Key Yorkshire openings this April
Running 10 – 13 April, Theatre Royal (York)
THE AWKWARD SQUAD
What chance does Lorna have of a quiet weekend when both daughters and her granddaughter descend on her with their own problems?
She’s spent three decades working for everyone else through the miners’ strikes, community milk schemes and library closures and tomorrow she’s to be given an honorary PhD – but her granddaughter thinks her boob job is more important….
On top of that a BAFTA, an impending divorce, redundancy and a very upmarket caravanette force Lorna to reconsider both the past and the future – for everyone.
What’s a woman to do? Accept everything that’s thrown at her, or become a fully paid-up member of the ‘awkward squad’?
BAFTA-winning Emmerdale writer Karin Young’s play is a state-of-the-nation comedy, taking a sideways look at the challenges faced by modern women of all ages.
Starring Libby Davison (The Bill, Hollyoaks), Charlie Hardwick (Val Pollard in Emmerdale), Barbara Marten (Casualty, Coronation Street, Brookside), and Lisa McGrillis (Pitmen Painters).
Running 11 – 28 April, Hull Truck (Hull)
SPOONFACE STEINBERG & KRAPP’S LAST TAPE
Life is too short. Time passes, we grow old. How can we get the best out of our lives? This double-bill of plays will make you look at life in a whole new way. You’ll laugh, glow with compassion and perhaps shed the occasional tear. Together, these amazing characters will steal your heart.
Running 16 -21 April, Theatre Royal (York)
YES, PRMIE MINISTER
The original writers of the classic BBC TV series, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, have reunited for this anniversary production and now the Prime Minister Jim Hacker played by Graham Seed (Nigel Pargetter- The Archers) and his Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby played by Michael Simkins (Mamma Mia, Above Suspicion) are back in this hilarious new play.
In a world of spin, BlackBerrys and ‘sexed up’ dossiers, the PM is staring disaster in the face. The country is on the brink of financial meltdown and the Government’s only apparent salvation comes from a morally dubious deal with the Foreign Minister of Kumranistan. Will Jim Hacker and his team of advisors be able to rescue the country from the edge?
Running 18-21 April, Hull Truck (Hull)
BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS
A summer afternoon, 1943. Seven young children play the all-consuming games of childhood. But their actions are shaped by the casual cruelties of the adults around them and the never far away realities of a world at war. This is the powerful stage adaptation of Dennis Potter‘s unforgettable 1979 television play.
Running 19 – 22 & 26 – 28 April, West Yorkshire Playhouse (Leeds)
TRANSFORM 12
The second Transform festival has commissioned exciting new work, brought together extraordinary theatre makers and over two weekends will play host to the likes of Chris Goode & Company and Belarus Free Theatre.
Creating intimate performances in a temporary pop-up theatre space, taking you on an interactive adventure through the labyrinths of the theatre with Look Left Look Right, and allowing you into the development for a major new piece of work from Chris Thorpe and Nicolai Khalezin.
There are free events in the bar each evening, live music, discussion and spoken word, traditional Sunday Dinner with food for thought from radical thinkers, and rounding off with a sensational night featuring some of the most daring and fabulous cabaret acts.
Running 24 – 28 April, Theatre Royal (York)
LILLIES ON THE LAND
A truly remarkable and sparkling piece of theatre which celebrates an extraordinary episode in Britain’s history – the Women’s Land Army of World War II.
This delightful and often deeply touching play charts the personal journeys of four women who sign up to become Land Girls, determined to work endless, backbreaking hours on farms across the country in a bid to do their best for the war effort.
Based on hundreds of letters from and interviews with the original Land Girls along with songs from the period, Lilies on the Land is a revealing, funny, wonderfully moving and utterly captivating portrait of some of Britain’s pluckiest, unsung heroes. Simply unmissable, this is theatre at its most memorable.
Running 24 – 28 April, Lyceum (Sheffield)
AN INSPECTOR CALLS
From Stephen Daldry, the Oscar nominated director of The Reader, The Hours and one of Britain’s best-loved films Billy Elliot, comes the multi-award-winning production of J. B. Priestley‘s classic thriller, An Inspector Calls direct from its fourth West End season.
Hailed as the theatrical event of our generation and winning more awards than any play in history, this landmark production from the National Theatre has thrilled audiences in the West End, on Broadway and throughout the world with its epic and wildly imaginative staging, raw emotion, evocative score, lashing rain and chilling suspense.
When Inspector Goole arrives unexpectedly at the prosperous Birling family home, their peaceful dinner party is shattered by his investigations into the death of a young woman. His startling revelations shake the very foundations of their lives and challenge us all to examine our consciences.
Running 25 – 28 April, Hull Truck (Hull)
A FOREIGN COUNTRY
New Year’s Eve and terminally ill Tobias Bielby is not in a celebratory mood. As a Humberside journalist with a nose for a story he caught the eye of London tabloids, who enticed him with a great salary and celebrity contacts. As the end approaches, he is visited by some extraordinary characters who remind him that there were more truths and laughs than he ever realised.
