I’m delighted to welcome you to this performance of Wish You Weren’t Here.

This is our third collaboration with Theatre Centre, following our co-production of Human Nurture by Ryan Calais Cameron in 2022, and Birds and Bees by Charlie Josephine in 2023. We’re thrilled to be working together again this year, bringing Katie Redford’s Wish You Weren’t Here to the Playhouse stage. Theatre Centre has a long history of creating excellent work that places the voices and experiences of young people firmly in the foreground.

Wish You Weren’t Here opens another exciting year for Sheffield Theatres, with a packed programme across all three of our stages. In February, we’re excited to collaborate with Roots Mbili Theatre and Remote Theater Project on Lines, which proposes that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. In March, The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s timeless masterpiece, will open on the main house stage directed by Associate Artistic Director Anthony Lau. Over the square, we’re incredibly proud that Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which started life in the Crucible, stops off for a homecoming on its UK and Ireland tour in the Lyceum later this year.

There’s also a range of ways you can get more involved, whether it’s through our regular work with schools, our ambitious Talent Development programme in The Bank, or the activities of our multi-generational participation company, Sheffield People’s Theatre. You can find routes into all these activities on our website.

As always, we thank you for supporting Sheffield Theatres, and helping us to make bold, engaging and entertaining theatre for everyone.

Enjoy the show!

Robert Hastie

Artistic Director, Sheffield Theatres