With the £35m re-development still underway, Theatre Clwyd's new spring season will be staged in the Mold theatre’s 200-seat Theatr Mix, where the company will produce three plays, Kill Thy Neighbour, Constellations and Rope, led by three Welsh directors.
Kill Thy Neighbour (April 2-20) is a dark comedy about love, death and hidden secrets. Caryl and Meirion live in a postcard-perfect Welsh village but as their community disappears dark stories emerge from behind the chocolate box façade. The play is the first full-length play by Wrexham-born Lucie Lovatt, and is a co-production with the Torch Theatre, directed by Torch's artistic director Chelsey Gillard: "Kill Thy Neighbour is both hilarious and spooky – my favourite combination. It speaks to issues directly affecting many communities in Wales and has a lot of heart."
Nick Payne’s multi-award-winning international mega-hit Constellations (May 10-25) will be reimagined for modern Wales by associate director Daniel Lloyd. A beekeeper and a physicist meet at a barbeque. She thinks of quantum mechanics, string theory and multiverses. He thinks of his bees, honey and ecology. Time and death are against them. Could they ever fall in love?
It sounds very strange, and is; but it's also one of the most lauded, brilliant and beautiful works of the past 15 years...
Constellations will be presented in two sister productions – in the original English and, for the first time, in Welsh, translated by Gwawr Loader under the title Cytserau (June 7-8).
Both versions will be performed by the same cast and tour across Wales in both languages. Daniel Lloyd said : "The timeless story asks huge questions about human existence and is told backwards, forwards and sideways, with a dazzlingly original structure.
“As a bilingual human existing within two cultures, I often feel like I’m straddling multiple universes, Cymraeg a Saesneg – English and Welsh. Realising this play in two languages allows us to explore that feeling more deeply.”
Rope (June 29-July 20) by Patrick Hamilton, is a dark, comic thriller inspired by a true crime and best known in the film version by Alfred Hitchcock.
Two bored, arrogant young men have killed a fellow student and stashed his body in a chest in the room in which they entertain their friends. Will they be discovered?
Theatr Clwyd’s associate artistic director, Francesca Goodridge, said: “When I first read Rope I found myself asking how this story of ruling-class arrogance and male impunity was written in the 1920s, when it speaks so clearly to the 2020s. Written a century before today's obsession with true crime podcasts, it remains a heart-stopping thriller."
The spring season also features a wide variety of shows on tour to Theatr Clwyd, including Oh What A Lovely War (March 12-16) and Beautiful Evil Things (March 7-8), as well as family shows, music, comedy and more.
More info and tickets here