# Derby Playhouse production history

The following is a chronological list of productions staged at the Derby Playhouse from 1975 to 2008. The Derby Playhouse was a theatre production company and the former name of the theatre which it owned and operated from its opening in 1975 until 2008, when the company ceased operating after a period in administration. Situated in Derby, England, the theatre is now known as the Derby Theatre and has been owned and operated by the University of Derby since 2009.

## List of past productions 1975–2008

The list includes all Main House, in-house professional productions. It does not include many Studio, Theatre in Education (TIE), visiting professional or amateur performances, such as those of the Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company, whose annual Gilbert and Sullivan shows played at the theatre from 1980 to 2003 and again after the theatre's reopening in 2009.

### 1970s
#### 1975

* My Fair Lady
* Hamlet
* Lloyd George Knew My Father
* Sleeping Beauty

#### 1976

* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
* A View from the Bridge
* Cowardy Custard
* An Ideal Husband
* The Seagull starring Alan Bates
* The Norman Conquests
* The Miser
* Enter Sherlock Holmes
* Jack and the Beanstalk

#### 1977

* Sleuth
* Macbeth
* A Taste of Honey
* The Importance of Being Earnest
* A Man for All Seasons
* Absurd Person Singular
* Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
* Equus
* Mother Goose

#### 1978

* Romeo and Juliet
* Private Lives
* Irma La Douce
* Hedda Gabler
* Witness for the Prosecution
* Mrs. Warren's Profession
* Godspell
* Journey's End
* Dick Whittington

#### 1979

* What the Butler Saw
* Murderer
* Bedroom Farce
* Donkeys' Years
* In Praise of Love
* Otherwise Engaged
* Ten Times Table
* King Lear
* Privates on Parade
* Aladdin

### 1980s
#### 1980

* An Inspector Calls
* Count Dracula
* Loot (play)
* Blithe Spirit
* The School for Scandal
* Whose Life Is It Anyway?
* Murder with Love
* Rookery Nook
* Pygmalion
* Clouds
* Relatively Speaking
* Cinderella

#### 1981

* Funny Peculiar
* Night and Day
* Fallen Angels
* The Case of the Oily Levantine
* Habeas Corpus
* Sisterly Feelings
* All My Sons
* The Conspirator
* No More Sitting on the Old School Bench
* The Wizard of Oz
* The Adult Panto – Studio

#### 1982

* Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
* Once a Catholic
* Piaf
* See How They Run
* When can I have a Banana Again – Studio
* Happy as a Sandbag
* The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
* Operation Bad Apple
* Middle Age Spread
* The Gingerbread Man
* Dry Rot

#### 1983

* Having a Ball!
* The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
* Play It Again, Sam
* The Elephant Man
* Present Laughter
* Having a Ball!
* Educating Rita
* Julius Caesar
* Taking Steps
* Pinocchio
* The Ghost Train

#### 1984

* Dirty Linen and Newfoundland
* The Country Wife
* Stags and Hens
* Terra Nova
* French Without Tears
* Deathtrap
* Trafford Tanzi
* Love Bites
* Season's Greetings
* The Meg and Mog Show
* Charley's Aunt

#### 1985

* Breezeblock Park
* The Caucasian Chalk Circle
* The Canterbury Tales
* Blood Relations
* You Never Can Tell
* Season's Greetings
* Blood Brothers
* Over the Bar
* Steaming
* The Snow Queen

#### 1986

* The Anastasia File
* Intimate Exchanges :- Affairs in a Tent & A One Man Protest
* Sons of the Beach
* Intimate Exchanges :- A Pageant & A Game of Golf
* Tom Jones
* The Brewery Beano
* It's a Madhouse
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

#### 1987

* Our Day Out
* A Midsummer Night's Dream
* Land of Hope and Gloria
* Waiting for Godot – Studio
* Cider with Rosie
* The Innocent Mistress
* The Children's Hour
* Gaslight
* The Scatterbrained Scarecrow of Oz

#### 1988

* Masterpieces
* A Doll's House
* The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
* Sunday's Children
* Time and the Conways
* Private Lives
* Germinal
* The Queen of Spades
* Hansel and Gretel

#### 1989

* Entertaining Mr Sloane
* Love Games
* Touched
* Noises Off
* The Piggy Bank
* Wicked Old Nellie by Lucy Gannon (Studio and tour)
* Heartbreak House
* The Art of Success
* Arsenic and Old Lace
* Robin Hood

### 1990s
#### 1990

* Glory!
* Selling the Sizzle
* Jane Eyre
* Self Portrait
* The School for Wives
* Tons of Money
* Rebecca
* Dick Whittington and His Cat

#### 1991

* Teechers
* Double Double
* Hobson's Choice, winner of the 1991 TMA Award for Best Overall Production.
* Last of the Red Hot Lovers
* 84 Charing Cross Road
* She Stoops to Conquer
* Hard Times – Studio, Community Tour
* Driving Miss Daisy
* Mother Goose

#### 1992

* And a Nightingale Sang
* My Sister Next Door – Studio
* On the Piste
* The Innocents
* Far from the Madding Crowd
* Blithe Spirit
* Grease
* Death of a Salesman
* Women in Love – Studio, Community Tour
* On the Piste
* Aladdin

#### 1993

* Laurel and Hardy – Studio, Community Tour
* A Chorus of Disapproval
* Little Shop of Horrors
* Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune – Studio
* Children of a Lesser God
* Outside Edge
* A Slice of Saturday Night
* The Lucky Chance
* Two – Studio
* My Cousin Rachel
* Cinderella

#### 1994

* April in Paris – Tour in Hull Truck
* Les Liaisons Dangereuses
* An Evening with Gary Lineker
* Someone Who'll Watch Over Me – Studio
* Blood Money
* Passion Killers – co-production with Hull Truck
* Cabaret
* The Importance of Being Earnest
* Ham – Studio
* Absurd Person Singular
* Jack and the Beanstalk

#### 1995

* Richard III
* Our Boys – co-production with Incidental Theatre. Transferred to Donmar Warehouse
* Oleanna
* Happy Families
* Assassins
* Derby 100 – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* A Passionate Woman – co-production with David Pugh Ltd. National Tour
* The Woman in Black – co-production with P.W. Productions. National Tour
* Comic Cuts – co-production with Triptych/Salisbury Playhouse
* Richard III
* Dick Whittington and His Cat

#### 1996

* Tess of the d'Urbervilles – co-production with Salisbury Playhouse
* Time of My Life
* My Mother Said I Never Should – Studio
* The Rise and Fall of Little Voice
* Extremities
* Buster's Last Stand – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* A Chorus Line
* Gym and Tonic – co-production with Thorndike Theatre
* Pow (play) – Studio, co-production with Paines Plough
* Blood Wedding – co-production with Northern Stage
* Aladdin

#### 1997

* The Rivals
* Not a Game for Boys
* Eleanor Rigby – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Miss Julie – Studio
* Adam Bede
* Lips Together, Teeth Apart
* By the Baseball Ground – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* The Grapevine
* 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
* Mr Wonderful
* Three Viewings – Studio
* The Subtle Art of Boiling Lobsters – Studio
* Female, 29, GSOH – Studio
* Price of a Good Dinner – Studio
* Sleeping Beauty

#### 1998

* Taking Steps
* The Oedipus Plays – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Mother Courage – co-production with Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Theatre
* Lucky Sods
* The Glass Menagerie
* Off Yer Trolley – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* Blues in the Night
* The Collector – co-production with Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Theatre
* Anna Karenina – co-production with Shared Experience
* Krapp's Last Tape – Studio, co-production with RSC
* The Black Dahlia – co-production with Method and Madness
* Babes in the Wood

#### 1999

* Bouncers
* Twelfth Night – co-production with Northern Broadsides
* Coming of Age – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Things Fall Apart – co-production with The Performance Studio Workshop of Nigeria
* Boyband
* The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
* Und – Studio, co-production with The Wrestling School
* Bouncers
* The Passion Play – Derby Playhouse Community Play
* Soul Train
* Watching the Sand from the Sea
* Masquerade – co-production with The State Small Theatre of Vilnius
* Mother Goose

### 2000s
#### 2000

* A Clockwork Orange – co-production with Northern Stage
* Animal Farm – co-production with Northern Stage
* Perfect Days
* Shylock – Studio, co-production with Guy Masterson Productions
* Pericles – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Speaking in Tongues
* Perfect Pitch
* No Fishing! – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* God and Stephen Hawking
* Leader of the Pack co-production with Churchill Theatre Bromley
* Sparkleshark – co-production with the National Theatre
* Passing Places
* Cinderella

#### 2001

* Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill – Studio
* The Contractor – co-production with Oxford Stage Company
* The Blue Room
* Tales of Hans Anderson – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Nineteen Eighty-Four – co-production with Northern Stage
* Danny Bouncing
* Ain't Misbehavin'
* Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill – Studio
* The School for Scandal
* On the Piste
* Jack and the Beanstalk
* A Life in the Theatre

#### 2002

* Great Expectations
* Misconceptions
* Class of '77 – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Up 'n' Under
* The Browning Version
* Way Upstream
* Life of Galileo – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* Dick Whittington

#### 2003

* Educating Rita (1 February – 1 March 2003)
* My Dad's Corner Shop (22 March – 12 April 2003) by Ray Grewal (The play won Grewal the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 2001. This was its first main-stage production)
* Viking Tales (16 – 19 April 2003) – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* The Entertainer (26 April – 24 May 2003)
* Oh, What a Lovely War! (31 May – 28 June 2003) – Pro & Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* Blithe Spirit (6 September – 4 October 2003)
* Dracula (11 October – 1 November 2003)
* Loot (8 – 29 November 2003)
* A Christmas Carol (6 December 2003 – 24 January 2004)

#### 2004

* Shirley Valentine (31 January – 5 February 2004)
* Private Lives (6 March – 3 April 2004)
* Josefina – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (24 April – 2 May 2004)
* A Midsummer Night's Dream (29 May – 3 July 2004)
* Silver Ghosts & Spitfires (7 – 10 July 2004) – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* Amadeus (28 August – 25 September 2004)
* Frankenstein (2 – 30 October 2004)
* Kafka's Dick (6 – 27 November 2004)
* Merlin & The Winter King (4 December 2004 – 22 January 2005)

#### 2005

* Can't Pay? Won't Pay! (29 January – 26 February 2005)
* Mary Stuart (5 – 26 March 2005) – with Big Picture Company
* Hooray for Hollywood (30 March – 2 April 2005) – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Company (16 April – 21 May 2005)
* Romeo and Juliet (28 May – 2 July 2005)
* Bold Nelson's Praise (6 – 9 July 2005) – Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* Arsenic and Old Lace (20 August – 17 September 2005)
* Macbeth (24 September – 22 October 2005)
* Serial Killers (29 October – 26 November 2005)
* Arabian Nights (3 December 2005 – 28 January 2006)

#### 2006

* Henceforward... (4 February – 4 March 2006)
* Master Class (11 March – 8 April 2006)
* Into the Woods (22 April – 20 May 2006)
* Animal Farm (27 May – 23 June 2006) – Pro & Derby Playhouse Community Theatre
* A Christmas Carol (2 December 2006 – 20 January 2007)

#### 2007

* The Importance of Being Earnest (27 January – 24 February 2007)
* Johnno (3 – 31 March 2007) co-production with La Boite Theatre.
* Merrily We Roll Along (14 April – 19 May 2007)
* As You Like It (26 May – 23 June 2007)
* The Tempest – Derby Playhouse Youth Theatre
* Moon Landing (6 September – 6 October 2007) starring Glenn Carter (world premiere)
* Stepping Out (13 October – 17 November 2007)
* Treasure Island (24 November 2007 – 2 February 2008) adapted by Karen Louise Hebden from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson

#### 2008

* The Killing of Sister George (13 September – 11 October 2008) – starring Jenny Eclair and directed by Cal McCrystal.