The 2012 season of plays and incredible drama’s may be coming to an end at the Playhouse but as ever, the hard working team behind one of the leading theatres in the city are already fully prepared for the 2013 spring/summer season.
With Roger McGough, Liverpool’s leading poet, on hand to talk about the adaptation of the Moliere classic The Misanthrope, which will have its world premiere in Liverpool before a U.K. tour, the usual unveiling of the new season was given an air of the sublime and inspirational, something that the Playhouse always manages to achieve in its many varied productions.
Gemma Bodinetz said, “This season includes a rich variety of premieres that will see our productions reach many audiences around the country as well as at home in Liverpool. We are tremendously excited about our collaborations with English Touring Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse and the Rose Theatre on some brave and courageous new work on the Playhouse main stage.”
Artistic Director of the Everyman and Playhouse Gemma Bodinetz will once again direct the opening play of the year, following on from the critically acclaimed A Streetcar Named Desire, with The Misanthrope. After the huge successes of Tartuffe and The Hypochondriac, Roger McGough and Gemma Bodinetz will complete a trilogy of Moliere adaptations with the tale of poet Alceste who embarks on a one-man crusade against forked-tongues, frippery and fakery of high society. The ‘McGoughiere’ teams, as the plays have become affectionately known, will be reunited with English Touring Theatre co-producing The Misanthrope which premieres at the Liverpool Playhouse in February before a nine-date national tour.
Apart from The Misanthrope, Roger McGough will also be appearing at the theatre on the 1st February as he presents his new book of poetry, As Far As I Know, to hungry fans of his wit and charismatic wordplay. This is one of three nights at the theatre that sees some incredible performers take to the stage. Mark Thomas will be in Liverpool on the 30th January in his Edinburgh Fringe Festival esteemed award winning Bravo Figaro! and the captivating John Shuttleworth who will appear on February 2nd as he embarks on a totally misguided (but utterly hilarious) crusade to persuade villagers throughout the U.K. to give up their ‘primitive’ rural existence and head back to the cities, just as they did in the mass exodus during the Industrial Revolution.
In April the Playhouse will stage a new production of Peter Nichols’ fact paced black comedy, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, which will be directed by Stephen Unwin, sees this classic of British theatre show the love, anger and pain in the raising of a disabled child by a young couple.
In 2013 the theatre will host some of the highest quality children’s theatre from companies of international repute, including the first-ever work specifically for families and young people by Complicite and Northern Ballet. Complicite, who are renowned for their ambitious visual designs, will present Lionboy, a stage adaptation inspired by Zizou Corder’s bestselling fantasy novels about a young boy who can talk to cats. Italian company Teatro Kismet, who were last at the Playhouse with The Snow Queen, have adapted celebrated children’s author Phillip Pullman’s I Was A Rat! for the stage.
In February, there will be a fifth production by the Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP).This year the young writers will help and create and devise a play with the young actors for a new production of site-specific theatre in a large scale venue in the city centre. YEP now engages with over 400 young people aged 11-25 from across Merseyside. Following an immensely successful pilot the young technicians programme will expand to include stage and costume design as well as training in audio visual design.
If 2012 was an outstanding time for the Playhouse Theatre then 2013 looks like being a spectacular year. Gemma Bodinetz and Deborah Aydon continue to drive the Playhouse onwards and upwards.
Full details of the coming productions and prices will be available on the Playhouse Theatre’s website.
Tickets for every programme are on sale from Monday 26th November. Tickets will be available from the Playhouse Box office, online at www.everymanplayhouse.com or by telephone on 0151 7094776.
Ian D. Hall