English Touring Theatre Announce 2020 Programme

This year begins with the UK première of Kate Attwell's Testmatch, a co-production with Theatre Royal Bath exploring power, history, colonialism, gender and sexuality - all through the lens of women's cricket. The creative team, today announced, includes Nicole Charles (Director), Camilla Clarke (Design), Jess Bernberg (Lighting Design), Max Pappenheim (Sound Design), Chris Whittaker (Movement Director), Amy Ball (Casting Director) and Aysha Kala (Assistant Director). Charles directs Komal Amin, Subika Anwar-Khan, Bessie Carter, Sally Messham, Lotte Rice and Tripti Tripuraneni.

In addition, The Alfred Fagon Award shortlisted play, Mugabe, My Dad & Me written and performed by Tonderai Munyevu will open in York on 15 May, with press night on 19 May before touring to Newcastle, Guildford, Glastonbury, Colchester, Poole, Leicester and Canterbury until 4 July - in a co-production with York Theatre Royal and in association with Alison Holder.

Also announced are full tour dates for two co-productions this autumn - Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof directed by 2019 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award winner Anthony Almeida, which opens at Curve from 17 September, with previews from 11 September, and touring to Alexandra Palace, Rose Theatre Kingston, Liverpool Everyman, Oxford Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic and Theatre de la Ville, Luxembourg until 20 November.

Gatsby, adapted by Maria Aberg and Joel Horwood, opens at Bristol Old Vic on 17 September, with previews from 12 September and tours to Northern Stage, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Royal & Derngate Northampton, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Oxford Playhouse until 6 March 2021.

Richard Twyman, Artistic Director of ETT said, "Today we announce a programme of work that is all about inviting audiences across the UK to experience stories from all around the world. Travelling from Lord's Cricket Ground today to 18th century Calcutta, from contemporary Zimbabwe to the 1950s American Deep South - ETT in 2020 continues to be committed to exploring storytelling that looks at England's place in a wider global context.

This year is all about celebrating the range and breadth of the work we make, and the theatre-makers we collaborate with: pioneering new plays balanced with freshly reimagined productions of the classics; exceptional artists with unique perspectives on our world.

We have two brand new plays in our season: Kate Attwell's explosive debut play Testmatch investigates questions of power, history, colonialism, gender and sexuality - all through the lens of women's cricket. Tonderai Munyevu's beautiful piece of autobiographical fiction Mugabe, My Dad and Me is a deeply personal play all about diaspora, identity and how inextricably enmeshed the personal and the political become when you are the first generation born in a newly independent Zimbabwe - "born free".

We are also working with visionary artists to bring new life to the classic canon: RTST Sir Peter Hall Award-winning director Anthony Almeida will be re-envisioning Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning Cat on A Hot Tin Roof. Maria Aberg and Joel Horwood are radically re-imagining F Scott Fitzgerald's Gatsby for a new era.

At the heart of our mission is a deeply held belief in the creative power of collaboration, and a drive to entertain, challenge and inspire. We are delighted to make work for and in partnership with over twenty cities across the UK and Internationally."

For more information on all productions, visit www.ett.org.uk.

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