THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
Based on the bestselling novel by Paula Hawkins and DreamWorks film
Adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel
21 – 30 September 2023
Rachel Watson longs for a different life. Her only escape is the perfect couple she watches through the train window every day, happy and in love. Or so it appears. When Rachel learns that the woman she’s been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, she finds herself as a witness and even a suspect in a thrilling mystery in which she will face bigger revelations than she could ever have anticipated.
THE GOOD LIFE
Adapted by Jeremy Sams, based on the TV Series by John Esmonde & Bob Larbey
26 October – 4 November 2023
Forty is the excuse for many a midlife crisis drama, but none has proved as funny or as enduringly loveable as that of Tom Good who gives up his highly pressurised job to live off the land. Unfortunately for his upwardly mobile neighbours, Tom and his wife Barbara live in a semi in Surbiton so digging up their garden to grow their own fruit and veg and keep livestock is not seen as a desirable decision by Margo and Jerry Leadbetter.
Jeremy Sams' stage play, based on the hugely popular sitcom by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, reunites the well-loved characters (not forgetting Geraldine the goat) as they get themselves into and out of scrapes – some old, some new, all hilarious. Tapping into issues that resonate now more than ever, The Good Life is a witty reimagining of a television classic, with a wellyful of laughs.
THE REAL EDDIE SPENCER
by Keith Orton
30 November – 9 December 2023
When is the right time to tell the truth? In this brand new play, the sudden arrival of Eddie to his son’s home in Australia at Christmas, brings about a chain of events with a few surprises. Eddie is unwell and has a secret which he needs to tell before it’s too late. However, so much is standing in his way, including ghosts of his dead ex-wife and his partner. Will he be able to tell the truth and put things right before it is too late? Will decisions made in the past affect the present? This haunting story loosely based on A Christmas Carol, deals with adult themes and is funny, yet painfully moving, in equal measure.
TREASURE ISLAND
Adapted by John Nicholson and La Navet Bete
11 – 20 January 2024
Fourteen-year-old Jim Hawkins is serving ale in The Admiral Benbow Inn – when suddenly the door slams open and in strides Billy Bones, the infamous pirate, to change Jim's life forever…
Soon, Jim finds himself on board The Jolly Todger and setting sail on the high seas. Alongside him, the crew includes Captain Birdseye, Black Dog, Blue Peter, the one-legged Long John Silver, and a parrot called Alexa – and their destination: a mysterious tropical paradise in the Caribbean named Treasure Island. Or Skeleton Island. Depends who you ask.
MACBETH
By William Shakespeare
15 – 24 February 2024
Witches, prophecies, ghosts, the ruthless pursuit of power and a bloody trail of murders to achieve it – the “Scottish play” has it in bucket loads.
THE WINSLOW BOY
By Terence Rattigan
21 – 30 March 2024
Cadet Ronnie Winslow is expelled from the Royal Naval College accused of stealing a 5 shilling postal order. His father, Arthur, refusing to believe his guilt and dissatisfied with the manner in which the investigation was conducted, demands a new inquiry and fights tirelessly for his son's honour.
The play is based on a true story and explores the devastating effects on Ronnie’s family of the long fight for justice as money, promotion and romance are sacrificed in the determination to win at all costs.
HOME, I'M DARLING
By Laura Wade
25 April – 4 May 2024
Every marriage needs a little fantasy to keep it sparkling. But behind the gingham curtains, being a domestic goddess isn't as easy as it looks... Judy has retreated so far into her 1950s world that she is losing touch with reality and spiralling out of control. The bubble she has created is getting closer to exploding.
Home, I'm Darling is Laura Wade's new dark comedy about sex, cake and the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife.
HANDBAGGED
By Laura WadeMoira Buffini
30 May – 8 June 2024
Handbags, hairspray and sensible shoes. The monarch - Liz.Her most powerful subject - Maggie. One believed there was no such thing as society. The other had vowed to serve it.
Over the course of a decade, two of Britain’s most iconic women meet regularly. In private. Sharing their views on what it means to be British and navigating their opposing opinions, do their smiles tell a true story? What actually happened behind those closed doors? In this comedy, premiered in 2013, Moira Buffini imagines their relationship, and looks at what might have happened when two of the most powerful characters of our time came face-to-face.
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
By Agatha Christie
4 – 13 July 2024
Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder.
As they wait for their unknown host to arrive, the weather turns and the group is cut off from the mainland. The only record on the island is a piece of jazzy dance music which suddenly transforms itself into a sinister series of accusations of murder against each of the guests and the two servants.
Soon the bloodbath begins and one by one they are brutally murdered in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme. As the dwindling survivors frantically try to uncover the murderer before they are killed, they start to look at each other in horror – is the killer one of them?