THEATRE
Compiled by Sam Pryce
NATIONAL THEATRE WALES’S NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Since 200 actors, writers and theatre-makers signed a petition last year criticising the NTW’s poor output and bias towards non-Welsh artists since the departure of John McGrath, the future of our national theatre has been somewhat uncertain. Scottish director Lorne Campbell, artistic director of Northern Stage in Newcastle since 2013, takes over from Kully Thiarai in the spring and promises to bring “a new energy and vitality to theatre in Wales”, according to the company’s chair, Clive Jones. Little is known about his planned first season, but if NTW is to survive, it ought to put Welsh talent first.
Info: www.nationaltheatrewales.org
WELSH NATIONAL OPERA SPRING SEASON
Two cornerstones of the repertoire bookend WNO’s Spring Season, which includes operas linked by a preoccupation with fiery passion: Bizet’s sensual masterpiece Carmen and Mozart’s wedding-night comedy The Marriage Of Figaro. David Pountney, who ended his tenure as artistic director mid-2019, returns to complete his Verdi trilogy with his production of its final part Les Vêpres Siciliennes, reuniting with the same creative team. Things are changing up at WNO for 2020, with Yvette Vaughan Jones stepping into the role of chair (the first woman to do so), Aidan Lang as general director, and a new artistic director on the horizon.
Info: www.wno.org.uk
SHERMAN THEATRE’S 2020 SEASON
Cutting his teeth as Associate Director of The Old Vic and Soho Theatre, as well as new writing company Nabokov, Joe Murphy has announced his first season as the new artistic director at Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre, made up of “high-impact, emotional stories rooted in Wales but relevant to the world.” From Lisa Parry’s howl of rage The Merthyr Stigmatist to Brad Birch’s Valleys-set reinterpretation of Ibsen’s An Enemy Of The People, Murphy has said the Sherman aims to “show a lot of different versions of what it is to be Welsh.” With the first play in the season being a new Welsh-language play, and with numerous programmes in place to give a leg-up to emerging Welsh writers, we know he means business.
Info: www.shermantheatre.co.uk
KAITE O’REILLY’S THE BEAUTY PARADE
Wales-based playwright and pioneering theatre-maker Kaite O’Reilly challenges our perceptions on what it is to be disabled in her varied work for the stage. With 1940s drama, The Beauty Parade, she has created a unique collaboration between deaf and hearing artists centred around the real-life, ordinary, invisible women who secretly operated as spies and saboteurs during World War II. With composer Rebecca Applin and performer/visual language expert Sophie Stone on board, this production at Wales Millennium Centre looks set to be one of the theatrical highlights of the coming year.
Info: www.wmc.org.uk