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Premières and major tours for Guildford in 2012

Two premières are the centerpiece for the spring 2012 season at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. The first is Alan Ayckbourn’s Neighbourhood Watch, directed by the author in a co-production between Guildford and Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre. It runs between 18 and 28 January and is followed from 2 to 11 February by The King’s Speech.

David Seidler’s play was, of course, the basis for the award-winning film of the same name. Adrian Noble directs a cast which includes Joss Ackland, Charles Edwards, [Emma Fielding, Jonathan Hyde and Ian McNeice. Sara Crowe and James Wilby star in Less Than Kind by Terence Rattigan at the start of a national tour between 14 and 18 February.

Headlong in association with Southampton’s Nuffield Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse and Hull Truck Theatre offer Romeo and Juliet from 21 to 25 February. The star-crossed young lovers are followed by a more mature kind of passion in the shape of On Golden Pond between 5 and 10 March with Elizabeth Carling, Richard Johnson and Stephanie Powers heading the cast.

The backstage story of the making of the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? runs from 14 to 24 March, directly after its West End season. It’s written by Anton Burge, directed by Bill Alexander and stars Anita Dobson and Greta Scacchi as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. An in-house production of the evergreen Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon with a cast led and directed by Maureen Lipman is on offer from 28 March until 7 April.

Two Into One is another classic farce written and directed by Ray Cooney between 18 and 28 April; the cast includes Christopher Biggins, Gyles Brandreth, Brian Murphy and Denise Van Outen. From 30 April until 5 May the Agatha Christie Theatre Company invite you to sample Murder on the Nile and spring whirls on to summer with Alan Plater’s Close the Coalhouse Door between 29 May and 2 June. It’s a Northern Stage and Live Theatre presentation.

Opera della Luna return to the Yvonne Arnaud between 27 and 29 February with The Merry Widow, and Fascinating Aida’s The Cheap Flights Tour runs from 12 to 14 April. Mill Studio shows include Phoenix Rising (27 to 28 January) with Paul Slack as D H Lawrence, Chapterhouse’s Sense and Sensibility (23 February to 3 March) and Adolf written and performed by Pip Utton (18 to 19 May). Among the shows for younger children on 10 March is The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark.

- by Anne Morley-Priestman

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