What's on in the Midlands

Published: 17 April 2022
Reporter: Steve Orme

Ian Bartholomew (Sam), Keith Allen (Max) and Mathew Horne (Lenny) in The Homecoming at Malvern Theatres Credit: Manuel Harlan
Private Peaceful at Birmingham Rep Credit: Manuel Harlan
Bettrys Jones as Ellen Wilkinson and Kevin Lennon as Herbert Morrison in Red Ellen at Nottingham Playhouse Credit: Pamela Raith

Ashley Banjo's new show Diversity—Connected 2022 dances into Derngate, Northampton from Monday until Wednesday.

Mathew Horne plays Lenny, Keith Allen is brutal patriarch Max and Ian Bartholomew plays Sam in the Theatre Royal Bath production of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming at Malvern Theatres from Monday until Saturday.

Tabs Productions asks Who Killed “Agatha” Christie? when the company presents Tudor Gates’s comedy thriller at the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield from Tuesday until Saturday.

Nigel Havers and Patricia Hodge appear in Noël Coward’s Private Lives at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Tuesday until Saturday while in the Royal Concert Hall the “ultimate feel-good show” Mamma Mia! by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus continues until Saturday.

Simon Reade’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful tours to Birmingham Rep from Tuesday until Saturday.

Niki Evans plays Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russell's Blood Brothers which visits Derby Theatre from Tuesday until Saturday.

Jake Quickenden and Darren Day hold out for a hero in Footloose the Musical at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham from Tuesday until Saturday.

John Godber and his wife Jane Thornton appear in Happy Jack, the play he wrote when he was 25 which “captures the ups and downs of ordinary working-class family life—at the coal face, in the pit village, on donkeys and by the fireside”, at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme from Thursday until Saturday 30 April.

Non-binary Queer writer and performer Kat Lyons takes Dry Season, her "witty, honest and intimate spoken word theatre show about the menopause and how it affects a person's identity", to Upstairs at the Western, Leicester on Friday.

Live events production company Imagineer continues to present theatre, circus, aerial performance and live music in FLOW: Milesians—The Coming of the Gaels, a “mystical story which culminates in a mighty battle between the tribe of the gods and the Milesians to determine the fate of the land”, at Bishop Ullathorne School, Coventry until Friday.

Caroline Bird’s new play Red Ellen, which tells the story of Ellen Wilkinson, the “revolutionary Labour MP who fought with an unstoppable, reckless energy for a better world”, continues at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 30 April.

Henry VI: Rebellion, which “hurtles through one of the most turbulent periods in English history”, continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford until Saturday 28 May while The Wars of the Roses, a “thrilling climax to Shakespeare’s three-part Henry VI saga of nationhood and power”, continues until Saturday 4 June.

    Related listings

  • Blood Brothers - Willy Russell (Bill Kenwright Ltd)
  • Mamma Mia - Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, book by Catherine Johnson

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