturday 21 September; and in the Swan Theatre, John Webster’s blood-soaked revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi continues until Friday 3 August and Sam Kenyon’s new musical Miss Littlewood, which charts the emotional highs and lows of Joan Littlewood’s journey from the East End to the West End, continues until Saturday 4 August.