Northern Stage announces 2020 season to celebrate 50th birthday

Northern Stage has announced its upcoming 2020 season, which marks the venue's 50th birthday.

A new theatrical version of The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff by Teesside folk trio The Young'uns, directed by Northern Stage artistic director Lorne Campbell, will play from 4 to 22 February. The show celebrates northern working class activism, following on from the venue's hit production of The Last Ship. It will feature songs from the folk trio's original album as well as newly composed material.

The stage premiere of Shandyland by Bruntwood Prize-winning playwright Gareth Farr will run from 12 to 23 May. The show was originally developed through The Old Vic 12 scheme and spans 20 years of a small, northern, family-run pub in an abandoned working-class community. After its Newcastle premiere, Shandyland will tour to Liverpool Everyman Theatre from 27 May to 6 June, Oldham Coliseum Theatre from 9 to 20 June and York Theatre Royal from 23 June to 4 July.

Curious Monkey will present Lindsay Rodden's new play HERE, starring professional refugee actors from Albania, Angola, Kurdistan/Syria and Glasgow who have ended up living in Byker. It runs from 19 to 28 March.

Touring productions will also run across the season. Frantic Assembly will bring its I Think We Are Alone to the venue (21 to 25 April), while Told by an Idiot's previously announced The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel runs from 11 to 15 February. The Faction will revive their sell-out production of Patricia Highsmith's psychological thriller The Talented Mr Ripley (14 to 17 March), while Laurie Sansom's JM Barrie's Quality Street runs from 24 to 28 March.

Headlong will bring the gender-swapped Faustus: That Damned Woman to the Newcastle venue from 31 March to 4 April, while Rhum and Clay's War of the Worlds will play from 16 to 20 June after its premiere in early 2019.