Key North-East Openings This February

Hattie Morahan stars as Susan Traherne, a former secret agent whose string of dead-end jobs and destructive relationships on her return to post war England drives her to the very brink of madness. The limited season continues until 26 February 2011.

OPENING 10 February 2011, Racing Demon, by David Hare, directed by Daniel Evans at Sheffield Crucible Theatre.

This Olivier award-winning comic satire is the next in the David Hare season at Sheffield. The story follows a group of eccentric, well meaning vicars who are struggling to fill their empty churches. Tony Ferris, the new evangelical curate joins the team and shakes up the status quo with comic results. The limited season continues until 5 March 2011.

OPENING 10 February 2011, The Deep Blue Sea , by Terence Rattigan, directed by Sarah Esdalie at West Yorkshire Playhouse.

West Yorkshire Playhouse launch Rattigan’s centenary celebrations with The Deep Blue Sea starring Maxine Peak who takes the lead role as Hester Collyer. Hester has left the security of her husband for the wild excitement of a raffish ex-fighter pilot. Now Hester must face up the the reality that she has created for herself and life with a man who doesn’t want to be with her. The limited season continues until 12 March 2011.

OPENING 11 February 2011, To Kill a Mocking Bird dramatised by Christopher Sergel , directed by Damian Cruden at York Theatre Royal.

A gripping staging of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, set in America’s scorching Deep South at a time when racial tensions are at an all time high. Starring Duncan Preston as Atticus a lawyer who defends a man unfairly accused of rape, risking his family’s safety in order to do the right thing in the face of the racism shown by fellow townsfolk. The limited season continues until 26 February 2011.

– Joanne Hartley