Newcastle's Northern Stage has announced its February to May 2014 programme.
There will be two in-house productions during the season, the first of which does not yet have a title. It will be by NORTH14, a new company of eight formed from "the best performing arts graduates from the region" who will learn how to fundraise, finance and market their work in the future and will perform their first show on 28 and 29 March.
The main production will be the stage version of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 which runs from 19 April to 10 May, prior to an eight week national tour. It will be directed by Rachel Chavkin of New York's the TEAM.
Visiting productions include:
27 February - 1 March
The Tiger Lillies
Lulu - A Murder Ballad
"A hypnotic and kaleidoscopic dance of death."
4-6 March
Blind Summit
The Table
Moses is a 2 foot high puppet with a cardboard head and a lousy temper... who lives on a table. He's always lived on the table. He's a table top puppet. Tonight he wants to tell you the epic story of the last twelve hours of the life of his namesake, "Moses". But he is easily distracted as he tries to mime the conversation between God and Moses on the top of Mount Nebo, demonstrates the workings of puppetry, shows off "the running man" and falls out with his puppeteers... As his carefully constructed table top world falls apart, will he ever finish his story? Do you want him to?
7-8 March
Put Your Sweet Hand in Mine
Written and performed by Andy Field and Ira Brand
A show about love. It is a show about candlelight and longing and catching the eye of a stranger unexpectedly in the theatre or on a train. It is a show about romance. But it is also a show about battlefields and power cuts and power ballads, about thunderstorms and wildly flocking birds.
11-13 March
How to Occupy an Oil Rig
Written and performed by Daniel Bye.
25-29 March
English Touring Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, the Rose Theatre Kingston
Translations
By Brian Friel
1-3 April
Zendeh
Heart
Set between Durham and Tehran, an Iranian woman, her English husband and her Syrian lover experience love in all its complexity against the backdrop of the 28 Mordad Coup d’Etat. An explosive mix of physical theatre and performance poetry.
4-5 April
The Rite of Spring & Petrushka
Michael Keegan-Dolan’s dance theatre double bill. In The Rite of Spring rhythmic elements of music are played out, as age is sacrificed and mother earth is worshipped. Petrushka is white and bright with elements of folk dances as couples dance for approval from their ancestors.
15-17 April
Actors Touring Company
The Events
By David Greig
Screams echo through corridors. The sound of gunfire rings out. At Claire’s choir rehearsal, something terrible happens. This new play asks how far forgiveness will stretch in the face of atrocity.
20-24 May
Headlong
Spring Awakening
A new version of Wederkind's play by Anya Reiss.