Nottingham Playcast

We bring you an interview with our Artistic Director Adam Penford who is directing this years Pantomime, Dick Whittington. He shares his process as a director and gives an insight into life as the Artistic Director.
Find out how he manages to do it all.


The legendary Playhouse panto returns full of sparkle, excitement and fun. Our hero’s incredible escapades take him onto the High Seas, into battle with the evil King Rat and see him fall head over heels in love with his boss’s daughter Alice. All the while the magical Bow Bells are whispering his destiny – to become Mayor of London!

Packed with dazzling dance, a brilliant live band and swashbuckling adventure, the show reunites us with Nottingham’s favourite panto dame John Elkington, who’ll be serving up some comedy chaos as Sarah the Cook.

Full of fun, singing and lots of action – we promise to have you buzzing from a fantastic, festive night out.

Support the show

We bring you an interview with Adrian Scarborough./An exclusive interview with Adrian Scarborough who, alongside Sophie Thompson stars in The Clothes They Stood Up In, his adaptation of Alan Bennett’s novella. He talks about how it felt to take on such a celebrated writer’s work , and why we should all be coming to see this play.

Adrian has adapted Alan Bennett's novella The Clothes The Stood Up In, which is at the Playhouse Fri 9 Sep – Sat 1 Oct
Get your tickets here

The Clothes They Stood Up In
“Everything’s gone. Furniture, blinds. They even managed to carry off a hot oven and the ‘sticky chicken casserole’. They can’t be human.”

Starring Olivier Award winning actors Sophie Thompson (Detectorists, Sex Education, Present Laughter, Gosford Park, Eastenders, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and Adrian Scarborough (The Madness of George III, Leopoldstadt, Gavin and Stacey).

A night at the opera ends with a shock for mild-mannered couple Maurice and Rosemary Ransome when they open their front door to discover their flat completely empty. From light bulbs to carpets to toilet paper, even their chicken casserole has been stolen.

The Ransomes turn detective to try and work out who is behind this outrageous act, and why and how they did it. Along the way, they are forced to examine their lives when stripped bare of the worldly possessions that define us all. Should they rebuild their old life, or begin afresh?

A bittersweet exploration of marriage, dreams and lives unlived, Adrian Scarborough’s adaptation brings Bennett’s hilarious story to the stage for the first time, capturing his trademark observational wit in this gentle and darkly surprising tale.

Support the show

The Playcast is back!
We bring you an interview with Stiles and Drewe.
Stiles and Drewe are the minds behind the music and lyrics of our new show Identical which plays at Nottingham Playhouse Tue 26 Jul – Sun 14 Aug
Get your tickets here

Stiles and Drewe are multi award-winning writers George Stiles & Anthony Drewe. Shows include: Identical, Becoming Nancy, Mary Poppins, Half A Sixpence, Wind in the Willows, Honk!

Identical
This classic tale tells the story of twin girls separated at birth and reunited by chance at a summer camp ten years later. To get to know their parents and reconcile the two halves of their family, they decide to swap places and live each other’s lives.

Best known for the ever-popular Disney movies which made stars of Hayley Mills in1961 and Lindsay Lohan in 1998. This world premiere is directed by Trevor Nunn responsible for some of the world’s greatest musicals (Les Misérables, Starlight Express, Cats and Sunset Boulevard) and comes from the producer of Top Hat, The Play That Goes Wrong and the international hit musical Six.

Identical has music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, the multi award-winning writers of the West End hit Honk! who also created a new score for the international smash-hit Cameron Mackintosh/Disney production of Mary Poppins, and a book by Stuart Paterson.

Identical is the must-see musical of the summer.

The Playcast is back!
We bring you an interview with Nathaniel Price.
Nathaniel is the writer of First Touch which arrives at Nottingham Playhouse on Sat 7th May.
Get your tickets here

Nathaniel is a writer for film, television, theatre and radio. He graduated from the National Film & Television School with an MA in Screenwriting in 2016 – where he was a David Lean Scholar.

Nathaniel has a number of original dramas in development including, Amsterdam (Moonage Pictures/BBC), Hamelin (Gaumont), and Supernatural (Clerkwenwell Films/Sky) and is one of the co-creators of The Beast Must Die, a collaborative adaptation with Matthew Read for Moonage Pictures/BBC. Nathaniel is also working on an adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo’s novel Mr Loverman for Fable Pictures, and Bonnie & Clyde for New Pictures.

Nathaniel wrote two episodes for the acclaimed BBC1 drama Noughts & Crosses (Mammoth Screen/BBC) and episodes on Tin Star II & III (Kudos/Gaumont/Sky). His episode of The Offenders II, Stephen Merchant’s series for BBC 1 shot in 2021.

First Touch is Nathaniel’s first original full-length play, and opens at the Nottingham Playhouse on May 7th 2022.

The Playcast is back!
We return with the first episode of the season brining you an interview with Caroline Bird.
Caroline is the writer of Red Ellen which arrives at Nottingham Playhouse on Weds 13th April.
Get your tickets here

Bio
Caroline won The Forward Prize for best poetry collection in 2020. She was shortlisted for the Costa Prize 2020, the TS Eliot Prize 2017, the Ted Hughes Award 2017, and the Dylan Thomas Prize twice in 2008 and 2010. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014. She has also won an Eric Gregory Award (2002) and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year award two years running (1999, 2000), and was a winner of the Poetry London Competition in 2007, the Peterloo Poetry Competition in 2004, 2003 and 2002. Caroline was on the shortlist for Shell Woman Of The Future Awards 2011.

Caroline has had six collections of poetry published by Carcanet. Her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes (published in 2002 when she was only 15) is a topical, zesty and formally delightful collection of poems built on the traditions of fairy tale, fantasy and romance. Her second collection, Trouble Came to the Turnip, was published in September 2006 to critical acclaim. Watering Can, her third collection published in November 2009 celebrates life as an early twenty-something with comedy, wordplay and bright self-deprecation. Her fourth collection, The Hat-Stand Union, was described by Simon Armitage as ‘spring-loaded, funny, sad and deadly.’ Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition (published July 2017) was shortlisted for the 2017 TS Eliot Prize and the 2017 Ted Hughes Award. Her sixth collection, The Air Year was published in February 2020, and was book of the month in The Telegraph, book of the year in the Guardian, shortlisted for the Costa Prize, and winner of the Forward Prize.

Bird’s poems have been published in several anthologies and journals including Poetry Magazine, PN Review, Poetry Review and The North magazine. Several of her poems and a commissioned short story, Sucking Eggs, have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3. She was one of the five official poets at London Olympics 2012. Her poem, The Fun Palace, which celebrates the life and work of Joan Littlewood, is now erected on the Olympic Site outside the main stadium.

In recent years, Caroline has given poetry performances at Aldeburgh Festival, Latitude Festival, the Manchester Literature Festival, the Wellcome Collection, the Royal Festival Hall, the Wordsworth Trust, Cheltenham Festival, and Ledbury Festival, amongst others.

Caroline Bird began writing plays as a teenager when she was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. In 2011 Caroline was invited to take part in Sixty Six Books by the Bush Theatre. She wrote a piece inspired by Leviticus, directed by Peter Gill. In February 2012, her Beano-inspired musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace was performed in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre.

Caroline’s new version of The Trojan Women premiered at the Gate Theatre at the end of 2012 to wide critical acclaim. Caroline’s play Chamber Piece

Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Rachel Bagshaw

Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Stewart Pringle

Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Luke Barnes

Luke is playwright, screenwriter and theatre maker using live performance and film to tell stories and make a good night out that’s both useful for use as humans and as a community.

Highlights includes: No One Will Tell Me How To Start A Revolution (Hampstead Theatre), All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Paines Plough Roundabout with Middle Child), Bottleneck (Soho Theatre with HighTide), Chapel Street (Bush Theatre), Weekend Rockstars & Ten Storey Love Song (Hull Truck with Middle Child), The Saints (Nuffield, Southampton), The Men In Blue, Fable & Me, In Prison (Young Vic) & A Wondrous Place (Royal Exchange).

He is an avid Liverpool fan and average (to poor) musician.

Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Natalie Dew

Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Nancy Medina

Nancy hails from Brooklyn, New York. She received her MA in Drama Directing from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she now returns as a visiting Acting tutor. She is based in Bristol and is co-Artistic Director of Bristol School of Acting.

Nancy is one of three recipients of the 2020/2021 National Theatre Sir Peter Hall Bursary.

Awards:

RTST SIR PETER HALL DIRECTOR AWARD

TWO TRAINS RUNNING (2019)

GENESIS FUTURE DIRECTOR’S AWARD

YELLOWMAN (2017)

EMERGING DIRECTOR PRIZE

STRAWBERRY & CHOCOLATE (2014)

Credits include:

The Laramie Project Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 2020, Two Trains Running Royal & Derngate/English Touring Theatre 2019, Strange Fruit Bush Theatre 2019, The Half God of Rainfall Fuel & Kiln Theatre &Birmingham Rep 2019 and Curried Goat and Fish Fingers Bristol Old Vic 2018