Return for old favourites in Northern Stage spring season
Theatre makers speak at launch
A clutch of creatives joined artistic director Natalie Ibu in a chat show-style spring launch at Northern Stage.
But in keeping with the weather (spring still seems a long way off) she looked ahead to next winter by announcing she’ll be directing The Snow Queen as this year’s Christmas show.
It’s a revival of the 2019 production written by Laura Lindow who appeared on screen to promise “more adventures and heart, and extra laughs”. It opens on December 3 and tickets are on sale now.
But more imminent attractions were to the fore and their representatives present in person.
Esther Richardson, artistic director of Pilot Theatre, based in York, spoke about Noughts & Crosses which opens on February 27, a Pilot production in association with Northern Stage.
Pilot commissioned Sabrina Mahfouz to adapt Malorie Blackman’s brilliant novel for its original 2019 production which came to Northern Stage.
“It’s an epic story, a version of Romeo and Juliet set in a segregated world where the ruling class, the Crosses, are black,” Esther explained.
“By reversing the way our world is… well, it doesn’t half get you to see how it can be to experience the world if you’re a black person or maybe from a different religion.
“It deals with topics that are really hot right now.”
A “most fantastic cast” (Brianna Douglas and Lewis Tidy playing Blackman’s ‘star-cross’d lovers’, Sephy and Callum, this time) was in the second week of rehearsal and “having a fun time”.
The story works well on stage, as anyone who remembers this production from 2019 will vouch – or, indeed, saw Dominic Cooke’s RSC version here in 2008.
Also returning is I, Daniel Blake – but this time to the big Stage 1 rather than Stage 2 where it premiered in 2023 and returned for a second sell-out run later that year.
Dave Johns, who played the title role in Ken Loach’s film, adapted the screenplay and it was directed by Mark Calvert who recalled that the project had initially been delayed by the pandemic.
“The story is so powerful and still so relevant unfortunately,” he said.
It tells of Dan who is forced to seek work while claiming benefits, even though he’s patently unfit to do so.
Mark, still deeply moved by the story and the real-life stories he has heard when volunteering at North East foodbanks, recalled the “amazing response” when the play toured originally to places like Manchester, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Birmingham.
“The anger it produced! It was if people who’d been holding stuff in were suddenly able to let it out.”
The play runs at Northern Stage from March 20 to April 4.
Sarah Brigham, artistic director and chief executive of Derby Theatre, spoke about Little Shop of Horrors (May 8-23), a co-production with Northern Stage.
“I’m not generally a musicals fan but I love this,” she said. “First and foremost, it’s a cracking night out.”
The monstrous man-eating plant at the heart of the tale was still under construction, she said. “It’s quite a challenge. How do you create something that has to eat people?
“We’re working with great puppetry people and I can tell you… it’ll be big.”
She added that the production would have “a comic book aesthetic” with creative captions making it especially suitable for audience members who are hard of hearing.
Derby, she said, had the largest deaf population outside London, prompting the theatre to explore ways of making their shows accessible.
Annie Rigby, founder of Unfolding Theatre, spoke about Here Be Dragons, her company’s popular stage show co-created with schoolchildren and written by Lindsay Rodden.
She said she’d become fascinated by dragons after reading the Earthsea fantasy novels by Ursula K. Le Guin.
The magical Unfolding Theatre story tells of Em (Bridget Marumo) who is brought up by her mum, a driver on the Metro, and her grandpa – and the fact they’re played by Hannabiell Sanders (trombone) and Tim Dalling (accordion) will tell you this is a show with brilliant music.
It was Unfolding Theatre that reopened Northern Stage after the pandemic lockdowns with their show Free School Meals. Here Be Dragons can be seen on April 14 and 15.
Notable among other forthcoming attractions is Glitch: the true story of the Post Office scandal, from Reading-based Rabble Theatre.
Commissioned by the University of Reading, it was written by Zannah Kearns and is based on the real-life experience of one of the postmistresses caught up in the scandal.
See it here in Stage 2 on March 10 and 11.
Also at the launch there were testimonies from Zoe Murtagh, Northern Stage’s participation producer, and some of the teenagers who have clearly been benefiting from the company’s young people’s programmes.
William, Narissa, Leah and Fatima explained how they had learned about directing and explored other theatre-related skills including, in William’s case, special effects make-up.
Chief executive Michael Slavin revealed that A Play, A Pie and A Pint, the lunchtime theatre concept initiated in Glasgow some 20 years ago, would be coming to Northern Stage in the autumn.
Find details of all these shows and more on the Northern Stage website.