Birmingham Rep has added new shows to its programme including the musical Starter for Ten featuring Mel Giedroyc, a world première by a deaf professional theatre company and a new Christmas production for all the family.
Young Rep, the Rep’s youth theatre company for young people aged between 7 and 18, will present its fourth summer festival, Home and Horizons, from Wednesday 9 until Sunday 20 July. It will feature more than 400 young performers showcasing a variety of productions including Tennessee Williams’s Summer and Smoke, Euripides’ Medea, Alice by Laura Wade and Evan Placey’s Jekyll and Hyde.
Deafinitely Theatre will stage in The Door Eloise Pennycott’s Barrier(s), a “powerful and intimate love story full of warmth, humour and the fight to be understood”. It will blend British Sign Language and English and will run from Saturday 18 until Saturday 25 October.
TV presenter, writer and actress Mel Giedroyc will appear in Starter for Ten, a “coming-of-age comedy musical about love, belonging and the all-important difference between knowledge and wisdom”. It is about 18-year-old Brian Jackson whose lifelong dream is to appear on the television programme University Challenge. Giedroyc will reprise the roles of Brian’s mum Irene Jackson and Bamber Gascoigne’s sidekick Julia Bland. Adapted from David Nicholls’s novel, Starter for Ten will run at the Rep from Wednesday 22 October until Saturday 1 November.
The Rep will present its family show Anansi the Spider in The Door fromThursday 4 December until Sunday 11 January 2026. Created by Justin Audibert, it will be directed by Robin Belfield and will be aimed at children aged from four to eight and their families.