stage


LES MISÉRABLES Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay Tue 13 Dec-Sat 14 Jan


It’s that time of year again – time for the Wales Millennium Centre’s festive-season blockbuster musical. Last year it was the kids’ turn with Disney’s Beauty And The Beast – which unfortunately ended prematurely due to lockdown – but for 2022-23, grownups are again targeted, as the perennially popular Les Misérables takes over the Donald Gordon Theatre for a month over Christmas.


The longest-running West End musical, Les Mis is based on Victor Hugo’s mid-19th century novel. Recently released from a 19-year stretch


stealing a loaf of bread, our hero Jean Valjean reinvents himself, adopts a little girl – Cosette – and becomes an insurgent in history’s French Revolution.


in prison, initially for Valjean


ensemble of characters, centred by a cat-and-mouse storyline between he and fanatical police inspector


is surrounded by an


Javert, his nemesis. There’s Fantine and her famous song I Dreamed A Dream; the crooked Thénardiers, providing levity to the piece; and a cast of young revolutionaries.


Unlike a lot of touring productions, Les Mis doesn’t tend to have ‘TV known’ names. Leading the cast is Dean Chisnall, as Valjean – a part Chisnall has played before, in the West End and in concert (his other credits include Blood Brothers and Evita). He’s joined by homegrown West End star Lauren Drew, who studied Performing Arts at Neath College. Fresh from a role in Regents Park Open Air Theatre’s successful Legally Blonde revival, she plays Fantine here.


Man the barricades and get yourself a ticket.


Tickets: £22-£85. Info: wmc.org.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


LA BELLE SAUVAGE Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, Cardiff Sat 3-Fri 9 Dec


Pullman’s His Dark Materials prequel. Finally playing at London’s Bridge Theatre over the festive period last year, December will see a version come to Cardiff: the Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama’s Richard Burton Company are bringing a production of Bryony Lavery’s adaption to their stage.


Another casualty of the pandemic was Nicholas Hytner’s production of La


Belle Sauvage, Philip


Set 12 years before The Northern Lights, the first book in the HDM series, Lyra Belacqua is a six- month-old baby – yet to arrive at Jordan College, Oxford, where she will be raised. Malcolm Polstead is a normal 12-year-old who works alongside Alice, 15, in his parents’ pub. Before long the teenagers – along with their dæmons – are at the centre of a manhunt, and must protect Lyra no matter what.


The production features puppetry and live music, making for a magical theatre experience. Bringing to life Pullman’s fantastical world sounds like a perfect treat for pre-Christmas evenings.


Tickets: £7.50-£15. Info: rwcmd.ac.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


32


DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF


THE DEAD Old Vic, Bristol Thurs 19 Jan-Sat 11 Feb


When Olga Tokarczuk’s novel Prowadz Swój Plug Przez Kosci Umarlych was published in 2009, the twist-packed, animal welfare- themed mystery was a huge success in her native Poland. Its 2018 translation into English, Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead, replicated this on the world stage. London theatre company Complicité have adapted it for the stage, with Complicité’s cofounder Simon McBurney directing; Bristol Old Vic will be the second date in a nine-theatre tour that finishes in Paris in June.


Drive… is set in rural, southwest Poland, with its protagonist a retired schoolteacher, Janina Duszejko. Her views on animal rights come into focus when a plurality of keen local hunters wind up dead; Janina’s theory, that this is vengeance from the beasts themselves, does little to offset any suspicion surrounding her. Heading the cast as Duszejko is Kathryn Hunter, who can currently be seen in Andor on Disney+ and was the first British woman to play King Lear professionally.


Tickets: £8-£60. Info: bristololdvic.org.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


THE SNOW QUEEN Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol


Thurs 1 Dec-Sun 15 Jan Across


festive retelling of The Snow Queen is set to kick off your Christmas. With friendship, laughter, and wickedness, Tobacco Factory Theatre’s co-production with New International Encounter and Cambridge Junction will be on both the naughty and nice list.


the border in Bristol, a


Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale has not only inspired Disney’s Frozen but has taken the form of ballets, operas, and (getting niche here) a 2002 made-for-television film adaptation that I found as a DVD freebie in my dad’s newspaper and watched all three hours of. Whilst I would not recommend that latter example, my memory of it pays merit to the story’s magical archetype of good versus evil that makes it impossible for us to, if you will, let it go.


The Tobacco Factory’s production, meanwhile, promises a good time with


characters, and a courageous journey in the name of friendship to create a fun and family-friendly version of this well-known tale.


musical numbers, comedic


Tickets: £12-£24. Info: tobaccofactorytheatres.com ELIZABETH MORRIS


THE VERDICT New Theatre, Cardiff Tue 24-Sat 28 Jan


Best known as the multi-Oscar- nominated 1982 film starring Paul Newman and James Mason, The Verdict is coming to the stage of Cardiff’s New Theatre. Not to be confused with the similarly titled Verdict, by Agatha Christie, The Verdict is based on the book by novel-writing trial lawyer Barry Reed.


Frank Galvin is a washed-up alcoholic – once a promising lawyer, now the proverbial ambulance chaser. With an open-and-shut case offering Galvin one last chance to redeem himself, he surprises everyone by refusing to settle out of court. Nobody thinks he can win – but, as he senses a cover up, Galvin goes from trying to save his reputation to doing the right thing.


TV’s Jason Merrells – known by audiences for his roles in shows like Cutting It and Waterloo Road, plus four years as Declan Macey in Emmerdale – stars as Galvin. The Verdict has already been a huge success and has played to high press acclaim.


Tickets: £16-£39. Info: newtheatrecardiff.co.uk CHRIS WILLIAMS


Camilla Adams


Matthew Murphy


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