A modern adaption of an Ibsen classic
'The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.'
(John Milton, Paradise Lost)

Hedda Gabler has it all - the life she chose, the husband she chose and the home she chose. She is brilliant, witty and cultivated. Expecting to launch a salon of her own for the social and artistic elite.

Even so, Hedda isn't happy.

Just back from a 6-month honeymoon, she is bored and frustrated. She resents the sacrifice of freedom involved in any commitment – to her new husband, whom she already finds intolerably dull; to the home she chose on a whim and now finds claustrophobic; to the pressure to become a mother. 'I will not be depended on!' she cries.

Hedda has created her own prison, her own hell. Her baffled rage at her situation leads her to manipulate those around her in more and more impulsive, destructive ways, always seeking an escape into a pure, aesthetic realm which is where she feels she belongs.

No – she is not a good person, Hedda Gabler. But she is mesmeric. She has a pair of pistols and knows how to use them. She effortlessly commands the attention of everyone around her – and that includes the theatre audience. You won't be able to look away.

Written by Henrik Ibsen

Directed by Graham Smith

24th -29th March 2025

The Thirty-Nine Steps is a parody, adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept and production of a four-actor version of the story was written by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, and premiered in 1996. Patrick Barlow rewrote this adaptation in 2005. It is riotous blend of multiple roles, inventive stagecraft, shadow puppetry and physical theatre.

Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have this hilarious fast-paced whodunit with well over 50 roles played by three of the cast of four. The main protagonist, Richard Hannay, leads a boring life until he meets a woman with a thick accent who says she's a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organisation called "The 39 Steps" is hot on his trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale!

Written by Patrick Barlow

Directed by Jane McKenna

2nd - 7th June 2025

Carlo Goldoni was an Italian playwright who lived and wrote throughout the 18th Century, a time when the traditional commedia dell'arte style was in decline and written drama as we know it was beginning. Goldoni skilfully adapted the commedia pattern to his own very funny plots, and the most famous of the resulting plays is The Servant of Two Masters.

The story concerns the terrible complications wrought by the servant Truffaldino when he gets himself jobs with two different people at the same time. Not all the complications are of his making; one of his masters is in fact a woman in disguise, and the other master is her lover - but Truffaldino doesn't know this. Predictably, this all leads to hilarious complications and confusions.

The play became very widely known following its recent adaptation as the smash hit One Man, Two Guvnors.

Written by Carlo Goldoni

Directed by Martin Williams

25th - 30th August 2025