Shakespeare North Playhouse unveils 2023 season

Shakespeare North Playhouse has unveiled plans for its 2023 season, which also marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio publication.

In the Cockpit Theatre, Macbeth will run from 1 to 23 September. Co-produced by English Touring Theatre, Northern Stage and Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and helmed by ETT’s artistic director Richard Twyman, the production will then tour to Northern Stage, Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Dubai Opera House, Cambridge Arts Theatre and the Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe, with further stops to be confirmed.

Miranda Rose Hall’s dark comedy A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction will run from 16 to 20 May. Co-produced by Headlong and the Barbican, the one-woman show follows Naomi, an actor who confronts the climate crisis. The piece, which is powered entirely by bicycles, will also tour to Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Live Theatre Newcastle, New Vic Newcastle-under-Lyme and York Theatre Royal, with further venues to be announced. In a UK-first, the play will tour, while the people and materials will not. In each city, a blueprint of the show will be uniquely staged by local teams, reimagining touring theatre in a climate crisis.

Marking the Globe’s first visit to the Merseyside venue, Midsummer Mechanicals will run from 15 to 18 July. The comedy takes the form of a sequel to Pyramus and Thisbe – the play-within-a-play from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is written by Kerry Frampton and Ben Hales and directed by Lucy Cuthbertson and Kerry Frampton.

There will also be a screening of Shakespeare in Love, starring Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench, on 17 February.

Laura Collier, creative director of Shakespeare North Playhouse, said: “It has been an incredible first six months at Shakespeare North Playhouse and we’re so excited to announce the second half of our opening year. We can’t wait to welcome our friends including English Touring Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and Headlong Theatre and to celebrate a year of Shakespeare North Playhouse this 2023!”

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