The New Wolsey Theatre is excited to announce their programme for Spring 2014, which goes on general sale on Saturday 16 November. Friends, Best Friends, Benefactors and group bookers are invited to book from Saturday 9 November.
This season we will be introducing our #LoveYourTheatre ticket packages. With four big musicals and four big dramas, audiences will be given the opportunity to book for more and save money.
Included in our Musical #LoveYourTheatre package are:
THE THREEPENNY OPERA – the New Wolsey’s co-production of Brecht and Weill’s musical masterpiece, with Nottingham Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, West Yorkshire Playhouse, and Graeae Theatre Company. Using a motley crew of cast, with well-known songs such as Mack The Knife, we will be welcoming back familiar faces from Our House, Reasons to be Cheerful, and also Will Kenning, fresh from four years’ service as the pantomime dame, who is playing the role of Tiger Brown. The New Wolsey’s Artistic Director Peter Rowe and Graeae’s Jenny Sealey will join forces once again to bring you their anarchic version of this adaption of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera.
Peter Rowe, Artistic Director and Co-Director of THE THREEPENNY OPERA
“I wanted to do a version of The Threepenny Opera where we create a company of contemporary “beggars” to tell the tale from their perspective - a parable about the corruption of the world, told by those excluded from it. Jenny’s production of Reasons to be Cheerful, seemed to have exactly the spirit that The Threepenny Opera requires - defiant and irreverent, funny and fearless and set me thinking…. What would it be like if we brought together the Graeae motley crew with the Wolsey actor-musicians? Brecht’s own mash up of John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera has a brilliant, instinctive, cabaret flair. The team we are putting together to re-invent this musical for our times aims to recapture that heady mix of gallows humour, razor-sharp satire and up front entertainment. I can’t wait.”
All performances include live audio description and a creative combination of BSL interpretation and captioning. Runs from Wednesday 12 till Saturday 22 March.
MISS NIGHTINGALE – Matthew Bugg is back with his blitzy wartime blackout romance, following a five star tour which started at the New Wolsey Theatre last Spring. With period glamour and original songs, we are proud to be in co-production with the show as it embarks on another tour around the UK. They start in Ipswich from Thursday 27 March to Saturday 5 April.
BETTY BLUE EYES – Adapted from the screenplay by Alan Bennett of the film The Private Function, its fair shares for all in this take on Austerity Britain. This regional premiere of the smash-hit West End musical comedy is brought to us by the Mercury Theatre Colchester, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Salisbury Playhouse and West Yorkshire Playhouse and runs from Tuesday 15 April to Saturday 19 April.
TOM – The music and the story of an ordinary man with an extraordinary talent. With live rock and roll music and an electric actor-musician set-up, Theatr na nOg brings their production of the story of Tom Jones from Wednesday 23 April to Saturday 5 April.
Included in our Drama #LoveYourTheatre package are:
MOON ON A RAINBOW SHAWL – Talawa Theatre Company open their UK tour of this 2012 production, in association with The National Theatre. Universally praised by critics and audiences, the original creative team have reunited to present Errol John’s mesmerising and heart-warming piece once more from Wednesday 5 to Saturday 8 February.
CLASSIC GHOSTS – Jack Shepherd stars in this ghostly double bill of spine-tingling stories. The Signalman by Charles Dickens, and Oh Whistle and I’ll Come To You My Lad by M R James are bought to life by Middle Ground Theatre Company from Monday 24 February to Saturday 1 March.
REFUGEE BOY – the works of poets Benjamin Zephaniah and Lemn Sissay are brought together in a heartbreaking and hilarious production that pulse with energy, love, loss and hope. This production looks to reach out and connect with the refugee community using creativity to celebrate diversity, to bring together and share stories. Runs from Tuesday 4 to Saturday 8 March.
TRANSLATIONS – English Touring Theatre presents this story of love and conflict as the British Army arrives to translate Gaelic place names into the King’s English. We welcome back the producers of The Hypochondriac, Tartuffe and The Misanthrope from Tuesday 8 April to Saturday 12 April.
The New Wolsey Theatre’s Creative Learning department brings two big productions to the Spring season amongst many other projects they present throughout the year. Key highlights you can see this season are the Young Company’s production of THE ELEPHANT MAN from Thursday 24 April to Saturday 3 May, and WHEN I GROW UP on Saturday 8 March.
Bernard Pomerance’s THE ELEPHANT MAN sees award winning visual theatre company Gecko collaborate with the acclaimed New Wolsey Young company to present this celebrated hit play about John Merrick.
WHEN I GROW UP is designed for children in school years 5 and 6, and offers an understanding of the expectations on them as well as the tools and language of aspiration. The show will then embark on a schools tour.
The accessibility of performances is expanding in this season, with a great range of ways to watch and hear theatre in Ipswich. The continuing support from Agent for Change Ali Briggs has seen the offer developed further with additional materials available on request such as scripts, a synopsis, introductory notes and touch tours.
As well as Captioned, Audio Described, and BSL interpreted performances throughout the season, Frozen Light’s production of TUNNELS on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 Jan sees a unique adventure for teenagers with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties. An enchanting multisensory production that fuses live music, sign and movement, this show is for an audience of six teenagers, and their companions.
FROZEN on Thursday 27 February to Saturday 1 March features a cast of four Deaf and two hearing actors. Fingersmiths bring their visual and physical theatre style to this classic play. It will be performed in British Sign Language and spoken English throughout the whole run.
The New Wolsey are proud to be supporting the work of the Romany Theatre Company with OUR BIG LAND – a provocatively dark atmospheric piece of theatre with the culture clash of Romany and non-Romany communities at its core. Running from Thursday 13 to Saturday 15 February at the New Wolsey Studio, the production will also feature live Romany Gypsy music.
The Reduced Shakespeare Company presents THE BIBLE: THE COMPLETE WORD OF GOD (ABRIDGED) on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 February. A rollercoaster ride from fig leaves to final judgement, these bad boys of abridgement tackle the great theological questions.
As part of LGBT month, Total Theatre Award winner THE WORST OF SCOTTEE encounters past flames, ex-friends and people who no longer like him in four snapshots of his troublesome teens. This show will give you a reason not to like him – its Scottee at his very worst on Friday 21 February.
Our annual PULSE Fringe Festival provides a platform for the development of new talent across a range of art forms, from physical theatre to spoken word and everything in between. In Spring, Pulse presents three companies who will bring their exciting new projects to the New Wolsey Studio, projects we are excited to be supporting. These companies are Chris Dobrowolski’s ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME, TOOT’s TEN OUT OF TEN, and Sh!t Theatre’s JOB SEEKERS ANONYMOUS.
There are plenty for children and families to enjoy throughout the season with Peaceful Lion’s HEY, PRESTO, Norwich Puppet Theatre’s THE FROG & THE PRINCESS, THE POETRYJOE SHOW, and Scamp Theatre’s PIRATE GRAN. Half term sees a new crop of death-defying insects performing for your delight and amusement in INSECT CIRCUS, and sing-along songs from Stuff and Nonsense’s LITTLE RED HEN. In May, families can come and see Transport’s 1001 NIGHTS, using everyday objects to tell the inspirational stories of the Arabian Nights, and Square Peg Contemporary Circus’ RIME, with silks and flips and tricks to tell this beautiful haunting tale.
Other highlights include music treats from JONNY & THE BAPTISTS with the Stop UKIP Tour, RICHARD DURRANT- the guitar whisperer, THE MAGNIFICENT MUSIC HALL, Opera Della Luna’s THE GONDOLIERS, THE BEN WATER’S BAND, and THE ULTIMATE LOUIS AMRSTRONG SHOW.
ON SALE TO FRIENDS, BEST FRIENDS, BENEFACTORS AND GROUP BOOKERS - FROM SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER
ON GENERAL SALE - FROM SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER
Find out more, book your tickets or make your reservation by calling our friendly Ticket Sales team on 01473 295900, or by visiting our new website featuring a live chat option at www.wolseytheatre.co.uk.
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Natalie Chaplin
