The spring season at the Theatre Royal Bath opens with the first of no less than four productions visiting Bath prior to the West End.
The Vortex is Noel Coward's sensational play about the darker side of the 1920s cocktail scene. Directed by Peter Hall, Felicity Kendal leads an all star cast.
Also prior to West End is Terence Rattigan's moving drama about the power of love, The Deep Blue Sea. Directed by Edward Hall this Theatre Royal Bath Production stars international film, theatre and television actress Greta Scacchi.
Another much-loved British actress, Patricia Hodge last visited Bath in 1994. Since then she has won an Olivier Award and has recently enjoyed a string of West End hits. She returns in The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl, an award-winning comedy which tours Britain for the first time and was a huge hit in the States.
Pygmalion delighted both audiences and national theatre critics when it played in Bath as part of the 2007 Peter Hall Season. Now Bernard Shaw's much acclaimed romantic comedy returns to Bath for one week only prior to a run at London's Old Vic. Tim Pigott-Smith revives his role as Professor Henry Higgins, with Michelle Dockery reprising the role of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle.
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In addition, the season boasts two productions which have already been huge West End hits and are actually written by twin brothers! Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth stars Simon MacCorkindale and Michael Praed, will perform this elaborate and witty whodunit on stage.
In 2007 the revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus was one of the biggest hits ever seen in the West End and now tours starring Simon Callow Alfie Allen in the parts played by Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe). This electrifying drama is co-presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions.
Liza Goddard in She Stoops to Conquer
Other highlights to the new season include Visiting Mr Green, starring Warren Mitchell, who plays a crotchety old widower who develops an unlikely friendship with a young, career-obsessed executive who narrowly avoids running him over!
His Dark Materials will take audiences to other worlds in this stage adaptation of Philip Pullman's epic trilogy which is presented by the Theatre Royal Bath Young People's Theatre. This, the company's most ambitious project ever, will be the culmination of more than 18 months' work and will involve a cast of more than 150 young people.
The next productions take on a Russian theme, beginning with Checkov's darkly comic masterpiece, Uncle Vanya, starring Neil Pearson, Nicholas le Prevost and Ronald Pickup.
Also set in Russia, Tolstoy's War & Peace is condensed into two parts by the world renowned Shared Experience Theatre Company in a revival of a much-feted production which was originally staged at the National Theatre.
The Russian theme continues in Single Spies, Alan Bennett's dazzling double bill about espionage and forgery.
Further season highlights include Alan Ayckbourn's A Trip to Scarborough, Oliver Goldsmith's hilarious comedy of mistaken identity She Stoops to Conquer and Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.
The spring season concludes with Agatha Christie's own stage adaptation of her best-selling thriller, And Then There Were None with an all-star cast including Gerald Harper and Jeremy Edwards.
The Theatre Royal's second space, the Ustinov is on schedule to open in February.
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