Coming up at The Priory
With around 7 in house productions produced by Priory members each year, plus countless more external organisations hosting events in our spaces, there’s something for everyone to enjoy at The Priory!
We regularly add to our upcoming list as more gets booked into our calendar, so make sure you check back regularly to secure your tickets before they’re gone!
Mother Goose
Directed By Mike Brooks & Mark Jefferies
This year's Priory Pantomime is the timeless tale of Mother Goose. The simple story of poor Mother Goose who dreams of being rich and beautiful. When her goose starts laying golden eggs, dreams start becoming reality but not necessarily in a good way! Fear not, however, a happy ending is guaranteed in true panto style!
This egg-citing egg-stravaganza is sure to sell out!
The Ladykillers
Directed By Karen Shayler & Stuart Lawson
A sweet little old lady, alone in her house, is pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing.
Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but eccentric Mrs Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her, unwittingly, in Marcus's brilliantly conceived heist job. The police are left stumped but Mrs Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse and Marcus concludes that there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet.
With only her parrot, General Gordon, to help her, Mrs Wilberforce is alone with five desperate men. But who will be forced to face the music?
A play both macabre and hilariously funny, this is definitely not one to be missed!
Swede Dreamz
From the opening beats of Waterloo to the final notes of Thank You for the Music, Swede Dreamz took us on a journey through some of ABBA's greatest and most memorable hits including Dancing Quee, Mamma Mia, Take a Change on Me, SOS, Fernando, Chiquitita, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, Knowing Me Knowing You, Money Money Money, and many more!
The ABBA tribute show really did capture all of the magic and excitement of one of the world's most successful and entertaining live bands. With superb live vocals, stunning replica costumes, and fantastic light show, we had the time of your life!
The Accrington Pals
Directed by Susie Walker & Chris Sharp
At the outbreak of war in 1914, the 700 strong local battalion from Accrington, Lancashire marched off optimistically in response to Lord Kitchener's call – Your Country Needs YOU!
Peter Whelan's powerful and poignant play is set in the early years of the First World War, as the country's jingoistic optimism starts to wane and the true terror of warfare gradually becomes clear.
The Accrington Pals portrayed the devastating effects of war on a typical Lancashire mill town, and the highs and lows of everyday people at home and on the front line.
Up Pompeii!
Directed by Mark Jefferies
Based on the original characters created for the Frankie Howard BBC comedy, Up Pompeii! was a hilarious romp through ancient Pompeii with all the TV favourites!
As Lucrio attempted to deliver his prologue and begin proceedings, he was quickly caught up in the myriad of sexual liaisons in all quarters of his master's house.
Why did Ludicrious not leave for the Senate meeting in Rome? Why did his wife return so quickly from the country? Who took care of the escaped slave girl, Voluptua, and did Nausius's love poetry improve?
Whilst growing chaos ensued, an increasing rumble was heard in the distance - what could that possibly have been? This was a riot from start to finish.
Trash (PYT)
Directed by Pete Davis & Rachel Davis
When four strangers were suddenly thrown together on the site of a sinister junkyard, they worked together using only their wits and cunning to survive not only their pursuers, but the strange and wonderful inhabitants of the tip.
Using a mixture of physical theatre, special effects and music, this production by our own Youth Theatre brought to life a brand new and original story of the battles between good and evil, of families, and the power of friendship.
A Tomb With a View
Directed by Mike Brooks
A Tomb with a View is a popular, fast-moving, gothic comedy triller by Norman Robbins. With laughs and dead bodies in profusion, this play opened as a wolf howls to the moon. In the Library, Hamilton Penworthy, solicitor, reads the will of the late-departed Septimus Tomb.
The eccentric Tombs are seething. They want to know who is Miss Ash? Why has she been left a fortune? Flora Ash, writer of romantic fiction, soon arrives with her secretary, young Peregrine. And then, mysteriously, the corpses start to pile up.
Who survived to inherit the millions? The plot twisted and turned to a surprising conclusion that was well received by our audiences.
Rough Crossing
Directed by Stephen Boden
For acclaimed playwrights Sandor Turai and Alex Gal, their transatlantic journey from Cherbourg to New York should have been plain sailing. Their new musical comedy was all but finished - there was just the trivial matter of the ending to sort out - and their protégé composer Adam, who was rapturously in love with their exotic leading lady, Natasha Navratilova. Four days' sailing, a Broadway première, another smash hit: what could possibly go wrong?
As both ship and show hit heavy weather, the line between reality and musical comedy became increasingly blurred. Stoppard's deliriously funny play was an affectionate tribute to the Golden Age of sophisticated comedy. With jokes that would have delighted Coward, and songs that Irving Berlin might have penned, Rough Crossing was a feast of verbal wit, physical comedy, and sheer theatrical virtuosity that went down well with our audience.
Only Fools and Boycie
An evening with John Challis
The Priory Theatre hosted an intimate evening with John Challis, one of the nation's great comedy actors, and best known as Boycie in Only Fools and Horses.
John revealed secrets from the set with stories and anecdotes from his dazzling career working with some of the biggest names in showbusiness recalling tales from his time in time in TV classics including Dr. Who and Coronation Street.
Damages
Directed by Pete Davis
Deep in the bowels of a tabloid newspaper office, the clock was ticking with only an hour left before the presses had to roll...
A controversial photo of a topless children's TV star mysteriously turned up. Who sent it? And was it all it seemed?
Damages was a witty and contemporary (im)morality tale of power-hungry hacks, suicidal sub-editors, and razor-sharp lawyers all trying to put the past and the paper to bed.