The Barn Theatre, Cirencester Season 2023 Announcement

As the curtain closes on an amazing 2022 season, the Barn Theatre launches their 2023 program just in time for Christmas!!

We think that this year is even stronger than 2022. Six productions are initially planned with an additional blockbuster mystery show to be added for the autumn season, which will be announced early in the New Year.

The Barn Season Pass will apply at first to the opening six productions. Once purchased, Season ticket pass holders will be able to apply their discount to the seventh show when it’s announced.

2023 opens with AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS – Comedy/Family (30th JANUARY – 11th MARCH). For those of you who loved, The Hound of the Baskerville, The 39 Steps and Ben Hur, this is right up your street! Joe O’Malley returns for his fourth hilarious comedy production. Three actors play thirteen characters in a laugh a minute family pleaser, based on the Jules Verne classic about a very English gentlemen and his French valet Passepartout traversing the globe in order to win a bet, with hysterically funny consequences.

Sir Michael Morpurgo’s close relationship with the Barn continues. Following the success of their first Morpurgo, The Butterfly Lion in 2019, the Cotswold venue has created an annual program which has featured the former Child Laurette’s work, from the acclaimed Private Peaceful, An Elephant in The Garden, and 2022’s sell out, The Mozart Question.

Next season’s production is the world stage premiere of his novel and film WAITING FOR ANYA – Drama/Family (27th MARCH – 5th MAY), another story set in war-torn Europe.

A small village in the foothills of the French Pyrenees becomes a haven for a growing band of Jewish children hiding from the Nazis who they help escape across the mountains and into Spain.

Jo, a young boy from the village discovers that Madame Horcada, with the help of her son-in-law, Benjamin, is offering protection to Jewish children. Benjamin hopes to be reunited at some point with his daughter Anya, who became separated from her father when they escaped Paris.

When German soldiers move into town, the danger suddenly becomes much more real, as the penalty for helping these children escape is death.

This is not only a story of unlikely heroes but is also an inspiring story of how one village came together to do the right thing.

Another Michael Morpurgo classic given the Barn treatment.

Returning director Bryan Hodgson, Murder For Two and Importance of Being Earnest, takes on the third Barn production, Noel Coward’s PRIVATE LIVES – Comedy (15th MAY – 24th JUNE)

It’s a 1930 comedy of manners and concerns a divorced couple who, while honeymooning with their new spouses, discover that they are staying in adjacent rooms at the same hotel and sharing the same terrace. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for each other.

ONCE – Musical/Family (3rd JULY – 12th AUGUST) kicks off the Barn’s summer musical in spectacular fashion with a large cast of fourteen musicians, their largest since, The Secret Garden in 2018.

With a similar folk theme, the play is based on the hugely successful 2006 musical film of the same name written and directed by John Carney. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová’s song “Falling Slowly” received a 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the soundtrack as a whole also received a Grammy nomination.

A modern-day musical, the story features an Irish busker and a Czech immigrant “girl”, and their eventful week in Dublin. They write, rehearse and scrape together enough money to record a demo album with a motley crew of bar friends, in a collaboration that evolves into a powerful, very complicated but beautiful love story.

The Barn is incredibly proud to announce its next work; an exclusively commissioned piece that continues the theatre’s season of incredible musicals.

SIN, A New Musical of Revenge – Musical/Drama (18th AUGUST – 16th SEPTEMBER) is the extraordinary life story of Madeleine Hobart, wife of Samuel Leary, former Governor of Pennsylvania and one-time Democratic Candidate for President of the United States.

A one-woman musical, SIN is a political thriller, and a work of fiction at the borderlands of reality. Madeleine will tell her personal story of deliverance, and revenge; through monologue and song, she will talk about her narrow escape from an abusive marriage, her part in the downfall of Gov. Samuel Leary, and her growing Faith in something – someone – much closer to home: herself. A captivating production not to be missed!

The launch of the Christmas production seems to have traditionally become the signal for general Yule-tide festivities in Cirencester, and the final Barn show for 2023 looks to be another real crowd pleaser.

Alan Pollock returns to pen a Christmas special to rival the best. TREASURE ISLAND – Family/Fun (20th NOVEMBER – 6th JANUARY) brings Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story to life with a twist of fun, foot tapping mayhem and sea shanties galore!

The Barn’s Christmas extravaganza will be a rip-roaring thrilling feast of swaggering pirates, X marks the spot, a chattering parrot, mutiny on the high seas and pieces of eight “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum style. The perfect Christmas treat for all the family. Pirates of the Caribbean meets Fishermen’s Friends.

So, there you have it!

Keep an eye out on their website and social posts for the announcement of our spectacular mystery autumn production. Coming soon.

A BARN THEATRE SEASON IS THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR A FRIEND OR LOVED ONE THAT WILL LAST THE WHOLE YEAR.

A Barn Theatre Season Pass is still the best value way to see all seven productions for 2023. Save up to 30% on regular show prices. Joint seasons also available.

You can purchase a Barn Season for as little as £58* for all 6 shows (*Example used is Off Peak Ticket BAND – A)

Contact the Barn Theatre box office on 01285 648255 or visit barntheatre.org.uk for more information or to buy your Season Pass.

2023 AT A GLANCE

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (Comedy/Family) 30^th JANUARY – 11^th MARCH

WAITING FOR ANYA (Drama/Family) 27^th MARCH – 5^th MAY

PRIVATE LIVES (Comedy) 15^th MAY – 24^th JUNE

ONCE (Musical/Family) 3^rd JULY – 12^th AUGUST

SIN (Musical/Drama) 18^th AUGUST – 16^th SEPTEMBER

TREASURE ISLAND (Fun/Family) 20^th NOVEMBER – 6^th JANUARY

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