Stephen Joseph Theatre launches its new season: Little Voice will be first play

The curtain has been raised on the summer season at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. It will include Alan Ayckbourn's 81st play for the venue and two gala evenings celebrating his 60 years' with the Scarborough stage.
Artistic director Paul Robinson and Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the launchArtistic director Paul Robinson and Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the launch
Artistic director Paul Robinson and Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the launch

It is the first programme put together by the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s artistic director Paul Robinson. He has chosen to launch the summer season with the stage version of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.

The cinema version was filmed in Scarborough with Jane Horrocks, Michael Caine, Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent and Ewan McGregor in lead roles.

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“The production will be served up as the perfect cocktail of Hollywood glitz and northern grit. It will be bold, brassy and big-hearted,” said Robinson.

Ayckbourn’s Taking Steps will be revived for a run starting in June. His new play A Brief History of Women will run later in the season. It has been inspired by the women in Ayckbourn’s life – from his “mad mother, through my two wives, to actors I have known”.

Completingthe season is Di and Viv and Rose by actress Amelia Bullmore and directed by Lotte Wakeham.

The world premiere of Goth Weekend - a play inspired by the Whitby event - by Ali Taylor will be staged in September.