Artistic Director, Gemma Bodinetz and Executive Director Deborah Aydon announce the final season of Everyman And Playhouse Theatres before European Capital of Culture year next year in what we affectionately think of as our ‘drum roll’ season.
At this exciting time we are presenting a full programme of in-house productions and visiting companies of the highest quality as we come to the end of Liverpool’s 800th birthday year. This Autumn is rich in variety, building on our growing reputation for excellence and the success of previous seasons which have produced no less than ten world premières in 3 years.
Our ‘Made in Liverpool’ productions include a major new work on Liverpool’s history by a new Liverpool voice; a phenomenal dramatisation of the history of one aspect of the slave trade; the return by popular demand of a box office Christmas hit comedy; and the effervescent rock and roll panto at the Everyman. Today’s programme announcement includes innovative and exciting work of an international flavour; the first full scale production from our Youth Theatre; Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz directing a world première at the Everyman; and a sneak preview of our first production for 2008.
In-House Programme
Intemperance
Liverpool, 1854. As the city fathers glory in the building of St George’s Hall, a world away in the bowels of the city the poor of the cellar slums drink away their fears. But Millie has other ideas. She’s seen the light at the end of the tunnel and she’s taking her fiery family with her. Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz directs at the Everyman this season with a world première from an exciting new talent, Lizzie Nunnery. Lizzie is a graduate of the Everyman and Playhouse Young Writers’ Programme and Writers on Attachment Scheme and was one of the four writers of Unprotected. This is her first full length play.
Rough Crossings
As the American War of Independence reaches its climax, a plantation slave and a British Naval Officer embark on an epic journey in search of freedom. Headlong Theatre’s Artistic Director Rupert Goold directs a new adaptation of Simon Schama’s provocative bestseller by award-winning writer Caryl Phillips. This compelling true story is a co-production between Headlong Theatre Company, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Birmingham Rep and Lyric Hammersmith to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.
The Flint St Nativity
Back by popular demand, the kids of Flint St Primary bring a festive repeat of the world’s greatest story ever told. Psychotic innkeepers, angels in fear, a bossy Mary and a donkey whose lost his stick insect, make this family comedy a must for any child who’s ever been in a nativity or any adult who’s watched one through their fingers. Written by Tim Firth and directed by Matthew Lloyd with original songs by Tim Firth.
Aladdin
Following the year on year success of the Everyman rock ‘n’ roll panto, this Christmas the team brings us a magic lamp bursting with music, fun (and a genie) as we enter the world of Aladdin – Genie in the Sky with Diamonds. Writers Sarah Nixon and Mark Chatterton and musical director Tayo Akinbode have worked their magic again to create a unique platform-stomping Everyman panto.
Visiting Programme
This season the quality and variety of our visiting companies is evident in the extraordinary creative teams we are bringing to Liverpool from around the UK and Europe. With classics, family productions, physical theatre and new writing, we not only welcome back some Liverpool favourites with Barry Rutter’s Northern Broadsides, Frantic Assembly, and Watershed Theatre, but also the Actors Touring Company with a new play directed by Liverpool-born Bijan Sheibani and the highly acclaimed English Touring Theatre’s production of The Changeling.
Special highlights include: founding artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Mark Rylance, appearing in a screwball comedy at the Playhouse co-directed by multiple award-winner Matthew Warchus; Told by an Idiot’s imaginative and irreverent look at the life of Casanova by Carol Ann Duffy; Vicky Ireland’s adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson’s The Suitcase Kid for 7-12 year olds; and Roger McGough and Brian Patten celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of The Mersey Sound for one night at Everyman in October.
As we approach the European Capital of Culture year we are delighted to be collaborating with our friends along Hope Street at unitytheatre to bring two of the most innovative theatre companies in Europe to Liverpool. This miniature international festival on Hope Street, brought to us by Aurora Nova, paves the way for 2008, as Czech company Farm in Cave visit the Everyman with their production of Sclavi/The Song of an Emigrant, whilst unitytheatre welcomes the Jo Stromgen Kompani from Norway with The Convent.
Behind the Scenes
The theatres’ commitment to new writing is evident through the work you see on our stages and yet this vital part of what we do extends beyond and around the production programme. The theatres run a range of projects and activities to create opportunities and nurture writers at every career stage. No-one encapsulates this better than exciting new talent Lizzie Nunnery, whose first full length play Intemperance is being produced at the Everyman this September. Four years ago Lizzie joined the Everyman Playhouse Young Writer’s Programme. She then benefited from the six-month Henry Cotton Writers on Attachment Scheme; has contributed short pieces to four Everyword new play festivals; and was one of the four writers of the award-winning Unprotected. Intemperance also received a rehearsed reading at last year’s Everyword new writing festival, and at London’s Soho Theatre.
At the heart of the Everyman and Playhouse, the Theatre and Community department continues to offer more opportunities for all, regardless of age, background or experience, to engage in our work. We have established a vast range of inventive participatory projects which reach out into schools and communities, opening our doors to new participants and giving voice to their stories and free rein to their imagination. Examples include Four Corners of the City, Open Playhouse, the year-round INCLUDED programme, and the Cruel Sea, which is about to embark on its journey to over a dozen schools and community centres across Merseyside. We have helped over 5,000 participants to develop their confidence and skills, and generated audience growth in traditionally hard-to-reach parts of the city of between 17% and 130%. Taken together with our established and pioneering schools programme, which reached over 7,000 young people last year, this illustrates that the theatres are deeply committed to and embedded in their city.
Last year the Everyman Youth Theatre came home. Since returning to the theatres the Everyman and Playhouse Youth Theatre has been working towards an abridged version of Julius Caesar, their first main-stage production. Weekly skills sessions covering everything from storytelling to stage combat have given our members the opportunity to act, direct, dance, design, sing, practise improvisation skills, and work on scripts from Shakespeare to newly written plays. Over forty young people from all over Merseyside are coming together to bring this passionate, exciting and vivid production to the Everyman stage in October.
The programmes for these theatres have been built on a passionate belief: to create theatre of the highest quality which is firmly rooted in our community, yet both national and international in scope and ambition. This commitment has seen our audiences grow by 47% - centred on the homegrown ‘Made in Liverpool’ programme. Our successful Corporate Members’ Scheme has also grown significantly in the past twelve months with 100% renewal rate and many new partners signing up for the opportunity to become more closely involved with culture in the city leading up to 2008 European Capital of Culture Year.
Into the future
2008 will be bolder and it will be bigger, but in essence it will not be different: every element of our programme will, as it always does, draw its energy from the unique spirit of the city. Much of the theatres’ programme in 2008 will be new commissions from Liverpool writers and new musicals inspired by two great Liverpool icons; and we will be bringing our audiences the very best touring companies of international quality and renown. Our sneak preview for the year is the first production at the Everyman in January. Three Sisters on Hope St is a powerful, new drama, specially commissioned for 2008. This co-production with Hampstead Theatre, (Yellowman tour 2005) by Liverpool writer Diane Samuels (Kindertransport) with Tracy-Ann Oberman will be a vibrant new take on Chekhov’s classic, set in 1948 amongst the Jewish community of Hope Street.
As we launch this new season, and as the excitement builds towards 2008, we are also very busy moulding the long-term future of producing theatre on Merseyside. The redevelopment of the Everyman and Playhouse Theatres has gathered pace with the recent appointment of a first-class design team led by exceptional theatre architects Haworth Tompkins. In the coming months we will be honing the design brief for the future of these theatres, and laying the foundations for an inspiring physical legacy for the city’s big moment in the international cultural spotlight. -- www.everymanplayhouse.com
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