Ancient and Modern Classics to Take the Stage at Citizens Theatre in Spring 2016

The Citizens Theatre today announces its complete Spring 2016 Season, including a trilogy of new plays by Zinnie Harris, inspired by the epic Greek tragedy The Oresteia. The season also includes a new production of Frank McGuinness' classic play Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of The Somme and a new production of Beckett's iconic play Endgame featuring David Neilson and Chris Gascoyne.

Tickets for all productions presented from Feb -May 2016 will go on sale on 10 November and the full season includes:

- This Restless House, three new plays by Zinnie Harris presented over two evenings, based on the tragic Greek trilogy The Oresteia, directed by Dominic Hill and presented in association with National Theatre of Scotland;

- Coronation Street stars David Neilson and Chris Gascoyne in Beckett's Endgame directed by Dominic Hill in a co-production with HOME, Manchester;

- A major new co-production with Headlong, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and The Abbey, Dublin of Frank McGuinness' powerful WWI drama Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme;

- The Citizens Dream Players in the Royal Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play For The Nation marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death;

- Northern Stage's first visit to the Citizens Theatre with Get Carter, a new adaptation by Torben Betts of Ted Lewis' classic of British crime fiction;

- Citizens' Main Stage director in residence Gareth Nicholls directing David Harrower's Blackbird.

Announcing the new season Dominic Hill said: "Our spring season is inspired by classic plays, ancient and modern. The centrepiece of our season, This Restless House, promises to be an exciting theatrical event. As well as telling a story of a family whose loyalties to one another are tested in the most extreme way, it's about a changing society where the cracks in democracy are beginning to appear. I think our audiences will find plenty of resonances between today's culture and the world depicted in Zinnie's play, inspired by a work that has survived over 2,000 years. This Restless House is part of a broad and varied season of work which recognises anniversaries of both the death of Shakespeare and one of the most horrific events of the First World War. It also brings great contemporary Scottish writing to a Glasgow stage and features co-productions with some of the best theatre companies in the UK.

"Working with our co-producers enables us to present ambitious, large-scale work throughout our season and I'm pleased that we'll be working together with companies from across the UK and Ireland and sharing the work that we make here in Glasgow with them. The Citizens is well-known for bold and innovative interpretations of classics, and with this season I feel we're really delivering on that reputation."

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The season opens with a new production of Beckett's darkly comic Endgame (4 - 20 February), directed by Dominic Hill. Leading the cast are stars of Coronation Street David Neilson and Chris Gascoyne, better known as their Corrie characters Roy Cropper and Peter Barlow. Endgame is Hill's second Beckett production at the Citizens following his highly successful double-bill of Krapp's Last Tape and Footfalls starring the late Gerard Murphy. Following performances at the Citizens, the production will tour to HOME Manchester, co-producers on the project.

Following Into That Darkness, his five-star debut production on the Citizens' main stage in 2015, the Citizens Main Stage Director in Residence Gareth Nicholls directs David Harrower's Blackbird (25 February - 5 March) one of the most important works of twenty-first century Scottish drama. Asking difficult questions about paedophilia and adolescent sexuality, the play depicts a confrontation between a young woman and a middle-aged man fifteen years after the end of their relationship when she was only twelve years old.

Newcastle's Northern Stage tour to the Citizens for the first time with a dark and stylish production of Get Carter (8 - 12 March), the British crime drama made famous by the 1971 film starring Michael Caine. Set in 1960's Newcastle, Torben Betts' adaptation of the novel Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis is a hard and uncompromising look at a city's underworld gang culture and a gripping noir thriller. Get Carter is directed by Northern Stage Artistic Director Lorne Campbell.

In March, Glasgow International Comedy Festival (14 - 26 March) takes over the Citizens Theatre, with confirmed acts including Jenny Eclair, Richard Herring, Mark Watson, Mark Steel, Shappi Khorsandi, Bridget Christie, Des Clarke, Greg Proops and James Campbell, with more acts to be announced.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play For The Nation (29 March - 2 April) features six amateur Scottish actors in the roles of The Mechanicals, including the iconic role of Bottom. The specially-formed Citizens Dream Players will perform alongside a company of professional RSC actors and pupils from Shawlands Academy. In addition to performing on the Citizens' stage the Citizens Dream Players will travel to Stratford-Upon-Avon in June 2016 to reprise their roles on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage. Directed by RSC Deputy Artistic Director Erica Whyman, this ambitious tour involves fourteen amateur companies across the UK and marks 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare.

This Restless House (15 April - 14 May) is a new trilogy of plays by Zinnie Harris based on the Greek tragedy The Oresteia by Aeschylus, presented in association with National Theatre of Scotland. Harris' plays tells the bloody saga of a family torn apart by a succession of murders and betrayals, set against the backdrop of a society on the brink of a revolution and learning to operate within a nascent and flawed justice system. First performed in 485 BC, today's audience will find that Dominic Hill's raw and brutal production brings the universal themes of justice, revenge, loyalty, and the evolving relationships between teenagers and their parents to the fore in his trademark theatrical style. Nikola Kodjabashia, composer on A Christmas Carol, Hamlet and Crime and Punishment returns to create new music for the plays, with Colin Richmond, designer on Crime and Punishment and Doctor Faustus and National Theatre of Scotland's Men Should Weep also returning to the Citizens. Audiences will be able to see all three plays in the trilogy over the course of two evenings or on special trilogy days.

Zinnie Harris is reunited with Dominic Hill following the Citizen Theatre's production of Miss Julie and Fall for the Traverse Theatre. This is the National Theatre's fifth collaboration with Zinnie Harris. Previous productions include Julie (Scottish tour), The Wheel (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), a new version of The Doll's House (the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh) and Gallery 9 (Dear Scotland at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery).

The season ends with a major new co-production commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of The Somme. Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (20 May - 4 June) by Frank McGuinness is a co-production between the Citizens, Headlong, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and The Abbey, Dublin.

Directed by Headlong Artistic Director Jeremy Herrin, the production will premiere at the Citizens Theatre before a tour of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and performances at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin where it was first premiered in 1985.

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