Theatre By the Lake stages Friel, Butterworth and J.M.Barrie

The Theatre by the Lake in Keswick has announced that the theatre is to stage nine of its own productions in 2014 – ranging from a Shakespeare play to the world première of a new warm-hearted comedy. The year will end with a spectacular Christmas production of Peter Pan, which will include flying.

In the Main House for Spring is Brian Friel‘s Dancing at Lughnasa. Mary Papadima, who will direct the show, introduced the multi-award winning work from one of Ireland’s greatest living playwrights. She said, “The characters are perfectly written, so full of humanity. I’m sure you’ve all met at least one of them before.” The story follows seven-year-old Michael and his aunts in rural Donegal in 1936; just as their lives are about to change forever.

The Spring production in the Studio is Stephen MacDonald‘s Not About Heroes, a play about the meeting of poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon – and the incredibly strong friendship forged between them. It will be directed by Jez Pike, who recently worked on The Shape of Things in the Studio. This play is the theatre’s contribution to the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. Following its run in the Studio the production will tour to rural venues in Cumbria.

Besides these two home produced shows, from January to May the theatre will host a huge variety of visiting companies, including the return of The Reduced Shakespeare Company, Opera Della Luna with The Mikado and Keswick Amateur Operatic Society with Singin’ in the Rain.

Booking for both of Theatre by the Lake’s Spring productions and all the other events from January to May opens to the public on Thu 2 January.

The theatre’s Summer Season of six plays returns in 2014 with as large a variety as ever. In the Main House, it begins with Ben Travers’ farce Rookery Nook – a hilarious tale featuring a rogues’ gallery of comic creations, including the formidable busybody pairing of Gertrude Twine and housekeeper Mrs Leverett.

Second up is an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Scottish playwright and poet Liz Lochhead. This classic story draws on our dreams, nightmares, desires and fears to bring to life the most famous vampire of all.

Last up is the theatre’s first production of a Shakespeare play since A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2009, The Comedy of Errors. Two sets of identical twins separated at birth meet by accident in a Mediterranean seaport famous for witchcraft and magic and get caught up in a fast-moving farce of mistaken identity.

The first summer production in the Studio will be The Winterling. This play by Jez Butterworth, author of the phenomenally popular Jerusalem and Mojo, is a blackly comic thriller following the fate of an exiled gangster as he waits for his associates in an abandoned Derbyshire farmhouse.

This is followed by the world première of Seeing the Lights, a brand new play commissioned by Theatre by the Lake from Lancashire born playwright Brendan Murray. Terry lives at home caring for his elderly mum. Her 75th birthday is coming up and she’s set her heart on her favourite son Greg coming home for the party – but he lives in Australia. This comedy is funny and sad in equal measure, tackling topical and family issues with sympathy and humour.

Rounding off the season is Old Times, Harold Pinter‘s masterpiece. Kate and her husband Deeley are visited by Kate’s old friend Anna and the three are drawn into a merciless battle of wills. This is a gripping play about memory, jealousy and sexual posession. The Summer Season runs from Sat 24 May to Sat 8 November 2014.

Forrest ended the event with the announcement that the theatre’s show for Christmas 2014 will be one of the greatest children’s stories of all time – Peter Pan. J.M. Barrie’s tale of Neverland, pirates, a ticking crocodile and the boy who wouldn’t grow up has been enchanting children for generations. To accommodate the extra demand for such an exciting show, Peter Pan will have a longer run than past Christmas shows – from Sat 29 November 2014 to Sat 31 January 2015.