New arts venue Storyhouse announces theatre season

After a decade long absence of a city centre theatre and cinema, Chester residents will be rejoicing at the news of the first shows to take place at Storyhouse, the city’s new £37m multi-arts venue and library, which opens in May 2017.

“We are so thrilled to be announcing our much anticipated inaugural season,” says Storyhouse’s artistic director Alex Clifton. “We believe we have four brilliant stories to tell."

The first of these four home-produced shows to grace Storyhouse’s flexible 500/800 seater theatre will be the premiere of playwright Glyn Maxwell’s riotous new musical based on The Beggar's Opera, which will be directed by Clifton and performed by the theatre’s rep company. Clifton describes the musical as “down-and-dirty” with an original score “for our time”.

Later there’s Glyn Maxwell’s new take on Alice in Wonderland – “a joyful family show” promises Cliffton – which will play on the Storyhouse stage (19 May-9 Jul) and Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre (15 Jul-20 Aug).

There’s also a brace of Shakespeare productions planned: Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both of which will also take place on the Storyhouse stage and Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre. “All of the plays in the season tackle big, important questions about our shared cultural identity, and none more obviously than Julius Caesar, a political thriller, perfectly set to take audiences to the rancid heart of power,” says Clifton. The production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, meanwhile, is described Clifton as “an on-stage carnival and celebrate the glorious diversity and volatility of human desire.”

As well as all this great theatre, the Storyhouse building itself is also much-anticipated. Carved out of the Grade II listed shell of the former Odeon cinema and combined with a new brick and glass extension, it promises to be an impressive and unique space. The library, a restaurant and independent cinema are housed in the former Odeon’s streamlined art-deco interior; the theatre, a 150-seat community studio and a rooftop bar are within the extension.

Chester Council’s Louise Gittins reckons the building will have a profound impact on the city: “Storyhouse will be a place the borough’s communities can come together and experience the UK’s leading theatre, opera, dance and music companies,” she says.

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Tickets for all four productions go on sale Monday 24 October. For more details and to book tickets, go to storyhouse.com

For more on Storyhouse, pick up the Nov/Dec print edition of The Skinny North