Seaon of variety is unveiled
STEPHEN JOSEPH THEATRE, SCARBOROUGH February to April
Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre has assembled a feast of talent for its late winter and early spring programme next year.
One of music’s best-kept secrets, sax player Snake Davis opens the new season on Saturday February 11 – he’s had a long collaboration with Heather Small of M-People, toured the world with Lisa Stansfield, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart and played with James Brown, Paul McCartney, George Michael and Tina Turner.
He also wrote the iconic sax solo on Take That’s hit record A Million Love Songs.
Worklight Theatre’s multiaward-winning show Labels can be seen for one night only on Thursday February 16. A funny, moving and honest story about mixed heritage and immigration charting a childhood in 90’s Devon, shifting political landscapes and global refugee crisis, the show uses comedy, storytelling and spoken word.
Expect paper planes, racist romances and lots of sticky labels.
It’s followed on Wednesday February 22 to Saturday February 25 by Invincible, the hit show by Torben Betts whose The National Joke was seen at the venue earlier this year.
With the recession biting hard, Emily and Oliver have decided to downsize and shift their middle-class London lifestyle to the north. One night they open their doors and invite next-door neighbours Dawn and Alan into their home.
Over the course of a disastrous evening of olives, anchovies, Karl Marx and abstract art, class and culture collide with consequences as tragic as they are hilarious.
On Tuesday February 28, Sheffield’s finest John Shuttleworth brings My Last Will and Tasty Mint to the Stephen Joseph.
A recent health scare (well, a mild bout of athlete’s foot) has made John focus on his mortality.
The story of speedway rider and Spanish Civil War hero Clem ‘Dare Devil’ Beckett is told in Dare Devil Rides to Jarama, the latest from Townsend Productions on Thursday Marcg 2. Combining a grand theatrical style and wit with Spanish and political 1930s songs arranged by acclaimed folk musician John Kirkpatrick, the production brings his story to life in a powerful and thoughtprovoking new play.
That’s followed from Monday March 13 to Saturday March 18 by The Empty Nesters’ Club, the latest from the prolific pen of John Godber – a very personal look at parenthood after the children have flown the nest.
There’s a warm and witty celebration of the life of unsung sporting legend, cyclist Beryl Burton in Beryl from Tuesday March 21 to Saturday March 25.
Maxine Peake’s hit play is brought to the Stephen Joseph by regular visitors the New Vic Theatre.
The life of Welsh actor Richard Burton is recalled in Burton, a one-man show starring Rhodri Miles which comes to the theatre on Wednesday March 29. And hot on the heels of their soldout run at the SJT of When We Are Married in late October, Northern Broadsides bring their latest, Cyrano, a new adaptation of the classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, from Tuesday April 4 to Saturday April 8.