With the critically-acclaimed Equus and The Funeral Director currently touring the UK, English Touring Theatre today announces the full tour dates for its Autumn 2019 Season. The company, in a co-production with Royal & Derngate, present the revival of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running directed by the 2018 winner of the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award, Nancy Medina. Then, in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres, they present the world première stage adaptation of Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive.
Two Trains Running opens at Royal & Derngate on 4 September, with previews from 31 August, and runs until 14 September. Following this it tours to Southampton, Oxford, Doncaster, Ipswich, Guildford and Derby
Reasons to Stay Alive opens at Sheffield Theatres on 18 September, with previews from 13 September and runs until 28 September. Following this it tours to Bristol, Huddersfield, Newcastle, Manchester, York and Leeds.
Richard Twyman, Artistic Director of ETT, and Sophie Scull, Executive Producer, said today, “We’re looking forward to an Autumn Season that will see us produce two important and iconic pieces of work for audiences across the country, while deepening our partnerships with Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST), Royal & Derngate and Sheffield Theatres.
Firstly, we will be working with Royal & Derngate and the RTST to produce August Wilson’s seminal American classic of injustice and social upheaval, Two Trains Running. Nancy Medina one of our brightest talents will direct the first UK production in over 20 years, a play that deserves its place in the canon, as one of the great American plays of the 20th century.
We’re also incredibly proud to be collaborating with Sheffield Theatres and the uniquely brilliant talents of choreographer Jonathan Watkins and playwright April de Angelis to bring Matt Haig’s beautiful and astonishing book, Reasons to Stay Alive, to theatrical life for the first time.
We are so looking forward to continuing our commitment to touring bold, finely crafted and utterly unique work nationally: collectively these shows will be seen by audiences in Bristol, Derby, Doncaster, Guildford, Huddersfield, Ipswich, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Northampton, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton and York.”
