Exciting Spring 2018 Programme at Newcastle
Tickets from £10, priority booking opens 2 November
The spring 2018 season at
Northern Stage features ambitious new productions made in Newcastle UK UK
A brand new production of Sting’s
The Last Ship will open at Northern Stage (12 March – 7 April)
before a national tour. Directed by Northern Stage Artistic Director Lorne
Campbell and starring Jimmy Nail, Sting’s personal, political and passionate
musical comes home to Newcastle
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| Lorne Campbell, Sting & Jimmy Nail Photo: Mark Savage |
A Northern Stage production in
association with Karl Sydow and Kathryn Schenker, The Last Ship tells
the story of a community amid the demise of the shipbuilding industry in
Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, with the closure of the town's shipyard.
Director Lorne Campbell says, “It is a great pleasure and a privilege to be
bringing this new version of The Last Ship to Newcastle
Northern Stage has expanded its
pioneering NORTH programme beyond actor training to include staging and touring
a new production, offering four emerging actors from the North East the
opportunity to perform professionally with the theatre in Spring 2018. The
maiden production will be a new adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi story
of survival, The War of the Worlds (31 Jan – 10 Feb), written by
Laura Lindow (Key Change, Open Clasp) with sound design by Mariam Rezaei
(A Song for Ella Grey, Northern Stage), and directed by Elayce Ismail,
recipient of the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme’s pilot Associate
Director-ship to prepare directors for artistic leadership.
This vivid and dynamic new
production relocates the story to the North East of England, where a band of
sur-vivors confront a Martian invasion against the backdrop of 1898 Newcastle
Following on from the success
of David Almond’s A Song for Ella Grey in which more than 50 young
people worked with the creative team to create a virtual Greek chorus, Northern
Stage Young Company presents Where Do We Stand (25-28 April).
Collectively written by a team of professional writers, and co-produced and
co-authored by young people from across North East England, Where Do We
Stand will combine spoken word, live music, physical and virtual landscapes
to tell stories of what it is to live, work and dream in Newcastle in 2018. Led
by Associate Director Louie Ingham, and thanks to funding awarded by the
Clothworkers Foundation in 2016, Northern Stage has expanded Young Company to
give more 16-21 year olds from disadvantaged communities open access to a
diverse and innovative programme offering new opportunities to explore key
roles and areas of theatre making through practical workshops in Theatre
De-sign, Composition, Directing, Production and Stage Management.
Offbeat romantic comedy Frankie
& Johnny in the Clair de Lune (21 May - 2 June) will be directed by
Northern Stage Associate Director Mark Calvert (James & the Giant Peach,
Northern Stage). Written by American playwright Terrence McNally who also wrote
the screenplay for the hit 1991 film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer,
the play started life off-Broadway in 1987 and is an intimate look at the first
fragile moments of risking your heart and taking a chance. Casting to be
announced early 2018.
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| Hamlet - Photo: Manuel Harland |
The Royal Shakespeare
Company (RSC ) will bring its acclaimed production of Hamlet to
Northern Stage (20-24 February). Originally seen in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2016, Hamlet will tour the UK London RSC Associate Artist Paapa Essiedu reprise his award-winning
performance in the title role as one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragic
heroes. Paapa Essiedu won Best Performance in a Play at the UK Theatre Awards
in 2016 for his role as Hamlet. Other RSC credits include Edmund in King Lear, Fenton in The Merry
Wives of Windsor and The Mouse and his Child. Additional theatre
credits include King Lear (National Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Tobacco
Factory) and he played Demetrius in Russell T Davies’ adaptation of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream for BBC 1 (2016).
Complicité present a reimagined version of A Pacifist’s Guide
to the War on Cancer (7-10 February), a collaboration with performance
artist Bryony Kimmings. Known for her unique take on taboo topics – from
her sexual health (Sex Idiot), to her boyfriend’s depression (Fake It
’Til You Make It), Kimmings’ acclaimed collaboration with Complicité blows
everything you think you know about cancer out of the water. Originally a
co-production with the National Theatre in association with HOME Manchester UK Australia
Black Men Walking (15-17 February) by writer and award-winning beat
boxer Testament is the first national tour born from Revolution Mix -
a three year movement to create and produce an ambitious body of work telling
Black British stories. An Eclipse Theatre Company and Royal Exchange Theatre
co-production, Dawn Walton will direct this story of a black men’s walking
group in Sheffield .
Third Angel and Northern Stage present The Department of
Distractions (2-10 February), a consipiracy theory documentary for the
21st century. Pilot Theatre and York Theatre Royal are
co-producing a new adaption of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock (1-5
May) by acclaimed writer Bryony Lavery. LIFT present Lola Arias’ Minefield
(22-24 March) - a collaboratively created work with Falklands/Malvinas
war veterans merging theatre and film. Javaad Alipoor brings The
Believers Are But Brothers (14-16 June); this Fringe First award
winning multi-media show exploring an online world of fantasy, gaming and
extremism was a huge hit in the Northern Stage at Summerhall programme at the
2017 Edinburgh Fringe. And Phoenix Caribbean migrants to the UK
For families and young people,
Theatre Alibi’s The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon (6-7 April) features
live music and puppetry to tell a fantastical story for 6-11 year olds from the
novel by award-winning writer David Almond; Highly Sprung present Fall Out (13-14
March) - a high-energy physical theatre performance set in a nightclub for
young people age 14+; Showstopper! (17 February) offer an afternoon
family show of their must-see improvised musical; The Owl & the Pussycat
(13-17 February) from Kitchen Zoo uses puppets and live music to bring to
life an unexpected ted telling of Edward Lear’s classic tale for 3-7 year olds;
and on the first Saturday of every month The Storyteller Chris Bostock
shares stories from all over the world with children aged 5-8 and their
grown-ups.
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| Ruby Wax Photo: Steve Ullathorne |
Comedy, live music and spoken
word includes Sophie Willan: Branded (15 March) - fresh from a
sell to run at the Edinburgh Fringe Branded; Ruby Wax: Frazzled (20-21
April); Newcastle Poetry Festival (3-5 May); and Sunderland’s Mercury Prize
Award-nominated Field Music launch their sixth album Open Here (2-3
February) with three specially staged shows at Northern Stage.
The Stage 3 programme will
feature an eclectic mix of theatre, music, comedy, spoken word, poetry and
scratch nights which will be announced later in the year.
Tickets:
Tickets for most shows start
at £10 and will go on sale to members on 2 November and on general sale on 9
November. For full details or to book tickets see www.northernstage.co.uk or call the box office on 0191 230 5151.
