Two new commissions will take centre stage in Nottingham Playhouse’s spring 2016 season.
On the main stage, Kefi Chadwick’s Any Means Necessary is a fictional account of how an undercover policeman spied on activists in Nottingham, while in the Neville Studio Kings by Nottingham-born playwright Daniel Hoffmann-Gill celebrates the friendships of a group of men living in a Nottingham hostel.
Any Means Necessary was written after it came to light that an undercover officer was not only spying on legitimate protest groups but also engaging in long-term relationships with women.
Chadwick said, “this case shows an incredible abuse of human rights and civil liberties and is one of the biggest police scandals of all time. To be able to bring the events to life on the stage at Nottingham where one of the worst offenders lived and spied is a great privilege.”
Directed by artistic director Giles Croft, Any Means Necessary runs at Nottingham Playhouse from 5 until 20 February.
Kings, which is “brimming with black humour”, shows “how friendship and dignity can thrive in the most unexpected places”. Directed by Fiona Buffini, it runs in the Neville Studio from 20 until 30 April.
Recognised as one of the most powerful plays of the 20th century, Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie will be performed on the main stage from 11 until 26 March.
Blanche McIntyre will direct Michael Frayn’s comedy Noises Off for Nottingham Playhouse from 9 until 30 April.
Rounding off the season will be Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector, presented in association with Ramps on the Moon, a touring project that marks a change in disability arts provision in the UK. Bringing together seven major theatre companies, it will “change the way theatre made by and for D/deaf and disabled people is seen”.
Directed by Birmingham REP artistic director Roxana Silbert, The Government Inspector will be performed from 4 until 14 May.