Salisbury Playhouse News

Casting is announced today for Wiltshire Creative's ground-breaking production of Hugh Whitemore's Breaking the Code, the story of the brilliant maths genius Alan Turing who cracked the Enigma code and helped win World War II.

Casting is today announced for Wiltshire Creative's production of Alan Ayckbourn's hilarious West End hit comedy, Relatively Speaking, which runs at Salisbury Playhouse from 4 a?" 28 September.

The Mercury panto is back, and this year it has been supersized to delight audiences at the 840 seat temporary venue, Mercury at Abbey Field. Colchester panto favourites Antony Stuart-Hicks (Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, Dick Whittington) and Dale Superville (Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, Spamalot) are back for another festive season, this time forming a dastardly duo as the Ugly Sisters.

Ahead of its 60th Birthday, Hampstead Theatre announces Roxana Silbert's inaugural season as Artistic Director.

Casting has been confirmed for Park Theatre's World Premiere dark drama, The Weatherman. Written by Eugene O'Hare, the production will star Mark Hadfield, Niamh James, Alec Newman, Cyril Nri and David Schaal. Examining the no go lines people will cross when it's too dangerous to run away, the play, directed by Alice Hamilton, will have a national press night on Wednesday 21 August, 7pm.

London's Free Open Air Theatre Season will return to The Scoop at London Bridge City for a 16th year with the world premiere of The Sea Queen, a one-hour family show about the Irish pirate Grainne O'Malley, and Shakespeare's popular romantic comedy Twelfth Night.

The Old Vic today announces casting for Lucy Prebble's new play A Very Expensive Poison, based on the book by Luke Harding and directed by John Crowley. The cast includes Thomas Arnold, Tom Brooke, MyAnna Buring, Callum Coates, Marc Graham, Amanda Hadingue, Yasmine Holness-Dove, Lloyd Hutchinson, Robyn Moore, Peter Polycarpou, Sarah Seggari, Michael Shaeffer, Reece Shearsmith, Gavin Spokes and Bea Svistunenko. A Very Expensive Poison opens at The Old Vic on 5 September with previews from 20 August.

Graeae and Theatre Royal Plymouth today revealed that a London run has been added to the previously announced autumn tour of their production of Winsome Pinnock's One Under. Re-written and re-imagined by the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award winning playwright, the new version of her 2005 play will finish its nine venue tour with a run at Dalston's Arcola Theatre from 10 to 21 December 2019.

Wiltshire Creative will premiere Barney Norris' explosive new adaptation of Lorca's Blood Wedding, retold in present-day Wiltshire, at Salisbury Playhouse in February as part of its 2019-20 Autumn Winter season.

Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment, Hope Mill Theatre and Ray Rackham Theatrical are delighted to announce that Harriet Thorpe and Tim Flavin will star as Vera and Beauregard respectively in the first professional UK revival of Jerry Herman's much loved musical MAME. They join the previously announced Tracie Bennett in the title role.

When Chris Thorpe performed his one-man show Status at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe, he claimed, provocatively, it wasn't about Brexit. Now, as the withdrawal date fluctuates, the Fringe First-winning, globe-spanning show about how we acquire our national identity, and what happens when we try to escape it, confronts head on the guilt, alienation and identity crisis experienced in response to the biggest political upheaval of the Century.

Watford Palace Theatre today announce a radical re-imagining of Patrick Hamilton's classic psychological thriller, Gaslight, directed by Richard Beecham. The production opens on 7 October with previews from 2 October and runs until 26 October.

Papatango today launch WriteWest, a major playwriting programme across England's South West, in a significant expansion of their commitment to new writers. It is entirely free for over 2000 artists, participants and audiences, and will foster a new writing ecosystem across the UK's largest region. It facilitates a region-wide network of venues, companies and artists, to redress systemic weaknesses in provision, forge pathways to theatre, and create new plays and productions. WriteWest begins this month and will run until April 2020.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre have today announced full casting for A Midsummer Night's Dream (28 June - 27 July). Directed by Dominic Hill, Artistic Director of Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow, the production features Amber James as Hippolyta/Titania, Kieran Hill (Theseus/Oberon), Susan Wokoma (Bottom) and Myra McFadyen (Puck).

Casting has been announced for Pittsburgh CLO's exclusive engagement of the hit musical comedy SPAMILTON: An American Parody at the Greer Cabaret Theater May 16 August 25, 2019. Don't miss this convulsively funny (NY Times) parody from the comic mastermind behind the long-running hit Forbidden Broadway. After tearing it up in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, Spamilton: An American Parody will stage a singing, dancing, comedy revolution in Pittsburgh for a limited time only. The Huffington Post raves you don't have to see Hamilton to have side-splitting fun at Spamilton.

Troupe today announces full cast for the The Sweet Science of Bruising by Joy Wilkinson which transfers to Wilton's Music Hall, following its sold-out run at Southwark Playhouse last year. Kirsty Patrick Ward directs Owen Brenman (Professor Charlie Sharp), Celeste Dodwell (Violet Hunter), Jane How (Aunt George), Tom Lorcan (Paul Stokes), Emma McDonald (Anna Lamb) and Wilf Scolding (Gabriel Lamb) alongside returning cast, Ashley Cook (Doctor James Bell), Alice Kerrigan (Emily), Jessica Regan (Matilda 'Matty' Blackwell) and Fiona Skinner (Polly Stokes). The production opens at Wilton's Music Hall on 7 June, with previews from 5 June, and runs until 29 June.

Ardent Theatre Company today announces the full cast for the first revival of Philip Osment's This Island's Mine. Philip Wilson directs Connor Bannister (Luke), Jane Bertish (Miss Rosenblum/Vladimir), Theo Fraser Steele (Martin/Stephen/Prospero), Corey Montague-Sholay (Selwyn/Dave), Tom Ross-Williams (Mark/The Director/Frank), Rachel Summers (Jody/Mme Irina/Debbie/Wayne), and Rebecca Todd (Marianne/Maggie/Miranda). This Island's Mine opens at the King's Head Theatre on 17 May, with previews from 15 May, until 8 June.

Playwright Sarah Gordon's first play The Edit will have its World Premiere at Salisbury Playhouse this April, before embarking on a UK tour. Folio Theatre Company, whose debut show Unearthed was voted one of The Guardian readers' favourite stage shows of 2015, along-side West End hit People Places and Things, are producing the play with Wiltshire Creative as Associate Producer.

The cast has been announced for Don't Look Away by NOVAE theatre, touring the UK 16 April - 18 May.

he JMK Trust, in partnership with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, today announce that Will Ashford receives the inaugural JMK Bob Carlton Bursary, which through the generous support of Bob's family, will fund a role as an Assistant Director at Birmingham Rep. This bursary has been established in Bob's name as an opportunity for a new director with a connection to the Midlands, where Bob hailed from.