Theatre Royal launches 50th anniversary spring season

A Bury St Edmunds theatre kicked its 50th spring season off to dramatic start on Tuesday evening with a musical and theatrical launch event.

The Theatre Royal is set to welcome nationally and internationally renowned shows and performers to its stage from February to August.

At the launch in the Guildhall theatre director Karen Simpson described the ‘exciting’ process of devising this year’s programme, sponsored by Gross and Co Solicitors, which marks the 50th anniversary of the theatre’s reopening.

“We have had all sorts of turmoil, but we have pulled together with the belief that the Theatre Royal must remain creatively led,” she said.

The launch included a performance of an extract from Sign of the Times, by playwright Tim Firth, and a musical medley from Hairspray performed by the Irving Stage Company.

There was also an interview with Marianne Dicker and Chloe Courtney from stage company Complicite, which is bringing its physical drama Lionboy to the theatre from February 10 to 13.

Drama features heavily in the programme, with plays including The Business of Murder by Richard Harris, Alan Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends, and the Agatha Christie Theatre Company’s And Then There Were None.

Tara Arts brings its Asian take on Shakespearean classic Macbeth to the stage from April 14 to 18.

There will be also evenings with Jimmy Tarbuck OBE on May 2 and Michael Parkinson CBE on June 21.

Family entertainment is also a focus this year, with shows including Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Stickman from the creators of The Gruffalo, and Michael Morpurgo’s I Believe in Unicorns.

To book tickets contact the box office on 01284 769505 or booking@theatreroyal.org.