On the trail of Sherlock and The Full Monty

In a difficult time the region’s theatres seem to have raised their game and are presenting a seriously strong season. Arts correspondent Nick Ahad looks ahead to 2013.

IT seems that times of challenge bring out the best in us – and that certainly appears to be the case with Yorkshire’s theatres.

With funding cuts starting to hit, the region’s theatres have come out fighting and programmed some strong seasons with adventurous work on their stages.

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West Yorkshire Playhouse is going to be in the spotlight next year, with the new man in charge, James Brining, getting his feet under the table. The Leeds native, who has been working in Scotland for the past decade, has returned home and the first season under his tenure seems representative of what the theatre calls “a process of bold re-imagining and evaluation”. This new phase kicks off with a new version of Doctor Faustus written by Colin Teevan and a first co-production with the exciting Glasgow Citizens Theatre. In another first, the Playhouse will also stage the premiere of Refugee Boy, an adaptation by Lemn Sissay of Benjamin Zephaniah’s novel.

The theatre’s Transform season will be fascinating. New man Brining is directing his first piece for the theatre as part of the season which promises bold and exciting new works. It will be fascinating to see what his work is like. Perhaps the biggest treat of the coming season is a brilliant artistic pairing in a new version of Sherlock. Nikolai Foster is one of the few directors who appears capable of filling the space of the Quarry Theatre – and he’s going to be filling it with the work of Mark Catley who is becoming, quite simply, one of our best writers. Sherlock Holmes – The Best Kept Secret – my money’s on it being something special.

Down in Sheffield there are some seriously impressive names bringing some work that I would also be pretty happy to stake a couple of quid on that you’ll enjoy. The biggest show for the theatre is undoubtedly going to be the world premiere of the stage version of The Full Monty. Written by Simon Beaufoy, the man who penned the movie this version is based on, it opens at the Sheffield Lyceum at the beginning of February. Directed by Sheffield’s artistic director Daniel Evans, the stage show will tour the country after opening in Sheffield. The story of a group of Sheffielders who find themselves unemployed and turn to stripping, it will be particularly poignant to see it in the Steel City, where it is set.

The Full Monty isn’t the only Sheffield-based story that’s coming home this season. The theatre is also staging a new production of Alan Bennett’s wildly popular – and deservedly so – The History Boys. The play is coming to the Crucible in May – I suspect it will sell out fast. Other highlights will include Bull, a new play by the brilliant and multiple award winning Mike Bartlett, and This is My Family, a new musical comedy by the man behind The Calendar Girls, Tim Firth.

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Paul Miller, a brilliant director, will be in charge of a revival of DH Lawrence’s The Daughter-in-Law in the Crucible in February. Twenty local writers are involved in an intriguing production called 20 Tiny Plays About Sheffield – which I suspect does exactly what it says on the tin.

Another of the region’s theatres rooting its work in the county is York Theatre Royal. The theatre’s new season is inspired by God’s Own Country from the Wars of the Roses to the wartime bombing of York, from Yorkshire-born writers to exciting new theatre companies who have been formed and nurtured in the city, with over 50 different productions 2013 is the year to celebrate England’s largest county, according to the theatre.

Four world premieres include iShandy, written by Richard Hurford and based on the novel Tristram Shandy by Yorkshire author Laurence Stern. Mike Kenny is returning after success with The Railway Children and the York Mystery Plays with another epic piece of work, The Legend of King Arthur, which will see the whole theatre transformed into Camelot. AS Byatt’s Angels and Insects is being adapted for a premiere by the theatre’s associate director, Juliet Forster. The major coup for the theatre is a new partnership that will see the Globe Theatre present its newest work in York before taking it back to London. The first part of the Wars of the Roses will be at the theatre in June and July – it is fantastic news for Yorkshire theatre.

To the east of the county, Hull Truck has gone through some difficult times over the last couple of years. Having recently lost chief exec Andrew Smaje, the season was in a state of flux, but has been nailed down now, with a regional premiere of the brilliant Terry Johnson’s latest play Hitchcock Blonde. It is also touring a new production of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. In addition, the theatre is hosting a number of interesting smaller productions – it is going to be interesting to see how Hull Truck fares through the turbulence it is currently experiencing.

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Harrogate will be hoping to continue an impressive run of form. Despite having lost a huge amount of funding, the theatre has a hard-working and inspiring team making things happen. Shows the theatre is excited by are a co-production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Sugar Daddies, a piece it helped develop called The Watery Journey of Nereus Pike and another co-production of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Up in Scarborough, the Stephen Joseph Theatre will see a premiere of play by Amanda Whittington, The Thrill of Love, about Ruth 
Ellis.

This is ridiculous. There hasn’t even been space to mention a new production from Northern Broadsides of Rutherford and Son, which will be directed by Jonathan Miller. There is barely enough space to tell you about a top tip for the year from exciting new writer Ben Tagoe – The Thing About Psychopaths, which will be produced by Red Ladder. Essentially, the funding cuts have clearly inspired theatres to come out fighting.

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