Playhouse

REHEARSALS are well under way at Ilkley Playhouse for the first Wharfeside production of 2015.

JB Priestley’s Time and the Conways, directed by Jacquie Howard, runs from January 26 to February 7.

It is 1919 and the First World War has just ended. The seemingly happy Conway family gathers to celebrate a birthday party.

Eighteen years later, on the brink of the Second World War, we see that the future is far from the one they imagined that night. Priestley’s drama offers a deep insight into Britain between the two World Wars, family conflict, and how irreconcilable differences can break loved ones apart.

Time and the Conways looks into complacency, class arrogance, and the knock-on effect of a family’s own mistakes. Beneath the surface of this simple family story, Priestley explores the political and social history of Britain between the wars, and the nature of time itself.

Time and the Conways runs from January 26 to February 7 with a matinee on Saturday, January 31, at 2.30pm.

In February Jennie Aron directs Edward Albee’s classic Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

First presented in 1962 Albee’s play portrays the breakdown of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, mediocre academic George and his strong-willed wife Martha.

After a late night party, they are joined by young couple Nick and Honey for drinks in their home.

The evening quickly degenerates into an uncomfortable ordeal as George and Martha draw Nick and Honey into their bitter, complex and combative relationship.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won both the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1963 New York Drama Critics’ Award for Best Play.

As a portrait of a marriage in freefall it is challenging and uncompromising and as a piece of theatre, totally compelling.

The 1966 film famously starred real-life warring couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as George and Martha and George Segal and Sandy Dennis as Nick and Honey.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? runs from February 24 to 28 at 7.30pm in the Wildman Studio.

Phone 01943 609539 for tickets.