Playbox Theatre, Warwick
12th June 2024
PLAYBOX THEATRE PROGRAMME ANNOUNCEMENT FOR AUTUMN 2024-SPRING 2025
Playbox Theatre today announces a bold body of work, that takes the company up to late Spring 2025. The programme sees both the main theatre space, as well as the intimate studio, producing exciting and challenging material.
These plans are coupled with an increased schedule of training across Playbox Studios in Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon and Kenilworth.
We launch September with a vibrant and original new production of the hit musical, THE ADDAMS FAMILY. This show is a comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, features an original story and it’s every father’s nightmare: Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family– a man her parents have never met.
The Playbox production is created as a joyful and zany start to the year, for families to enjoy as the nights begin to close in. Juliet Vankay directs, with musical direction by Richard Norris and choreography by Hannah Hampson.
The Addams Family opens on Thursday 10th October at The Dream Factory.
THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA is one of Federico Garcia Lorca’s most powerful works. It tells of the oppression in the household of the tyrannical matriarch, Bernarda, imposed upon her 5 daughters. As the tension in the household increases, the youngest, Adela, can no longer accept the enforced isolation, bringing tragic consequences to the family.
Mary King directs this new production with a superb cast of Playbox actors.
The House Of Bernada Alba opens on Thursday 14th November at The Dream Factory, Warwick.
CHRISTMAS THROUGH A LOOKING GLASS WORLD
For the festive season, Emily Quash directs a fabulous new commission for Playbox from Lewis Carroll’s exquisite and haunting ‘Alice’ story. ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is a new adaptation written for the company by Toby Quash, alongside Playbox’s resident writing collective, BLANK-SHIFT. This production delves into the ever-fantastical tales of Alice, as she meets a host of strange and elusive characters, including Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The White Queen, The Red Knight and others, as well as its beauty as a heartfelt coming-of-age story.
Alice Through The Looking Glass opens on Thursday 19th December at The Dream Factory, Warwick.
Today, Emily Quash announcing the season said, “We are excited get our teeth into a rich programme of work this autumn. We love to challenge our actors, and our audiences, by programming a range of material, and this autumn, we’ll be celebrating the power of young people’s creativity through music, song, re-explorations of classic tales, and searing tragedy. We are chomping at the bit to get started!”
BLUE RIDER STUDIO SEASONS
SEASON 1: Autumn 2024
SEASON 2: Summer 2025
Playbox Theatre’s 40 seat studio at The Dream Factory will become a home for rare and experimental performance in the new season. Taking its theme from the expressionist Blue Rider group of Kandinsky and Marc.
The Blue Rider season will re-evaluate work and create an informal experimental space to house theatre, movement and art.
MACHINAL
The expressionist play by Sophie Treadwell opens the season in October.
Opens Monday 14th October
A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL places Chekhov under the microscope in November.
Opens Monday 18th November
LA VOIX HUMANE (the human voice) by Jean Cocteau completes the first season in December.
Opens Monday 9th December.
Stewart McGill directs the Blue Rider Season. A further programme to be announced early in 2025. Today he says,
“What excites me about creating this season in our Studio is drawing on techniques that take inspiration from across art forms, making parallels with painting, music and movement. The Blue Rider group have often had the work described as composition, improvisation and etudes. Whilst the season is inspired by the Blue Rider it will not preload any rules for the work other than cross genre and form.”
SPRING 2025
The year opens with the 22nd edition of STARRY NIGHTS, a celebration of young people and their creativity, whilst recreating moments from the 39-year history of Playbox Theatre. Over 5 intense days, over 100 young artists take to the stage experiencing the excitement and rigour of the rehearsal process.
Opens Thursday 20th February
RESTORATION
A major Playbox Theatre project
The Restoration Period was a unique time in the evolution of theatre. For the first time female actors took the stage and drew the crowds. After the long period of closure and artistic silence, the restoration era exploded onto the stage with relish and revelry!
With a stunning stage design, evoking the theatres of the period, two plays will be presented in repertoire.
THE COUNTRY WIFE
By William Wycherley
A bawdy riot of laughter and deception in 17th Century London. We welcome Horner, Pinchwife, Margery and all their trickster friends.
PLAYHOUSE CREATURES
By April de Angelis
A contemporary play taking audiences into the backstage rooms and warrens as the first actresses take to the stage. Hilarious and heartbreaking as Royalty and Theatre discover the new entertainment.
Stewart McGill directs The Country Wife
Mary King directs Playhouse Creatures
The Restoration Season opens March 2025.
Today’s programme announcement takes the Playbox Theatre forward until Easter 2025, when the summer and subsequent autumn season will feature the exciting new family drama CHILDREN OF THE NE W FOREST from the much-loved book by Captain Marriot; a major musical theatre production; the return of Young Production Company, as well as the return of unique ‘JINKS’ performances for under 10s.
For further information, interviews, photographs etc, please contact emily@playboxtheatre.com
We look forward to welcoming you to Playbox Theatre very soon www.playboxtheatre.com
