New Maxine Peake play to premiere in Hull City of Culture season

A new, site-specific play by Maxine Peak will have its world premiere in the final 2017 City of Culture season in Hull later this year.

The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca based on the life of the titular town hero, will guide audiences around Hull's Grade II-listed Guildhall, with live music provided by Adrian McNally and The Unthanks. The show is in collaboration with the Hull Truck Theatre.

Maxine Peake says: "We hope our telling of this story about the extraordinary women from this extraordinary city will entertain and stimulate an outsider's view on a past community in a city that is very much alive and kicking hard."

Elsewhere in the season a variety of shows from both Hull residents and artists visiting the city. Award-winning writer Tanika Gupta's adaptation of Marina Lewycka's best-selling novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, debuts at the Hull Truck Theatre in late September directed by Mark Babych. In early 2018 James Graham (This House, Ink) will present a currently unnamed behind-the-scenes comedy about the City of Culture.

Hull and Danish city Aarhus (European Capital of Culture 2017) will present a joint theatrical installation entitled 2097: We Made Ourselves Over. On 1 October at exactly 2pm, members of the public will have the chance to use local phone boxes to absorb themselves in a sci-fi world. A new app is being developed to coincide with the futuristic performance.

Keeping with the futuristic theme, double Fringe First-winners curious directive bring their new virtual reality-themed show Frogman to Hull from 1 to 11 November, as the finale of their national tour. You can read our review of Frogman here.

Hull New Theatre's opening season will also includes the National Theatre productions of Jane Eyre (18 – 23 September) and Ibsen's Hedda Gabler (13 – 18 November), the Opera North residency The Little Greats (26 – 28 October), Northern Ballet's new The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas (18 – 21 October); and the world premiere of John Godber's The Kings of Hull (27 September – 7 October).

Following their success at the Edinburgh Fringe, Bellow Theatre's Bare Skin on Briny Waters and Pub Corner Poets' Little Sad Man are coming to the city on 6 – 7 October and 27 – 28 October respectively.

E52 and Battersea Arts Centre will present the second part of their Heads Up theatre festival between 12 and 22 October, with productions including Motor's Ross & Rachel, Likely Theatre's immersive and interactive show for young children Almost Always Muddy and Kid Carpet and Vic Llewellyn's Edinburgh smash The Castle Builder.