CITIZENS THEATRE ANNOUNCES FULL SPRING 2018 SEASON LISTINGS

The Citizens Theatre has announced details of the final season to be presented at its home at 119 Gorbals Street before work commences on a major redevelopment of the iconic Glasgow venue. 

Prior to the Citizens Theatre Company temporarily moving out of its premises next summer, it will mount a full spring programme ending in May 2018. The theatre will then stage work across Glasgow for the duration of its multi-million pound project to transform the Gorbals theatre. Further details on this project are available from citz.co.uk/press

Following the announcement earlier this year of a co-production with HOME Manchester of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the theatre has released full listings for this eclectic Spring 2018 season, which goes on sale today. The Spring 2018 season will include: 

 Bold Girls: A timely revival of Rona Munro’s award winning play. Former River City star Deirdre Davis leads an all-female cast in this hilarious and poignant story of love, friendship and betrayal, set in working class Belfast against the backdrop of the Troubles.

• Long Day’s Journey Into Night: A seminal work of 20th century American drama, Dominic Hill directs Eugene O’Neill’s play about the struggles of the Tyrone family in a Citizens Theatre co-production with HOME Manchester.

 A Night to Remember: As the Citizens Theatre Company prepares to temporarily move out of its Gorbal home, this community production takes audiences back in time to the building’s origins as the Royal Princess’s Theatre for an evening of variety set on one eventful night in 1918.

• Andrea Dunbar’s landmark semi-autobiographical play Rita, Sue and Bob Too presented by Out of Joint, Octagon Theatre Bolton and Royal Court Theatre.

• A full programme of innovative work will be presented in the intimate setting of the Circle Studio, following the success of The Macbeths and Lampedusa in autumn 2017.

MORE ABOUT THE CITIZENS THEATRE SPRING SEASON 2018

FOR FULL PERFORMANCE LISTINGS SEE CITZ.CO.UK/WHATSON 

A Citizens Theatre production
BOLD GIRLS (Wed 24 Jan – Sat 10 Feb)
PRESS NIGHT: SAT 27 JAN 7.30PM 
MAIN THEATRE
By Rona Munro
Directed by Richard Baron

Belfast in the early 1990s. Against a backdrop of gunfire and police raids, four women whose lives have been turned upside down by the Troubles carry on with everyday life. But what starts out as a riotous night out, leads to the spilling of some very sobering truths in the early hours. Packed with abrasive humour, Bold Girls is a story of love, friendship and betrayal.

Rona Munro, whose trilogy The James Plays - written for the National Theatre of Scotland - was a recent international hit, burst onto the scene in 1991 with this celebration of women’s lives in West Belfast.

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Company of Wolves present
ACHILLES (Tue 23 Jan – Sat 27 Jan)
PRESS NIGHT: WED 24 JAN 7.30PM
CIRCLE STUDIO
Created and Performed by Ewan Downie

Glasgow theatre company Company of Wolves re-imagines the myth of Achilles in a heart-stopping solo performance by Ewan Downie.

Achilles tells the story of the greatest hero of the Greeks during the Trojan War: how his best friend is killed by the champion of the Trojans, his desperate grief, and his terrible vengeance. A fusion of storytelling, dance and song, Achilles is a story of a man’s exorcism: a burning out of his vulnerability, his rage, and his humanity.

Supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland in association with Platform, Dance House and Citizens Theatre. This performance will be part of manipulate Visual Theatre Festival in 2018 produced by Puppet Animation Scotland.

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Out of Joint, Octagon Theatre Bolton and Royal Court Theatre present
RITA, SUE AND BOB TOO (Tue 13 Feb – Sat 17 Feb)
PRESS NIGHT: TUE 13 FEB 7.30PM
MAIN THEATRE
By Andrea Dunbar
Directed by Kate Wasserberg

Best friends Rita and Sue get a lift home from married Bob after babysitting his kids. When he takes the scenic route and offers them a bit of fun, the three start a fling each of them think they control.

Andrea Dunbar’s semi-autobiographical play, written for the Royal Court Theatre in 1982 when she was just 19, is a vivid portrait of girls caught between brutal childhood and an uncompromising future, both hungry for adult adventure.

Told with wicked humour, startling insight and a great ear for dialogue, Rita, Sue and Bob Too was adapted into a cult 80s film.

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Wonder Fools in association with Brunton Theatre present
549: SCOTS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR (Tues 13 Feb – Sat 17 Feb)
PRESS NIGHT: WED 14FEB 7.30PM
CIRCLE STUDIO
By Jack Nurse and Robbie Gordon
Directed by Jack Nurse

1936. In villages, towns and cities across Scotland, 549 lives are gradually intertwining. People of contrasting backgrounds, ideologies and religions. Spurred on by their burning passion for equality and freedom, they will form the Scottish ranks of the Spanish Civil War’s legendary International Brigade.

This true story follows four miners from the streets of East Lothian to the valleys of Spain. They gave up everything they knew: for a land they did not know; for a people they had never met; and for a cause they believed was right.

549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War, a new play with songs and storytelling, is a timely insight into one of Scotland’s almost forgotten conflicts.

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Firebrand in co-production with The Byre Theatre and Heart of Hawick present
THE MATCH BOX (Tue 20 Feb – Sat 24 Feb)
PRESS NIGHT: TUE 20 FEB 7.30PM
CIRCLE STUDIO
By Frank McGuinness
Directed by Richard Baron

Firebrand present the Scottish premiere of a breathtaking new monologue by one of Ireland’s greatest dramatists, Frank McGuinness (Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme).

The ties that bind us can never be broken, and the shocking events that bring Sal to exile on a remote Irish island are as unexpected as they are brutal. Her compelling journey through grief, revenge and the temptations of evil begs only one question: what would you do if pushed to the very edge?

Based in the Scottish Borders, Firebrand tour award-winning contemporary theatre productions from writers such as Rona Munro, David Grieg, David Harrower and Lucy Prebble and present their first production at the Citizens Theatre.

Directed by Firebrand’s Director of Productions Richard Baron, who also directs Bold Girls at the Citizens this spring.

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A Citizens Theatre Community Production supported by Sky Arts
COME HELL OR HIGH WATER (Wed 21 Mar – Sat 24 Mar)
PRESS NIGHT: WED 21 MAR 7.30PM
CIRCLE STUDIO
By Martin Travers
Directed by Guy Hollands

If it’s no broke – why try to Brexit?

An evening of new songs, interesting facts, light hearted banter, fake news and a cast of thousands (well – twenty five if the truth be told) looking at what it feels like to be living in Scotland now and knowing that Brexit means exit.

Come Hell or High Water is one of 50 new works commissioned by Sky Art’s Art 50 project, all on the theme of what it means to be British following the EU Referendum. In partnership with the Scottish Refugee Council.

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Lung Ha Theatre Company present
THREE SISTERS (Wed 28 Mar)
MAIN THEATRE
By Anton Chekhov in a new version by Adrian Osmond

Chekhov’s classic Three Sisters in a new version by Adrian Osmond. Presented by the award winning Lung Ha Theatre Company and The Sibelius Academy at the University of Helsinki.

A play of life, love, loss, dreams, whimsy, hope - real and false - of moving and of remaining where you are.

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Brite Theater present
RICHARD III (A ONE WOMAN SHOW) (Tue 10 – Sat 14 Apr)
PRESS NIGHT TUE 10 APRIL 7.30PM
CIRCLE STUDIO
A one woman show
Adapted by Emily Carding and Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir from William Shakespeare

Breaking new ground in Shakespearean performance, Brite Theater re-imagine Richard III as a one-woman show. The fourth wall is utterly obliterated as the audience takes on the roles of all the other characters at Richard’s party in this intimate, unpredictable and moving production. Richard wants to entertain you but will you survive?

First performed at the Prague Fringe 2015, Richard III has been thrilling audiences around the globe ever since, including in New York, Rome, Reykjavik and a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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Citizens Theatre and HOME Manchester present
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (Fri 13 Apr – Sat 5 May)
PRESS NIGHT: THU 19 APRIL 7PM
MAIN THEATRE
By Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Dominic Hill

One of the greatest American dramas of the 20th century, Eugene O’Neill’s hugely moving and personal Pulitzer Prize-winning Long Day’s Journey Into Night delves into the private lives and failings of a conflicted family, while revealing insights into his own upbringing.

The four members of the troubled Tyrone family each have their vice to dull their memories of their painful past and face their current trials Over the course of one devastating day at their Connecticut summer home the resentments of the family are exposed, pushing their bonds to the limit.

Dominic Hill will direct this co-production with HOME Manchester, who we previously partnered with to present Endgame in 2016.

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Broke Lad Present
MCLUCKIE’S LINE (Wed 25 Apr – Sat 28 Apr)
PRESS NIGHT: WED 25 APR 7.30PM
CIRCLE STUDIO
By Martin Travers and Martin Docherty

Life’s a Gamble!

Unemployed actor and compulsive gambler McLuckie waits nervously in a claustrophobic corridor of a Glasgow hospital. He’s expecting the phone call he’s been waiting for his whole life – what could go wrong? Place your bets!

Starring Martin Docherty who has previously appeared in Still Game, Rab C Nesbit, Dear Green Place, River City, Gary: Tank Commander, Father Brown and Cloud Atlas with Tom Hanks. Marty Goes To Hollywood, a documentary featuring Martin as himself, won a New Talent Bafta in 2015.

£1.00 from every ticket will be donated to MacMillan Cancer Support

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Dundee Rep present
PASSING PLACES (Tue 8 May – Sat 12 May)
PRESS NIGHT: TUE 8 MAY 7.30PM
MAIN THEATRE
by Stephen Greenhorn
Directed by Andrew Panton

Passing Places is a hilarious road movie for the stage. Stephen Greenhorn’s much loved contemporary comedy has been described as a Scottish equivalent of Kerouac’s On the Road.

The story of two Motherwell lads going nowhere who are forced to escape the urban doldrums in a wornout Lada, and end up with their psychopathic gangster boss hot on their heels.

In this high-octane, fast-paced, physical new production, the Dundee Rep Ensemble showcase their storytelling talents, propelling you up Scotland’s west coast from Fort William to Thurso and everywhere in between on a hilarious journey of self-discovery.

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A Citizens Theatre Community Production
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (Wed 23 – Sat 26 May)
PRESS NIGHT: WED 23 MAY 7.30PM
MAIN THEATRE
By Peter Arnott
Directed by Guy Hollands and Neil Packham

Exactly a hundred years ago in the Gorbals, as World War One draws towards its bloody close, audience and performers, soldiers and civilians, prepare for a big night out in the theatre to help them forget their troubles. But those troubles come right into the auditorium with them: Russia is in revolution, Ireland is on the point of Civil War, and this is the crossroads of a world in chaos on a night in the Royal Princess’s Theatre at 119 Gorbals Street that none of them will ever forget.

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Tickets for all the above shows are available now through citz.co.uk and Box Office 0141 429 0022

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