Liz Lochhead News

The Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) production of BACK THE NIGHT opens tonight.

The Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) production of BACK THE NIGHT opens this week.

The Original Theatre Company and Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds will present the first national tour of Torben Betts's INVINCIBLE, directed by Christopher Harper. The tour will begin at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds on 30 March.

The Edinburgh-based theatre companies and performers who will present work at this year's Traverse Hothouse showcase are set. They are Urban Fox, Heather Marshall, Melanie Jordan & Caitlin Skinner and Trig Point. They will perform their work in Traverse 2 this week, 10 - 13 November. The pieces are at various stages of development and audience input is being sought by the artists as part of their development process.

The Edinburgh-based theatre companies and performers who will present work at this year's Traverse Hothouse showcase are announced today. They are Urban Fox, Heather Marshall, Melanie Jordan & Caitlin Skinner and Trig Point. They will perform their work in Traverse 2 from 10 - 13 November. The pieces are at various stages of development and audience input is being sought by the artists as part of their development process.

As the Traverse Theatre enjoys an acclaimed Festival programme it launches its Autumn season today (17 August), featuring a programme of world-class productions, festivals and engagement events. Traverse Theatre Company production, Tracks of the Winter Bear by Rona Munro and Stephen Greenhorn, premieres on 9 December, bringing to a close a season of work that reinforces the Traverse's position as one of the UK's foremost new writing theatres. 

The Tron Theatre is delighted to announce its Autumn/Winter 2015 season, a strong programme of new work as well as adaptations of classic texts, and with familiar faces and visiting companies alongside emergent talent and new voices in the sector. Highlights will include:

Neil Murray and Graham McLaren believe in the concept of a National Theatre that 'reaches all of the country'.

TwoSheds Theatre presents MUSWELL HILL by Torben Betts. Director Roger Mortimer-Smith. Designer Nancy Surman. Muswell Hill runs today 12 August - 31 August.

A show has been cancelled at the Edinburgh Fringe after vocal protests from leading cultural figures, reports suggest.

January 2010 - an earthquake in Haiti leaves a hundred thousand people dead and almost two million homeless. Meanwhile in a leafy north London suburb, six individuals sit down to avocado and prawns - 'so reassuringly 1970s' - followed by a monkfish stew. They admire their host's beautifully appointed kitchen, fret about their 'ambitious' mortgages, make holiday plans, compare mobile phone tariffs, connect with Facebook friends, and worry that they might after all just be ordinary - will history remember any of them, and if so, what for? A social event in which much is said but little communicated rapidly disintegrates as the wine flows and some hard truths are told.

January 2010 - an earthquake in Haiti leaves a hundred thousand people dead and almost two million homeless. Meanwhile in a leafy north London suburb, six individuals sit down to avocado and prawns - 'so reassuringly 1970s' - followed by a monkfish stew. They admire their host's beautifully appointed kitchen, fret about their 'ambitious' mortgages, make holiday plans, compare mobile phone tariffs, connect with Facebook friends, and worry that they might after all just be ordinary - will history remember any of them, and if so, what for? A social event in which much is said but little communicated rapidly disintegrates as the wine flows and some hard truths are told.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Dundee Rep Ensemble present Woman In Mind by Alan Ayckbourn, and directed by Marilyn Imrie. The production runs through Saturday 28 June, and officially opens tonight, Tuesday 17 June, 7pm. Check out a first look below!

Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Dundee Rep Ensemble present Woman In Mind by Alan Ayckbourn, and directed by Marilyn Imrie. The production opens tomorrow June 13 and runs through Saturday 28 June. Press Night: Tuesday 17 June, 7pm.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Dundee Rep Ensemble present Woman In Mind by Alan Ayckbourn, and directed by Marilyn Imrie. Performances run Friday 13 to Saturday 28 June. Press Night: Tuesday 17 June, 7pm.

This is not one of those dreadful parodies, or ridiculously camp exaggerations. This production plays it dead straight.

Can you feel it, coming in the air? No, it's not weeks and weeks of more terrible weather (though that's coming, too). Coach House's spring titles are nearly here! We're champing at the bit to show you our new 2014 titles - like Andre Alexis's Pastoral and Brecken Hancock's Broom Broom - but before that happens, there's a wheelbarrow full of book goodness happening this March. From Sina Queyras's launches for MxT to the must-be-seen-to-be-believed Eunoia dance performances and the brand-new Pages Festival, March is a reader's winter wonderland. So huddle under some blankets and warm yourself by the glow of our March mailbot.

Vain actors and productions in the process of going wrong are popular, if tedious, topics for Fringe plays, perhaps in an attempt to acquire an audience of theatrical types who will recognise themselves on stage. "God Bless Liz Lochhead" bucks the trend of such shows, not least by having more to talk about than deluded quirky performers, but also by being a sharp and genuinely funny production.

Gary Naylor sees a play set in the 16th century with plenty of relevance today.

Previously only seen in London for one week at the Donmar Warehousein 1987, Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off will get its first full London season, 25 years after its Scottish premiere, directed by Olivier Award Winning La Boheme director Robin Norton-Hale at the King's Head Theatre, Islington, now through Saturday 22 June. Press night is tomorrow, Friday 31 May at 7.15pm. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!