Harold Brighouse

Hobson's Choice is given a late 50s makeover in this fine revival of a play the themes of which remain as relevant today as ever they were.

Matthew Townshend Productions presents a sparkling revival of one of the great classics of British Theatre, Harold Brighouse's immortal Lancashire comedy Hobson's Choice.

Last season on Broadway there was a play called Time and the Conways presented at Roundabout Theatre Company. The play hadn't been seen on Broadway since 1937 and after seeing it I understood why. That said, the production had a great look and a very good cast so you could forget about the stodginess of the script. Bethesda, Maryland-based Quotidian Theatre Company's current production of Hobson's Choice bears a resemblance to Time and the Conways because you don't ever see it performed. Unfortunately, the production values – a result of a limited budget – and some questionable casting can't hide all the warts of Harold Brighouse's over 100-year-old script.

Commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, Horniman's Choice brings together four plays by the leading figures of the 'Manchester School' of playwrights - Harold Brighouse, Stanley Houghton and Allan Monkhouse, all originally championed by Annie Horniman, owner of Gaiety Theatre, Manchester, the first regional repertory theatre in Britain. Horniman's Choice runs at the Finborough Theatre, playing Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees from Sunday, 27 September 2015 (Press Night: Monday, 28 September 2015 at 7.30pm).

The Finborough Theatre - under multi-award-winning Artistic Director Neil McPherson - celebrates its 35th year with an Autumn Season of even more vibrant new plays and unique rediscoveries.

Mark Benton leads the company for the latest revival of Harold Brighouse's family comedy Hobson's Choice, at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Moved 80 years in the future to the 1960s this new production attempts to tackle gender politics as well as making the most of the music and fashion from the era.

Most of ESP's recent outings have been stories written directly for the stage. For our January 2014 reading (the last to be held at our beloved NSCC before we move to ACT), we turn to a master playwright's take on (apparently) undramatic material - John Van Druten's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories, I Am a Camera.

J. B. Priestley's 1938 farcical comedy, set in 1908, is about three couples who married on the same day in the same church, who learn on their twenty-fifth anniversaries that they aren't legally married at all, sending them into a tizzy of spousal re-evaluation. The play is full of funny lines, and is a first-rate screwball comedy - but this hilarious Yorkshire farce has more going on in it than this premise would indicate, because, after all, this is a play by J. B. Priestley!

J. B. Priestley's 1938 farcical comedy, set in 1908, is about three couples who married on the same day in the same church, who learn on their twenty-fifth anniversaries that they aren't legally married at all, sending them into a tizzy of spousal re-evaluation. The play is full of funny lines, and is a first-rate screwball comedy - but this hilarious Yorkshire farce has more going on in it than this premise would indicate, because, after all, this is a play by J. B. Priestley!

ESP presents the great American comedy by the otherwise unjustly forgotten Paul Osborn, Morning's at Seven. Originally produced on Broadway in 1939, and set the year before, it ran only 44 performances, even though directed by the young tyro Joshua Logan. It wasn't until 1980 that the play was widely produced, after enjoying a major Broadway revival directed by Vivian Matalon. This production starred - as the four sisters at the center of the story - Nancy Marchand, Maureen O'Sullivan, Elizabeth Wilson, and Teresa Wright. The revival ran 564 performances, and was later televised by Showtime and PBS, and suddenly people remembered Paul Osborn.

ESP presents the great American comedy by the otherwise unjustly forgotten Paul Osborn, Morning's at Seven. Originally produced on Broadway in 1939, and set the year before, it ran only 44 performances, even though directed by the young tyro Joshua Logan. It wasn't until 1980 that the play was widely produced, after enjoying a major Broadway revival directed by Vivian Matalon. This production starred - as the four sisters at the center of the story - Nancy Marchand, Maureen O'Sullivan, Elizabeth Wilson, and Teresa Wright. The revival ran 564 performances, and was later televised by Showtime and PBS, and suddenly people remembered Paul Osborn.

The Phoenix, the New Theatre Company founded by long-time PICT artistic director and founder Andrew Paul and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre founder and former director of theatre initiatives at the August Wilson Center, Mark Clayton Southers, will debut with a four week run of Joe Penhall's provocative, caustically funny, Olivier Award-winning play Blue/Orange. The production will star acclaimed actors David Whalen, Sam Tsoutsouvas, and newcomer Rico Parker, with direction by Andrew Paul and scenic design by Mark Clayton Southers. Blue/Orange, sponsored by founding Phoenix Board Member and noted arts philanthropist Richard E. Rauh, plays tonight, November 1-23, 2013 at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 937 Liberty Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, where the 2012 Shakespeare in the Park production of Into the Woods originated, has today announced a season of five productions for 2014. Opening the season on May 15 (running until June 7), Artistic Director Timothy Sheader will direct Arthur Miller's 20th Century classic play All My Sons. Harold Brighouse's Hobson's Choice will then run from June 15 (until July 12), directed by Nadia Fall, alongside a production of Twelfth Night re-imagined for everyone aged six and over. This production of Shakespeare's comedy for younger audiences will be directed by Max Webster and will also be supported by in-school workshops devised by the Young Shakespeare Company for years 3-6.

The Phoenix, the new theatre company founded by long-time PICT artistic director and founder Andrew Paul and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre founder and former director of theatre initiatives at the August Wilson Center, Mark Clayton Southers, will debut with a four week run of Joe Penhall's provocative, caustically funny, Olivier Award-winning play Blue/Orange. The production will star acclaimed actors David Whalen, Sam Tsoutsouvas, and newcomer Rico Parker, with direction by Andrew Paul and scenic design by Mark Clayton Southers. Blue/Orange, sponsored by founding Phoenix Board Member and noted arts philanthropist Richard E. Rauh, plays November 1-23, 2013 at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 937 Liberty Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.

Long-time PICT artistic director and founder, Andrew Paul and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre founder and former director of theatre initiatives at the August Wilson Center, Mark Clayton Southers have announced Pittsburgh's newest professional theatre company, The Phoenix. The mission of The Phoenix is to explore the issues facing our diverse and rapidly changing world through the language of theatre. The name is purposeful. The phoenix was a mythological creature that crossed borders finding a home in many cultures from ancient Greece and Egypt to Turkey, Persia, Russia, Tibet, China and Japan. It was and is a symbol of renewal, new life emerging from the ashes of the old in a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth.

Juilliard's Drama Division announces the 2013-2014 season of fully-staged productions featuring Juilliard's 43rd group of acting students in their fourth and final year in the drama program at Juilliard. This season's plays include Jeffrey Hatcher's Smash, directed by Victor Pappas; Amy Herzog's The Great God Pan, directed by Maria Mileaf; and Sam Shepard's Buried Child, directed by Daniel Fish. All performances take place in the Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater at Juilliard.

Endangered Species Project is tickled to once again blow the dust off an undeservedly dusty script - the astoundingly charming family comedy, THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER. Playwright Liam O'Brien honors, by reference and imitation, the great George Bernard Shaw, who died two years before PENNYPACKER's premiere. The play, O'Brien's only work for the stage, was founded on a true story that occurred in O'Brien's family.

Endangered Species Project is tickled to once again blow the dust off an undeservedly dusty script - the astoundingly charming family comedy, THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER. Playwright Liam O'Brien honors, by reference and imitation, the great George Bernard Shaw, who died two years before PENNYPACKER's premiere. The play, O'Brien's only work for the stage, was founded on a true story that occurred in O'Brien's family.