Liverpool Theatres Launch Part Three of ‘09 Season

The Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse theatres have announced the third and final part of its 2009 programme and the North West can expect more exciting theatre productions in the autumn.

Top of the pile includes the homecoming of Everyman alumnus and recently appointed CBE, Jonathan Pryce, in Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker.

Gemma Bodinetz, artistic director of the Everyman and Playhouse theatres, said: “I was very young at the time but so privileged to have worked with Harold Pinter, so to have one of his plays here in Liverpool means an awful lot to me.

“Jonathan Pryce has always been an actor I know Harold wanted to play the part of Davies and when Jonathan was approached for this production he said he wouldn’t want to perform the role in any other city.”

In addition to Welsh actor Pryce making his homecoming in October, to the theatre where he began his career, The Caretaker will be directed by Christopher Morahan and designed by Eileen Diss, who worked with Pinter on many occasions.

Originally produced in 1960, The Caretaker marked Harold Pinter’s arrival as the seminal playwright of his generation. A story of two brothers and a tramp, the cast also includes Tom Brooke and Peter McDonald, and the production will transfer to Bath Theatre Royal in November.

The opening production at the Playhouse in September is Lawrence Till’s Kes, a moving stage adaptation based on the Barry Hines’s novel, A Kestrel For A Knave. Directed by Nikolai Foster with a cast including Mike Burnside, Daniel Casey, David Crellin, and Katherine Dow Blyton, this co-production with The Touring Consortium will tour Nottingham, Darlington, Edinburgh, Bradford, Wolverhampton and Cardiff after Liverpool.

Elsewhere, a cast of four will perform 139 roles in 100 minutes of fast-paced fun and thrilling action in Liverpool Playhouse’s Christmas production The 39 Steps. This production has been hilariously recreated by Patrick Barlow and been a West End smash hit, which continues its run at the Criterion Theatre. Directing is Maria Aitken.

The annual rock and roll pantomime at the Everyman returns this November with Dick Whittington, written by husband and wife team Sarah Nixon and Mark Chatterton. The pair have written a panto to shake, rattle and roll in the aisles to and set it in London during the swinging 1960s.

Currently showing at the Playhouse until 18 July is Roger McGough’s adaptation of Molière’s The Hypochondriac. The Liverpool poet returns to the theatre in the autumn, in person, for one night only to talk about his insightful philosophies and bittersweet perceptions. His visit is part of a week of one nighters of comedy in November, which also features Daniel Kitson and Stewart Lee.

To read the Whatsonstage.com review of The Hypochondriac click here