Derby Playhouse production history

The following is a chronological list of productions staged at the Derby Playhouse from 1975 to 2008. The Derby Playhouse was a theatre production company and the former name of the theatre which it owned and operated from its opening in 1975 until 2008, when the company ceased operating after a period in administration. Situated in Derby, England, the theatre is now known as the Derby Theatre and has been owned and operated by the University of Derby since 2009.

List of past productions 1975 – 2008

The list includes all Main House, in-house professional productions. It does not include many Studio, Theatre in Education (TIE), visiting professional or amateur performances, such as those of the Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company, whose annual Gilbert and Sullivan shows played at the theatre from 1980 to 2003 and again after the theatre's reopening in 2009.

1970s

1975

• My Fair Lady
• Hamlet
• Lloyd George Knew My Father
• Sleeping Beauty

1976

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
• A View from the Bridge
• Cowardy Custard
• An Ideal Husband
• The Seagull starring Alan Bates
• The Norman Conquests
• The Miser
• Enter Sherlock Holmes
• Jack and the Beanstalk

1977

• Sleuth
• Macbeth
• A Taste of Honey
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• A Man for All Seasons
• Absurd Person Singular
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Equus
• Mother Goose

1978

• Romeo and Juliet
• Private Lives
• Irma La Douce
• Hedda Gabler
• Witness for the Prosecution
• Mrs. Warren's Profession
• Godspell
• Journey's End
• Dick Whittington

1979

• What the Butler Saw
• Murderer
• Bedroom Farce
• Donkeys' Years
• In Praise of Love
• Otherwise Engaged
• Ten Times Table
• King Lear
• Privates on Parade
• Aladdin

1980s

1980

• An Inspector Calls
• Count Dracula
• Loot (play)
• Blithe Spirit
• The School for Scandal
• Whose Life Is It Anyway?
• Murder with Love
• Rookery Nook
• Pygmalion
• Clouds
• Relatively Speaking
• Cinderella

1981

• Funny Peculiar
• Night and Day
• Fallen Angels
• The Case of the Oily Levantine
• Habeas Corpus
• Sisterly Feelings
• All My Sons
• The Conspirator
• No More Sitting on the Old School Bench
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Adult Panto – Studio

1982

• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• Once a Catholic
• Piaf
• See How They Run
• When can I have a Banana Again – Studio
• Happy as a Sandbag
• The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Operation Bad Apple
• Middle Age Spread
• The Gingerbread Man
• Dry Rot

1983

• Having a Ball!
• The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
• Play It Again, Sam
• The Elephant Man
• Present Laughter
• Having a Ball!
• Educating Rita
• Julius Caesar
• Taking Steps
• Pinocchio
• The Ghost Train

1984

• Dirty Linen and Newfoundland
• The Country Wife
• Stags and Hens
• Terra Nova
• French Without Tears
• Deathtrap
• Trafford Tanzi
• Love Bites
• Season's Greetings
• The Meg and Mog Show
• Charley's Aunt

1985

• Breezeblock Park
• The Caucasian Chalk Circle
• The Canterbury Tales
• Blood Relations
• You Never Can Tell
• Season's Greetings
• Blood Brothers
• Over the Bar
• Steaming
• The Snow Queen

1986

• The Anastasia File
• Intimate Exchanges :- Affairs in a Tent & A One Man Protest
• Sons of the Beach
• Intimate Exchanges :- A Pageant & A Game of Golf
• Tom Jones
• The Brewery Beano
• It's a Madhouse
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

1987

• Our Day Out
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Land of Hope and Gloria
• Waiting for Godot – Studio
• Cider with Rosie
• The Innocent Mistress
• The Children's Hour
• Gas Light
• The Scatterbrained Scarecrow of Oz

1988

• Masterpieces
• A Doll's House
• The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
• Sunday's Children
• Time and the Conways
• Private Lives
• Germinal
• The Queen of Spades
• Hansel and Gretel

1989

• Entertaining Mr Sloane
• Love Games
• Touched
• Noises Off
• The Piggy Bank
• Wicked Old Nellie by Lucy Gannon (Studio and tour)
• Heartbreak House
• The Art of Success
• Arsenic and Old Lace
• Robin Hood

1990s

1990

• Glory!
• Selling the Sizzle
• Jane Eyre
• Self Portrait
• The School for Wives
• Tons of Money
• Rebecca
• Dick Whittington and His Cat

1991

• Teechers
• Double Double
• Hobson's Choice, winner of the 1991 TMA Award for Best Overall Production.

• Last of the Red Hot Lovers
• 84 Charing Cross Road
• She Stoops to Conquer
• Hard Times – Studio, Community Tour
• Driving Miss Daisy
• Mother Goose

1992

• And a Nightingale Sang
• My Sister Next Door – Studio
• On the Piste
• The Innocents
• Far from the Madding Crowd
• Blithe Spirit
• Grease
• Death of a Salesman
• Women in Love – Studio, Community Tour
• On the Piste
• Aladdin

1993

• Laurel and Hardy – Studio, Community Tour
• A Chorus of Disapproval
• Little Shop of Horrors
• Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune – Studio
• Children of a Lesser God
• Outside Edge
• A Slice of Saturday Night
• The Lucky Chance
• Two – Studio
• My Cousin Rachel
• Cinderella

1994

• April in Paris – Tour in Hull Truck
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses
• An Evening with Gary Lineker
• Someone Who'll Watch Over Me – Studio
• Blood Money
• Passion Killers – co-production with Hull Truck
• Cabaret
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Ham – Studio
• Absurd Person Singular
• Jack and the Beanstalk

1995

• Richard III
• Our Boys – co-production with Incidental Theatre. Transferred to Donmar Warehouse
• Oleanna
• Happy Families
• Assassins
• Derby 100 – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• A Passionate Woman – co-production with David Pugh Ltd. National Tour
• The Woman in Black – co-production with P.W. Productions. National Tour
• Comic Cuts – co-production with Triptych/Salisbury Playhouse
• Richard III
• Dick Whittington and His Cat

1996

• Tess of the d'Urbervilles – co-production with Salisbury Playhouse
• Time of My Life
• My Mother Said I Never Should – Studio
• The Rise and Fall of Little Voice
• Extremities
• Buster's Last Stand – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• A Chorus Line
• Gym and Tonic – co-production with Thorndike Theatre
• Pow (play) – Studio, co-production with Paines Plough
• Blood Wedding – co-production with Northern Stage
• Aladdin

1997

• The Rivals
• Not a Game for Boys
• Eleanor Rigby – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Miss Julie – Studio
• Adam Bede
• Lips Together, Teeth Apart
• By the Baseball Ground – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• The Grapevine
• 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
• Mr Wonderful
• Three Viewings – Studio
• The Subtle Art of Boiling Lobsters – Studio
• Female, 29, GSOH – Studio
• Price of a Good Dinner – Studio
• Sleeping Beauty

1998

• Taking Steps
• The Oedipus Plays – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Mother Courage – co-production with Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Theatre
• Lucky Sods
• The Glass Menagerie
• Off Yer Trolley – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• Blues in the Night
• The Collector – co-production with Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Theatre
• Anna Karenina – co-production with Shared Experience
• Krapp's Last Tape – Studio, co-production with RSC
• The Black Dahlia – co-production with Method and Madness
• Babes in the Wood

1999

• Bouncers
• Twelfth Night – co-production with Northern Broadsides
• Coming of Age – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Things Fall Apart – co-production with The Performance Studio Workshop of Nigeria
• Boyband
• The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
• Und – Studio, co-production with The Wrestling School
• Bouncers
• The Passion Play – Derby Playhouse Community Play
• Soul Train
• Watching the Sand from the Sea
• Masquerade – co-production with The State Small Theatre of Vilnius
• Mother Goose

2000s

2000

• A Clockwork Orange – co-production with Northern Stage
• Animal Farm – co-production with Northern Stage
• Perfect Days
• Shylock – Studio, co-production with Guy Masterson Productions
• Pericles – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Speaking in Tongues
• Perfect Pitch
• No Fishing! – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• God and Stephen Hawking
• Leader of the Pack co-production with Churchill Theatre Bromley
• Sparkleshark – co-production with the National Theatre
• Passing Places
• Cinderella

2001

• Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill – Studio
• The Contractor – co-production with Oxford Stage Company
• The Blue Room
• Tales of Hans Anderson – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Nineteen Eighty-Four – co-production with Northern Stage
• Danny Bouncing
• Ain't Misbehavin'
• Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill – Studio
• The School for Scandal
• On the Piste
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• A Life in the Theatre

2002

• Great Expectations
• Misconceptions
• Class of '77 – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Up 'n' Under
• The Browning Version
• Way Upstream
• Life of Galileo – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• Dick Whittington

2003

• Educating Rita
• My Dad's Corner Shop by Ray Grewal (The play won Grewal the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 2001. This was its first main-stage production)
• Viking Tales – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• The Entertainer
• Oh, What a Lovely War! – Pro & Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• Blithe Spirit
• Dracula
• Loot
• A Christmas Carol

2004

• Shirley Valentine
• Private Lives
• Josefina – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Silver Ghosts & Spitfires – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• Amadeus
• Frankenstein
• Kafka's Dick
• Merlin & The Winter King

2005

• Can't Pay? Won't Pay!
• Mary Stuart
• Hooray for Hollywood – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Company
• Romeo and Juliet
• Bold Nelson's Praise – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• Arsenic and Old Lace
• Macbeth
• Serial Killers
• Arabian Nights

2006

• Henceforward...
• Master Class
• Animal Farm – Pro & Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
• Into the Woods
• A Christmas Carol

2007

• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Johnno, co-production with La Boite Theatre.
• Merrily We Roll Along
• As You Like It
• The Tempest – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
• Moon Landing starring Glenn Carter (world premiere)
• Stepping Out
• Treasure Island, adapted by Karen Louise Hebden from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson

2008

• The Killing of Sister George starring Jenny Eclair and directed by Cal McCrystal.

External links

• Derby Playhouse official website (no longer updated)
• Past versions of the official website dating back to 2001 archived on the Wayback Machine.

• Orme, Steve (30 November 2008). "Derby Playhouse: Future Settled in Two Weeks?". British Theatre Guide. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
• Derby Telegraph (8 October 2009). "Theatre stages a remarkable comeback". Retrieved 10 January 2013.
• Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company "About Us". Retrieved 10 January 2013.
• Picturethepast.org.uk and Derby Telegraph. "Derby Playhouse entrance". Retrieved 14 January 2013.
• BBC News. (20 September 2005). "Replacement for Playhouse urged". Retrieved 10 January 2013.
• Giannachi, Gabriella and Luckhurst, Mary (1999). On Directing: Interviews with Directors, p. 7. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312224834
• Theatrical Management Association. Previous Awards. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
• Derby Telegraph (27 January 2010). "Our favourite playwright returns to the city stage". Retrieved 13 January 2013.
• Orme, Steve (April 2003). "Review: My Dad's Corner Shop, Ray Grewal, Derby Playhouse". British Theatre Guide.
• Orme, Steve (2004). "Karen Hebden – Rescuing Derby". British Theatre Guide. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
• Gardner, Lyn (7 December 2007). "Derby Playhouse's last leg". Retrieved 14 January 2013.
• Potter, Andy (August 2005). "Review: Arsenic and Old Lace". BBC Derby. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
• Hickling, Alfred (10 September 2007). "Review Moon Landing". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
• Orme, Steve (December 2007). "Review: Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted by Karen Louise Hebden, Derby Playhouse. British Theatre Guide. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
• Orme, Steve (September 2008). "Review: The Killing of Sister George, Frank Marcus, Derby Playhouse". Retrieved 14 January 2013.