Opening: Menier’s Color Purple, Chiwetel Ejiofor in A Season in the Congo and Josephine & I

Nicola Hughes and Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple
© Francis Loney

Opening Monday

The Color Purple
15 July 2013
(Previews from 5 July)

The musical based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel comes to the Menier Chocolate Factory. Starring Cynthia Erivo and Nicola Hughes, it runs until 14 September 2013.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
15 July 2013
(Previews from 12 July)

National Theatre of Scotland’s production plays at the Welsh Centre, Kings Cross, as part of the Royal Court’s Open Court season. Written by David Greig and directed by Wils Wilson, it runs until 3 August 2013.

Opening Tuesday

A Season in the Congo
16 July 2013
(Previews from 6 July)

Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in Joe Wright’s production of A Season in the Congo, charting the first year of the nation’s freedom. It runs at the Young Vic until 10 August 2013.

Opening Wednesday

Josephine & I
17 July 2013
(Previews from 12 July)

Cush Jumbo stars in her debut play intertwining the lives of a modern girl with 1920s icon Josephine Baker. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, it runs at the Bush Theatre until 17 August 2013.

Daytona
17 July 2013
(Previews from 10 July)

Maureen Lipman and Harry Shearer star in Oliver Cotton’s play following a couple and the return of a figure from their past. Directed by David Grindley, it runs at the Park Theatre until 18 August 2013.

Opening Friday

Billy Budd
19 July 2013
(Previews from 17 July)

A stage adaptation of Hermann Melville’s classic saga of events aboard a British man-of-war during the Napoleonic wars comes to the Southwark Playhouse. It runs until 10 August 2013.

Gabriel
19 July 2013
(Previews from 13 July)

Playwright Samuel Adamson brings a world of intersecting narratives to Shakespeare’s Globe. Featuring trumpeter Alison Balsam, it runs until 18 August 2013.