EDUCATING RITA, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM & More Set for Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres' Upcoming Season

A major revival of Willy Russell's Educating Rita will open the Playhouse's 2015 Spring Season. The production, directed by Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz, will mark the play's 35th anniversary and will star Leanne Best as Rita and Con O'Neill as Frank. Following a remarkable first year, the Everyman season will begin with Associate Director Nick Bagnall's fresh take on A Midsummer Night's Dream. The second half of the season is marked by two world premières, both screen to stage adaptations; a never-before seen Arthur Miller screenplay The Hook at the Everyman and the first ever stage adaptation of a Coen Brothers' film will see The Hudsucker Proxy come to life on the Playhouse stage.

Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz said: "This season is an extraordinary cocktail of the familiar, reinvigorated. Whether that's a classic play, a celebrated playwright or a much loved film, we hope each of our in-house productions feels fresh and newly minted. We are thrilled to be co-producing for the first time with two of the most ambitious and exciting regional theatres in the country and on a personal note to be directing my first Willy Russell play in his home city with two extraordinary Liverpool actors is both an honour and a joy."

The production of Educating Rita will be the first to be staged professionally in Liverpool for 13 years. Willy Russell is one of the world's most successful playwrights and Educating Rita stands as one of his most iconic creations. His work has attracted huge and appreciative audiences all over the world and his plays and musicals have won countless awards. Leanne Best (Ripper Street, BBC; Woman in Black: Angel of Death, Hammer Films) returns to her home city to play the title role after more than a decade of successes on stage with the Everyman & Playhouse in productions including The Match Box, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Unprotected as well as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Hypochondriac both directed by Gemma Bodinetz. Frank is played by former Everyman Youth Theatre member Con O'Neill (Telstar, New Ambassadors Theatre & Aspiration Films; Uncle, BBC). O'Neill has an illustrious association with Willy Russell's work, winning an Olivier Award and Tony nomination for Blood Brothers and starring in Dancin' Thru the Dark, the film adaptation of Russell's Stags and Hens.

Willy Russell said: "'I'm really delighted to be back at the Playhouse, a theatre with which I've had such a long and fulfilling association. I'm equally delighted to be working with Gemma Bodinetz and the great cast she has assembled - both Leanne Best and Con O'Neill are superb actors and it's a real pleasure to have them perform the play here in Liverpool where both their (and my) careers began."

The Playhouse will play host to the world première of The Hudsucker Proxy, a new stage adaptation of the classic 1994 Coen Brothers film. It has been adapted by Simon Dormandy and will be co-directed by Dormandy and Toby Sedgwick (War Horse, The 39 Steps), in a co-production with Southampton's Nuffield. Set in 1958, the plot puts big business and corruption under the microscope, to hilarious effect, as the board of directors of Hudsucker Industries attempt to take over the company and make a killing on the stock market.

Amidst the political tensions of 1950s America, Arthur Miller's The Hook was suppressed by the FBI for fear that it could cause unrest in New York's dockyards. To mark the centenary of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's birth, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and Royal & Derngate, Northampton will co-produce the world première of Miller's 'play for the screen' adapted for the stage by Emmy Award-winning Ron Hutchinson (Moonlight and Magnolias, Tricycle; Rat in the Skull, Royal Court), directed by James Dacre. The story of a close-knit community grappling with a world of crime and punishment, of changing industry and immigration from abroad, The Hook is a study in integrity and betrayal, charting one man's struggle for meaningful change.

The Everyman will celebrate its first birthday with a Shakespeare production, A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by new Associate Director Nick Bagnall (Last Days of Troy, Royal Exchange/Shakespeare's Globe; Henry VI Trilogy, Shakespeare's Globe; Entertaining Mr Sloane, Trafalgar Studios). Bagnall's vision is for a dark telling of this comedy, summoning the Everyman's rebellious spirit in the murky woods as warring fairies cause chaos and delusions in Shakespeare's most magical play.

The company's commitment to talent development will be seen in this year in the first commission from the theatres' Ignition Artist initiative - set up through parallel fundraising during the Everyman redevelopment to fund the artists of the future. Cartoonopolis is the debut play by Lewis Bray a graduate of Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) which will be performed in the Playhouse Studio. Lewis also performs this one-man show about the imaginary cartoon world created by his autistic brother in this funny and touching portrayal of family life. There will also be two new YEP productions, dedicated writers and directors' seasons and collaboration with Ipswich New Wolsey and Birmingham Repertory Theatre on Young Theatre Makers which sees work created wholly by young people tour regionally to the partner theatres.

The theatres will continue to champion access for all in 2015. A Midsummer Night's Dream will include the first autism friendly 'relaxed' performance of a Shakespeare by a regional theatre. The accessibility of the new Everyman will allow Graeae to tour their production of Blood Wedding to Liverpool and the two companies are also collaborating on Write to Play, a bold new writing initiative committed to developing the skills and experience of Deaf and disabled writers.

The highest quality touring work will be presented across all three of the theatres' stages. Headlong bring The Absence of War, Northern Broadsides' King Lear and Filter's Macbeth will provide different interpretations of Shakespeare, Out of Joint return with Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage about Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas, while the Royal Court's production of Constellations will be at the Playhouse. Philip Wilson directs Three Lions, the story of the FA's failed World Cup bid, while John Graham Davies's Beating Berlusconi will be staged at the Everyman on the 10th anniversary of Liverpool's Champions League victory, 20 Stories High's new play, Black, will be in the Studio and musical comedy duo Rubberbandits bring Continental Fistfight to the Everyman.

Northern Ballet will present three works, Madame Butterfly, Perpetuum Mobile and The Elves and the Shoemaker for young people, Phoenix Dance return with a mixed bill and Fuel Theatre will bring The Spalding Suite, a new dance theatre show inspired by the UK's basketball culture. There are stage versions of literary hits Birdsong, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Cat in the Hat as well as celebrated author Simon Armitage who will present poems from his latest book.

Spring/Summer 2015 season PUBLIC BOOKING opens on Monday 1 December. To book tickets telephone Box Office on 0151 709 4776 or go online at www.everymanplayhouse.com

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