With The Assassination of Katie Hopkins in rehearsals, Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd, Tamara Harvey and Executive Director, Liam Evans-Ford today announce the 2018 Autumn Season for the company. This includes an all-female cast in a co-production with Sherman Theatre of Lord of the Flies and a first-time co-production with Clean Break of the world première of Thick as Thieves from award-winning Welsh playwright Katherine Chandler.
These join the previously announced, Dick Whittington – The Puuurfect Rock ‘N’ Roll Panto written for the first time by the inaugural winner of the Best Script Award in the 2017 Great British Pantomime Awards, Christian Patterson and directed by Zoë Waterman, who returns to Theatr Clwyd this Christmas following last year’s acclaimed production of Sleeping Beauty.
In June Theatr Clwyd creates three world première co-productions with Paines Plough, continuing their partnership in developing new writing. Vinay Patel’s How to Spot an Alien, Georgia Christou’s Sticks and Stones and Island Town by Simon Longman, will open in the Roundabout on Theatr Clwyd’s hilltop before going on to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and then embarking on a national tour. Alongside these productions three new Writers in Residence as part of Theatr Clwyd’s TYFU (GROW) strand of work – will be given the opportunity to work with both companies in the groundbreaking Roundabout Theatre to develop their own writing in the Welsh Language.
Highlights of the visiting season include a reimagined production of The 39 Steps in the round direct from the Stephen Joseph Theatre, and Tom Pemkinki’s Duet for One.
Artistic Director Tamara Harvey said today “This year more than ever, it feels vital that we produce work which celebrates and empowers women, in the stories we tell and in the people we choose to tell them. This is one of the reasons I’m so thrilled to be co-producing with the Sherman Theatre, breaking new ground with an all-female production of Lord of the Flies directed by the brilliant Caroline Steinbeis. As we recognise the centenary of (at least partial) female suffrage, our co-production with Clean Break will I hope give power to the voices of those women who often go unheard, shaped by Katherine Chandler and Róisín McBrinn. And as we head into Christmas, Zoë Waterman will return to helm our much-loved panto. We’re delighted that this wonderfully interconnected season sees women at the forefront, both onstage and off.”
