Yorkshire theatres back in the limelight - These are the shows planned for coming months

Over the past six months a cultural industry that survived the plague and gifted the world Shakespeare has faced an existential crisis. Yet during this time I have witnessed, with increasing awe, just how creative those who work in the theatre industry really are.

Lawrence Batley Theatre has taken shows online, Leeds Playhouse has run meetings with freelancers from around the region on Zoom, Slung Low theatre has pivoted its whole organisation and is now an absolutely vital lifeline for hundreds of families across Leeds who receive food parcels thanks to the organisation’s efforts.

There is no denying that there have been long dark nights of the soul for many of our theatres. Today, we celebrate a tiny glimmer of light as we focus on some of the theatres able to stage shows in the coming weeks and months.

Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.

During lockdown the theatre continued to create work, run online workshops and the man in charge, Henry Filloux-Bennett, even wrote his own plays. His adaptation of the Jonathan Coe novel What a Carve Up! will feature as part of the autumn season as an online reading starring Sir Derek Jacobi, Griff Ryhs Jones, Tamzin Outhwaite and Stephen Fry.

It is also presenting a dance commission called Locked Down. Locked In. But Living. And its popular Comedy Cellar returns, this time to the venue’s main stage to allow for social distancing in the audience and it will see other one-actor shows on the stage this coming month.

www.thelbt.org

Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

My admiration for the custodians who run our theatres has gone through the roof. They take incredibly seriously the responsibility of guarding our treasures. Paul Robinson at SJT was nervous about announcing a season of work for this autumn. He needn’t have been.

“The response we’ve had since we announced our re-opening this autumn has been really heartening,” he says. “It was a risky strategy, there’s no denying it and of course not everyone is ready to come back to the theatre and that’s understandable, but we’re confident our audiences and team will stay safe. And people are booking tickets. We’ve already had to programme an extra matinee of the world premiere of John Godber’s Sunny Side Up, which is just brilliant news.”

The new Godber play will run at the theatre, starring the writer alongside his wife and daughter actors, from October 28 to 31. The season will also include the brilliant My Favourite Summer (Nov 12 to 14), a modern retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice starring Scarborough favourite Serena Manteghi.

Also announced this week is a Robinson-directed rehearsed reading of Simon Woods’s Hansard starring Jemma Redgrave alongside Simon Slater. All this in a year when the industry has been ravaged by a pandemic. Like I said, impressive.

www.sjt.uk.com

Leeds Playhouse

While Scarborough has landed Redgrave and Slater for its season, Leeds and Sheffield are sharing Maxine Peake and Imelda Staunton.

Leeds Playhouse will host Peake and Staunton performing two of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads on Nov 12 to 14, with Rochenda Sandall also performing on November 7. The live stagings follow the recent BBC filmed performances of the monologues and Peake says of coming to Yorkshire, it is a “huge pleasure to bring Talking Heads back to their spiritual home”.

The season will also see Leeds-based theatre company Wrongsemble stage a family-friendly musical called The Not So Ugly Sisters, telling an alternative version of Cinderella’s much loathed siblings, Nov 18-21. There will be much excitement about a debut play produced by Red Ladder called My Voice Was Heard But I Was Ignored.

There is much good community work going on at the Playhouse, with Project Intimacy which is aimed at connecting people and combating isolation and a pledge to give away 1,000 free tickets to NHS workers and their families.

Perhaps the most exciting news is that a Christmas Carol is back. The ultimate feel-good story will be the perfect antidote to this year when it runs from Dec 3 to Jan 9.

www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk

Sheffield Crucible

Robert Hastie, yet another inspirational leader has brought the Crucible back into operation with tireless work from his team. “We’ve called this season Together, because that’s the feeling we’ve missed most and the experience that theatre does best. We’ve all been through and are still going through a lot. Now more than ever, the experience of being together feels vital,” he said.

Peake and Staunton will start their Talking Heads journey in Sheffield before taking the performance to Leeds (Nov 9 to 11) performing in the Crucible which is the only space, for now, that will be open to the public, with the Studio and Lyceum remaining closed for the time being.

It means a bigger space for resident company Utopia and its production of Here’s What She Said To Me directed by Mojisola Elufowoju. Back in 2016 Operation Crucible had a sell out run, telling the story of a group of men trapped in the basement of a hotel after it was bombed during the Blitz. It is a story of universal hope and of people coming together and triumphing in the face of adversity. It is impossible to think of anything more timely.

The theatre’s festive offering is the ever popular Damian Williams with Damian’s Pop Up Panto. It won’t be the same as seeing the evergreen Williams as the dame, but in this strange year it will be a welcome sight for theatre fans (Dec 16 to Jan 3).

www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Opera North

A world-class opera company in Yorkshire is something to be proud of – which is able to show their wares around the world via Switch ON. Indoor performances include a double-bill of Handel’s pastoral opera Acis and Galatea and Brecht and Weill’s acerbic ‘sung ballet’, Seven Deadly Sins, which will be performed at Leeds Playhouse (Nov 11 - 21).

In December the company will mount a concert tour of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, at Leeds Town Hall with four performances in the company’s home city before touring to other venues in the North. Touring to smaller scale venues in villages, towns and cities across the North, a newly devised Whistle Stop Opera: Cinderella offers a relaxed and fun introduction to opera through the way different composers have taken on the same fairy tale.

As You Are, a new soundwalk for Leeds by South African cellist and composer Abel Selaocoe, will open on Sat 14 November and run until 9 January, tracking a journey through the heart of Leeds city centre.

Richard Mantle, the company’s general director, said: “Opera North is determined to keep performing and sharing incredible music with communities in our home city of Leeds, in villages, towns and cities across the North.”

www.operanorth.co.uk

City Varieties, Leeds.

The world-famous music hall recently announced it is set to welcome audiences back into the building where they will be able to see performances on a big screen, with recordings of Uncle Vanya, Heathers the Musical and Sheridan Smith in Cilla set to be highlights of the season.

There will also be BFI preview screenings of Ammonite, directed by Keighley’s own Francis Lee and a rare outing for Withnail and I.

www.leedsheritagetheatres.com

York Theatre Royal

York’s pantomime is a staple for many families. This year it is taking the panto on the road visiting all 21 of the city’s wards during December and January.

The pop-up show will be staged in a variety of locations from community halls to social clubs and sports centres. The theatre’s executive director Tom Bird said: “Our Travelling Pantomime will be a rip-roaring Christmas treat for the whole family. Audiences can expect hilarity and chaos, music and magic as our amazing actors visit every corner of York.”

What’s more, audiences will have a say in which of three of the most popular pantomime titles they want to see – Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk or Aladdin.

Award-winning pantomime writer Paul Hendy is writing three scripts with the actors performing whichever show the audience chooses on the night.

Loyal audiences are also being asked to help theatres get through the difficult time with a scheme called Pledge Ahead, which allows them to buy vouchers now to exchange for tickets in the future.

www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Northern Ballet

The company will perform three different hour-long mixed programmes at Leeds Playhouse Oct 21 to 24, followed by four full length performances of artistic director David Nixon’s critically acclaimed Dangerous Liaisons (Oct 28 - 31).

The mixed programme will be made up of Iconic Classics: A Celebration of Artistic Director David Nixon and Contemporary Cuts. It will be good to have them back.

www.northernballet.com

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today.

Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you'll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers.

So, please - if you can - pay for our work. Just £5 per month is the starting point. If you think that which we are trying to achieve is worth more, you can pay us what you think we are worth. By doing so, you will be investing in something that is becoming increasingly rare. Independent journalism that cares less about right and left and more about right and wrong. Journalism you can trust.

Thank you

James Mitchinson