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Friday, January 31

Tag: Leeds Playhouse

imitating the dog are back with All Bloods Runs Red at Leeds Playhouse
NEWS

imitating the dog are back with All Bloods Runs Red at Leeds Playhouse

Tech wizards imitating the dog are back to tell the little known story of pioneering black fighter pilot Eugene Bullard who went onto work with iconic French dancer Josephine Baker and American jazz legend Duke Ellington. All Blood Runs Red premieres in the Courtyard Theatre at Leeds Playhouse on 14-15 February. Bullard’s extraordinary life story traces many of the 20th century’s most important moments and is named after the inscription on his World War One fighter plane. The production features imitating the dog’s brilliantly constructed stagecraft, digital wizardry and songs begins with what seems like a straightforward tale of survival, resistance and fighting for acceptance. Decades before, Bullard had made France his home, seeking acceptance after fleeing segregation in Ameri...
Shellshocked will keep audiences guessing at Leeds Playhouse
NEWS

Shellshocked will keep audiences guessing at Leeds Playhouse

Cat and mouse thriller Shellshocked will keep audiences guessing as it launches the Spring/Summer 25 season in the Bramall Rock Void studio theatre at Leeds Playhouse. Shellshocked has a strong Leeds connection in its creative team and enjoyed a hugely successful sold-out Edinburgh Fringe Festival run, winning rave reviews in The Scotsman and Theatre Weekly.    It’s set after the Second World War exploring the horrors of those who served and the horrors of those who did not. It also investigates loyalty, relationships, and the desire to make great art.    “We are absolutely thrilled to be presenting Shellshocked at Leeds Playhouse,” said Leeds playwright Philip Stokes. “The play is inspired by the city and set in Morley. It’s a very Leeds-centric piece, referen...
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire & Humber

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – Leeds Playhouse

Christmas is a magical time for most of us so a story that begins with a mysterious wardrobe that transports four traumatised children into another world should be the perfect festive treat. Leeds Playhouse have over the last decade offered a series of spectacular festive shows, and this is their second go at this C.S. Lewis classic so beloved of generations of children as goodies and baddies battle it out in a strange world. Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan Pevensie are evacuated from war torn London to Scotland where they discover a wardrobe that is a portal into a magical land called Narnia, ruled by the wicked White Witch Jadis where it’s permanently winter. The human children are the key to freeing Narnia’s motley collection of talking animals, who yearn to hear the roar of the myt...
The wicked White Witch rules over Leeds Playhouse’s festive extravaganza
Interviews

The wicked White Witch rules over Leeds Playhouse’s festive extravaganza

The extravagant festive shows at Leeds Playhouse have become the stuff of legend and this year they are bringing back The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. They last staged C.S. Lewis’ classic children’s book to packed houses back in 2017, as four young evacuees venture through a mysterious portal in a wardrobe finding themselves at the heart of a war in the permanently wintery land of Narnia. Katy Stephens has taken on starring Shakespearian roles with the RSC, the National Theatre and at London’s Globe Theatre, but has headed north to play the villainous White Witch, who rules Narnia with an icy iron fist. Our features Editor Paul Clarke caught up with Katy between rehearsals to talk about the challenges of playing such an iconic villain, and why live theatre is still the best nigh...
A Thousand Splendid Suns shine on Leeds Playhouse
NEWS

A Thousand Splendid Suns shine on Leeds Playhouse

A new stage version of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of the highlights of next year’s Spring/Summer season at Leeds Playhouse. The sequel to his bestselling book, The Kite Runner, is a tale of how love can grow and sustain the human spirit even during the bleakest of times under the oppressive Taliban. It opens in Birmingham ahead of transferring to the Quarry Theatre at Leeds Playhouse from 28th May – 14th June 2025 as part of a national tour.  Directed by former Birmingham Rep and Hampstead Theatre Artistic Director Roxana Silbert, the production is set in 1992 in an Afghanistan ravaged by war. Orphaned Laila is left alone in an increasingly threatening world, but her older neighbour Rasheed is quick to open his home to take Laila as his second wife. ...
A Raisin in the Sun – Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire & Humber

A Raisin in the Sun – Leeds Playhouse

With confidence it can be assured that I was one of many who walked away from this show truly moved, in fact more than that. Inspired. A beautifully dedicated performance to the true beauty of culture and history was portrayed up on that stage, as eyes were opened to the struggles and prejudice that the black community faced in the 60’s. The story meets an aspirational family with finance as the root cause of all their problems, son, and father Walter Lee is power hungry and desperate for a change in funds. With his mother, sister, wife, and son all bundled into one home he feels the pressure to provide a better future for his family, although his chances seem slim the long-awaited cheque from his father’s passing is what keeps his hopes alive. Solomon Israel was truly fascinating in hi...
Birdsong – Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire & Humber

Birdsong – Leeds Playhouse

There’s been plenty of novels about the First World War, but Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong was one of the best, blending a love story and the cost of that conflict’s carnage, so it was a natural for a stage adaptation. It’s now over a decade since Rachel Wagstaff’s first adaptation of Birdsong, and all the Tommies who fought in the so called war to end all wars are now dead. Ironically the world still seems intent on blowing itself up, so Wagstaff’s reworked revival with a stark new set by Richard Kent was a timely reminder that war is a terrible business that solves nothing. This three act - and rare two interval - version opened with callow Englishman Stephen Wraysford visiting France to view a struggling factory whereupon he fell helplessly in love with the owner’s wife Isabelle. De...
Paranormal Activity – Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire & Humber

Paranormal Activity – Leeds Playhouse

All of us have a personal deep, dark fear – mine is enclosed spaces – we’d run a million miles from, but it says something about human nature that most of us volunteer to be scared half to death watching horror movies. When the Courtyard theatre went totally dark there was a deep sense of both excitement and unease as we waited for this theatrical adaptation of the classic horror movie Paranormal Activity. There are two types of horror – splatter or psychological – and life long fan of the macabre Levi Holloway’s adaptation was most definitely on the creepy side, messing with our minds rather than splashing us with blood. Fans of the wildly successful Paranormal Activity franchise will enjoy this, but there’s plenty for people who never saw them at the flicks to enjoy as Holloway had...
Leeds Playhouse seek young stars as they launch an open casting for Coraline – A Musical
NEWS

Leeds Playhouse seek young stars as they launch an open casting for Coraline – A Musical

Leeds Playhouse is working with leading casting directors Keston & Keston to find young stars to play the lead role in Coraline – A Musical which opens in 2025 Candidates who will be asked to supply a self-tape must be 9-13 years old at the date of audition and live within approximately an hour’s commute from Leeds or Manchester. This is a paid role, and the Playhouse welcomes female and female-identifying young people and with additional access requirements. The closing date for applications is 30th June 2024. “Coraline is a curious, brave and resourceful young person. She is an unlikely but inspiring hero whose curiosity about the world matches her courage to face her biggest fears,”  says Leeds Playhouse Artistic Director James Brining, who will be directing the productio...
My Fair Lady – Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire & Humber

My Fair Lady – Leeds Playhouse

For many My Fair Lady is the ultimate big screen version of a musical, but famously the vocals of one of the leading actors was overdubbed and the other talked his way through the whole thing. This Leeds Playhouse co-production with Opera North offers a return to the original hit musical that featured a young Julie Andrews, and here both leads are great singers who do full justice to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s classic score packed with showstoppers. My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion that took its inspiration from a Greek myth where a sculptor fell in love with one of his creations. Lerner’s book turns it into a fable where an arrogant phonetician Henry Higgins takes on a bet he can turn any woman into a lady, so he plucks Cockney flower seller Eliza ...