Mercury line-up announced

The Mercury Theatre in Colchester have announced their programming for 2023.

The season opens with Run Rebel in a co-production between Mercury and Pilot Theatre, the award-winning company that brought Noughts and Crosses and The Bone Sparrow to the Colchester stage. Tessa Walker directs the world première adaption of Manjeet Mann’s Carnegie Medal-winning young adult novel, combining physical theatre and visual effects, and opening 2nd March, with previews from 25 February, running until 4th March.

Opening next is a new Mercury Production of They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay!, Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Dario Fo’s Sotto paga? Non si paga!. A ferociously funny political farce asks what lengths people will go to when they’re desperate to survive. The production opens on 22nd March, with previews from 17th March, and runs until 31st March.

Next, Mercury Creatives alumni Mia Jerome brings a new Mercury Original to the stage in her uplifting children’s show The Instrumentals. As part of a UK tour, the show features soulful music, seventies grooves and innovative puppetry. Drawing on inspiration from the African-Caribbean diaspora, The Instrumentals celebrates the way people hold memories, running in Mercury’s Studio Theatre from 30th May to 3rd June.

Derren Brown’s astounding new production Unbelievable is the theatre’s summer spectacle, directly ahead of the show’s West End run. Unbelievable begins previews from 28th July and runs until 26th August. Theatre Creative Director Ryan McBryde said, “At the Mercury, our aim is to provide exhilarating, shared experiences for our community and our 2023 Spring season is a programme of new shows that promise great nights out like no other. We’re tackling the cost-of-living crisis head on with Dario Fo’s side-splitting satire, They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! as we work with Deborah McAndrew to bring the show right up to date with current events. Colchester audiences will be the first to exclusively access a new work from master illusionist Derren Brown, Unbelievable. And finally, our Studio continues to provide a platform for ground-breaking new work including The Instrumentals, a new Mercury Original family musical. I can’t wait to share all this work with our audiences, along with a few more surprises up our sleeves in 2023.”

• Box Office: www.mercurytheatre.co.uk / 01206 573948 the pages of Roddy Doyle’s best-selling novel. The world’s hardest working and most explosive soul band are set to visit Ipswich as part of a return in an all new stage production.

This major UK and Ireland tour of the smash-hit musical will star Coronation Street legend Nigel Pivaro, who appeared in the hugely popular ITV soap between 1983 – 2012 as the lovable rogue Terry Duckworth. He will be swapping the cobbles for the stage and performing the role of ‘Da’ in this all-new production.

Nigel Pivaro says, “I am thrilled to be marking my return to the stage in this production of The Commitments. It’s an iconic story that resonates across the years, about people who though distant from the music’s origins find communion and expression in the Motown style. A musical genre which was borne out of oppression and which the characters embrace as their own. The Motown Sound is as vibrant today as it was when it first burst through in the Sixties.”

Roddy Doyle added, “I’m delighted that The Commitments are coming back in 2022 & 2023 and I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how Nigel Pivaro tackles the part of Jimmy Rabbitte’s Da.”

This new tour for 2022/23 is directed by Andrew Linnie. Andrew made his West End debut in the original production in 2013, playing the role of Dean, the band’s sax player. He then went on to star in the lead role of Jimmy Rabitte in the 2016/2017 UK tour.

Joining the cast as Deco is Olivier Award nominee Ian McIntosh. Ian is no stranger to this role, having previously played Alternate Deco during the original West End run. Previous credits include Galileo in the UK tour of We Will Rock You, Sid Worley in An Officer and a Gentleman and he was Olivier nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actor in a Musical’ for his role as Barry in Beautiful – The Carole King Musical. His extensive musical career has also seen him perform in Hair and Can’t Buy Me Love.

In 2013 The Commitments musical opened in London’s West End to universal critical acclaim and enjoyed a record-breaking two-year residency at the Palace Theatre. After which, it hit the road for a major tour, invigorating audiences up and down the country throughout 2016 and 2017.

The Commitments musical has been adapted from the novel by Booker prize-winning author Roddy Doyle. Featuring an electric playlist, The Commitments showcases more than 20 soul classics performed live on stage, including Night Train, Try A Little Tenderness, River Deep, Mountain High, In The Midnight Hour, Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Save Me, Mustang Sally, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Reach Out, Uptight, Knock On Wood, I Can’t Turn You Loose and many more!

The Commitments tells the story of Jimmy Rabbitte, a young workingclass music fan, who transforms an unlikely bunch of amateur musicians into an amazing live act, which becomes the finest soul band Dublin has ever produced. Placing a classified advert in a music paper, Jimmy auditions a number of wannabes before finalising the members of his new band, which he names ‘The Commitments’.

Humour kicks in as the band get to know each other and their instruments, grappling with inter-group differences as they muddle their way through early rehearsals for the band’s first gig. Just as they improve and begin to get a name for themselves, they combust. The backing singers are more interested in the middle-aged horn playing legend, the singer has entered Eurovision, the drummer has walked out mid-gig and the saxophone player has dangerous leanings towards a jazz career.

The Commitments is a guaranteed “fabulously-fun night” (Daily Mail) that you will simply never forget.

• The Commitments will be at the Ipswich Regent Theatre from 27th February until 4th March. To book tickets visit www.ipswichtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/