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New work and established favourites at the New Wolsey Theatre for Spring 2013

Pantomime glitter and gloss will have faded from the memory by the time February 2013 fills the ditches and floods the fields, so it's perhaps appropriate that the new season at Ipswich's New Wolsey Theatre opens with the world première of a psychological thriller by Michael Lesslie, And Then The Dark. This runs from 8 February until 2 March and will be directed by Peter Rowe, the theatre's artistic director.

By contrast, a co-production between the New Wolsey, Birmingham Repertory Company, the Nottingham Playhouse and Teatro Kismet introduces the stage version of Peter Pullman's I Was a Rat! adapted and directed by Teresa Ludovico. This has a week's run between 12 and 16 March in Ipswich. The third major co-production is Miss Nightingale, a burlesque musical in association with Mr Bugg Presents, from 2 to 11 May.

Visiting productions are equally varied. There's a return visit from Opera della Luna on 30 and 31 January; The Parson's Pirates is The Pirates of Penzance but not quite as Gilbert and Sullivan conceived them. LipService's Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding offer Inspector Norse between 5 and 7 March. The stage presentation of Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong comes to Ipswich after its West End run from 25 to 30 March. Ockham's Razor is an aerial physical theatre company making a return visit – this time with Not Until We Are Lost from 11 to 13 April.

Miss Julie in the new UK Touring Company production is on 16 and 17 April; the new translation is by Denis Nooman. Another West End success, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's updating of their classic Yes, Prime Minister, follows between 22 and 27 April. English Touring Theatre and the Liverpool Playhouse offer Roger McGough's version of [Molière]'s Le misanthrope for the week 14 to 18 May.

Fresh Glory and the Newbury Watermill revive their small-scale touring production of Richard Hurford's Some Like It Hotter – yes, this is the one which gives the characters created by Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon an unusual after-life. 2 to 25 May reveals all. Studio shows include a rehearsed reading of John Binnie's Killing Me Softly on 23 February, Whole by Philip Osment (12 and 13 March) and the Dan Canham creation Ours Was the Fen Country on 3 and 4 May.

As always, there's a good mix of shows for younger audience members in the studio. The main Easter offering is We're Going on a Bear Hunt adapted from the Michael Rosen book, between 2 and 5 April. Nottingham Playhouse brings White Peacock by Gill Brigg for young people with learning difficulties, including autism, to the High Street Exhibition Gallery (HEG) from 7 to 11 May. And of course, the Pulse Fringe Festival takes over theatre, studio and a whole host of other spaces between 30 May and 8 June.

- by Anne Morley-Priestman

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