What's on in the Midlands

Published: 17 September 2022
Reporter: Steve Orme

The Shawshank Redemption at the Festival Theatre, Malvern
Sam Crear and Allie Daniel in Happy Meal at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry Credit: Lottie Amor
All’s Well That Ends Well in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Credit: Ikin Yum

Combining “hilarious comedy sketches and impersonations with brilliant vocals and superb musicianship”, the “UK’s leading rock ‘n’ roll show” That’ll Be The Day visits Buxton Opera House on Tuesday.

Amina Khayyam Dance Company engaged Birmingham women to tell their personal experiences and stories, the result being Kantha Katha-K which can be seen the Patrick Studio at Birmingham Hippodrome on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A new play written and directed by Julie McNamara and Hassan Mahamdallie, Quiet Rebels, which features white working-class women who crossed the colour line to marry men of the Windrush generation, can be seen in the Neville Studio at Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday and Wednesday, while on the main stage, Adrian Scarborough adapts Alan Bennett’s novella The Clothes They Stood Up In and appears alongside Sophie Thompson in the play which continues until Saturday 1 October.

Based on the short novel by Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption featuring Joe Absolom and Ben Onwukwe tours to the Festival Theatre, Malvern from Tuesday until Saturday, while in the Forum Theatre, The Simon and Garfunkel Story should have the audience feeling groovy on Friday.

RUSH Theatre Company tells the story of the man who brought reggae music to the world, Bob Marley, in The King of Reggae—The Man—The Music at Birmingham Rep from Tuesday until Saturday, while in The Door, Rob Ward writes and appears in The MP, Aunty Mandy and Me, “an exploration of consent, coercion and grooming within the gay male community with biting humour and contemporary social commentary”, on Wednesday.

Frantic Assembly takes Shakespeare’s text and presents an Othello “firmly rooted in a volatile 21st century production” in the Studio at Leicester’s Curve from Tuesday until Thursday 29 September, while on the main stage Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus’ Mamma Mia! continues until Saturday.

Inspired by the life of Nina Simone, Apphia Campbell’s Black is the Color of my Voice takes to the Derby Theatre stage on Wednesday, while Unanima’s company of “witty storytellers” who are exclusively learning-disabled and autistic present State of Independence on Friday.

The world première of Tabby Lamb’s Happy Meal, a “joyful queer rom-com” which is a “funny, moving and nostalgic story of transition”, is on the menu in the B2 auditorium at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Wednesday until Saturday.

Written and directed by James Williams, “the ghost story experience of the year”, The Wicked Lady, spooks the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Wednesday until Saturday, while in the Royal Concert Hall, the inside story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons is recounted in Jersey Boys, which continues until Saturday.

Artists and communities in Derby are brought together in a show by “one of the UK’s most exhilarating and leading contemporary circus companies”, Revel Puck Circus, in The Wing Scuffle Spectacular at Markeaton Park, Derby, which continues until Sunday.

Marvellous, a play about Staffordshire “living legend” Neil “Nello” Baldwin, which was written by Baldwin and Malcolm Clarke and adapted for the stage by Baldwin and New Vic artistic director Theresa Heskins, continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 8 October.

Blanche McIntyre’s contemporary take on Shakespeare’s dark comedy All’s Well That Ends Well for the Royal Shakespeare Company, which “explores themes of romantic fantasy, toxic masculinity and consent”, and Richard III featuring disabled actor Arthur Hughes in the lead role both continue in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford until Saturday 8 October.

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