Tamara Harvey and Liam Evans-Ford announce the reopening of Theatr Clwyd

Artistic Director Tamara Harvey and Executive Director Liam Evans-Ford announce the reopening of Theatr Clwyd, and the programming of four world première productions as part of Theatr Clwyd’s 2021 season.

The season opens with Alan Harris’ For The Grace of You Go I with James Grieve directing Remy Beasley, Darren Jeffries, Rhodri Meilir; then continues with Curtain Up, a three-week season of fifteen new plays from Welsh playwrights – Meredydd Barker, Matthew Bulgo, Katherine Chandler, Amy Bethan Evans, Ciaran Fitzgerald, Rebecca Jade Hammond, Tracy Harris, Ming Ho, Mari Izzard, Jennifer Lunn, Samantha O’Rourke, Lisa Parry, Kristian Phillips, Mali Ann Rees and Alun Saunders; Tamara Harvey then directs Isla by Tim Price – in a co-production with the Royal Court Theatre; and completing the season is Missing Julie by Kaite O’Reilly freely adapted from Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Named by The Stage as the 2020 Regional Theatre of the Year, Theatr Clwyd is continuing its work of supporting local and emerging artists with an open call for creatives for Missing Julie in partnership with #OpenHire.

Also as part of the new season the Outdoor Stage will return this summer from 10th June to 11th September with a festival of music, comedy, theatre, dance and family shows, with the full programme to be announced shortly.

Tamara Harvey said today, “If the last year has taught us anything, it’s taught us that we don’t know what the future holds. What we do know now, is that whatever happens, we will make theatre at Theatr Clwyd this year. Working with some of the most exciting writers, creatives and actors from across Wales and the wider UK, we are bringing these amazing stories, new and old, to life on our stages. Theatres in Wales are finally, for the first time in 14 months, able to open. So right now, we know we can share this brilliant season with our audiences here in our building. If there’s a moment when that becomes impossible, we’ll find new and different ways of sharing these stories across the miles. But whatever happens, we will make theatre. Because now more than ever, our audiences and our artists need us to bring everyone together to laugh and cry, and celebrate our shared humanity. It’s time.”

All productions will be staged in line with current Welsh government guidelines, with contingencies in place for livestreamed performances and outdoor performance spaces.

For The Grace of You Go I and Curtain Up are on sale from 4th May 2021, with Isla and Missing Julie on sale mid-June.

THEATR EMLYN WILLIAMS

WORLD PREMIÈRE

FOR THE GRACE OF YOU GO I by Alan Harris

Cast: Remy Beasley, Darren Jeffries, Rhodri Meilir

Directed by James Grieve; Designed by Jacob Hughes; Lighting Design by Katharine Williams

Sound Design by Dominic Kennedy; Video Design by Daniel Denton

12th – 25th June

Jimmy’s writing messages. In pepperoni. On top of pizzas.

Adding meats to “handmade” artisan pizzas, Jim’s life is going nowhere. But after watching the film I Hired A Contract Killer, he’s found a solution – he’ll just put out a hit on himself.

What could possibly go wrong?

A darkly funny, quick-witted, fast-moving new comedy by acclaimed writer Alan Harris (Love, Lies & Taxidermy).

A filmed version of the show will be available later this year.

Alan Harris’ plays include Sugar Baby (Edinburgh Fringe 2017, Soho Theatre 2018), How My Light is Spent (winner of the Judges’ Award at the 2015 Bruntwood Prize, produced by the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Sherman Theatre and Theatre By The Lake), Love, Lies and Taxidermy (Paines Plough, Theatr Clwyd and Sherman Theatre), The Opportunity of Efficiency (New National Theatre Tokyo / National Theatre Wales), A Good Night Out in The Valleys (the inaugural production of the newly formed National Theatre Wales), The Future For Beginners (liveartshow / Wales Millennium Centre), The Magic Toyshop (Invisible Ink / Theatr Iolo), Cardboard Dad (Sherman Cymru), Miss Brown To You (Hijinx Theatre), and Orange (Sgript Cymru).

Remy Beasley plays Irina. Her previous theatre credits include Do Our Best (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Growth, Love Lies and Taxidermy, I got Superpowers for my Birthday (Paines Plough), The Insatiable, Silly Kings, Little Dogs, Love Steals Us From Loneliness (National Theatre Wales), Symphony (Lyric Hammersmith, UK tour), and Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe). For television, her credits include The Salisbury Poisinings, Shakespeare and Hathaway, The Tourist Trap, Sick of It, and Stella.

Darren Jeffries plays Mark. His previous theatre credits include The Sensational Emmet Bradshaw and Trevor (Slung Low) This Is Where We Are (HOME Manchester), Dear Nomad (Octagon Theatre), Eight (Oldham Coliseum), My Version of Events (Hope Mill Theatre), Shirley (Square Chapel Arts Centre), and When Both Sides Surrender (53two). For television, his credits include series regular Sam O’Brien in Hollyoaks.

Rhodri Meilir plays Jim. His previous theatre credits include Dwyn I Gof (Theatr Bara Caws), How My Light is Spent (UK tour), The Funfair (HOME Manchester), Bright Phoenix (Everyman Theatre), Mametz, Dau.Un.Un.Dim/Yn Y Tren, Gwlad Yr Addewid/House Of America (National Theatre Wales), and Actorion Yn Dweud Storiau/Actors Telling Stories (Sherman Cymru). For television, his credits include Byw Celwydd, Craith/Hidden, In My Skin, Merched Parchus, Y Gwyll/Hinterland, and Frontier.

James Grieve returns to Theatr Clwyd to direct – he previously directed The Assassination of Katie Hopkins. He was joint Artistic Director of Paines Plough – the UK’s national theatre of new plays – where his credits for the company included Out Of Love, Black Mountain and How To Be A Kid (Roundabout, Theatr Clwyd and Orange Tree), Angry Brigade and Jumpers For Goalposts (Bush Theatre), Hopelessly Devoted (Tricycle Theatre, UK Tour), Wasted (Latitude Festival), Tiny Volcanoes (Liverpool Everyman) You Cannot Go Forward From Where You Are Right Now (Traverse Theatre). Other credits include the forthcoming God’s Dice (Soho Theatre), the award-winning Translations (Sheffield Theatres), The Whisky Taster, Psychogeography (Bush Theatre) and The List (Arcola Theatre).

THEATR EMLYN WILLIAMS

CURTAIN UP

By Meredydd Barker, Matthew Bulgo, Katherine Chandler, Amy Bethan Evans, Ciaran Fitzgerald, Rebecca Jade Hammond, Tracy Harris, Ming Ho, Mari Izzard, Jennifer Lunn, Samantha O’Rourke, Lisa Parry, Kristian Phillips, Mali Ann Rees and Alun Saunders

Directed by Tamara Harvey with associates Francesca Goodridge and Emyr John

16th August – 4th September

30 Actors. 15 writers. 3 weeks. 1 Season

Short plays by Wales’ most exciting writers. Theatre at its most live. Each week five new short plays, performed as a collection together by 10 actors. The audience decide who plays who and their props and costumes.

THEATR EMLYN WILLIAMS

WORLD PREMIÈRE

MISSING JULIE by Kaite O’Reilly

Freely adapted from Strindberg’s Miss Julie

16th September – 9th October

Miss Julie, the heiress of a Welsh stately home, finds herself in a world radically changed by The Great War. Robbed of marriage after the carnage in the trenches, she is one of the ‘surplus women’, facing the possibility of a solitary life. In one night of desperate liberation, it seems that the old hierarchies may be over… Will she dare to break all taboos with her servant, John?

Freely adapted from Strindberg’s play about class and social Darwinism, Missing Julie gives the controversial classic a twentieth century twist.

The production’s director is to be recruited as part of the #OpenHire campaign.

Kaite O’Reilly is a playwright, radio dramatist, writer, and dramaturg who works in disability arts and culture and mainstream culture. Her work includes And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/UK ‘d’ Monologues’ (Elliot Hayes Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy honouree), Lie With Me, Woman of Flowers, The 9 Fridas, The Echo Chamber, Told by the Wind, peeling, The Almond and the Seahorse (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist), Persians (winner of Ted Hughes Award for New Works in Poetry), I Fall to Pieces, In Praise of Fallen Women, Speaking Stones, Silent Rhythm, Henhouse, Perfect (winner of Manchester Theatre Awards’ Play of the Year), and Yard (winner of Peggy Ramsay Award). O’Reilly received two Cultural Olympiad Commissions for In Water I’m Weightless and Leaner Faster Stronger, during the 2012 London Paralympics/Olympics.

THEATR EMLYN WILLIAMS

WORLD PREMIÈRE

Theatr Clwyd and Royal Court Theatre present

ISLA By Tim Price

Directed by Tamara Harvey

16th October – 6th November

Do algorithms and machine learning set us free, or trap us forever?

Roger hates technology, but when his daughter gives him an Isla device for Lockdown 2020, he finds himself opening up to the virtual assistant device. What happens when the only fulfilling relationship you have is with a digital slave?

Isla asks what are the costs and benefits of machine learning…and do we want the AIs to learn from us?

Tim Price is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter. His plays include For Once, Salt Root and Roe (winner of Best English Language playwright at the Theatre Critics of Wales Award), Demos, The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (winner of the James Tait Black prize for drama), I’m With the Band, Protest Song and The Internet Is Serious Business. He is associate playwright at the Traverse theatre and co-founder of Welsh new writing company Dirty Protest.

Tamara Harvey has been Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd since August 2015. Most recently she directed the award-winning What A Carve Up! and The Picture of Dorian Gray (both online), Orpheus Descending (co-production with Menier Chocolate Factory), and the world premières of Pavilion, and Home I’m Darling by Laura Wade – which was nominated for UK Theatre and Evening Standard Awards, as well as five Olivier Awards, winning the Olivier for Best New Comedy. Also for the company she has directed The Panto That Nearly Never Was!, Much Ado About Nothing, the première of Elinor Cook’s award-winning play, Pilgrims, Skylight by David Hare and the première of Peter Gill’s version of Uncle Vanya (Best Production, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director in the English Language at the Wales Theatre Awards). She has directed in the West End, throughout the UK and abroad, working on classic plays, new writing, musical theatre and in film. Her previous credits include the world premières of From Here to Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), Breeders (St James Theatre), The Kitchen Sink, The Contingency Plan, Sixty-Six Books and tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre), In the Vale of Health (a cycle of four plays by Simon Gray), Elephants and Hello/Goodbye (Hampstead Theatre), Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre & West End). Other theatre includes Kreutzer vs Kreutzer (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse/Royal Festival Hall), Bash (Trafalgar Studios), Whipping It Up (New Ambassadors), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Gielgud & Garrick Theatres), the UK première of Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Finborough Theatre) and Pride and Prejudice (Sheffield Theatres).