NEWS: Spring 2025 season announced

The new season includes the regional premiere of an electrifying one-woman show, a chilling adaptation of a classic book and a spiritual sequel to the best-selling The Kite Runner.

 New announcements include:

• The regional premiere of BAFTA, Tony, Emmy and Olivier award-winning Dennis Kelly’s Girls & Boys, a gripping one-woman show
• A chilling new co-production of George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm, with Theatre Royal Stratford East and Leeds Playhouse
• A powerful new production of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, a co-production with Birmingham Rep and Leeds Playhouse

Nottingham Playhouse’s spring 2025 season opens with the regional premiere of BAFTA, Tony, Emmy and Olivier award-winning Dennis Kelly’s (Matilda the Musical, DNA and Channel 4’s Utopia) Girls & Boys. This gripping one-woman show full of savage humour and raw intensity, is directed by Anna Ledwich (Anthropology, Hampstead Theatre; Photograph 51, Ensemble Theatre Sydney), and performed in 90 minutes in a breathtaking, powerhouse solo performance.

Girls & Boys begins as a typical love story – boy meets girl and sparks fly. An intense, passionate relationship begins. In time they settle down, have children and live ordinary, chaotic lives. But beneath the veneer of normality, a disturbing undercurrent is growing. Their seemingly perfect world unravels, revealing shocking truths about family, violence and what really goes on behind closed doors.

Anna Ledwich said:

“Girls & Boys manages to be that rare beast: a funny, provocative, shocking and moving play. It lures you in, charms you, and then pulls the rug out from under you.

It is a magnificent tour-de-force for an outstanding actress and I can’t wait to unpack the play’s mysteries with her.” Girls & Boys will be a Theatre Green Book production.

In the year George Orwell’s political fable marks its 80th anniversary, a fresh interpretation of Animal Farm is brought to the stage in a co-production with Theatre Royal Stratford East, Leeds Playhouse and Nottingham Playhouse. Directed by Amy Leach, with Design by Hayley Grindle, this adaptation by Tatty Hennessy is a chilling and thought-provoking story of treachery and rebellion and provides a timely reminder of the perils of unchecked power.

This dark, contemporary retelling of Orwell’s classic novel, first published in 1945, will open at Theatre Royal Stratford East in February 2025 before transferring to Leeds Playhouse in March and arriving at Nottingham Playhouse in April 2025.

Director Amy Leach and Designer Hayley Grindle, whose recent productions of Macbeth and Oliver Twist have stunned audiences with their originality, scale and creativity, are once again coming together to create an epic landscape for this landmark production.

Amy Leach, Deputy Artistic Director at Leeds Playhouse, said:

“I can’t wait to explore Orwell’s timeless fable and to expand on his multi-layered text to delve deeper into themes that relate to the world we live in now, to the challenges we face when power goes unchecked, and unity is mired in division.

 “In the year that we will be celebrating the 80^th anniversary of this landmark allegorical story, Tatty Hennessy’s fresh interpretation will be very much of the moment. Designer Hayley Grindle and I are creating an industrial landscape for our cast to explore this chilling tale of treachery and rebellion – a recognisable, relatable world that will prompt us to question whether it’s possible for anyone to stay true to themselves and resist the allure and corruption of power.”

All performances of Animal Farm will have creative audio description available.

In May 2025, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini arrives in Nottingham, after opening at Birmingham Rep and touring to Leeds Playhouse. Adapted for the stage by Ursula Rani Sarma, this spiritual sequel to The Kite Runner is directed by Roxana Silbert (Woyzeck, Birmingham Rep; Folk, Hampstead Theatre).

In 1992 in an Afghanistan ravaged by war, an orphaned Laila is left alone in an increasingly threatening world. Her older neighbour Rasheed is quick to open his home and takes Laila as his second wife. Rasheed’s first wife Mariam has no choice but to accept her younger, and now pregnant, rival. As the Taliban take over, life for all of them becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, and the two women find themselves unlikely allies.

Former Birmingham Rep Artistic Director and Hampstead Theatre Artistic Director Roxana Silbert directs this unflinching, life affirming drama, in which love grows and sustains the human spirit even during the hardest of times.

Adam Penford, Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse added:

“Nottingham Playhouse has had an incredible 2024. We’ve produced 9 very different shows, including 5 world premieres, 2 regional premieres, 1 modern revival and 1 classic. The productions have ranged in scale from the 3-hander Liberation Squares in the Studio theatre, to spectacles such as Minority Report and Dear Evan Hansen, and a community project with local young people in The Trials. The local story of redemption in Punch connected with audiences and made national headlines. I’m very proud of the Nottingham Playhouse family, including our in-house team and the army of freelancers, for delivering a programme of work which is so ambitious, varied and hard-hitting. I also want to thank our audience for constantly supporting the work.

“The first half of 2025 looks set to be just as exciting. To be presenting the regional premiere of Dennis Kelly’s Girls & Boys is a real honour. Dennis is one of the UK’s best writers and this play goes off like a rocket. We have some exciting casting news to follow. Our co-productions, Animal Farm and A Thousand Splendid Suns, both adaptations from best-selling books, offer the opportunity for audiences to travel to two very different to worlds, both political and theatrical.”

Nottingham Playhouse’s broad programme of presented work continues alongside the in-house productions. Highlights this autumn include the explosive Qudus Dance Company with Re-INCARNATION, a celebration of dance and culture from Lagos; and the internationally renowned Jasmin Vardimon contemporary dance company with NOW, presenting iconic moments from their repertoire. In 2025, highlights include the world premiere of Gary Clarke Company’s new work, DETENTION, a sequel to the acclaimed dance sensations COAL and WASTELAND, alongside many more popular music and comedy acts.

The Season Launch took place at a special event for Members, where the latest fundraising campaign was also announced.  Double the Magic is a matched funding campaign, which means that every £1 donated by the public will be matched by pledges from our generous supporters. Between now and 14 October, the aim is to raise £10,000 to provide free theatre tickets for those in the community who face financial barriers to attending live theatre.

2024 has been an outstanding artistic and commercial success for Nottingham Playhouse. James Graham’s world premiere of Punch, based on Jacob Dunne’s book Right from Wrong and directed by Nottingham Playhouse Artistic Director Adam Penford, will transfer to the Young Vic in March 2025. Adam Penford’s brand-new, non-replica production of the smash-hit musical Dear Evan Hansen, is now on an extensive UK wide tour into spring 2025. And Nottingham Playhouse’s production of Mark Gatiss’ A Christmas Carol is running at Birmingham Rep this year.

Tickets for the new Season programme are now on sale to Playhouse Pass Members from 30 September, with tickets on general sale from 11 October.