Sherman Theatre Make History With 2017 Season

Sherman Theatre is to become the first Welsh producing theatre to co-produce a show with the Royal Court Theatre, London with the world premiere of Gary Owen’s Killology highlighting as part of their Spring season of work. The season includes seven world premieres, multiple co-productions and partnerships in new writing, and a new large-scale community production. Sherman Associate Artist Gary Owen’s dark new play explores modern society’s relationship with computer games, internet violence, justice and revenge through the prism of a new gaming experience that allows users to live out their darkest fantasies. Reuniting the award-winning team behind Iphigenia in Splott, Rachel O’Riordan directs the premiere, which opens at the Sherman before transferring to the Royal Court. Gary Owen’s award-winning Violence and Son was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 2015.

In a season that promotes Welsh artists and talent both inside Wales and beyond, the Sherman will once again unite with The Royal Exchange, Manchester along with Theatre by the Lake, to present Welsh writer Alan Harris’s How my Light is Spent, directed by JMK award-winner Liz Stevenson. This new work, which won the Judges’ Award at the 2015 Bruntwood Prize, looks at loneliness through the lives of a thirty-something man living with his Mum and a phone sex worker, and is the second co-production between the Sherman Theatre and the Royal Exchange Manchester, following the success of Bird in 2016.

With Glasgow’s Òran Mór, Sherman Theatre will co-produce a new A Play, A Pie and A Pint, World Domination by Lesley Clark and with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, a piece written by Sherman Associate Artist, Conor Mitchell and directed by Sherman Associate Director, Gethin Evans as part of the NEW 2017 season.

In January 2016, Sherman Theatre presented Home, which brought the stories of Cardiff’s Waulah community to the stage, performed by members of the community. This year, the experiences and stories of the citizens of Cardiff are brought to life once again by a community cast and a professional creative team, on the Sherman Theatre’s Main Stage. Love, Cardiff, explores the stories of City Road from the barbers to the takeaways, the sex shop to the funeral directors.

The curated programme this season includes Conor Mitchell’s The Moot Virginity of Catherine of Aragon and Pink Mist by Owen Sheers. Welsh language work includes Yfory, a new play by Sean Eirian from Bara Caws and a world premiere of a new Welsh language opera from Music Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru Y Tŵr, as part of the Vale of Glamorgan International Festival. National Dance Company Wales bring a double bill of dance works including a new piece by Artistic Director Caroline Finn. Young audiences can enjoy Julia Donaldson’s The Scarecrow’s Wedding, from the creators of The Gruffalo.

Rachel O’Riordan, Artistic Director said “This season at the Sherman has vibrant new work at its heart. We are delighted to be creating theatre with extraordinary writers, directors and theatre makers, and to have Welsh talent at the heart of what we do. This season sees us partner with new writing powerhouse the Royal Court, and once more with the Royal Exchange Theatre. We will take our work to international platforms. The Sherman is looking forward, with ambition and passion.”