Tynemouth Priory Theatre

Written by Robert Harling

Directed by Vicki Lockey

Set in a small Louisiana town in the time of big hair (1980s), six women gather in Truvy’s beauty shop for gossip, friendship and support. These six characters find comfort in each other. Filled with hilarious repartee & a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in Act II, Shelby (who is diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realisation of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on their underlying strength and love which gives the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching. Harling’s script is hilarious, touching, life-affirming & a magnificent celebration of women’s friendships.

[Tickets will be available following the completion of the current season]

Written by Neil Simon

Directed by Dave Cooper

Neil Simon’s revision of his hugely successful play, The Odd Couple, sees the lead characters transformed into Olive Madison and Florence Unger. Olive and her group of girlfriends are enjoying their weekly Trivial Pursuit night in Olive’s messy and ill-equipped apartment. As the game continues, Florence arrives, fresh from being dumped by her husband. Fearful that the neurotic Florence might attempt suicide, Olive invites her to move in as her room-mate. However, Olive and Florence have VERY different personalities. Where Olive is messy, untidy, and unconcerned about the state of her apartment, Florence is obsessively clean, tidy, and obsessed with hygiene. Olive’s easy-going outlook on life soon clashes with Florence’s highly- strung neurotic tendencies, testing their friendship to the limit. When Olive organises a double-date with the Costazuela brothers, their differences come to a head and sparks fly.

[Tickets will be available following the completion of the current season]

Directed by Beccy Gilmore

Our Annual Pantomime - synopsis to follow.

[Tickets will be available following the completion of the current season]

Written by Edward Taylor

Directed by Hayley Moy

What happens when two writers who have worked together for years start to hate each other? The team has won awards and made money. Harry Kent has saved and invested and now lives with his glamorous wife in a sun drenched luxury flat high above the Sussex coast, where the play is set. It is a hi tech paradise with only one snag: it's build on the site of an Ancient British sacrificial stone where black magic was practiced and now there are strange noises in the night. Paul Riggs has spent his fees on booze and birds, and he lives in dread of bookies' heavies. Harry wants to break the partnership that is Paul's lifeline, but Paul knows a sinister secret from Harry's past. They are therefore locked together in a dance from which murder seems the only escape and they have just plotted the perfect crime for their latest TV film.

[Tickets will be available following the completion of the current season]

Written by Constance Cox

Based upon the book by Oscar Wilde

Directed by Ali Broughton & Ann Leake

Lord Arthur Savile is engaged to lovely Sybil Merton. Her pet chiromantist Podgers has read Lord Arthur's palm and foretold he would commit a murder. Lord Arthur desires a blissful married life and therefore feels duty bound to get the murder over with first. Despite help from his butler and the cheerful anarchist Winkelkopf, attempt after attempt fails. Then news comes that Podgers is a charlatan: Lord Arthur is free and the carriage awaits to take him to the wedding rehearsal. Alas, it contains Winkelkopf's newest bomb. Lord Arthur saves himself by tossing it into a horse trough. As the dust settles, two policemen appear and march the unhappy young man away and another postponement notice has to be sent to The Times.

[Tickets will be available following the completion of the current season]

An adaptation of three episodes, from the series written by Richard Curtis & Ben Elton

Directed by Vicki Lockey

"Bells" - Blackadder develops feelings for a woman posing as his male servant.

"Potato" - Blackadder attempts to impress the Queen by embarking on his own voyage of discovery to the New World.

"Beer" - Blackadder finds himself hosting a drinking competition on the same night he is entertaining his puritanical relatives.