East Midlands touring company New Perspectives has announced its programme for 2017 which includes three world and one regional premières.
John Vernon Lord and Janet Burroway’s 45-year-old children’s book The Giant Jam Sandwich will be brought to life on stage for the first time in association with Derby LIVE. It runs at Derby’s Guildhall Theatre from 11 until 18 February before a tour which takes in “countless village halls”.
In the summer, New Perspectives will stage two world premières at the Edinburgh Festival. Artistic director Jack McNamara’s new adaptation of Aki Kaurismäki’s The Man Without a Past tells the story of a man who loses all memory and is embraced by a disenfranchised community living in shipping containers.
This will play alongside Finding Nana by East Midlands writer Jane Upton, joint winner of the 2016 George Devine Most Promising Playwright award. Upton’s autobiographical play is a personal portrait of a young woman as she pieces together scents, feelings and experiences of being with her grandmother pre- and post-Alzheimer’s disease.
A rural tour and regional première of Richard Bean’s farming saga Harvest follows in the autumn. A six-strong ensemble will take on this “epic and darkly entertaining comedy”.
McNamara said, “our 2017 season captures the wide range of tastes and passions that make up our work: dynamic new theatre for children and families, new writing from the East Midlands, international adaptations and a major 21st century play about the rural world.
“While vastly different in style and content, each of these new productions explores the bonds we form within our communities and families as well as the distinct relationship we have with time.”