Four new shows including a “fresh and riotous” adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and a world première of the picture book Pirates Loves Underpants are to be staged at Leicester’s Curve.
The theatre and the city’s De Montfort University will get together for a new retelling of Pride and Prejudice, adapted and directed by Curve’s associate director Cara Nolan. It will run from Thursday 13 until Saturday 15 June.
A community production, Fantastic Foxes, the story of Leicester, its people and title-winning football club, written by Curve resident creative Rob Ward, will run in Curve’s studio from Friday 26 July until Saturday 3 August. The theatre is holding auditions for the show on Wednesday 3, Wednesday 6 and Saturday 10 April. Further details are available at the Curve web site.
In 2023, Curve presented a rehearsed reading of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop and the theatre is to stage a full production of the drama. It will again be directed by Nathan Powell with returning cast members Ray Strasser-King and Justina Kehinde. A co-production with MAST Mayflower Studios, it will run in Curve’s studio from Saturday 21 September until Saturday 5 October. It will then visit MAST Mayflower Studios from Wednesday 9 until Saturday 12 October.
Curve’s family Christmas show will be a new adaptation of Claire Freedman and Ben Cort’s Pirates Love Underpants. Suitable for children aged three and above, it will run from Monday 2 December until Sunday 5 January 2025.
Curve’s chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said, “we’re proud to announce these upcoming Curve shows which reflect the theatre’s ambition to continue presenting great plays and works which celebrate stories close to home and from across the globe.”
Curve has also announced that the new musical SuperYou will visit Leicester from Tuesday 22 October until Saturday 9 November. With book, music and lyrics by Lourds Lane, the show was originally set to open Off Broadway in spring 2020 and was the first theatrical show to share live performances during the pandemic with concerts on pick-up trucks in upstate New York.