A new entertainment by Michael Wynne, The Star, will mark Liverpool Playhouse’s 150th anniversary this Christmas in honour of its origins as a Music Hall venue. Directed by Philip Wilson, the production will feature Liverpool favourite Michael Starke. At the Everyman Associate Director Nick Bagnall’s effervescent take on The Two Gentlemen of Verona sets the action in a colourful and musical 1960s. Desmond Barrit will appear alongside Maggie Steed as Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan’s elegant comedy of manners The Rivals at the Playhouse.
Built in 1866, The Star Music Hall opened on Boxing Day and established itself as a leading venue for variety and Music Hall acts of the day before becoming the Liverpool Repertory Theatre in 1911. This new entertainment, The Star, by Olivier Award-winning writer Michael Wynne (Hope Place, The Knocky, The Priory) celebrates that rich history with onstage magic and backstage deception, a love story, a dastardly plot and all manner of drama and mayhem in the wings.
In 2014 Wynne’s Hope Place played to packed houses and great acclaim at the Everyman and now another piece of Liverpool history has inspired his work. Renowned Liverpool actor Michael Starke (Brookside, Channel 4; The Royal, I.T.V.) returns to the Playhouse having previously appeared in Breezeblock Park and The Play What I Wrote among many others. The ensemble cast also includes Michelle Butterly (Noughts and Crosses, R.S.C.), Helen Carter (Adelphi, Liverpool Playhouse) and Eithne Browne (Tartuffe, Liverpool Playhouse). The production will be directed by Philip Wilson, who returns to the Playhouse following The Norman Conquests and Noises Off.
Associate Director Nick Bagnall’s production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona moves Shakespeare’s play to the swinging 1960s in a production laced with live music and a vibrant spirit as well as humour. This co-production with Shakespeare’s Globe will finish its tour with a three-week run at the Everyman in October having toured the U.K. and Europe with venues including Elsinore Castle, Denmark, Kneehigh’s Asylum and the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Since joining the Everyman & Playhouse Bagnall has directed The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while his credits for Shakespeare’s Globe include Henry VI: Trilogy and The Last Days of Troy.
Over a number of years the Everyman & Playhouse have forged creative partnerships with leading theatre companies from around the U.K. and this autumn present The Rivals in a co-production with Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow and Bristol Old Vic as part of their 250th anniversary celebrations. The Rivals features one of the best-known comic creations of the stage, Mrs Malaprop, who will be played by Maggie Steed (Jam and Jerusalem, B.B.C.; Richard III, Trafalgar Studios) alongside Desmond Barrit (The Comedy Of Errors, R.S.C.; Three Men on a Horse, National Theatre) as Captain Jack Absolute. Sheridan’s elegant comedy of manners will be brought to life by Citizens Theatres’ Artistic Director Dominic Hill (Crime and Punishment).
The autumn brings the visit of three on the country’s most innovative theatre companies. Energetic and elegant physical theatre company Frantic Assembly return to Liverpool with their production Things I Know To Be True, which includes Imogen Stubbs and Natalie Casey among its cast members. Visceral, ambitious company Gecko Theatre come to Liverpool for the first time with their production Institute, a visually captivating performance, which openly invites its audience to consider what it means to care. At the Everyman, Heads Will Roll is the latest production from Told By An Idiot. A savage folly inspired by the myth of El Dorado this dark comedy is about delusion, vanity, and the corruption of power.
Christmas at the Everyman sees the return of the rock ‘n’ roll panto, which remains Liverpool’s best Christmas party. This year regular writers Sarah A. Nixon and Mark Chatterton adapted the Beauty & the Beast to their own joyous and anarchic style. There will also be another piece of work for families in the autumn at the Hope Street venue with At the End of Everything Else which is written, directed and has original music by Liverpool-born Mark Arends.
The Playhouse Studio will host a short season of three plays. Just An Ordinary Lawyer is a new play by Tayo Aluko, the man behind Call Mr. Robeson, which was developed while he was a writer on attachment with Everyman & Playhouse. The one-man show which is written and performed by Aluko tells the story of Britain’s first black judge, Nigerian-born Tunji Sowande. Shakespeare, His Wife and the Dog was a great success at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2014 and Philip Whitchurch’s play imagines Shakespeare’s marriage in a present-day setting. Spine is an award-winning production presented by Soho Theatre. It charts the explosive friendship between a ferocious, wise-cracking teenager and an elderly East End widow.
With the Labour Party Conference set for Liverpool in September, the Everyman presents two touring productions with a political edge. Produced by Nottingham Playhouse, Tony’s Last Tape examines the long and eventful times of Tony Benn via the many personal recordings he made of his time in public service and political office. In The Red Shed, Mark Thomas returns to the place where he first performed, a red wooden shed in Wakefield, the labour club, to celebrate its 50th birthday. Part theatre, stand up, journalism, activism, it’s the story of the battle for hope and the survival of a community. At the Playhouse Northern Broadsides return with their take on J. B. Priestley’s When We Are Married, directed by and featuring their Artistic Director Barrie Rutter. While the touring production of Susan Hill’s enormously successful and atmospheric horror, The Woman in Black will also visit the Williamson Square venue.
For more information, dates and ticket prices, visit the Everyman and Playhouse Theatre website.