New Season at Salisbury Playhouse

Salisbury Playhouse have announced their spring/summer 2014 season, which will include a brand new play by the writer Chris Chibnall, creator of hit ITV series Broadchurch, a co-production of the Olivier nominated musical Betty Blue Eyes and Patrick Hamilton‘s Victorian set thriller Gaslight, as well as announcing their intentions to stage a number of shows over the next four years in commemoration of the centenary of the First World War.

Opening the season will be a brand new production of the classic psychological thriller Gaslight. Directed by Edward Dick, in a boldly theatrical version which explores murder and mind games, it runs from 6 February to 1 March 2014.

Chris Chibnall’s Worst Wedding Ever (27 March to 19 April) will be directed by Salisbury Playhouse artistic director Gareth Machin. It is billed as "a humourous story of a mother who enlists the whole family to make her daughter’s wedding day one she’ll never forget. With a marquee in the back garden, a hand me down dress, the pub band and two fully-functioning portaloos, surely the day will pass without a hitch".

In a co-production with Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Mercury Theatre Colchester and West Yorkshire Playhouse, Styles & Drewe’s Betty Blue Eyes will receive its regional premiere, coming to Salisbury from 24 April to 17 May. Directed by Daniel Buckroyd, the musical is an adaptation of Alan Bennett‘s much loved film script A Private Function. It received its premiere in the West End in 2011 receiving a nomination for Best Musical at the Olivier awards.

To mark the hundred year anniversary of war breaking out on the Western Front, the youth theatre Stage ‘65 will present Oh What A Lovely War, while Original Theatre will bring in their production of Birdsong. Other touring work in the Main House and Minerva Studio includes Roy Williams‘ Advice for the Young at Heart, Ciphers, produced by Out of Joint, Philip Ridley‘s Fringe First award winning production of Dark Vanilla Jungle, and Blink in a Soho and Nabokov co-production.

For a full list of shows and more details can be found on the theatre website

– Kris Hallett