Birmingham Repertory Theatre Sets Autumn, Winter 2016 Season

Birmingham Repertory Theatre today announces its new season of work for Autumn and Winter 2016, including three world premières alongside a dynamic programme of new stagings of classic plays and brilliant stories. It also announces a new initiative, Furnace, which furthers The REP's commitment to making world class theatre with and for people across Birmingham.

Talking about the programme for the season ahead, Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director says:

"We continue to attract fantastic audiences by commissioning the best new plays, writers and directors in the country and hosting the cream of national and international companies and theatre makers. I'm particularly proud to be premiering three plays next season that have local, national and international resonance.

"As we near the 50th anniversary of Enoch Powell's explosive 'Rivers of Blood' speech I'm excited to be working once again with the brilliant Ian McDiarmid for Chris Hannan's, What Shadows, a moving and timely exploration of the human impact of this most provocative of speeches.

"The season also sees us in a unique collaboration with one of the country's great orchestras, the CBSO, for composer Nick Powell's beautiful, haunting observations on loneliness and loss in Cold Calling: The Arctic Project. During this Olympic year, we also shine a light on a quiet hero - Birmingham's ice-skating champion, John Curry, who was famously 'outed' after wining gold at the 1978 Olympics - in Looking For John.

"Nikolai Foster's fresh and stylish production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest launches the season and Halloween offers a terrifying production of The Exorcist. We have two outstanding family shows, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, adapted from Michael Morpurgo's touching novel and Bryony Lavery's swashbuckling version of Treasure Island, a Christmas treat for all the family."

Over the next three years, The REP's new initiative, Furnace will bring together local communities with extraordinary stories to tell and world class artists to create epic experiences of startling quality. Starting this summer with a large-scale UK wide community project, Furnace will bring theatre to a wider audience, and builds both on The REP's successful REP Foundry programme for developing emerging theatre talent by giving its graduates the chance to work on large scale international productions and new commissions, while also continuing the theatre's programme of offering local community members the opportunity to perform on The REP's stages and beyond. More details of individual projects within Furnace will be announced in early July.

Roxana Silbert says of Furnace:

"Over the last three years we've opened our doors to local emerging artists, writers, directors and theatre companies giving them space and support, so it feels only natural that our next step is to involve the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands in making theatre with them for our stages and elsewhere. We are constantly striving to attract new audiences and widen our appeal and Furnace is an exciting way to open up our building as well as taking theatre to the heart of a range of communities."

Season Overview:

The Autumn and Winter season in the main auditorium, The HOUSE, opens with a stylish contemporary spin on Oscar Wilde's classic play, The Importance of Being Earnest (9 - 24 September), in a co-production with Curve, directed by Nikolai Foster. Following this, and visiting The REP the week the Conservative Party conference takes place in Birmingham, is Dead Sheep (26 September - 1 October) by ITV's Tonight reporter Jonathan Maitland - a play about former chancellor Geoffrey Howe's savaging of Margaret Thatcher in one of the greatest resignation speeches ever made. Dead Sheep stars Steve Nallon (Spitting Image) as Margaret Thatcher and Graham Seed (The Archers) as Ian Gow.

Acclaimed theatre company, Kneehigh return with an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (6 - 15 October) in a co-production with The REP and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Michael Morpurgo is one of the UK's most beloved and successful authors whose work includes War Horse, Kensuke's Kingdom and Private Peaceful. The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips retells Morporgo's novel about the preparation for the D-Day landings and is directed by Emma Rice.

The Exorcist (21 October - 5 November) is unleashed on the stage at The REP for the first time in the UK. This classic novel and legendary film adaptation terrified a whole generation, and now it is brought to life for a special Halloween season at The REP. Programmed alongside The Exorcist is Séance by Glen Neath and David Rosenberg (18 - 29 October) - a 15-minute immersive performance that takes place in absolute darkness inside a shipping container outside The REP in Centenary Square.

Following last year's record-breaking Christmas show, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The REP is set to thrill audiences once again with a swashbuckling voyage to Treasure Island (25 November - 7 January). Adapted for the stage by Bryony Lavery and featuring newly composed music, director Phillip Breen will bring this timeless classic to The REP's epic stage. The Christmas season also sees two shows for younger audiences: Room On The Broom (22 December - 8 January) and the ever-popular, The Snowman (11-15 January).

In THE STUDIO, Ian McDiarmid leads the cast as Enoch Powell in the world premiere of What Shadows (28 October - 12 November) by Chris Hannan. Starting with the explosive 'Rivers of Blood' speech that he gave at the Midland Hotel, Birmingham in 1967, What Shadows brings to life the community that inspired it and 30 years later, its effects on a woman trying to make sense of her life after her childhood was shattered by the toxic situation that followed.

The REP and the CBSO come together for an epic world premiere: Cold Calling: The Arctic Project (8 - 12 November). Commissioned by The REP from acclaimed composer Nick Powell, and set against a backdrop of beautiful Arctic landscapes, this innovative piece explores love, loneliness and loss. Featuring actress Jan Pearson performing text by Anthony Neilson accompanied by live music from the CBSO and projections from Simon Wainwright, this promises to be a captivating and inspiring live experience.

Love (26 January to 11 February) by REP Associate Director, Alexander Zeldin and his company in a co-production between The REP and the National Theatre considers the bonds of love that keep people together and the strains on those bonds on families who are placed in temporary accommodation.

In 1976, 19 million people watched Birmingham-born ice-skater, John Curry win Olympic Gold. Just hours after his victory, he was "outed" as gay by a German tabloid. Written and performed by Tony Timberlake and directed by The REP's Associate Director Tessa Walker, Looking For John (15 - 19 November) is a heartfelt and comic story of one man's obsession with a forgotten icon and his journey to get his hero celebrated once more.

Visiting The REP during the forthcoming season is Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, who make a welcome return following last-year's Lord of the Flies, with their critically acclaimed staging of Jane Austen's most beloved-novel, Pride and Prejudice (8 - 12 November).

Plays visiting The Door during the autumn include Girls by Theresa Ikoko (20 - 24 September) - a fierce new play about three teenage girls kidnapped from Nigeria, and Enda Walsh's contemporary classic, Disco Pigs (29 September - 1 October) which sees Pig and Runt on their 17th Birthday binge. Actor Tim Barlow talks about life at 80, memory, hearing and the art of theatre, in Him (6 - 8 October) by writer and theatre-maker Sheila Hill.

Women and Theatre in collaboration with The REP present Starting Out (12-15 October) - a new piece of political theatre that shines a light on the experiences of young women entering the world of work in 2016. Written by five exceptional female playwrights - Janice Connolly, Charlene James, Lorna Laidlaw, Manjeet Mann and Susie Sillett - and based on research interviews, the plays explore the human stories behind issues such as zero hour contracts.

Sleepwalk Collective bring their latest show, Domestica (17 October) as do Told By An Idiot with Heads Will Roll (1 - 5 November) - a phantasmagoric adventure inspired by the search for El Dorado - the mythical city where rivers ran with gold. Shakespeare, His Wife And The Dog (21 - 23 November) by actor Philip Whitchurch and his wife, Sally Edwards continue The REP's Shakespeare 400 celebrations. Broken Biscuits (29 November - 3 December) by Tom Wells (writer of Folk which premiered at The REP in April) is a beautiful, laugh-out-loud, coming-of-age story directed by James Grieve of Paines Plough. One of the leading voices in French theatre, Mohamed El Khatib returns to The REP with a beautiful moving portrait of a cleaning lady, I, Corinne Dadat (12 - 13 December). The monthly Cabaret XXL returns (October - December) with the hottest, brashest and most irresistible performers including East End Cabaret, Jonny Woo with Night At The Musicals, Le Gateau Chocolat, Barbara Nice, Dusty Limits and Lucy McCormick.

Looking further ahead and following a critically acclaimed season at the National Theatre, Jane Eyre visits The REP in September 2017. A collaboration between the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic, this innovative re-imagining of Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece is directed by Sally Cookson.

Tickets for the Autumn and Winter Season go on sale to members today and to the public on Friday 20 May.

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