The Da Vinci Code

The story of one woman’s struggle to break the ‘Chains of love’ It is Christmas Eve and 'Rose,' a woman in a red dress, awakes to find that she has no memory of who or where she is. As she gradually weaves the threads of memory together, a dark and violent picture begins to emerge. Compelled to leave for fear of her life Rose begins to pack... but it's dark outside and the house is full of strange noises. Will she escape, before her attacker returns? Or is he still in the House?

LADY IN RED is a mesmerising and powerful, award-winning drama that has stunned and moved audiences, nation-wide. Combining superb dialogue, a compelling plot, inspired performance and evocative colours to create an unforgettable experience - a journey through one woman's attempts to leave an abusive relationship. (Contains strong language and themes. 15+)

Eastern Angles and Matthew Linley Creative Projects in association with the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
 
THE BALLAD OF MARIA MARTEN
By Beth Flintoff
Directed by Hal Chambers

A thrilling retelling of a real-life murder mystery…

(for East Anglian venues - A thrilling retelling of Suffolk’s real-life murder mystery…)

Summer, 1827. In a red barn Maria Marten awaits her lover. A year later her body is found under the floor of the barn in a grain sack, barely identifiable, and the manhunt begins.

Maria’s story sent shock waves throughout the country. The Red Barn Murder (as it became known) was national news, inspiring writers and filmmakers down the ages. The sort of gruesome tale that had all the hallmarks of a classic crime drama – a missing body, a country location, a disreputable squire and a village stuck in its age-old traditions.

But in all this hysteria Maria’s own story gets lost. Until now. Hal Chambers and Beth Flintoff’s spine-tingling retelling rediscovers her story, bringing it back to vivid, urgent life.

'Rich and transporting' ★★★★ The Stage

‘Flintoff restores dignity to Maria…unexpectedly joyous’ ★★★★ The Guardian

‘It is vital, layered and empowered, a beautiful piece of theatre’ ★★★★ A Younger Theatre

‘Superbly staged’ British Theatre Guide

‘A thrilling and poignant retelling’ Grapevine Live

‘Extraordinary, brilliant and powerful’ ★★★★★ Charles Hutch Press

‘One of the best theatre experiences of the year.’ East Anglian Daily Times

‘Maria Marten is reborn in stunning show’ Ipswich Star

‘Barnstorming’ Yorkshire Times

‘This is a gem of a production’ On Yorkshire Magazine

Age guidance 12+

Belgian detective extraordinaire, Artemis Arinae, is set to enjoy a holiday cruise along the river Nile when tragedy strikes. All the passengers and staff aboard are suspects, and the murder count is growing, will Arinae’s little grey cells identify the murderer in time?

A versatile cast of just four, brings to life lascivious lawyers, crocked captains, fastidious physicians, ardently amorous authors, feuding femme fatales, plodding paramours, friendly first mates and attractive Americans, in this romp inspired by Christie, Coward and Wodehouse.

Take This Test (to find out if you’re a good person)
 
So, you give to charity, you lent your friend quite a lot of money and you always smile at passers-by, but are you a good person, deep down?
 
Our moderator Clare is almost certain that you are, and she’s ready to guide you through this online experience, which will (fingers-crossed) give you a certificate to prove it! She’s sure you’ll find it a fun and rewarding experience, whether you’re on your own, or with a few close friends or colleagues.
 
Featuring candid testimony and confessions from people across the country, you’ll need your moral compass engaged to separate what’s OK and what’s…well…not.
 
Take This Test is a new interactive digital piece from TalkShow which starts by prodding at the absurdity of personality tests, from Buzzfeed-style clickbait to psychometrics, before taking us somewhere else entirely, all to explore our sense of morality, and if anything can really be described as good, or bad.

To take part you will need a laptop or desktop connected to the internet.

Murder can be such a Drag... Literally.

Starring Ru-Paul US drag legends Willam and Ra’Jah O’Hara, alongside a full cast of leading drag performers, Death Drop is the Smash-Hit, Five Star, Drag Murder Mystery direct from the West End! ‘A Dazzling and delightfully camp comedy’ that is ‘Jam-packed with hilarious one liners’, Death Drop is the guaranteed laugh-out-loud comedy we all need right now.

Set in 1991, a gaggle of guests gather on the mysterious Tuck Island for a dinner party like no other. The tension rises as the outrageous guests reveal their questionable pasts and hidden secrets. As the ferocious finger pointing and savage speculation begins, one by one they sashay away, until at the last, nerve-shredding, side-splitting moment we find out who-dunnit!

Death Drop is ‘a brilliant new comedy’ and this rampant, raucous, ridiculous romp of a murder mystery has gallons of gags, and more twists and turns than a drag queens wig.

‘ During disillusioned days
We stopped believing in magic
We looked for spaces to
Shelter from our illusions.’..

The Actors’ Lab Ltd presents

       ‘ILLUSIONS’

Produced, devised & directed
       by SUE JENKINS

Female Gothic
Dyad Productions

From the award-winning creators of Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Austen’s Women, I, Elizabeth, Orlando, Christmas Gothic and The Time Machine.

In the dark between life and death, a haunted woman tells strange and terrifying tales; eerie stories, dusty and forgotten.  Until now.

It’s the Hallowe’en season, so come along and be thrilled by three lost gothic spine-tinglers from the great Victorian female writers.

Winner of the Three Weeks Editors Award.  Adapted and performed by Rebecca Vaughan (Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, Christmas Gothic, I, Elizabeth, Austen’s Women).  Directed by Olivier Award Winner, Guy Masterson (Morecambe).

★★★★★ ’A macabre masterpiece.  Ghostly, grisly and gorgeous.  Don’t miss it’ (Three Weeks)
★★★★★ ‘A masterclass in storytelling.  Chilling, haunting, dazzling’ (Hairline)
★★★★ ‘Holds the audience in the palm of its hand... a near perfect piece of theatre’ (The Scotsman)
★★★★ ‘Wonderfully eerie… and manages to capture that most intangible of theatre goals, the real fear of the audience.’ (British Theatre Guide)

Nunkie Theatre Company presents
Count Magnus – Two Ghost Stories by M R James.

“At first they hear nothing at all. Then they hear someone scream, just as if the most inside part of his soul was twisted out of him.”

The ghost stories of M R James amuse and terrify as powerfully today as when they were first written over a century ago. Nunkie Theatre Company brings two of these classic spinechillers to life, in this thrilling one-man show.

In Count Magnus a travel-writer’s over-inquisitiveness leads to a diabolical chase from darkest Sweden to rural Essex. Denmark is the setting for Number 13, where a hotel room with the famously unlucky number, conceals a ghastly, baffling secret.

***** Riveting… The Daily Mail

www.nunkie.co.uk

Adapted and Directed by Jeremy Sams
Based on the television series by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey

Remember the Goods – Tom and Barbara, suburban eco-warriors? And their next-door neighbours Margo and Jerry Leadbetter, desperately trying to maintain the Surbiton status quo?

Well, they’re back – and on stage for the first time in The Good Life, a theatrical reimagining of the TV sitcom that delighted countless millions, starring award-winning actor, presenter and comedian Rufus Hound as Tom and West End, television and film star Preeya Kalidas as Margo.

Jeremy Sams’s comedy leads the well-loved characters through uproarious adventures; some old, some new and often hilariously familiar.

This new play celebrates a time when, whatever our differences, we still managed to get on with our neighbours.

Rufus Hound’s extensive list of stage credits include the original West End production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, One Man Two Guvnors and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Preeya Kalidas’s film, stage and television credits include Bend It Like Beckham, Bombay Dreams and EastEnders. Jeremy Sams’s directing credits include the National Theatre’s West End and Broadway revival of Noises Off, the West End musical Spend, Spend, Spend, the international tour of The Sound of Music and Oklahoma! at Chichester Festival Theatre.

For more than thirty years, John Esmonde and Bob Larbey’s writing partnership was acclaimed for creating some of British sitcom’s greatest classics including Ever Decreasing Circles, Please Sir!, Brush Strokes and Mulberry.

Producer Fiery Angel’s numerous West End productions include Touching The Void; Hairspray; Home, I’m Darling; Long Day’s Journey Into Night; The Ladykillers; Ghost Stories; Mary Stuart and the inaugural West End season of the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company. Their production of The 39 Steps has been presented worldwide, winning Olivier, Tony and Molière Awards.

www.TheGoodLifeOnStage.com

THE GENRE-DEFINING THRILLER FOR ALL TIME.

Ian Ashpitel & Jonty Stephens as
Eric & Ern at Christmas

FROM THE OLIVIER NOMINATED DUO BEHIND THE HUGELY CELEBRATED & CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED WEST END HIT
ERIC & LITTLE ERN

This is a show for all the family from 8 to 108! A brilliant homage crammed full Morecambe & Wise's most loved routines, songs and sketches and, of course, a musical guest. This wonderful show, evokes memories of times when whole families would huddle together around the telly to watch those fantastic Christmas specials.

As seen on The One show BBC1 and The Alan Titchmarsh Show ITV

“Bring the kids - they’ll love it just as much as we did”
Dominic Holland

“I never thought I’d see Morecambe & Wise live - I think I just have!”
Ben Elton

“I laughed until I cried!”
Twiggy

“You have the giddy out of time illusion that you are
 watching the legendary double-act live.”
 Independent

Roy Grace is back as the thrilling work of multi-million No.1 best-selling author Peter James comes to The Lowry with the world premiere stage production of Looking Good Dead.

No good deed goes unpunished…hours after picking up a USB memory stick, left behind on a train seat, to try to return it to its owner, Tom Bryce inadvertently becomes a witness to a vicious murder. Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences, placing him and his family in grave danger. When Detective Superintendent Roy Grace becomes involved, he has his own demons to contend with, while he tries to crack the case in time to save the Bryce family’s lives.

From the producer of recent Lowry stage hits, Band of Gold and The Girl On The Train and adapted by award winning writer Shaun McKenna, Looking Good Dead will keep you on the edge of your seat until the chilling final moments!

Don't miss your chance to see the world premiere tour of Peter James' gripping new play.

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Adapted for the stage by Steven Canny and John Nicholson for Peepolykus

Directed by Lotte Wakeham 

Produced by The Original Theatre Company & Octagon Theatre Bolton

“Rib-bustingly hilarious.” The Times

Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound…

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated adventure gets a brilliantly farcical overhaul in Lotte Wakeham’s acclaimed production.

World-renowned detective Sherlock Holmes and his colleague Dr Watson are asked to unravel the mystery surrounding the untimely death of Sir Charles Baskerville.

With rumours of a cursed giant hound loose on the moors, they must act fast in order to save the Baskerville family’s last remaining heir.

A hit in the West End, this ingenious adaptation combines an exhilarating collision of farce, theatrical invention and wonderfully comic performances to offer a brand-new twist on the greatest detective story of all time.

A whodunnit for all ages.

From the award-winning Original Theatre Company who brought you Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art, the smash-hit comedy Invincible and the acclaimed Birdsong. 

Director Lotte Wakeham is Artistic Director of the Octagon Theatre Bolton and has directed sell-out productions in London, New York, and throughout the UK.

September – December 2021

“Wonderfully barking spoof” The Telegraph

“Unfailingly hilarious. A masterpiece.” The Guardian

The Children’s Theatre Partnership presents
Animal Farm
By George Orwell
Adapted and directed by Robert Icke
 
The animals of Manor Farm drive out the farmer and run the farm themselves. A revolution. And then what? Then freedom. Every animal will be free.

Old Major, the prize boar, calls the animals of Manor Farm together. He has had a strange dream of a better future.
 
George Orwell’s world-famous fable tells the story of a revolution and its aftermath. Re-imagined by an award-winning creative team, Animal Farm is a dynamic, daring and contemporary take on a timeless story.

Animal Farm is directed by Robert Icke, whose version of 1984 (co-adapted and directed with Duncan Macmillan) was a smash-hit in the West End and on Broadway; features puppetry designed by Toby Olie (whose credits include War Horse) and designed by four-time Olivier award-winner Bunny Christie.
 
The Children’s Theatre Partnership creates bold and imaginative theatre for young people, engaging new audiences and aiming to inspire a life-long love of theatre.

Age Guidance: 12+

The Office meets Lord of the Flies meets Miranda.

Sheila’s Islandis a sparkling, sharp-witted new comedy from writer
Tim Firth (Calendar Girls, Kinky Boots, The Band), starring Olivier Award winner Sara Crowe
(Private Lives, Calendar Girls, Four Weddings and a Funeral), and Judy Flynn (The Brittas Empire, Dinnerladies).

Bonfire night 2019, Sheila, Denise, Julie, and Fay are Team C in Pennine Mineral Water Ltd.’s annual outward bound team-building weekend. Somehow, Sheila has been nominated team leader, and, using her cryptic
crossword solving skills, has unwittingly stranded her team on
an island in the Lake District. Our intrepid heroines find themselves manufacturing weapons from cable ties and spatulas, and create a rescue flag with plastic plates and a toasting fork.

Questions are asked; truths are told; dirty washing is aired.

Is it possible to build an adequate night shelter with a prom dress and a sleeveless jumper? What is Julie’s husband
really up to in Aldi? And why are they on this bloody team building exercise when they could be at a spa?

Please note: This production is suitable for ages 13+