A Season of Ancient and Modern Classics at the Citizens This Spring

We couldn't wait any longer, and today we're sharing news of our fantastic Spring 2016 season, which goes on sale next Tuesday 10 November. 

Spring 2016 is packed with classic drama, both ancient and modern. The centerpiece of the season will be This Restless House, a trilogy of new plays by Zinnie Harris based on the epic Greek tragedy The Oresteia. This Restless House is a co-production with National Theatre of Scotland and will be presented over two evenings from 15 Apr - 14 May and will be a large-scale theatrical event,

Our Artistic Director Dominic Hill had this to say about the new season that he's put together:

Citizens Theatre Artistic Director Dominic Hill. Image Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

"As well as telling a story of a family whose loyalties to one another are tested in the most extreme way, This Restless House is about a changing society where the cracks in democracy are beginning to appear. I think our audiences will find plenty of resonances between today’s culture and the world depicted in Zinnie’s play, inspired by a work that has survived over 2,000 years.  This Restless House is part of a broad and varied season of work which recognises anniversaries of both the death of Shakespeare and one of the most horrific events of the First World War. It also brings great contemporary Scottish writing to a Glasgow stage and features co-productions with some of the best theatre companies in the UK.
Working with our co-producers enables us to present ambitious, large-scale work throughout our season and I’m pleased that we’ll be working together with companies from across the UK and Ireland and sharing the work that we make here in Glasgow with them. The Citizens is well-known for bold and innovative interpretations of classics, and with this season I feel we’re really delivering on that reputation."

The season in full includes:

ENDGAME 4 - 20 February 2016

ON SALE NOW!
A new production of Beckett’s darkly comic Endgame, directed by Dominic Hill.  Leading the cast are stars of Coronation Street David Neilson and Chris Gascoyne, better known as their Corrie characters Roy Cropper and Peter Barlow. Endgame is Hill’s second Beckett production at the Citizens following his highly successful double-bill of Krapp’s Last Tape and Footfalls starring the late Gerard Murphy. Following performances at the Citizens, the production will tour to HOME Manchester, co-producers on the project. 

Endgame at the Citizens Theatre 4 - 20 February 2016. Image Reuben Paris

BLACKBIRD 25 Feb - 3 Mar 2016
ON SALE 10 NOV

Following Into That Darkness, his five-star debut production on the Citizens’ main stage in 2015, the Citizens Main Stage Director in Residence Gareth Nicholls directs David Harrower’s Blackbird, one of the most important works of twenty-first century Scottish drama. Asking difficult questions about paedophilia and adolescent sexuality, the play depicts a confrontation between a young woman and a middle-aged man fifteen years after the end of their relationship when she was only twelve years old. 

GET CARTER 8 - 11 Mar 2016
ON SALE 10 NOVNewcastle’s NorthernStage tour to the Citizens for the first time with a dark and stylish production of Get Carter, the British crime drama made famous by the 1971 film starring Michael Caine. Set in 1960’s Newcastle, Torben Betts’ adaptation of the novel Jack’s Return Home by Ted Lewis is a hard and uncompromising look at a city’s underworld gang culture and a gripping noir thriller. Get Carter is directed by Northern Stage Artistic Director Lorne Campbell.

GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 14 - 26 Mar 2016
Many acts already on sale. Full programme TBAIn March, Glasgow International Comedy Festival takes over the Citizens Theatre, with confirmed acts including Jenny Eclair, Richard Herring, MarkWatson, Mark Steel, Shappi Khorsandi, Bridget Christie, Des Clarke, Greg Proops and James Campbell, with more acts to be announced.

Some of the acts performing at the Citizens Theatre in 2016.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: A PLAY FOR THE NATION 29 Mar - 6 Apr 2016

ON SALE NOW!

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream:A Play For The Nation features six amateur Scottish actors in the roles of The Mechanicals, including the iconic role of Bottom. The specially-formed Citizens Dream Players will perform alongside a company of professional RSC actors and pupils from Shawlands Academy.  In addition to performing on the Citizens’ stage the Citizens Dream Players will travel to Stratford-Upon-Avon in June 2016 to reprise their roles on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage.  Directed by RSC Deputy Artistic Director Erica Whyman, this ambitious tour involves fourteen amateur companies across the UK and marks 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare. 

A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play for the Nation features six amateur actors alongside a professional cast

THIS RESTLESS HOUSE 15 Apr - 15 May 2016
ON SALE 10 NOVThis Restless House is a new trilogy of plays by Zinnie Harris based on the Greek tragedy The Oresteia by Aeschylus, and is a co-production with National Theatre of Scotland.  Harris’ plays tells the bloody saga of a family torn apart by a succession of murders and betrayals, set against the backdrop of a society on the brink of a revolution and learning to operate within a nascent and flawed justice system. First performed in 485 BC, today’s audience will find that Dominic Hill’s raw and brutal production brings the universal themes of justice, revenge, loyalty, and the evolving relationships between teenagers and their parents to the fore in his trademark theatrical style. Nikola Kodjabashia, composer on A Christmas Carol, Hamlet and Crime and Punishment returns to create new music for the plays, with Colin Richmond, designer on Crime and Punishment and Doctor Faustus also returning to the Citizens.  

OBSERVE THE SONS OF ULSTER MARCHING TOWARDS THE SOMME 20 May - 6 Jun 2016
ON SALE 10 NOV
The season ends with a major new co-production commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the Battle of The Somme.  Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness is a co-production between the Citizens, Headlong, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and The Abbey, Dublin. Directed by Headlong Artistic Director Jeremy Herrin, the production will premiere at the Citizens Theatre before a tour of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and performances at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin where it was first premiered in 1985. 

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme is a co-production between the Citizens Theatre, Abbey Theatre, Liverpool Everyman 

Tickets for all productions in our Spring 2016 season are available now to book online, or by calling our box office on 0141 429 0022.