Lawrence Batley Theatre announces autumn season

The Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield has unveiled its 2021 autumn season.

The season includes an outdoor spectacle by award-winning choreographer Gary Clarke's new piece titled Chronicle, which mixes live dance, projection, music and spoken word to explore two hundred years of the building.

Frisky and Mannish will create live and digital shows for the venue – with two live performances in September ahead of streams from 1 to 14 November.

The "24 Hour Plays" will return for the first time in ten years, with six new short plays being created by six writers, six directors, six producers and 24 actors. The artists will receive mentoring from the likes of Sheila Atim, Paul Taylor-Mills, Amanda Whittington, Francesca Moody and Laurie Sansom.

The venue will stage a community production of Macbeth, penned and directed by Olivia Race and featuring 90 members of the local population.

There will be a variety of touring productions across the season including Fascinating Aida and LUNG Theatre. There will also be single-night appearances from Sindhu Vee, Ed Byrne, Divina De Campo and more.

At Christmas time, the venue will present its annual pantomime (Robin Hood this year) while also doing a solo show for youngsters titled Alfie the Elf's Christmas.

CEO and artistic director Henry Filloux-Bennett said today: "We are utterly thrilled to be welcoming audiences back for live indoor performances for the first time in almost a year. Our autumn season is bigger and better than ever, with our refreshed auditorium playing host to a series of world premieres and touring productions – as well as our digital channels offering original online shows for those to enjoy from home."