Sheffield Theatres announces Robert Hastie’s final season as artistic director including Little Shop of Horrors and Chariots of Fire

Sheffield Theatres’ artistic director, Robert Hastie, has unveiled his final season of productions, which will run from July 2024 to March 2025 at the Crucible Theatre and Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse.

At the Crucible, the season kicks off with a new production of Chariots of Fire by Mike Bartlett, directed by Hastie himself. This adaptation celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Paris Olympics, showcasing the true story of two athletes and their support for each other’s beliefs. It runs from 6 to 27 July.

Following this, audiences can expect a brand new version of Henrik Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House, adapted by Chris Bush and directed by Elin Schofield. This production reunites the partnership behind Rock / Paper / Scissors. It runs from 21 September to 12 October.

As winter approaches, Sheffield Theatres will present the out-of-this-world rock musical Little Shop of Horrors, featuring book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken. Directed by Amy Hodge, the show runs from 7 December to 18 January.

In early 2025, a new co-production with Utopia Theatre will grace the stage with Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka, directed by Mojisola Kareem. Set in 1940s Nigeria, this thought-provoking play delves into culture and spirituality. It plays from 3 to 8 February.

The season culminates with a production of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Josh Seymour. Set in the sultry backstreets of New Orleans, this iconic play will run from 1 to 29 March.

Meanwhile, over at the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres and Theatre Centre will collaborate on Dizzy, a fantastical odyssey of grief, love, and unexpected heroes written by Mohammed Zain-Dada and directed by Theatre Centre’s artistic director Rob Watt. It runs from 25 September to 12 October.

Additionally, audiences can look forward to KENREX, a unique blend of Western, true crime, and music, presented by Sheffield Theatres and Aria Entertainment from 26 October to 16 November. The show features the writer behind West End hit Cruise, Jack Holden, and Ed Stambollouian.

Concluding the season is Pig Heart Boy, adapted by Winsome Pinnock from Malorie Blackman’s award-winning book. Directed by Tristan Finn-Aiduenu, the co-production with Unicorn Theatre and Children’s Theatre Partnership runs from 27 February to 15 March.

Hastie said today: “It has been an honour to lead this wonderful group of theatres for the last eight years, and to work alongside such a committed, talented and kind collection of people. There is nowhere like it – the range of theatre spaces, and the multiplicity of local and national relationships Sheffield Theatres enjoys, make this place a whole cultural ecosystem, and it’s been a joy and an education to work at its heart. The bumper season we announce today reflects the variety and quality of great nights out and opportunities to join in that our audiences rightly expect of us. I have loved working here. I will miss crossing Tudor Square and bumping into actors on a break from rehearsal, young artists on their way to an R&D workshop in our Talent Development space, lines of schoolkids queuing noisily for a matinee in the Lyceum, passers-by keen to stop me and tell me what they thought of last night’s show in the Crucible.

“The immense privilege of working in a city that loves its theatre is something I will never forget. Every time I’ve introduced a new director, actor or designer to our stages, it has been with an enormous sense of pride in the warm welcome I know they’ll receive from our staff and audiences. It’s inspired me to programme adventurously and eclectically, to invite world-class talent whose work I admire, to make productions of my own that I’m hugely proud of, and to dedicate resources to nurturing the next generation of local artists who are already beginning to make their presences felt on stages in Sheffield and beyond. Above all to see no useful distinction between the value we place on work that connects with our local neighbourhoods and that which achieves national and international acclaim. I’ve had the great good fortune to have been supported in all these endeavours by a dedicated board of trustees chaired by the great, much-missed Bob Kerslake, and by successive chief execs Dan Bates and Tom Bird and deputy CEO Bookey Oshin, true champions of the theatre who have taught me so much about compassionate leadership, and who have become dear friends. I’m beyond excited to see where Tom and the splendid senior team take the theatres next, as they begin the search for a lucky artistic director who is about to discover that this is one of the best jobs in British theatre.

“For now, I’m looking forward to a thrilling final season that mixes bold new voices with global classics, risk-taking work for younger audiences with innovative new musical theatre, and family entertainment with chances to get involved in an inclusive participatory programme. I’m delighted to fire the starting pistol with a new production of Chariots of Fire, adapted by Mike Bartlett from the iconic film about the Paris 1924 Olympic Games, as we countdown to Paris 2024. It will be an epic way to say goodbye to the stage – the best of its kind in the country – that I’ve been lucky to call home for the last eight years.”