Exeter Northcott Theatre announces autumn season

Exeter Northcott Theatre is delighted to announce its exciting autumn 2016 season. 

This season the theatre has cut its £2 transaction booking fee. Instead, customers who want their tickets posted will be asked to pay a small charge to cover postage costs.

After seven years local actor Steve Bennett will return to the Exeter Northcott Theatre this Christmas. Steve will play the roles of Mr Darling and Tinkerbell in Peter Pan. Featuring death defying feats of flying and a generous sprinkling of fairy dust, Peter Pan is the perfect festive treat for all the family.

Exeter will be the first stop on a tour of English Touring Theatre’s French Without Tears, a rare chance to see Terrence Rattigan’s ravishing 1930s comedy of young love and stiff upper lips.

Starring double BAFTA winner, Edward Fox, Sand in the Sandwiches travels through Betjeman’s boyhood, his adolescence, to life as Britain’s Poet Laureate, presenting a hugely entertaining insight into the world of this much-loved poet.

Other highlights of the autumn season include:

COMEDY:

Jenny Éclair brings her new tour, How to Be A Middle Aged Woman (Without Going Insane), to Exeter in October. Jenny is younger than Madonna but eats crisps and likes wine. Semi-bearded and suffering from outbreaks of gout and hysteria, Eclair puts middle age under the microscope and decides whether to laugh, cry or buy a dachshund! (Tues 4 October)

Pam Ayres has been making the nation laugh for over 40 years. Her work is funny, and approachable. Her hair-trigger timing, her eye for the detail of everyday life, and for the absurdity therein, makes for an art that hides art. (Sat 12 - Sun 13 November)

THEATRE:

Shakespeare’s Globe returns to the Exeter Northcott, this time with their Two Gentlemen of Verona. This riotous new production is led by a joyful ensemble of players who will delight with songs, romance and chaos, and hurl Shakespeare’s anarchic comedy into the 21st century. (Thu 8 - Sun 11 September)

Following last year’s critically acclaimed sold out run, Orange Tree Theatre and English Touring Theatre in association with Exeter Northcott Theatre present French Without Tears, the sparkling comedy that first established Terence Rattigan as “one of the supreme dramatists of the 20th century” (Fri 16 - Sat 24 September).

Complicite’s A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer is an all-singing, all-dancing examination of life with a cancer diagnosis. This brand new musical takes you on a whistle-stop tour through five unconventional stories about cancer, confronting the highs and lows of the scariest word we know. The production opens first in HOME in Manchester, before touring to Exeter Northcott and then heads to the National Theatre (Wed 28 September - Sun 2 October)

Join number one bestselling author, national treasure, and broadcaster Clare Balding for an evening full of inspirational stories and family entertainment to mark the publication of her very first children’s book The Racehorse Who Wouldn’t Gallop. (Wed 5 October)

21 characters, 2 actors and 1 of the most romantic stories of all time. Over 200 years after the nation’s favourite novel was published, Two Bit Classics’ adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is fast and very funny. This chance to catch the five Bennett sisters and the whole world of Austen brought to life by just two actors is a treat not to be missed. (Thu 13 - Sat 15 October)
Associated with the  University of Exeter’s Drama Department, Told by the Wind is a performance of movement and text that ‘dances’ an inner landscape and invites the audience to enter an imaginative space of possibilities. Critics have described the performance as ‘hypnotic’, ‘contemplative’, ‘mesmerizing,’ and ‘hauntingly poetic’. (Mon 17 October)

This Autumn, Graeme Swann, England’s greatest ever spin bowler is heading to Exeter with none other than cricket’s best loved commentator, Henry Blofeld. Who better to discuss the trials and tribulations of Swanny’s illustrious career than the man who commentated on it every step of the way, and who better for Henry to pass on his pearls of wisdom to after 40 years in the TMS commentary box. (Sat 22 October)

Produced by the award-winning Original Theatre Company (Birdsong, Three Men In A Boat, Invincible), Night Must Fall is a psychological thriller from master playwright Emlyn Williams  that has all the tension, atmosphere and suspicion of the best British mysteries and will leave you on the edge of your seat. (Tue 25 - Sat 29 October)
Dead Sheep is the true story of how Mrs Thatcher, once the most powerful woman in the world, was brought down by Geoffrey Howe, her one time friend and political soul mate, with one of the greatest speeches ever made. Howe, whose speaking skills saw him famously compared to a Dead Sheep, was inspired by his wife Elspeth, whose relationship with Mrs Thatcher was notoriously frosty. Margaret, Geoffrey and Elspeth:  a tale of love, honour, loyalty – and revenge. (Mon 31 October - Sat 5 November)

FAMILY EVENTS:

Metta Theatre is an Exeter Northcott Theatre Associate Company – making a triumphant return after their five-star smash-hit Jungle Book earlier this year. In September they bring their new show, Blown Away. Packed full of spectacular circus, magical puppetry and catchy songs this joyous new stage adaptation of Rob Biddulph’s award-winning children’s book is fun for all the family. (Sat 3 - Sun 4 September)

Monstersaurus is a brand new show from the creators of Aliens Love Underpants and is monster-ously good! Follow the young inventor Monty as he creates a whole world of whacky inventions and incredible monsters, but he has a problem – now he has made them all, what is he going to do with them?! This energetic show full of thrills, spills, magic and mayhem will delight the whole family –with original music and plenty of audience participation! (Sun 25 September)

With songs, puppets and a family of performing penguins, Mr Poppers Penguins is a delightful musical adaptation of Richard and Florence Atwater’s popular book (also made in to a Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey) is brought to you by the producers of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. (Sat 8 October)

Aerial circus company Ockham’s Razor presents its new full length show, Tipping Point.  Set in the round, the action veers from catastrophe to mastery as five performers transform simple five-metre metal poles into a rich landscape of images.  Poles are balanced on fingertips, hung from the roof, lashed, climbed, swung from and walked along, they become forests, cross-roads and pendulums. (Mon 7 - Tue 8 November)

Exetreme Imagination

Exeter Northcott Theatre is delighted to be involved in exetreme imagination, Exeter’s festival of writing and stories. Here are the events in the festival taking place at Exeter Northcott Theatre:

Jasmin Vardimon’s innovative take on Pinocchio will be at the theatre in October. Bringing to life the famous marionette, the show follows Pinocchio as he embarks on a fantastic journey to become a human boy. Showcasing Vardimon’s trademark theatrical style, the piece combines physical theatre, quirky characterisation and innovative technologies with text and dance to explore the idea of what it means to be human. With clever, engaging drama and witty observations, Pinocchio takes audiences on a wonderful journey of discovery through the landscape of this timeless fable. (Wed 19 - Fri 21 October)

Le Navet Bete’s Dick Tracy is a physical comedy influenced by the world-famous detective incorporating fooling, original live music, plenty of audience interaction, lightening quick character changes, incredibly authentic accents spattered with mystery, malice and mischief. Le Navet Bete are a new Associate Company of the Exeter Northcott Theatre. (Sun 23 October)
Join master storyteller, and award winning author, Michael Morpurgo as he speaks about his work including his latest book Didn’t We Have a Lovely Time.  It’s inspired by his charity Farms for City Children, which was founded by Michael and his wife Clare and is now celebrating its 40th year. (Sat 29 October)

DANCE:

Move It! are proud to introduce Devon’s brand new showcase for young performers. Over 300 students from various dance studios and educational schools will be collaborating to bring you an exciting array of performances, highlighting the rise in talent from across the county. Move It! are dedicated to providing young performers with exciting opportunities to showcase their talents to the community, so come along and show your support for Devon’s stars of tomorrow! (Sun 9 October)

A gritty and explosive brand new triple bill from the award winning and physically adventurous 2Faced Dance Company. Featuring three new exhilarating commissions by world class choreographers Tamsin Fitzgerald, Lenka Vagnerova and newcomer Rebecca Evans, RUN explores the darker side of humanity, through an explosion of movement, theatre and design. 2Faced Dance is one of the UK’s leading and award-winning male, urban contemporary dance companies. (Tue 11 October)

Chance to Dance, now in its eighth year at Exeter Northcott Theatre, has invited dancing schools and dance groups from in and around Exeter and the wider areas of Devon, Somerset and Dorset, to showcase the many styles of dance taught and the passion the dancers have to perform on such a great stage. (Sun 30 October)

Ballet Black’s return to Exeter Northcott sees them collaborating with three bold and inventive choreographers to present an irresistible trilogy of narrative and abstract dance. As the centrepiece, Christopher Hamspson’s Storyville is the bittersweet fable of Nola, a farm girl who falls prey to unscrupulous characters and wordly desires in 1920s New Orleans, set to the haunting music of Kurt Weill.

OPERA

English Touring Opera return to Exeter for another season of fantastic opera.  Venice, the birthplace of opera as we now know it, was a city of fabulous wealth, learning, trade and sensuality. The most fantastic of all its “follies”, the marriage of poetry, music and art, is opera.
One of ETO’s most warm-hearted and humorous productions of recent years, Xerxes is Handel at his best, sometimes fiery and explosive, at other times deeply touching. (Tue 22 November)
One of the certain masterpieces of Venice’s glory days is Monteverdi’s crowing achievement, Ulysses’ Homecoming – one of the most profound musical meditations upon the ravages and costs of warfare, for both those who return, and those to whom they are returned. (Thu 24 - Sat 26 November)
Cavalli’s La Calisto irreverently charts the relations between gods, men and women, in a score so rich and heady it must have drawn as many blushes as gasps when first heard. (Wed 23 November)

BUYING TICKETS:

Tickets for the Spring/Summer 2016 season are on sale from Friday 10 June. Call the Exeter Northcott Theatre box office on 01392 726363 or book your seats online at the Exeter Northcott Theatre website: www.exeternorthcott.co.uk. Alternatively buy in person from Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB