Season 11 is a new season of drama made by Storyhouse. It’s called Season 11 because this will be the eleventh year we have been producing theatre in Chester, since our first production of Much Ado About Nothing in 2010. We are proud to offer a season of shows that celebrates our creative communities and tells powerful personal stories about living here and now.
There is a classic horror, a black comedy, a pioneering drama, a psychological thriller, a disco musical, and a deadly tragedy; it is extraordinarily varied. All are Storyhouse Originals: you can only see them here and they were made just for you.
Robert Louis Stephenson’s chilling classic The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde shows a man’s descent into moral bankruptcy. His inheritance is one of wealth and power, but addiction will not discriminate.
Pioneering drama Blue Stockings and deadly Greek tragedy Antigone tell stories of young women fighting to make their voices heard in men-first worlds: we find Antigone in ancient Thebes and Tess and her fellow first years in nineteenth-century Cambridge. These are strong female voices made powerless, but ready to fight to the death to change that.
The sexually-charged psychological thriller Miss Julie presents another young woman, who has all the wealth she could ever need but whose voice is ignored and she is desperate for more: to build a future of her own. But Julie’s mission, like Dr Jekyll’s, is one of self-destruction. All the money in the world can’t save her.
Comedy musical Brewster’s Millions introduces Sheena Brewster, a disco-obsessed single mother working three jobs to survive. Riotous farce The Suicide puts Simon Little centre stage: a middle-aged man out of work and ready to end his life. These stories speak of two Cestrians who, like 23% of Chester’s households, live on less than the living wage. Each suddenly finds themselves valued, even celebrated, as Sheena inherits millions and Simon becomes a local celebrity when the events around his suicide attempt spiral out of control.
Season 11 listens to people struggling to negotiate poverty and powerlessness. Drawn from across the ages and around the world, they speak to our city today: these are stories too relevant, too thrilling and occasionally too much fun to be ignored. Enjoy!
Alex Clifton
Artistic Director
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by Robert Louis Stevenson
A new stage version by Glyn Maxwell
“Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.” I had awakened him at the first transformation scene.
From the fevered mind of one of the world’s best-ever storytellers comes his most chilling classic – the tale of fiendish science and an ill-advised attempt at a real-life split personality. Will he control his monstrous alter ego, or shall we truly find ourselves “aghast before the acts of Edward Hyde”?
by Nikolai Erdman
adapted by Rebekah Harrison
directed by Michael Bryher
The Suicide is a high-stakes, quick-paced farce about a man on the edge. Simon is a man on the edge. With his life falling apart, he starts to contemplate his own end. What should be a simple tragedy, becomes a total farce as this quick-paced, high-stakes comedy is dragged kicking and screaming into 21st century Chester.
by Jessica Swale
directed by Elle While
It is 1896. Tess Moffat and her fellow first-years are allowed to attend University, just like the young men, but aren’t allowed to graduate.
Based on the true story of the women who fought to gain the same qualifications as men, four defiant young women battle the cruelty of class divides, the distractions of love and the men ready to do anything to stop them, as they fight to change the future of education.
by August Strindberg
adapted by Amy Ng
directed by Dadiow Lin
British-Hong Kong playwright Amy Ng has adapted this thrilling psychological classic into a newly politically-charged production.
It’s Chinese New Year in 1940s Hong Kong and celebrations are in full swing.
Julie, the daughter of the island’s British Governor, crashes the servant’s party downstairs. What starts as a game descends into a fight for survival as sex, power, money and race collide on a hot night in the Pearl River Delta.
by George McCutcheon
A major new disco musical from Storyhouse, based on the story made famous by Richard Pryor’s film. Brewster can certainly have her millions, but only by blowing the lot… A month of disco-dizzy mayhem and hilarity as Brewster must spend a fortune fast to make a fortune last. An empowering moral fable, reminding us that love is all we need.
by Sophocles
Antigone mourns her brother, left to rot in the field by her callous uncle, the tyrant King. She needs to honour her brother, to bury him. But whose law is greater – her god’s or her king’s? Antigone picks the fight anyway, and a personal tragedy of ancient Greek proportions follows. Sophocles’ taut, deadly masterpiece tears the family and the state apart in this urgent political drama.