Now Booking for Spring 2009

Over the next couple of weeks there will of course be lots of running around and last minute Christmas shopping (and then the January sales), but there will also no doubt be the quiet days spent recovering from over-indulgence. And it's a great opportunity to catch up on all those Spring programmes for the theatres that have been dropping through the letterbox amongst the Christmas cards. Here's our round up of our current plans for the first half of 2009...

The Citizens' was one of the first theatres to launch their programme and we've quickly booked up for a couple of shows and we plan on booking a few more once we have a better idea of our other plans. "Sub Rosa" from Fire Exit & the Citizens is a site specific piece which will promenade around backstage areas in the Citz and is 'not for the squeamish' (review now posted) and we've also booked for Tamasha's Bollywood style take on "Wuthering Heights" (review now posted). At the moment we don't plan on seeing "Educating Rita" but that may change once casting is announced (review now posted), and we'll need to give a bit more thought before deciding on their production of Ibsen's "Ghosts". We'll have already seen the National Theatre of Scotland & Donmar Warehouse's "Be Near Me" before it reaches the Citz (review now posted) and we enjoyed NLP's "Singin' I'm No a Billy He's a Tim" at Cumbernauld earlier this year. But we do plan to book for the Citizens Community Company's "My Clydeside Valentine" (review now posted) and the Young Company's "Citizen Y" nearer the time (review now posted).

As well as "Be Near Me" the National Theatre of Scotland has also grabbed our attention with the intriguing "Dolls" based on a Japanese film at the Tramway at the end of January (review now posted).

In 2008 the Tron's programming really worked for us, and their Spring 2009 shows look like maintaining our interest. We've booked up for Irish 'Troubles' set thriller "Defender of the Faith" (review now posted), Tam Dean Burn in "Year of the Horse" (review now posted) and we'll also catch a couple of shows we missed at the Fringe in "The Tailor of Inverness" (review now posted) and "The Angel & The Woodcutter" (review now posted). I'm also quite keen to see "Do I Mean Anything To You Or Am I Just Passing By?" but it could prove tricky to fit in.

Glasgow's Theatre Royal has lured us back with the touring production of "Cabaret" but in truth the attraction is that it stars Sam Barks who was our household's favourite in the BBC's Search-for-Nancy show (review now posted).

Over in Edinburgh at the Lyceum they have several shows of interest but their ticket prices make us wary of taking a punt on shows in advance of seeing a positive review or cast information. However if flexi-time permits I may be tempted to give a midweek matinee a go on my own for "The Mystery of Irma Vep" and "Copenhagen" as Waldorf isn't particularly keen.

In May we're back down to London for "Madame De Sade" starring Judi Dench (review now posted) and "Oliver" with Rowan Atkinson and the Search-for-Nancy winner. We'll also hope to fill a Saturday night slot that weekend with something that catches our eye in the next few months.

One other show we'll definitely be booking up for when tour dates are published is Borderline's production of DC Jackson's "The Ducky" ( review now posted )- a follow up to 2008's award winning "The Wall".

And while we are still working out the best way to take up Bluedog's challenge of giving opera a chance (without breaking the bank), we're dipping our toes in with this year's "Five:15" from Scottish Opera - a performance of five new fifteen minute operas (review now posted).

We haven't seen details of the Traverse programme yet, and we'll hopefully find some shows to see at Cumbernauld Theatre, and we will update this post with details when we get them. And I'll be making a renewed effort to get along regularly to Oran Mor's 'A Play, A Pie & A Pint' lunchtime series.

And as always, we're happy to hear about any other shows we haven't spotted that you think we might enjoy.