VARIETY, it is often said, is the spice of life and that ought to mean there’s plenty on offer for Worcestershire’s theatre-goers this month.

That’s certainly the case at Malvern’s Festival Theatre for the rest of July.

This week - from tomorrow (Tuesday) until Saturday, there’s opera, then comes the dramatic world of espionage, madcap moments with the splendidly entitled The Play That Goes Wrong and then the month ends with the heart-warming comedy Shirley Valentine, which stars Jodie Prenger, who gave such an impressionable performance when she was a big hit at Malvern last year in Calamity Jane.

First up from Tuesday, July 4, is the all-male tour of the world premiere of the irresistible The Mikado – one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most famous operettas.


In true topsy–turvy fashion, Gilbert and Sullivan’s inherent humour and timeless tunefulness are married with a wicked sense of fun as this vibrant production successfully pokes playful fun at British politics and institutions.

The crazy storyline takes us to 1950s England where a school camping trip is visiting the far away land of Titipu - a place where flirting is banned on pain of death and where tailors can become Lord High Executioners but cannot cut off another’s head, until they have cut off their own!

The innovative theatre company Creative Cow brings an evening of hilarity and satire to Malvern in a witty adaptation of Graham Greene’s spy thriller Our Man in Havana.

This is a special piece of work for Malvern as it was produced in association with Malvern Theatres and is the closing week in a successful 13-week tour from Tuesday, July 11 to Saturday, July 15.

Known as one of Greene’s ‘entertainments’, the play tells the tale of a luckless vacuum cleaner salesman who gets sucked in to a dirty world of espionage and double agents when the chance of helping out MI6 with a job or two proves too good an offer to resist.

Set in 1950’s Cuba, Our Man in Havana is a compelling and subversive spy play with many references to present day life, despite being created almost 60 years ago!  It has such relevance today, more so with the political uncertainty in the world.

Audiences will revel in Greene’s sending up of the intelligence services, including M16.  At the centre of the tale is Jim Wormold and there are many rich and colourful characters who, together, create a wonderfully captivating night out.

The storyline of Our Man in Havana not only mirrors Greene’s own real life obsession with travelling, often to the most dangerous spots on the planet, but also other aspects of his life; his secret service work, his brushes with criminals, his constant itinerancy, among others.

Says actor and co-founder member of Creative Cow Theatre Company, Katherine Senior: “After the success we had with Greene’s Travels With My Aunt, which we also created in association with Malvern Theatres and brought to the town in May 2016 as part of a tour,  the Greene estate offered us the rights to Our Man in Havana. We thought it the perfect piece to follow Travels and we’ve been delighted to work with Malvern Theatres once more and are looking forward to returning to the town with this new work.”

Continues Katherine: “We feel we’ve taken the company to a new level with Our Man in Havana - working with set, lighting and sound designers and a new team of actors to bring a fresh, new creativity adding to the audience experience. We’ve had great fun producing this clever adaptation by Clive Francis and he has been very much involved in the process. Our audiences are going love it.”

After a string of top stage awards local connoisseurs of comedy get the opportunity to witness The Play That Goes Wrong from Monday, July 17 through to Saturday, July 22.

It won an Olivier Award, WhatsOnStage’s best new comedy and best new play on BroadwayWorld and now the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society is set to split sides at Malvern’s Festival Theatre.

They are putting on a 1920s murder mystery, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong… does!  The accident-prone thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences!


The month ends with the 30th anniversary tour of Willy Russell’s heart-warming comedy Shirley Valentine, which premiered in 1986 and took the world by storm.

In celebration this first major revival of this national treasure is heading around the UK starring the much loved actress Jodie Prenger as Shirley.

Shirley is a Liverpool housewife. Her kids have left home and she makes chips and egg for her husband while talking to the wall. Where has her life disappeared to? Out of the blue, her best friend offers her a trip to Greece for two weeks and she secretly packs her bags. She heads for the sun and starts to see the world and herself very differently.

Jodie Prenger is perhaps best known for winning the role of Nancy in the West End production of Oliver! through the BBC television series I’d Do Anything.

Most recently she toured the UK in the classic musical Tell Me On A Sunday. She also played the title role in the national tour of the musical Calamity Jane, a huge hit when it came to Malvern, and has starred in One Man, Two Guvnors both in the West End and on tour and as Lady of the Lake in Spamalot.

Jodie is also a regular presenter on BBC Radio 2.

With a career spanning over four decades Willy Russell is undeniably one of the most successful playwrights of his generation. His plays, including Educating Rita, Blood Brothers, Our Day Out and Shirley Valentine, have been performed across the globe and have won countless awards, they continue to be in constant production throughout the world.

Shirley Valentine was adapted into an Oscar nominated film starring Pauline Collins and Tom Conti.

Shirley Valentine is from Monday, July 24 through Saturday, July 29.