Nottingham Playhouse has unveiled its Spring 2025 season. The upcoming programme includes the regional premieres of thrilling productions, including a one-woman show, a fresh adaptation of a classic novel, and a spiritual sequel to The Kite Runner.
Key highlights of the season include:
– Dennis Kelly’s Girls & Boys: The regional premiere of this powerful one-woman show from BAFTA, Tony, Emmy, and Olivier Award-winner Dennis Kelly (Matilda the Musical, DNA). Directed by Anna Ledwich, this 90-minute drama follows the story of a seemingly ordinary relationship that spirals into darkness, exploring themes of family, violence, and hidden truths.
– A New Adaptation of Animal Farm: In partnership with Theatre Royal Stratford East and Leeds Playhouse, this co-production marks the 80th anniversary of George Orwell’s iconic novel. Directed by Amy Leach with design by Hayley Grindle, the adaptation by Tatty Hennessy promises a dark, contemporary retelling of Orwell’s fable, with timely themes of unchecked power and rebellion.
– Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns: Directed by Roxana Silbert and adapted for the stage by Ursula Rani Sarma, this co-production with Birmingham Rep and Leeds Playhouse tells a powerful story of survival, sisterhood, and resilience in war-torn Afghanistan. It follows Laila and Mariam, two women thrust together by circumstance, as they navigate brutality and hardship under Taliban rule.
The season will open with Girls & Boys, running from 8 February 2025 to 1 March 2025, followed by Animal Farm (2-12 April 2025), and A Thousand Splendid Suns playing 13-24 May 2025, after its runs at Birmingham Rep and Leeds Playhouse.
Artistic Director Adam Penford expressed excitement about the 2025 season, noting that “Girls & Boys goes off like a rocket” and praised the opportunity to collaborate on thought-provoking adaptations of well-known works like Animal Farm and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Penford also reflected on the success of 2024, highlighting a diverse slate of productions ranging from intimate plays, such as James Graham’s Punch to large-scale musicals like Dear Evan Hansen.
Director Anna Ledwich said: “Girls & Boys manages to be that rare beast: a funny, provocative, shocking and moving play. It lures you in, charms you, and then pulls the rug out from under you.
It is a magnificent tour-de-force for an outstanding actress and I can’t wait to unpack the play’s mysteries with her.”
Alongside its in-house productions, Nottingham Playhouse will continue to present a broad array of performances. This autumn features the acclaimed Qudus Dance Company with Re-Incarnation, as well as the Jasmin Vardimon contemporary dance company. In 2025, audiences can look forward to the world premiere of Gary Clarke Company’s Detention, a sequel to the celebrated Coal and Wasteland.
Artistic Director Adam Penford’s comments in full:
“Nottingham Playhouse has had an incredible 2024. We’ve produced 9 very different shows, including 5 world premieres, 2 regional premieres, 1 modern revival and 1 classic. The productions have ranged in scale from the 3-hander Liberation Squares in the Studio theatre, to spectacles such as Minority Report and Dear Evan Hansen, and a community project with local young people in The Trials. The local story of redemption in Punch connected with audiences and made national headlines. I’m very proud of the Nottingham Playhouse family, including our in-house team and the army of freelancers, for delivering a programme of work which is so ambitious, varied and hard-hitting. I also want to thank our audience for constantly supporting the work.
“The first half of 2025 looks set to be just as exciting. To be presenting the regional premiere of Dennis Kelly’s Girls & Boys is a real honour. Dennis is one of the UK’s best writers and this play goes off like a rocket. We have some exciting casting news to follow. Our co-productions, Animal Farm and A Thousand Splendid Suns, both adaptations from best-selling books, offer the opportunity for audiences to travel to two very different to worlds, both political and theatrical.”
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