In a show of support for Sheffield Theatres, Chesterfield-based B&B Vehicle Contracts, which operates across South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, has given the theatre one of its new vans for a year.

And, as well as transporting props around, it is also hoped the vehicle, which carries the Sheffield Theatres logo, will also be used for school visits and, with its back doors open, as a miniature performance area!

Steve Barker. a director in B&B, said: “Sheffield Theatres is involved in all kinds of important projects in the community, such as school visits, and deserves every encouragement to continue with this valuable work. It’s the company’s way of giving something back to the city where we do much of our vehicle leasing and contract work.”

Steve, of Whirlow, Sheffield, added: “As a family, we’ve always had a natural affinity with the theatre and that’s another reason for supporting Sheffield Theatres. It’s the first time we’ve been involved in this sort of project and we’re delighted with the way it’s working out.”
B&B Vehicles was established 15 years ago and supplies all makes and models of both cars and vans to many local and national companies.

Andrew Loretto, Creative Producer at Sheffield Theatres said: “We are delighted to be working with B & B Vehicle Contracts and want to thank them for recognising and supporting the work we do both at Sheffield Theatres and across the city. The vehicle will make a big difference to helping us realise our plans to work with artists, communities and spaces throughout the greater Sheffield area, and will also help staff working on Crucible Theatre productions such as The Way of the World.”

Ends

The talent of the ensemble cast has been complimented by The Daily Telegraph. The Guardian review congratulated Samuel Barnett as Witwoud for his masterful comic-timing and applauded the riotously funny performance by Deborah Findlay as Lady Wishfort.

The Star, amongst others, admired the sumptuous costuming and visual spectacle of The Way of the World. The Stage praised Lyndsey Turner’s zestful direction in bringing fresh relevance to the play of 1700, while The Sheffield Telegraph noted the pace and sparkling wit of the dialogue with its memorable one-liners.

The Way of the World runs until Sat 25 February. Tickets are available from Box Office on 0114 249 6000 and online here and are priced £15.00 – £21.00

All photography by Johan Persson

Copenhagen explores the uncertainty of the past and the inevitability of the future, through a story based on the real-life events of two eminent scientists at the height of the Second World War. Henry Goodman (Fiddler on the Roof) and Geoffrey Streatfeild (Calum in Spooks) play Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, the friends meeting for the last time. They will joined by Barbara Flynn as Bohr’s wife, Margrethe, who returns to Sheffield for the first time since performing on the Crucible stage in the hugely successful Hamlet, in 2010. This new production will be directed by David Grindley, who previously directed the Olivier Award-nominated and Tony Award-winning revival of Journey’s End, which toured to the Lyceum last autumn.

Benefactors, on stage in the Studio Theatre, is a comedy about idealism, realism and the tangled nature of human relationships, set against a backdrop of a high-rise building project with the aim of improving housing facilities in one suburb of London. Charlotte Gwinner (Knowledge/Little Platoons at the Bush Theatre, 2011) will direct Abigail Cruttenden (Benidorm and Sharpe), Rebecca Lacey (May to December), Simon Wilson (EastEnders, Waking the Dead, Doctors) and Andrew Woodall in this Olivier Award-winning comedy.

Rounding off The Michael Frayn Season is Democracy, a witty and compelling play about an inspirational man. Willy Brandt, one of the most charismatic leaders in post-war politics, makes history as he starts to reunite Europe. But he discovers things aren’t as straightforward as they seem when a spy is uncovered in his office and his plans are thrown into chaos.

A fantastic ensemble of actors will bring to life the political world of Democracy. Andrew Bridgmont (War Horse, National Theatre), David Carr (American Trade and Comedy of Errors, RSC), Patrick Drury (Cold Blood, Silent Witness and Inspector Morse), Ed Hughes, Richard Hope (Malokeh in Dr Who, Holby City and EastEnders), William Hoyland, David Mallinson, Aidan McArdle (Silvester in Garrow’s Law), James Quinn and Rupert Vansittart all star in this new production, directed by Associate Director of Sheffield Theatres, Paul Miller (True West and Hamlet).

Sheffield Theatres’ Artistic Director Daniel Evans` said: ‘Following the success of last year’s David Hare Season, I am delighted to dedicate a festival to the work of Michael Frayn this year. Michael is certainly one of the most significant figures in British theatre with a career spanning nearly half a century. I’m thrilled to present three of his plays for the first time ever at Sheffield Theatres. To have such talented casts and creative teams under the direction of David Grindley, Charlotte Gwinner and Paul Miller is fantastic, and I cannot wait to see them bring these extraordinary plays to life across all three of our stages simultaneously.’

Speaking about the season himself, Michael Frayn said: ‘To have a season of my plays at Sheffield Theatres is a great honour for me, and I’m very grateful to Daniel Evans for his (characteristic) boldness in embarking upon it. It’s been set up with striking panache, and I hope that this in itself will make the occasion a memorable one.’

To complement the three plays Sheffield Theatres has programmed rehearsed play readings of The Sneeze (Friday 9 March), Here (Friday 16 March) and Wild Honey (Friday 23 March) and a reading of extracts from Michael Frayn’s novels and columns (Friday 30 March). Also, on Friday 23 March there will be an In Conversation event with Frayn himself about his life and work.

Tickets for each play in the season are on sale now, priced from £10.00. Book for all three main stage plays in the Michael Frayn Season at the same time and save 10% on the price of your tickets. For more information and to book, call the Box Office 0114 249 6000 or visit sheffieldtheatres.co.uk.

Read more about the season via The Independent

Photo by Ekko von Schwichow

In May, audiences can enjoy the original high-school musical, Grease, starring Danny Bayne (winner of ITV’s Grease Is The Word, Hairspray) as bad boy Danny, Carina Gillespie (Grease, Buddy) as Sandy and X Factor‘s* Rhydian Roberts* as Teen Angel.

The international smash-hit production of Hair visits the Lyceum Theatre on its first ever UK tour. Telling the story of a group of people fighting for peace, love and freedom in 1960s New York, this show featurs classic songs including_ Aquarius, Let The Sunshine I_n and the infectious, Hair.

The History of the Big Bands with X Factor‘s Andy Abraham, will take audiences on a musical journey that revisits the very best of the swing era in an evening of high energy, virtuoso musicianship and wonderful songs.

Breakin’ Convention, the critically acclaimed festival of hip-hop dance theatre, will entertain audiences once more with jaw-dropping performances from local and international artisits, including performances from Clash 66 (France & Korea) and World B-Boy Champions Vagabond Crew (France).

Finally, Cinderella, Sheffield Theatres’ spectacular family pantomime for 2012, promises to be bigger and better than ever. On from Friday 7 December 2012 – Sunday 6 January 2013, this magical fairytale will star Sheffield’s favourite comedy genius, Damian Williams, this time in the role of Cinderella’s trusty sidekick Buttons.

Tickets go on sale for the new shows at 10.00am on Saturday 4 February. Tickets can be booked by calling the Box Office on 0114 249 6000 or online at sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

It’s the end of week two, and our morning ‘warm up with Articulate’ sessions have pushed our description skills into whole new realms not imagined possible by many of us before.

As well as becoming rather excellent at ‘the fast talking description game’, we’ve been exploring the world of the play and really getting to know the characters that in inhabit it. The most important thing so far has been getting to know the plot as well as we possibly can and working out who is doing what at any particular moment. If we intimately know what’s going on, then there’s a much better chance that we’ll be able to tell the story clearly on stage.

Along the way we’ve also been researching all sorts of exciting things to help us understand the text, such as what Ratafia is, what Bartholomew Fair was (and what happened there) and when and how the word ‘cab’ came into use. We’ve also been getting our heads around the rules and conventions of ‘witty’ dialogue. The play is set among a group of people who value wit and crafty use of language extremely highly indeed. As part of our research into wit and wordplay we’ve been taking it in turns to watch an excellent film called Ridicule, which has fired up our understanding of just how important it is for the characters to say the right thing at the right time. A misplaced joke could cause serious damage to your popularity.

When you set out to rehearse a play nobody quite knows exactly what’s going to happen or what you might end up doing and discovering in order to create a show. Part of the magic of rehearsals is that many unexpected delights inevitably pop up (learning piquet – a very fine card game), intense discussions evolve (how to pronounce Shrewsbury) and many unusual questions are raised (what exactly is the difference between a ‘wit’ and a ‘fop’?). Piquet has been especially helpful at aiding us in understanding the vital divide between winners and losers in the play. In The Way of the World the stakes are high and money, relationships and reputation are always on the line.

One of the favourite moments from the past few days has got to be a communal listening of Billy Joel’s classic hit ’Always a Woman’. Congreve’s portrayal of women is quite radical considering the historical context of the play. Millamant is a woman who knows what she wants, and in one of her scenes with Mirabell, is not afraid to say what she would like her marriage to be like. Most women in 1700 had to just accept their husbands’ terms, but Millamant imagines a new kind of relationship. It can be difficult for us to imagine what life was like three hundred years ago, but by finding inventive ways to try and access life as Congreve would have known it, we can get a firmer grip on what the play explores. Looking at pictures, listening to music and occasionally delving into a historical article or two have helped us to really dive into the script and get our 2012 minds around a text written a few hundred years ago.

Although the Billy Joel moment was one of the main highlights of the week, here are some ‘top three’ lists from The Way of the World so far to fill you in with some of the reasons why we are enjoying this amazing play:

Top three catch phrases:
_*‘I don’t shilly shally’
‘All’s one for that’
‘Pass on or pass off’*_

Top three edible items mentioned in the play: *_Chocolate
Olio
Cherry brandy_*

Top three flirting tips:
_*Greet a suitor with a ‘swift levee from a couch in some confusion’
Develop a ‘swimminess’ in your eyes
Suggest a walk for a walk’s sake with the object of your affection*_

A stellar cast including rising talent Ben Lloyd-Hughes, who recently starred as Rob McAloon in BBC 1’s Young James Herriot, Deborah Findlay *(Miss Tomkinson in BBC’s Cranford), Mike Leigh’s protégée *Sinéad Matthews (Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky) and Samuel Barnett, one of the original History Boys, will create the eccentric characters whose lives and loves all interlink in this hilarious play.

Sheffield Theatres’ Associate Director Lyndsey Turner returns to the theatre following Alice and My Romantic History (both 2010) to bring her vision to this fresh staging of the classic Restoration Comedy, the first to be performed at the Crucible Theatre in eleven years. Naomi Wilkinson (Alice) joins Lyndsey to design the production, with new music by Tom Mills.

Set in 1700, The Way of the World will journey into a world of extravagance for a fresh, colourful and brilliantly funny romp full of deceit, slander and seduction. Mirabell, a dashing playboy with a reputation for fine wine and women, has his sights set on Millamant, a high society goddess. However, his notoriety makes him anything but a perfect match in the eyes of Millamant’s indomitable aunt, Lady Wishfort. There’s only one thing for it – to lie and cheat his way to his true love’s heart.

The Way of the World opens the spring season at the Crucible and is on from Thursday 2 – Saturday 25 February. Tickets can be purchased from Sheffield Theatres’ Box Office in-person, by phone on 0114 249 6000 or online here and are priced from £10.00 – £21.00, with discounts available.

ENDS

For further information, to arrange interviews or to request press tickets contact: Rebecca Willett, Communications Officer (Media) at Sheffield Theatres on Tel: 0114 201 3828 / Mob: 07852 041 466 / Email: r.willett@sheffieldtheatres.co.uk