Wide variety on offer at theatre for autumn

Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre launches its autumn season, packed with award-winning drama, star-studded comedy and musical delights.

The season features world premiere productions of Ben Brown’s political thriller Three Days in May, Michael Morpurgo’s Friend Or Foe, Propeller’s unique take on Henry V and Alan Ayckbourn’s 75th play Neighbourhood Watch.

Icarus Theatre Collective presents a bold and exciting performance of Shakespeare’s most bloody and fear-filled tragedy, Macbeth (September 19-20). Unrivalled on the battlefield, Macbeth is rewarded with rank and favour by a grateful king. But violence breeds violence, and a reign born in blood quickly spirals out of control as Macbeth’s actions return to destroy him.

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Actor Simon Callow brings to life Dr Marigold & Mr Chops (September 26– October 1): two one-man plays by Charles Dickens. Callow tells the stories of Dr Marigold, a travelling salesman who adopts a little deaf and dumb girl, and Mr Chops, a freak-show turn who wins the lottery and a place in society.

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (October 3-4) is relocated to the last days of the Raj where a young girl is found washed up on a beach along the Indian coast. As she struggles to find her feet in this strange new world the forces of change and fate conspire around her as Shakespeare’s tale of love, identity and new beginnings unfolds in all its tragic glory.

Arthur Bostrom and Lucy Speed star in Philip King’s 1945 farcical gem See How They Run (October 5-8). A sequence of dog-collared strangers turn a homely wartime vicarage in peaceful Merton-cum-Middlewick completely upside down as a maverick soldier, an escaped POW, a Bishop and a few vicars get tangled up in a case of mistaken identity.

Was giving up ever an option? May 1940, Downing Street. Warren Clarke, Simon Ward and Jeremy Clyde star in the world premiere production of Ben Brown’s political thriller Three Days in May (October 11-15), taking us behind the doors of Number Ten during three of the most pivotal days in British History, when, extraordinarily, giving in to Hitler was considered by some to be a ‘viable option’.

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Michael Morpurgo’s tale of extraordinary friendship, Friend Or Foe (October 17-19) is set at the height of the Second World War. Evacuated from London, war seemed far away from David and Tucky’s new lives in the Devonshire country.

Alan Ayckbourn’s hit comedy Season’s Greetings (October 24-29) is back following several successful productions, including a recent sell-out season at the National Theatre. It’s Christmas at Belinda and Neville’s house. Take one frustrated wife, add a seductive stranger, two eccentric uncles and a mechanical monkey, and watch the hilarity unfold.

One of Alan Bennett’s biggest hits, The Madness of George III (October 31-November 5) sees David Haig play King George. Drama, politics and humour combine into a vivid theatrical portrait of English history when it seemed that the future of the very monarchy was at stake.

Nationalism at its most dangerous and exciting, Henry V (November 9-12) tells the tale of the greatest British warrior in English folklore.

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The award-winning festive production The Holly And The Ivy (November 14-19) returns as a pre-Christmas treat. Set in a Norfolk vicarage on Christmas Eve 1947, the vicar’s family gather for the festive season. Peace and goodwill radiates, until the arrival of two irritable aunts and an errant daughter.

Golden Globe winner Amanda Donohoe stars as theatrical grand dame Lorraine Barrie in Noël Coward’s final play, Star Quality (November 21-26).

Surrey-born actress, dancer and entertainer Bonnie Langford will star in this year’s family pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk (December 2-January 8).