Nuffield Announces Autumn, Winter Season

Nuffield's Director Samuel Hodges, now in his second year leading the company, announces the upcoming autumn/winter season, alongside plans for his Nuffield directorial debut.

The upcoming season features two new Nuffield productions. Samuel Hodges will direct a production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, with design by Ultz (Olivier Award winner, Jerusalem, Royal Court).

Samuel Hodges said: "I am thrilled that my Nuffield debut as a director will be the masterpiece The Glass Menagerie. This is one of the finest works from one of the greatest twentieth century dramatists and was his first great Broadway success. It was radical and bold when it was first produced almost 70 years ago, a quality which it retains uniquely to this day, making it a perfect fit for the work we are creating at Nuffield."

Nuffield's second production this season will be the legend of Merlin this Christmas. This co-production with Royal & Derngate, Northampton, is created by Ella Hickson and Olly Birch, with music by Rob Castell (BAFTA nominee, Officially Amazing, CBBC). Directed by Liam Steel, the production will see Nuffield transformed into the enchanted medieval court of King Arthur, telling the tale of Merlin and his raucous magical adventures.

This season will see a host of leading touring companies visit Nuffield, beginning with Little Bulb Theatre Company. Following the success of their work-in-progress piece Wail at this year's annual Fulcrum Festival, Little Bulb return with their 1930s music hall retelling of the love story Orpheus.

Nuffield will then welcome Belgrade Theatre & Sell a Door Theatre Company's musical adaptation of Ian Serrallier's novel The Silver Sword. Also part of Nuffield's season will be The Witches, a Curve Leicester and Rose Theatre Kingston production of the classic Roald Dahl story.

Since the launch of Nuffield's Artist Development programme last year, the company have been joined by four Laboratory Associates, and have partnered with The Stage Door, Southampton's new Fringe venue, to mentor the emerging theatre company Gauntlet Theatre.

Nuffield's Laboratory Associates will come together to create a work-in-progress production entitled Juicy and Delicious - an epic, magical, coming-of-age story - on 12 and 13 November. The production will be directed by Anthony Lau, with set design by Petra Hjortsberg, lighting design by Sarah Louise McColgan and sound design by Alexandra Braithwaite.

From September to February, Nuffield also presents an outstanding programme of theatre for younger children aged 3+, including What The Ladybird Heard, a new stage adaptation of Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks' book of the same name, and a variety of Saturday shows presented by some of the best children's theatre companies in the country.

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