October 2011
Artistic Director Daniel Evans announces programming to complete the company's year-long 40th anniversary celebrations
Spring is in the air at Sheffield Theatres this week as the company announces its new season, taking place from January to May 2012. Highlights include a season of work dedicated to the multi-award-winning playwright Michael Frayn, a major revival of Congreve’s The Way of the World and Harold Pinter’s Betrayal with John Simm. The theatre will also co-produce with neighbouring theatre company, Chol Theatre for Yorkshire’s Cultural Olympiad, and it becomes the home of the first International Student Drama Festival.
The first production on the Crucible stage is The Way of the World, directed by Sheffield Theatres’ Associate Director Lyndsey Turner. This fresh new staging of William Congreve’s classic Restoration comedy about morals, money and everything in between is on from Thursday 2 – Saturday 25 February.
In March, following on from the success of last year’s David Hare Season, the company presents a festival dedicated to the work of multi-award-winning playwright Michael Frayn. The season of work will take place in each of the theatre’s spaces and includes major revivals of Copenhagen (directed by David Grindley), Benefactors (directed by Charlotte Gwinner) and Democracy(directed by Paul Miller), as well as rehearsed readings of The Sneeze (Friday 9 March), Here (Friday 16 March), Wild Honey by Michael Frayn after Chekhov (Friday 23 March) and a rehearsed reading of extracts of his novels and columns (Friday 30 March). Also, on Friday 23 March there will be an In Conversation event with Frayn himself.
In the Studio, the theatre will co-produce the world première of Kaite O’Reilly’s (winner of the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry 2010) LeanerFasterStronger with Chol Theatre. Directed by Sheffield Theatres’ Creative Producer Andrew Loretto, this darkly-humorous and provocative piece explores the limits of what human means, and forms part of iMove, a Yorkshire Cultural Olympiad programme.
Completing the season of Sheffield Theatre’s work is Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, which sees John Simm return to Sheffield Theatres to play Jerry, following his role in Hamlet at the Crucible last year. Betrayal, a heartbreaking comment on love and relationships, premiered at the National Theatre in 1978 and won the Olivier Award for Best New Play.
Finally, continuing its commitment to nurturing new talent Sheffield Theatres becomes home to the International Student Drama Festival. Co-produced by the National Student Drama Festival (NSDF) and Sheffield Theatres, this week-long event features the brightest and best new theatre-makers from across the world to perform a range of live theatre, dance and music events, alongside 200 workshops and discussions by leading practitioners and actors.
Artistic Director Daniel Evans said today, ‘I’m thrilled that our 40th birthday celebrations began in September with around 31,000 tickets sold for our production of Othello at the Crucible. Over the coming weeks, we’ll see a whole host of events that not only chronicle the history of our iconic building but also look forward to the next forty years. The newly established Sheffield People’s Theatre - our cross-generational community theatre company - will take to the stage of the main house for the first time and we’re collaborating with many local companies to create a variety of events that take people on exciting journeys through the theatre’s past. Our celebrations continue in the New Year and I am particularly looking forward to producing a season dedicated to the work of Michael Frayn. As the Crucible enters its fifth decade, it is a genuine privilege to be leading the organisation during this special time.’
The new season at Sheffield Theatres goes on sales to the public on Saturday 19 November. Tickets can be booked by calling the Box Office on 0114 249 6000 or at sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
The Box Office for the International Student Drama Festival will open this week with 9-day tickets on sale via: http://www.ideastap.com/nsdf 3 and 6-day tickets will be available from January 2012.
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