Like theatre and dance? Got your diaries out? Right. Stand by for a hectic 2011 as thespians and terpsichoreans of every stripe get set to bound onto the boards across the West. Steve Wright and Lesley Barnes usher in the best of a burgeoning bunch.

THEATRE

Thus far we’ve been fed a steady (and excellent) stream of tragedies and comedies, but this year the venerable Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory tackle their first play from Will’s history cycle. SATTF’s twelfth season pairs ‘Richard II’ (10 Feb-19 Mar) with ‘The Comedy of Errors’ (24 Mar-30 Apr): there’s some very fine casting across the two plays, too, including rising NT/RSC star John Heffernan as Richard and BAFTA-nominated Benjamin Whitrow (Mr Bennett in BBC’s 1996 ‘Pride and Prejudice’) as John of Gaunt. You’ll also find RSC/TV actress Julia Hills, Venue Top Thesp ’09 Oliver Millingham, established SATTF names like Roland Oliver, Dan Winter and Ffion Jolly and a couple of talents who hugely impressed us during 2010: BOV Theatre School grad Jack Bannell (an imperious Proctor in BOVTS’s ‘The Crucible’) and Gareth Kennerley, superb in Sharon Clark’s ‘Pavement’.

That pretty much takes care of the Tobacco Factory’s spring season, bar some visits from some very fine comedians (see Comedy feature on p.69) and, right at the start of the year, two nights for Bristol’s Uninvited Guests and their ‘Love Letters Straight From Your Heart’ (22-23 Jan), inspired by and featuring the songs that make the nation’s upper lips quiver. And we must recommended the touching, articulate comic Daniel Kitson, a man able to build a world of deep texture and sadness within a few sentences, who brings his new one-man epic ‘The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Crouch’ to the TF from 21-23 May. Last but by no means least, the biennial Bristol Festival of Puppetry returns for its second instalment from 25 Aug-4 Sept. In other festival news, the two local big guns will both make welcome returns during 2011: Mayfest from 5-15 May at venues around Bristol and the 30th Bath Fringe from 27 May-12 June.

There’s another fine-looking season at the Bac Fac’s small but confident sister theatre The Brewery, including a return visit from madcap Bristol troupe Publick Transport (including the Graham Chapman-esque Angus Barr) with a radical interpretation of Dickens’s ‘Hard Times’ (1-19 Feb). Hard on their heels come the splendidly bizarre Sedated by a Brick, whose ‘If Destroyed Still True’ (1-12 Mar) is a “pathological mystery of a performance” involving silent figure attempting to manipulate two lifeless bodies back to consciousness – with truly unexpected consequences. Kneehigh performer Bec Applebee tells the tale of Mary Bryant – Cornish highwaywoman, convict, mother and maritime adventurer – in ‘Oh Mary’ (15-19 Mar), before Bristol’s splendid and frequently unhinged Stepping Out deliver Bedlam: The Movie! (19-30 Apr), about a quest to film a 19th-century tale of madness and incarceration that ends in similar chaos to its subject matter. Lastly, we showered five stars over Julian Armitstead’s intimate, harrowing drama of redemption, ‘After the Accident’ at the Alma in ‘09: best catch it at The Brewery from 5-16 Apr, then.

Speaking of the Alma, the pint-sized Clifton pub theatre kicks off ’11 with locals Max Theatre and ‘Touch’ (18-30 Jan), the new play by Steve Lambert, a Bristol playwright fascinated by (and eloquent on) life’s byways and transgressions. From 31 Jan-5 Feb UWE drama students give us a programme of one-act plays by Beckett, Chekhov and Woody Allen, all themed around the actor’s craft; 8-12 Feb sees a performance by new Bristle troupe Educated Guess Productions of Yasmina Reza’s hugely acclaimed ‘Art’; and, from 23-26 Feb, Bristol University Falstaff Society stage ‘Dinner’ by Moira Buffini (she of the brilliant Alma hit ‘Blavatsky’s Tower’), about a repast from hell featuring an artist, a scientist, an author and a sexpot.

For 2011, Bath’s Ustinov theatre enters its first full post-Smaje season, its hugely influential artistic director having departed this autumn. The good news is that he’d booked much of the theatre’s future programme before leaving, and this spring’s treats include ‘White Men With Weapons’ (21-22 Jan), Greig Coetzee’s South Africa-set satire on the senselessness and inner torture of war; a double of rarely seen Pinter classics, ‘Landscape’ and ‘Monologue’ (2-19 Feb), both inspired by memory and both directed by Chris Goode (last seen in Tim Crouch’s ‘The Author’ at BOV). Tom Wainwright’s daft, dark comedy of male rivalry ‘Muscle’ gets a week from 1-5 Mar, and Splice’s ‘Under Milk Wood: Live on Air ‘ (previewed overleaf) is in from 9-12 Mar. We’re also excited about ‘The Summer House’ (17-19 Mar), an anarchic new comedy by writer/performers Will Adamsdale, Neil Haigh and Matthew Steer; ‘Others’ by Ustinov/Mayfest faves The Paper Birds (24-25 Mar); and a new take, by young performance company the faction, on Friedrich Schiller’s 1781 debut play ‘The Robbers’ (11-16 Apr), centred on a desperate rivalry between two ideologically opposed brothers and tackling (golly) “violence, class, religion, civil liberties and state intervention”. The Ustinov also unveils, on 20 Apr, ‘The Unremarkable’, the new play by one-to-watch Bristol playwright Adam Peck.

You must make time for ‘Avenue Q’ (2-12 Feb, Theatre Royal Bath), the opening of a nationwide tour for the Tony Award-winning, gloriously politically incorrect puppet musical comedy about a bunch of hapless New Yorkers trying to make sense of life. Other TRB dates for your diary include a new Alan Ayckbourn, ‘Life of Riley’ (14-19 Feb); a return for Hattie Naylor and Lee Lyford’s superb, comedy-gothic ‘Nutcracker’ (22-27 Feb); a new, up-to-the-minute stage adaptation (by the original writers) of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ (28 Feb-5 Mar); Robert Powell starring as the bibulous raconteur himself, in ‘Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell’ (22-26 Mar); and a run-out for RC Sherriff’s devastating WWI trenches tale ‘Journey’s End’ (11-16 Apr). Oh, and Derek Jacobi, Ron Cook and Gina McKee in the Donmar’s ‘King Lear’, directed by Michal Grandage (5-9 Apr), of course: sold out already, but a safe bet as one of the theatrical events of the year.

Further ahead, this summer sees a return for Peter Hall’s summer seasons at TRB, which were in abeyance last year. The old master returns with ‘Henry IV Parts 1 & 2’ (7 July-13 Aug), Noel Coward’s ‘This Happy Breed’ (19 July-13 Aug, directed by Stephen Unwin), and Alan Bennett’s ‘The Madness of George III’ (16 Aug-3 Sept).

Across town at The Mission theatre, residents Next Stage kick off with ‘The Visit’ (25-29 Jan), Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s tragicomedy with themes of punishment, greed, revenge, and moral strength. Later they’re back with ‘Happy Jack’ (17-19 Feb), John Godber’s affectionate portrayal of a 40-year marriage in a Northern mining town, and ‘Sufficient Carbohydrate’ (22-26 Mar), Dennis Potter’s 1983 stage debut about simmering tensions, resentments and passions in a Greek island villa.

The Rondo Theatre see in the year with Theatre Factory’s ‘The Fix’ (26-28 Jan), a hard-edged but comic commentary on the American political machine by the writers of 2000’s ‘Witches of Eastwick’ musical. Later on, European Arts stage five of Chekhov’s richly comic, epigrammatic shorts (you may have seen ’em on telly of late, starring messrs Coogan, Horne et al) from 16-17 Mar, before the estimable Hull Truck lure us into the potting shed with ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ (18 Mar) and the Rondo’s own company tackle Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ (23-26 Mar).

Hippodrome highlights next year include ‘Calendar Girls’ (26 Jan-5 Feb), starring Lynda Bellingham, Jennifer Ellison and Ruth Madoc; four nights of mind-warping mentalism from Derren Brown (29 May-1 June); ‘Hairspray’, starring Michael Ball and Mickey ‘The Monkees’ Dolenz (12-30 Apr); and (another major run opening in our region) the first leg of the first-ever national tour for the stage show of ‘Dirty Dancing’ (1 Sept-8 Oct).

From what we’ve seen so far of this year’s Old Vic Theatre School stars-in-waiting, they look as fine a vintage as ever, so expect great things from their ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ (Circomedia, 17-26 Feb) and their version of Laclos’s epistolary epic of seduction and corruption, ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ (Redgrave, 10-19 Mar).

Events at Bristol Old Vic will mostly be taking place off-piste next year, as the theatre beds down for a significant refurb. There’s plenty to get excited about though – including the recent appointment of the inspirational John Retallack, a man with a reputation for introducing cutting-edge young people’s work, as associate director.

Before the theatre does go dark, you should make time for ‘Faith Healer’ (27 Jan-5 Mar), an adaptation of Brian Friel’s 1979 masterpiece about a healer who roams the British Isles – but whose real identity, motives and indeed authenticity remain unclear until a blistering ending. Simon Godwin (‘Far Away’) directs: Finbar Lynch (NT, RSC) stars.

Further ahead, BOV’s 2011 programme 12 Projects For Bristol includes hosting the regional heat of National Theatre Connections (Apr) with brand new plays for actors aged 13-19. Heart of Bristol (from June) will be an outreach programme asking Bristolians to describe the heart of the city in which they live and turning the results into theatre; The Bristol Jam returns for another smorgasbord of spontaneity in November; and December will see a staging of ‘Coram Boy’, the National Theatre hit developed by Tom Morris, written by his ‘Swallows and Amazons’ collaborator Helen Edmundson and featuring both professional performers and Bristol community choirs. (Steve Wright)

DANCE

It seems appropriate that with the recent inclement weather the first visitors of 2011 should be the accomplished Russian Ice Stars with ‘Peter Pan on Ice’ (13-16 Jan, Hippodrome), while the Hippodrome's next visitors are the Russian State Ballet of Siberia in the guise of the Raymond Gubbay Ballet (14-19 Feb/14-16 Mar, Wyvern, Swindon). As well as the usual fare – ‘Romeo & Juliet’/’Sleeping Beauty’/’Swan Lake’ – there's a chance to see the full-length version of ‘Don Quixote’, rarely performed these days. ICIA Bath's main springtime offering comes from the multi-talented Luca Silvestrini's Protein Dance whose ‘LOL (lots of love)’ delves into the world of electronic communication (12 Feb, ICIA/4 Apr, Roses, Tewkesbury). There's nothing happening dancewise at the Theatre Royal this season but the egg has an evening of live dance companies, MCs and urban poets under the name Urban Hype, with free pre-show events to get things going (21 Jan), and Sonia Sabri Company's ‘Kathabox’, creates a new dance style: Urban Kathak (9 Mar). The Ustinov has visits from Theatre Ad Infinitum whose ‘Translunar Paradise’ is a touching tale without words (14 Jan), plus Fringe First-winning RashDash, with their ‘Another Someone’ (28-39 Apr). Venture further afield and you'll find the much-missed Richard Alston Dance Company at the Wyvern (8 Feb) – why don't they visit Bath any more? – and bharata natyam dancer Mayuri Boonham in double bill ‘ATMA’ (11 Feb) at Swindon Dance. Antonia Grove's Probe visits the Merlin and Swindon Dance (1 Mar/11 Mar) with ‘May’, the story of a woman living on the edge and a man living in his head. However, the real treat comes later in the year with the arrival of Matthew Bourne's ‘Cinderella’ at the Hippodrome (15-21 May), a dark take on the traditional fairy tale set in wartime London. It's been a good few years since his former group, Adventures in Motion Pictures, were company-in-residence at the Bristol Dance Centre. He's come a long way since then. (Lesley Barnes)
 

Copyright Steve Wright and Lesley Barnes 2011

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