Caroline Mutton looks at what's upcoming at Ilkley Playhouse.
Before our Autumn/Winter season opens in September, we are making the most of the summer and offering our audiences entertainment in the open air. Following much acclaim in previous years, Bard in the Yard returns with a thirty minute version of Romeo and Juliet directed by Dick Hebbert. In addition there will be half an hour of Shakespearian duologues directed by Andrew Leggott, including All’s Well that Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Othello and Hamlet. Performances will take place on Saturday 27th August at 7.30pm in the Wildman Studio and in the Manor House Yard (open air) on Sunday 28th and Monday 29th August (Bank Holiday) at 2pm. Tickets are £6. To buy tickets for the Saturday evening performance in the Wildman Studio, please visit the Ilkley Playhouse website. If you prefer the outdoor performances in the Manor House Courtyard on Sunday and Monday, tickets can be bought online via Eventbrite or in person through the Manor House Box Office.
Our Autumn/Winter season opens in the Wharfeside theatre with George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession running from 15th to the 24th September. Mrs Warren’s daughter Vivie has never really known much about her mother. A sensible young woman, she has enjoyed a comfortable upbringing, a Cambridge education, a generous monthly allowance and now has ambitions to go into Law. Is it conceivable that her privilege and respectability have been financed from the profits of the world’s oldest profession? How will Vivie react when she finds out the truth about her mother’s empire? Banned, censored and controversial during George Bernard Shaw’s lifetime, this play resonates in new ways for today’s audience. The play has been updated by director Rick Hyland to 1960s Manchester to highlight the ever-relevant issues the play deals with. He takes inspiration from the famous Profumo affair and there are many moments that will deeply resonate with our modern audiences. The play is witty, provocative and deeply touching and will be performed by a talented mix of new and familiar faces to Ilkley Playhouse. This is the perfect play for sixth form English or Theatre Studies students as Shaw's characteristic skewering of society is masked by a fun, gossipy script.
Our Poetry Course is back by popular demand, starting on 15th September. The course is aimed at anyone who enjoys reading and discussing poetry, focusing on twentieth century poetry from England and elsewhere. Working chronologically through this thrilling poetic century, you will have the opportunity to hone your reading skills and discuss some familiar and unfamiliar voices, including Rupert Brooke, Edmund Blunden, H.D., Keith Douglas, Margaret Atwood, Carol Ann Duffy, Imtiaz Dharker, Billie Collins, Jackie Kay, among others. The sessions take place every Thursday morning until 8th December. The cost is £70 for 10 weeks.
Are you a writer or do you have the ambition to write? Have you ever started a piece of writing but been unsure how to move it forward? If this is you then the Ilkley Playhouse Playwriting Festival might be just the thing to get you going! The festival offers writers the opportunity to put their original, previously unpublished work on stage in our Wildman Studio. There is also the chance that your work could be published! If this is something you would like to have a go at, entries will be accepted from 1st August to 1st September 2022. Please visit the What’s On page on the Ilkley Playhouse website where you will find 8x8x8 Once in a Blue Moon. Here you can find out more information about the specific requirements and download the terms and conditions and application form. Good luck!
We want to remind you about our new season ticket offer. Buy your tickets for all eight Wharfeside 2022/2023 productions at the same time and get one play free, saving you up to £12.
To book tickets for all our plays and events visit www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk or contact Ilkley Playhouse box office on 01943 609539.