Curtain raised on summer season at Stephen Joseph
Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre has announced a season of shows for this year which will include three world premieres and the second outing for a play which played to packed houses at the National Theatre.
The summer season will open on June 4 with new show by the theatre’s director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn, The Girl Next Door, followed by Laura Wade’s comedy Home I’m Darling, a co-production with Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake and the Octagon Theatre Bolton.
The autumn will bring a new adaptation of Benjamin Myers’ best-selling book The Offing, a co-production with Live Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and this year’s Christmas show will be another new adaptation by Stephen Joseph stalwart Nick Lane, Jack and the Beanstalk.
The shows will be supplemented by a lively season of visiting productions.
Artistic director Paul Robinson said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be presenting live theatre again throughout the second half of 2021. We’ve pulled together a programme which we think will have a really broad appeal, and we can’t wait to welcome audiences back through our doors again.” The Stephen Joseph Theatre’s shows for 2021 are:
The Girl Next Door, June 4 to July 3: world premiere: written and directed by Alan Ayckbourn
The 85th play from the theatre’s director emeritus is a touching, tender and, of course, funny reflection on the ability of love to rise above adversity .
Home I’m Darling, July 9 to August 14: by Laura Wade, directed by Liz Stevenson
A comedy about marriage and one woman’s quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife, Home I’m Darling was a huge hit in 2018 for original coproducers Theatr Clwyd and the National Theatre.
This is a Stephen Joseph co-production with Theatre by the Lake and the Octagon Theatre Bolton.
The Offing, October 14 to 30: world premiere: adapted by Janice Okoh from the novel by Benjamin Myers, directed by Paul Robinson Set in one of the UK’s favourite coastal towns, Robin Hood’s Bay – 16 miles up the coast from Scarborough – Benjamin Myers’s muchloved coming-of-age novel, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick, has been sensitively adapted by Janice Okoh. This is a Stephen Joseph co-production with Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Jack and the Beanstalk, December 2 to 31 - world premiere
A new version by Nick Lane, directed by Paul Robinson, with music and lyrics by Simon Slater.
Expect the usual mayhem and musical madness as the team that brought you our last five Christmas shows, including Alice in Wonderland and The Snow Queen, reunites
with a fresh new take on an old, old story.
The productions will be supported by a visiting shows, including Blackeyed Theatre’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel by Nick Lane. It will run from Thursday September 30 to Saturday October 2
The theatre will also be presenting films in its McCarthy cinema.
The theatre will be complying carefully with rent government guidelines.
Book online at www.sjt. uk.com
The box office phone line is open from Mondays to Saturdays, from noon till 2pm.
It will re-open for inperson bookings on Monday May 17 – noon to 5pm on nonshow days; noon to 7.30pm on days with an evening show; 11am to 7.30pm on matinee days.