The LBT will be hosting world premieres this Spring — as well as featuring Huddersfield-based entertainment.
Ranging from music to dance and comedy, one of the most intriguing events is sure to be an appearance on stage of Huddersfield eccentric Jake Mangle-Wurzel.
Director Michelle Heighway filmed a documentary on him which led to sold-out screenings at Sheffield Doc/Fest and Leeds International Film Festival.
Now the film, called Mr Somebody?, will get a hometown outing with both Jake and Michelle there for a question and answer session with the audience.
Another local highlight will be the LBT resident company Dark Horse.
The group will follow up the national tour of their acclaimed Sing Something Simple with the world premiere of six-shooting, whip-cracking, western-inspired romp Snakebite.
LBT director Victoria Firth said: “Our Spring 2015 programme combines locally-produced work of astonishing quality and originality with the very best touring productions and we’re thrilled to be presenting no fewer than three world premieres and four only Yorkshire dates this season.”
During the season, which runs from February to June, LBT favourites Mikron Theatre will celebrate a century of the Women’s Institute with another world first called Raising Agent, a tale of hobbyists, lobbyists and dust-ups at down-at-heel Bunnington Women’s Institute with music by Golcar folk heroes O’Hooley and Tidow.
Oldham Coliseum brings The Mist In The Mirror across the Pennines for a chilling, otherworldly staging of Susan Hill’s gothic ghost story.
Theatre Royal Wakefield’s definitive production of John Godber’s multi award-winning modern classic Bouncers will be here, directed by the man himself.
Huddersfield’s own Dick and Lottie revive another gem from the same period, Alan Ayckbourn’s caustic Christmas comedy Season’s Greetings, before opening their national tour of Private Fears In Public Places at the LBT in May.
Folk musician Mike Harding will treat the audience to a selection of his poems, recounting the episodes in his life that inspired them from his schooldays to his rock n’ roll years, folk clubs and fell walking.
Liverpool’s boundary-defying 20 Stories High present their latest theatrical hybrid Black, a visceral exploration of racial tensions in the UK today.
Tara Arts’ bold restaging of Macbeth in a modern UK Asian setting uses Indian movement and music to give a new angle on Shakespeare’s darkest play.
The LBT will also host the world premiere of The Dream Eater, the magical product of an east-west collaboration between Moby Duck and the National Theatre of Korea.
Another highlight of the theatre’s Imagine season, which aims to give young children an early taste of live performance, is Northern Ballet’s Elves And The Shoemaker featuring enchanting dance, music and theatre.
For older children and their families, Michael Morpurgo’s I Believe In Unicorns is brought to the stage with the former Children’s Laureate’s seal of approval in Theatre Alibi’s beautiful, moving adaptation.
The LBT’s In Motion series includes the only Yorkshire dates for two of the hottest tickets in contemporary dance.
Balletlorent’s stunning retelling of Rapunzel boasts scenarios by Carol Ann Duffy, music by Murray Gold (Doctor Who) and costume by Michele Clapton (Game of Thrones).
And Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Jasmin Vardimon returns to the LBT with a reworked 10th anniversary version of her physical theatre/athletic dance hybrid Park, following huge acclaim for Freedom, Justitia and Yesterday.
Breathtaking feats of athleticism and balance are seasoned with cheeky humour in Bromance, an award-winning acrobatic debut from Barely Methodical Troupe.
For the first year, the LBT will be hosting a Huddersfield institution, the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival which takes over the Theatre on Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24, with more than 35 acts across seven stages, workshops, jam sessions and impromptu collaborations.
Two towering talents of the contemporary jazz scene, singer Christine Tobin and pianist Kit Downes, play shows in the Syngenta Cellar and Bridie Jackson And The Arbour, Gilmore and Roberts and Heg and The Wolf Chorus make up an unmissable Cellar Folk triple bill of innovative young acts.
Spring’s Laughs programme brings some top comedy talent to the main stage and gives the cream of the up-and-coming stand-up crop an airing in the Comedy Cellar.
Grumpy grey eminence Arthur Smith will preside over his own travelling variety show The House Of Fun on its only stop in Yorkshire.
Mark Thomas presents the award-winning Cuckooed, the latest vehicle for his unique brand of hard-hitting comedy-activism and dissolute variety star turned cult BBC sitcom hero Count Arthur Strong stumbles into the spotlight.
Tickets for the new season line-up are now on sale.
