Ghost Stories For Christmas
16th December
Don't Go Into The Cellar!
£14
Join resting actor Alfred St John Merrimoon once again, as he regales his audience with more unsettling tales of seasonal spooks, winter wraiths and Christmastime horrors. Huddle closer to the fireplace and keep away from the shadows, for who knows what might be lurking just out of sight?
An amusingly chilling way to usher in this special time of year!
Jonathan Goodwin plays Merrimoon in a show scripted by himself, and co-directed by Goodwin and Gary Archer.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
7.30 pm on 25, 26, 27 Jan and 1, 2, 3 Feb 2.30 on 28 Jan and 3 Feb
Cotswold Players
£17 (£9 under 16)
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs - A Traditional Family Pantomime
Chase away those post-Christmas blues by joining us in the quaint market town of Wingeinampton, to meet the heroine of our tale - the beautiful Snow White - together with a host of colourful characters, including the lovable Nurse Nettles and her appropriately named son, Muddles!
However, all is not well, as the evil and jealous Queen Evilynn plots to rid herself of anyone who dares to usurp her position as "the most beautiful in the land". Will Snow White meet her own true love and be saved from the evil Queen's malicious plans? Who will come to her rescue?
We need you, our audience, to come along and cheer on our heroes, boo at that nasty Queen, and help Fairy Liquid and the famous dwarfs save the day!
This show promises to be a fun-packed adventure with comedy, music, dance and song - and not forgetting all those traditional panto ingredients. So, book your seats early for a real, post-Christmas treat!
The Ringmaster
10th Feb at 2.30 and 5.30 pm
Harvey Aylmer Productions
£10 (£8 under 16)
The Uncaged Theatre Winter Showcase, ‘Connections’
16th February
Uncaged theatre
£14
The Uncaged Theatre Winter Showcase, ‘Connections’, features four new writing pieces, by female-identifying writers, each lasting 30 minutes with a 15-minute interval. The plays explore themes such as troubled relationships, blurred boundaries, contemporary challenges faced by women, and the comedic but poignant upheaval caused by a forgotten friend in an ordinary family.
Stable
Jack, a troubled psychologist, is drawn to his patient Ava. In his therapy with Tara, he attempts to explore his feelings but falters. Meanwhile, Ava's newfound ease from therapy prompts her to invite home, Nathan, an old friend, resulting in troubling consequences for her and subsequently for Jack. This gripping narrative delves into relationships, boundaries, and the repercussions of our actions.
As We Know It
Two lifelong friends, Charlie and Georgia, are on the cusp of adulthood. Instead of being excited for their coming of age, they think it’s all coming to an end. After discovering secrets on the dark web, exposing an imminent world ending threat, they decide to spend their last night alive together.
How I See Things
How I See Things explores some of the contemporary challenges that women experience today. The stories have been formed by an ongoing dialogue growing out of conversations and workshops with women. The play is raw and uncomfortable, containing challenging themes, depicting women in their most private and personal space, the bedroom.
Forgotten Friends
Forgotten friends is a play that explores an ordinary family's dynamic that is disrupted when an old forgotten friend comes to stay. Although mostly welcomed by Leonard, his wife, Jenny and daughter, Sarah are not so sure of him when he reveals secrets of the family he should not know.
All My Sons
19 to 23 March
Cotswold Players
£15
ALL MY SONS
by Arthur Miller
It is August 1946. The war is over, business is booming and an affluent middle-American family is enjoying the sunshine in their garden with friends and neighbours. The only apparent jarring note in this comfortable scene is that a storm the previous night has torn down an apple tree — a memorial to a son who was lost in the war.
However, below this calm surface, lurk memories of appalling events and terrible secrets, hidden by a complex web of self-deception and denial. With the arrival of an ex-neighbour, once the girlfriend of the lost son, the web begins to unravel with devastating consequences for the whole family.
All My Sons is based upon a true story. It was Arthur Miller's first major commercial success and confirmed him as one of the finest playwrights of the twentieth century.
This play contains adult and suicide themes that may be distressing for some audience members.
Bubbles
4th April at 11 am and 2 pm
Paris Bubbles
£12 (£8 under 16)
Experience the best in soap bubble entertainment.
Join Ray, International Bubbleologist and Guinness World Record Holder, and help him in his quest to complete the bubble game and make the ultimate bubble.
The show is full of surprises, audience participation and incredible bubbles and is suitable for children and adults of all ages.
Join Ray and see if he can make THE ULTIMATE SQUARE BUBBLE!
Educating Rita
18th to 20th April
Bonzo Productions
£15
This moving iconic comedy by Willy Russell made famous by Michael Caine and Julie Walters explores the changing relationship between Frank, a cynical alcoholic professor, and Rita, a working class hairdresser who enrols on an open university course in English Literature.
Rita’s fresh uncluttered views reignite Frank’s love of teaching but whose need to fulfil her desire to pass exams and be like other students leads to friction, bringing their relationship to a tragi-comic climax.
“as good as a top west end production”
“EMMA is a star in waiting”
“utterly compelling from beginning to end”
God of Carnage
25th to 27th April
Hexagon Theatre Company
£14
What happens when two sets of parents meet up to deal with the unruly behaviour of their children? A calm, rational debate between grown-ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime?
Boys will be boys, but adults are usually worse - much worse.
God of Carnage was written in French by Yasmina Reza and premiered in Paris in 2008. It was translated into English by Christopher Hampton and performed in the West End and Broadway, going on to win both a Tony best play and an Olivier best comedy award.
Maybe Dick
4th May
Hambledon Productions
£15
MAYBE DICK
By John Hewer
Based on the novel 'Moby-Dick' by Herman Melville
Directed by Bruce Knight
Herman Melville's classic tale of revenge and retribution is retold in this inventive, comic retelling on the high seas from the company behind ‘Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show’ and ‘Dracula! One Bloody Fang After Another’.
Nantucket, 1841. Ishmael signs on to the Pequod, and witnesses the perils of nature, obsession, punning and physical comedy, as Captain Ahab conducts a reckless pursuit of the savage white whale, Moby Dick.
All plot will be lampooned. All jokes will be harpooned.
"Absolutely brought the house down" - Lincolnshire World
"'Carry On Moby Dick'" - North West End
"You will be hit with wave after wave of silliness, leaving a warm glow and a great big smile." - Review Culture
"You don't need to know Moby-Dick to get the jokes. And there are plenty of jokes." - Voicebox
"This is fun knockabout stuff; we are never more than 30 seconds from the next punchline and Hewer has excellent comic timing and a winning naïveté." - North West End
"Hewer manages to play all the parts and maintain narrative coherence along with a stream of jokes and the odd musical interlude." - Chiswick Calendar
"The jokes came thick and fast. We left with huge, aching smiles." - TheatreFest
Behold ye Ramblers
15th May
Townsend Theatre Productions
£15 (£12 concessions)
BEHOLD YE RAMBLERS - a new play by Neil Gore
From the voices of ramblers and campaigners to the songs and poetry inspired by past and current struggles, “Behold Ye Ramblers” is a new play about The Clarion newspaper and the organisations formed by its readership, including the famous rambling club, The Sheffield Clarion Ramblers. Along with the Clarion Cyclists, these early Edwardian pioneers promoted healthy outdoor pursuits, organising expeditions across open moors and mountains whilst campaigning for the right to roam, bringing them into conflict with landowners’ hunting and shooting activities and laws that prioritised private property over the wellbeing of others.
Treasure Island
13th to 15th and 19th to 22nd June
Cotswold Players
£15
KEN LUDWIG’S TREASURE ISLAND
Adapted from the novel by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Jump aboard for a journey of a lifetime across the tropical seas. Your companions will be a few cutthroat pirates, a parrot and a courageous boy entangled in a dangerous swashbuckling expedition. Jim Hawkins embarks on a daring sea voyage to locate an island of buried riches, and gets more than he bargained for. But with his fate sealed, he discovers not only gold and gems but also treachery and mutiny lurking around every corner. Along with unforgettable characters including Long John Silver, the most famous pirate of them all, Treasure Island comes alive for the whole family as an epic theatrical adaptation of one of the world’s great adventure stories.
"Scripted by Ken Ludwig, this new version invests in a gripping yarn with a genuinely rough and ready buccaneering spirit. It flies the flag for good old fashioned ensemble story telling” – The Telegraph.
ADVISORY: Treasure Island is appropriate for adults and children ages eight and up. The show is an exciting adventure that contains nautical danger, action-packed fight scenes, mild language and the occasional scallywag that may not be suitable for youngest mateys.