Theatr Clwyd Announces Autumn Season 2019

With their production of Orpheus Descending about to transfer to the Menier, Wave Me Goodbye running at the company's home base, and the Olivier Award-winning Home I'm Darling completing its tour back home in Wales where it began, Theatr Clwyd today announces their new season for Autumn 2019.

Artistic Director Tamara Harvey directs Emily White's début dark comedy Pavilion, set in a run-down spa town in a forgotten corner of Wales. This 21st century Under Milk Wood opens in the Anthony Hopkins Theatre at Theatr Clwyd on 2 October, with previews from 26 September, and runs until 12 October before transferring to The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre in Newport - the first time a Theatr Clwyd production will have played at this exciting contemporary arts centre in south Wales.

Pavilion joins the previously announced Mold Riots by Welsh playwright Bethan Marlow - a bilingual production following the story of the riots in the summer of 1869, when Flintshire's miners, protesting a ban on speaking Welsh when underground and continually decreasing wages, were brutally suppressed by English soldiers. Newly appointed co-Artistic Director of Paines Plough Katie Posner directs the large-scale site-specific production with a combined professional and community cast of over 100, leading audiences on an immersive theatrical experience through the streets of the market town of Mold.

For Christmas the company will present three productions. A new, immersive production of A Christmas Carol by award-winning Welsh playwright Alan Harris will be directed by the newly appointed Artistic Director of Keswick's Theatre By The Lake, Liz Stevenson. Continuing Theatr Clwyd's partnership with Bangor's Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre will be a new Welsh language storytelling adventure for young children by acclaimed writer and director Emyr John. Y Trol Wnaeth Ddwyn y 'Dolig is the story of a brave little girl and her pet chicken who save Christmas from a bullying troll at loose in the mountains.

Completing the season is the theatre's annual rock and roll pantomime with this year's Jack and the Beanstalk reuniting writer Christian Patterson (winner of Best Script at the inaugural Great British Pantomime Awards), director Zoë Waterman and Clwyd's much-loved pantomime dame Phylip Harries.

Artistic Director Tamara Harvey and Executive Director Liam Evans-Ford said today, "It's a rare privilege to collaborate with a playwright at the start of their career - and we're thrilled to open our Autumn season with Emily White's début Pavilion, a fiercely funny, sharply poignant new play. We then take to the streets with Mold Riots - a story ingrained within the history of our region. Fittingly it will be performed alongside local residents, who 150 years on from that fateful summer, help us remember those who fought for their identity and language. We're delighted that these, alongside our three Christmas shows, mean that our Autumn season is built entirely around Welsh playwrights, exploring stories local and national, mythical, classical and new."

Highlights of the visiting programme include Agatha Christie's Miss Marple Mystery, A Murder Is Announced (14 - 19 October), Yes, Prime Minister! (4 - 9 November), a new production of Olivier Award-winner Laura Wade's Posh (23 - 26 October), and the welcome returns of Ballet Cymru with Romeo a Juliet (21 - 22 Oct) and National Dance Company Wales with Roots (7 - 8 November).

Theatr Clwyd present the world première of

PAVILION

By Emily White

26 September - 12 October

Press night: 2 October

Dance. Drink. Fight. Snog.

Friday night. Music pounds, lager flows, lust ignites and fists fly. This run-down spa town in a forgotten corner of Wales is filled with big personalities and even bigger egos.

A new dark comedy by Wales' Emily White and directed by the company's Artistic Director Tamara Harvey.

Emily White originally trained as an actress at RADA, before obtaining an MA in Theatre Writing at York University. In 2018 she won a place on Channel 4's 4Screenwriting Course and this year she was selected to be part of the BBC Wales Writersroom group. She is currently writing a digital theatre piece for Wrapt Films/Open Sky Theatre and is also developing projects for TV, radio, theatre and film.

Tamara Harvey has been Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd since August 2015. Most recently she directed Orpheus Descending which opens at the Menier next month, and the première of Home I'm Darling by Laura Wade - which has been nominated for UK Theatre and Evening Standard Awards, as well as five Olivier Awards, winning the Olivier for Best New Comedy, and recently transferred to the West End before returning to Clwyd. Also for the company she has directed Much Ado About Nothing, the première of Elinor Cook's award-winning play, Pilgrims, Skylight by David Hare and the première of Peter Gill's version of Uncle Vanya (Best Production, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director in the English Language at the Wales Theatre Awards). She has directed in the West End, throughout the UK and abroad, working on classic plays, new writing, musical theatre and in film. Her previous credits include the world premières of From Here to Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), Breeders (St James Theatre), The Kitchen Sink, The Contingency Plan, Sixty-Six Books and tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre), In the Vale of Health (a cycle of four plays by Simon Gray), Elephants and Hello/Goodbye (Hampstead Theatre), Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre & West End). Other theatre includes Kreutzer vs Kreutzer (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse/Royal Festival Hall), Bash (Trafalgar Studios), Whipping It Up (New Ambassadors), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Gielgud & Garrick Theatres), Educating Rita (Menier Chocolate Factory & Theatre Royal Bath), the UK première of Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Finborough Theatre) and Pride and Prejudice (Sheffield Theatres).

Theatr Clwyd present the world première of

MOLD RIOTS

By Bethan Marlow

21 - 26 October

Press night: 23 October

Director Katie Posner

One of Wales' forgotten dark days is brought to life in this large-scale production with both a community and professional cast.

Summer, 1869. Miners stand trial in Mold for attacking their manager after their wages are lowered. A crowd has assembled to hear the verdict - will they get a fair hearing? Stones will be thrown and blood will be shed but will anyone find justice?

Bethan Marlow's site-specific interactive theatre productions, in collaboration with the LGBT community of Swansea, include "A Queer Christmas", Mess Up The Mess, with the residents of a council estate in North Wales C'laen ta! (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru), and her first verbatim play Sgint (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru). Her other work includes From Land to Mouth (Pentabus), Cysgu'n Brysur (Arad Goch, Aberystwyth Arts Centre and WMC), Ar Waith ar Daith (Walk the Plank), PyC (S4C/BBC Wales), A Place Called Home (Birmingham Rep), The Beach (National Theatre Wales) and Such Tweet Sorrow (Royal Shakespeare Company). Marlowe was selected as one of four Welsh writers on the talent scheme 'Y Labordy'. She received a Creative Wales Award to explore the possibility of the "audience as co-creators of theatre" and won the first "Straeon Iris" competition (an Iris Prize/S4C/Ffilm Cymru and Bfi Net.wok initiative) which culminated in the short film Afiach (Sick) which premièred at the Iris Prize Film Festival this year.

Katie Posner directs. She has recently been appointed as co-Artistic Director of Paines Plough, and was previously the Associate Director of Pilot Theatre, York, for eight years, where she directed multiple national and international touring productions. Her 2017 national tour of Made in India (Tamasha, Belgrade Theatre, Pilot Theatre) was nominated for an Off West End award, and won the Eastern Eye Theatre and Culture Award for Best Production. Recent productions include Swallows and Amazons (new adaptation by Bryony Lavery) for Storyhouse Chester, Babe for Mercury Colchester, Bridget Foreman's Everything is Possible: The York Suffragettes at York Theatre Royal and Finding Nana by Jane Upton for New Perspectives. Posner has also directed productions for Northern Stage, Tron Theatre, Live Theatre and Out of Joint amongst many others.

A Theatr Clwyd production

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

By Christian Patterson

22 November - 18 January 2020

Press night: 27 November

Director: Zoë Waterman

Join Jack's moo-sical journey up the beanstalk in this giant, magical, egg-cellent adventure!

Theatr Clywd's acclaimed rock 'n' roll panto returns with a brand new script by Christian Patterson, full of super slapstick, bonkers frocks, sparkling sets and our brilliant dame, Phylip Harries.

Christian Patterson scripted his début pantomime Dick Whittington for Theatr Clwyd last year, having written award-winning pantomimes at other venues across the UK. He is currently directing Wave Me Goodbye for the company. As an actor his credits for the company include The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Insignificance, All My Sons and Under Milk Wood. Other credits include The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse), My Country (National Theatre), Blackbird (The Other Room) and Plays in a Bag - The Knowledge (Royal Court Theatre). His television credits include My Country, Ellen and Mr Selfridge; and for film, Pride and Malice in Wonderland. He won the Best Actor honour at the Wales Theatre Awards in 2016.

Zoë Waterman returns to the theatre to direct, continuing her collaboration with Patterson following last year's Dick Whittington. She is the Associate Director at the New Vic Theatre where her credits include Playhouse Creatures and The Kitchen Sink. Other theatre credits include Sleeping Beauty (Theatr Clwyd), The Rubenstein Kiss, Amy's View and After Miss Julie (Nottingham Playhouse), Remarkable Invisible, The Vertical Hour, Enlightenment and Shining City (Theatre by the Lake), The Bogus Woman (Theatre by the Lake/UK tour), Swan Song: an evening of music and song (Swan Theatre), The Demand (Shooting Fish Theatre Company), Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk (Loughborough Town Hall).

A Theatr Clwyd production

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Adapted for the stage by Alan Harris

13 December - 5 January

Press night: 18 December

Director: Liz Stevenson

It's Christmas Eve and Ebenezer Scrooge is miserable and unhappy, can you help him find his Christmas spirit?

Explore a living, breathing Victorian street with residents to meet before being whisked away to a dream world where anything can happen and ghosts are just around the corner... A funny immersive family show filled with music and mystery.

Writer Alan Harris's plays include How My Light Is Spent (Bruntwood Judges' Prize winner, Royal Exchange Manchester/Sherman Theatre/Theatre By The Lake), Love, Lies and Taxidermy (Paines Plough/Sherman Theatre/Theatr Clwyd), For All I Care (National Theatre Wales), Sugar Baby (Dirty Protest), The Opportunity of Efficiency (New National Theatre Tokyo/National Theatre Wales). Other writing includes A Scythe of Time (New York Musical Festival) and The Future For Beginners (MTN Award winner, liveartshow/Wales Millennium Centre). He has written plays for BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3. The Left Behind was recently filmed by BBC Studios and he's writing new dramas for Bad Wolf, BBC Studios Wales and Theatr Clwyd.

Liz Stevenson is the Artistic Director Theatre by the Lake, and Junction 8 Theatre. She won the 2015 JMK Young Director Award. Barbarians at the Young Vic was nominated for a 2016 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. She was the Associate Director on the UK and Ireland tour of the National Theatre's production of Macbeth. As a director, her other work includes The Secret Garden (York Theatre Royal, Theatre by the Lake), Under The Market Roof (Chorley Market, Junction 8 Theatre), Handbagged (Theatre by the Lake), How My Light Is Spent (Royal Exchange Theatre, Sherman Theatre, Theatre by the Lake), Macbeth (Dukes Theatre, Lancaster), Barbarians (Young Vic), Bluestockings, Too Fast and Midnight at The Hotel Beauregard (ALRA North).

A Theatr Clwyd and Pontio co-production

Y TROL WNAETH DDWYN Y 'DOLIG

Written and directed by Emyr John

27 December - 5 January 2020

Press night: 27 December

Christmas is cancelled!

There's a troll loose in the mountains and he's a big, bad bully. All hope rests in the hands of a little girl and her pet chicken. After all, it's being bold, bright and brave that counts...

A Welsh-language storytelling adventure for the whole family!

Elen ap Robert, Artistic Director at Pontio said, "One of Pontio's key aims is to nurture and support the development of welsh language theatre - and we are delighted to collaborate on yet another theatrical journey with Clwyd this Christmas. I know our audiences are excited to see what this year has to offer - and it comes as no surprise that Y Trol Wnaeth ddwyn y Dolig promises to scare, thrill and enchant in equal measure - making it a must-see show!"

Emyr John is from North Wales and trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He worked regularly for 15 years for a number of theatre companies including, Theatr West Glamorgan, Theatr Iolo, Hijinx Theatre, Gwent Theatre and Cwmni Theatr Gwynedd. He has worked at Theatr Clwyd for the past 12 years, and is currently a Creative Engagement Associate, where his responsibilities include workshop leading and directing numerous theatre in education projects, Justice in a Day, Bright Sparks, Connor's Time, High Voltage, as well as last year's Christmas production, Llew a'r Crydd.

Split over six levels, Pontio is Bangor University's new arts and innovation centre, opened in 2015. The award-winning Grimshaw-designed building in the centre of Bangor is home to a flexible mid-scale theatre named after the world-famous bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, a Studio Theatre which holds up to 120 people and a 200-seater digital cinema. It also offers food and drink at Bar Ffynnon on the ground floor, and Cegin on Level 2. The building is also home to Bangor Students Union HQ and a range of open student study and coworking spaces and lecture theatres. Pontio offers an eclectic mix of entertainment seven days a week, from the latest film releases to music and drama, gigs, contemporary circus and aerial theatre and much more. For the latest what's on, visit the Pontio website www.pontio.co.uk, follow us @PontioTweets Facebook PontioBangor or Instagram Pontio_Bangor

www.theatrclwyd.com

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