Persecution and illicit desires in new RSC Stratford play
Helen Edmundson's new play The Heresy of Love, inspired by the life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, gets its premiere at the RSC in Stratford this week.
Writer and poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz pennedHouse of Desires, performed as part of the RSC's Spanish Golden Age season in 2004.
The Heresy of Love is set in a convent in Mexico where Sister Juana, one of the brightest women of her generation, strives to reconcile her love for God with her desire for learning and acclaim.
The court celebrates her gift for writing plays and poetry, but her success creates alarm and jealousy within the church.
Persecuted by a zealous archbishop and betrayed by those closest to her, Sister Juana finds her fragile world crumbling around her as everything she holds dear is destroyed by dangerous ambition and illicit desires.
Helen Edmundson's other playwriting credits includeCoram Boy for the National Theatre. She's also worked extensively for Shared Experience alongside Nancy Meckler who directs The Heresy of Love. Her production ofA Midsummer Night's Dream played in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre last summer.
The cast comprises Teresa Banham, Geoffrey Beevers, Stephen Boxer, Raymond Coulthard, Dona Croll, Marty Cruickshank, Laura Darrall, Catherine Hamilton, Diana Kent, Youssef Kerkour, Catherine McCormack, Ian Midlane, Sarah Ovens, Daniel Stewart and Simon Thorp.
Designer is Katrina Lindsay while lighting is by Ben Ormerod and music by Ilona Sekacz.
The Heresy of Love plays in the Swan at Stratford from Thursday (2nd February) until Friday, 9th March.
Barbarella and Bond behind new Northampton take on Greek tragedy
Northampton's Royal and Derngate starts the new year with an "outrageous" version of the Greek tragedy inspired by Barbarella and with a little bit of Bond, Oedipussy.
It's a co-production with physical theatre company Spymonkey. Kneehigh's Emma Rice has adapted and directs the show which has been written by Carl Grose.
Spymonkey's previous production at Northampton was Moby Dick in 2009.
The cast of Oedipussy comprises Aitor Basauri, Stephan Kreiss, Petra Massey and Toby Park. Set designer is Michael Vale, costume designer is Lucy Bradridge, Phil Supple is lighting designer, music is by Toby Park and Neil Filby and additional sound design is by Simon Baker.
Oedipussy takes to the Royal stage from Friday (3rd February) until Saturday, 18th February and then goes on a national tour.
Shakespeare comedy brings down curtain for Derby LIVE
Derby LIVE's involvement in produced theatre in the city ends with Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew which opens at Derby Theatre this week.
The organisation's contract with the University of Derby which manages the theatre runs out in April when the university will take control of the building's artistic policy.
Pete Meakin, artistic producer of Derby LIVE and director and adaptor of The Taming of the Shrew said, "If rehearsals are anything to go by, it's going to prove one of the most talked-about theatrical events in the city for many years.
"Passion, love, betrayal, anger, spite and wit have all been present in abundance - and that's just been in discussions about how to play the final scene!"
The Taming of the Shrew is the third Derby LIVE Shakespeare production, following Much Ado About Nothing in 2009 and The Merchant of Venice last year.
Sean O'Callaghan who appeared in Mother Came Too and Shining City for Derby LIVE, plays Petruchio while Lizzie Winkler who was in the National Theatre production of Frankenstein and was also in Derby LIVE's Much Ado About Nothing is Katherina.
Design is by Patrick Connellan, Chris Ellis is lighting designer and sound design is by Adam McCready.
The Taming of the Shrew runs at Derby Theatre from Friday (3rd February) until Saturday, 25th February.
There'll be pre-show entertainment on Valentine's Day from 1623 Theatre Company while Professor Russell Jackson will give a pre-show talk on Tuesday, 21st February. Professor Jackson worked as a text advisor to Kenneth Branagh on all his Shakespeare films and on other theatre productions, including King Lear with Derek Jacobi and Hamlet with Jude Law. There'll be a post-show discussion on Thursday, 23rd February.
Medicine show just what the doctor ordered in Birmingham
Birmingham Stage Company is reviving one of its most successful Roald Dahl productions in the city for a two-week season.
David Wood's adaptation of George's Marvellous Medicine returns to the Old Rep Theatre where it broke box-office records in 2010.
First published in 1981, George's Marvellous Medicine is arguably one of Dahl's funniest and most exciting stories. It's about a young boy who makes a new medicine to cure his grandmother of her terrifying temper.
But when she drinks the potion, the results are explosive. It's the start of some amazing adventures for George.
The cast is led by Iain Ridley as George, Deborah Vale (grandma), Richard Mullins (dad), Alison Fitzjohn (mum) and Tom Eykelhof (the giant chicken). Phil Clark directs with designs by Jackie Trousdale.
George's Marvellous Medicine runs at the Old Rep from Wednesday (1st February) until Saturday, 11th February.
Spontaneous courtroom drama gets court in the act in Nottingham
Six intrepid improvisers will be creating a mad court case based on suggestions provided by the audience in Court in the Act! at Nottingham Playhouse.
Witnesses will be cross-examined by barristers and a jury - made up of 12 members of the audience who'll give their verdict on the evidence.
Whether the crime is goldfish fraud, laying a carpet upside down or the theft of the Isle of Wight, the British Comedy Company will conjure up a case which should have the audience in stitches.
The company's spontaneous courtroom drama first arrived in Nottingham last June where it played to sold-out audiences in the Victorian Civil Court at the Galleries of Justice as part of neat11 (Nottingham European Arts and Theatre Festival).
Court in the Act! which features Suki Webster and Pippa Evans will be on at the Playhouse from Wednesday until Saturday (1st until 4th February).
Tales of a funeral and murder at Derby Studio Theatre
Two new solo plays will be performed at Derby Studio Theatre this week.
Derbyshire playwright David Taylor has penned Before the Hymns which features a woman determined to share a final tale with the congregation at her funeral while Marlene Sidaway's Cloak and Daggers is a "tale of desire, revenge and murder involving an antique cloak and three very different women".
Both plays will be performed by Marlene Sidaway, whose credits include roles at the National Theatre as well as on screen and television, on Friday and Saturday (3rd and 4th February).
"Uplifting" spring season at Nottingham venue
Nottingham's Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall has announced an "uplifting and inspirational" season from March until May.
One of the highlights in the Theatre Royal will be the visit of David Suchet, Laurie Metcalf, Trevor White and Kyle Soller in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night from 5th until 10th March.
The Royal Shakespeare Company returns to Nottingham with The Taming of the Shrew from 13th until 17th March before Denise Black and Michael Starke get into the habit of appearing in Sister Act from 20th until 31st March.
Stomp which sold out in autumn 2010 is back from 3rd until 7th April; Joe Pasquale and Robert Powell serve up a prescription for laughter in Doctor in the House from 10th until 14th April; and new rock ‘n' roll musical Save the Last Dance for Me will transport audiences back to the ‘60s from 16th until 21st April.
Cheryl Campbell, Cherie Lunghi, Isla Blair, Sadie Pickering, Kacey Ainsworth and Denise Welch tour Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias to Nottingham from 23rd until 28th April; Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! celebrates its 20th anniversary in the city from 1st until 5th May; Christopher Timothy features in The Diary of Anne Frank from 8th until 12th May; and Connie Fisher stars in Leonard Bernstein's Wonderful Town from 15th until 19th May.
In the Royal Concert Hall, contemporary dance company Nederlands Dans Theater 2 will perform a range of pieces on 30th and 31st March before Grease returns, with ice champion Robin Cousins as Teen Angel, from 10th until 14th April.
What's on this week
- the boys are back in town when The Rat Pack sways into Curve, Leicester from tomorrow (Monday) until Saturday while The Rat Pack is Back at Coventry's Belgrade on Tuesday;
- Chapterhouse Theatre Company stages an evening of Regency wonderment in Laura Turner's adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility at Buxton Opera House on Tuesday;
- Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Franz Kafka's masterpiece The Trial, a Blackeyed Theatre presentation, is at Wolverhampton's Arena Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday;
- Blind Summit performs The Table at Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham on Tuesday and Wednesday;
- Stephanie Powers and Richard Johnson star in Ernest Thompson's classic On Golden Pond at Wolverhampton Grand from Tuesday until Saturday;
- Birmingham Hippodrome uncovers Tim Firth's Calendar Girls from Tuesday until Saturday;
- David Essex appears in All the Fun of the Fair at Nottingham's Theatre Royal from Tuesday until Saturday;
songs from eight decades of popular musicals will be dusted off when The Masters of the House visit Buxton Opera House on Wednesday;- New Perspectives Theatre Company relates How Steepleby Wanderers Won the FA Cup in Nottinghamshire this week, at North and South Wheatley Village Hall on Wednesday and Southwell Bramley Centre next Sunday;
- poet and writer Nick Makoha gives an account of how pop culture raised him in place of his father in his debut show My Father and Other Superheroes at mac, Birmingham from Wednesday until Saturday;
- Publick Transport are Discombobulated at Wolverhampton's Arena Theatre on Thursday;
- mistaken identities, double-booked rooms, hasty cover-ups and unlikely misunderstandings are the ingredients of Dave Freeman's farce A Bedfull of Foreigners at Buxton Opera House from Thursday until Saturday;
- Gerald Dickens, the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens, will perform Sikes and Nancy from Oliver Twist, part of a weekend of events to celebrate the bi-centenary of Charles Dickens' birth, in the ballroom of the Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury on Saturday;
the 012 Dance Festival continues at Stoke's Regent Theatre until Saturday;- the Russian State Ballet and Orchestra of Siberia performs Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake at De Montfort Hall, Leicester next Sunday;
- That'll Be The Day rolls into Wolverhampton Grand next Sunday;
- Northern Broadsides' presentation of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday, 18th February;
- Ingrid Bergman's Nora, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, continues in the B2 auditorium at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre until Saturday, 18th February; and
- at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, The Taming of the Shrew continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 25th February while in the Swan David Edgar's new play Written on the Heart which tells the story of the making of the King James Bible and Measure for Measure both continue until 10th March.