8:52am Wednesday 17th June 2009
By Jim Greenhalf
Lenny Henry’s Shakespear-ian debut in Othello attracted capacity audiences to West Yorkshire Playhouse in March.
The joint Northern Broadsides-West Yorkshire Playhouse production, which also sold out the final venue at Halifax’s Viaduct Theatre, brought in audiences totalling 22,000 for the month’s run – this at the height of the credit crunch and recession.
The Quarry Hill auditorium, one of two at West Yorkshire Playhouse, has a maximum capacity of about 750.
The theatre has other big shows planned for the autumn season, which starts on September 10 with Northern Ballet’s production of Dracula, and winds up with two seasonal blockbusters: The Secret Garden and Cinderella.
These two shows run from November 28 to January 23 and December 11 to January 23, respectively.
In between there are productions of Frederick Knott’s murder thriller Dial M For Murder, a joint production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, the National Theatre and Tara Arts co-production of Hanif Kureshi’s political drama The Black Album, the Shakespeare Schools Festival in November, and a stage adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath.
The Playhouse’s Comedy Club will be putting on some of the best-known one-night comedy acts in the country.
The line-up includes Alistair McGowan, Sean Hughes, Fascinating Aida, Stewart Lee and Marcus Brigstocke.
For more information and tickets the box office number is (0113) 2137700.
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