Nuffield announces 2016 spring/summer season

Nuffield director Sam Hodges has announced the upcoming spring/summer season for the Southampton theatre. The new season will feature two new Nuffield co-productions, The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary! and Noises Off, alongside six visiting productions.

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary! will open the season, running 1 to 19 March. A co-production between Nuffield, Peepolykus, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic and Royal and Derngate, Northampton, Gustave Flaubert's seminal 19th century novel is adapted to create an absurd take on the traditional tale. The production will be directed by Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse's artistic director Gemma Bodinet.

Also in the season, Blanche McIntyre will direct Noises Off, the multi-award-winning comedy by Michael Frayn. The show offers a glimpse into the onstage and backstage antics of a touring company as they hurtle towards a disastrous first night. The co-production between Nuffield, Nottingham Playhouse and Northern Stage will run 31 May to 25 June.

In addition, Nuffield's Youth Theatre will present two productions, Evan Placey's Girls Like That (13 to 16 January) and a new modern adaptation of The Odyssey (24 to 30 March).

The rest of Nuffield's season features a host of visiting companies including Curve Leicester and Rose Theatre Kingston's production of the Roald Dahl classic The Witches (15 to 20 February), an Eclipse Theatre Company, Sheffield Theatres, and Belgrade Theatre Coventry co-production of the American classic A Raisin in the Sun (23 to 27 February) and The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, a Kneehigh and Bristol Old Vic co-production, which marks Emma Rice's final direction for Kneehigh before taking over at the Globe.

Sam Hodges commented: "We are especially thrilled to present two new Nuffield productions this season: an exhilarating new adaptation of Madame Bovary and the legendary comedy Noises Off. We are really looking forward to our 2016 season, it promises a full programme of bold, funny, classic and stylish theatre, and welcomes some of the most exciting theatre companies from across the UK to join us."