IT’S A cliché to start a new year’s article with a remark about resolutions, but ‘tis the season for clichés, so here goes. Why not let the Playhouse help you with your New Year’s resolutions? For example, if you’ve had your fill of TV over Christmas, you could come to our entertaining, stimulating performances instead, starting with Entertaining Angels, our first production of 2017. (More prosaically, there are 30 steps up to the Wharfeside Theatre, so that could help with post-festive exercise-based resolutions).

Grace, the lead character in Entertaining Angels, also finds herself facing new beginnings. A recently widowed clergyman’s wife, she’s spent her life on her best behaviour and is now relishing her new-found freedom following her liberation from lifelong duties of serving tea and making quiches. A potentially heavy subject, it’s handled lightly and thoughtfully, tending towards the poignant and funny rather than the darker side of things: the Sunday Times described the original production as “a warm, glowing, serious comedy, like an Ayckbourn finished by JM Barrie”. It’s a comedy of love and compassion that explores human relationships with sensitivity and humour and will inspire anyone to relish new beginnings. If that’s not enough to tempt you, it’s set in a beautiful English garden in summer, offering a temporary escape from the frost outside our doors.

Rather less gentle, but equally insightful, is Look Back in Anger, John Osborne’s classic debut from 1956. The tale of a love triangle across then-entrenched class boundaries, it played a key role in the realism-based revitalisation of post-war English theatre, spawning the phrase ‘angry young men’ in the process. The Playhouse’s production is a rehearsed reading, akin to a live performance of a radio play with minimal visual prompts, encouraging a focus on the lines and their delivery. Those with post-holiday budget restrictions will be delighted to note that tickets are just £5.

Finally, if you’re looking for something different to do in the New Year, Ilkley Playhouse always welcomes volunteers. There are many ways to be involved: front-of-house volunteers sell programmes and drinks, collect tickets, and meet the audience. Behind the scenes, you can be involved in set design, props, building and decoration, sound, lighting, costume, prompting. And if you don’t fancy any of that, well, there’s always acting. It’s a great place to learn new skills, revitalise old ones and make new friends in a warm and creative atmosphere. Contact the Playhouse office to find out more, or come along to see one of our fantastic productions to see what you could be involved with!

Entertaining Angels runs from January 18 to 28, 2017. Look Back in Anger is on January 14, 2017.

For all performances, you can book tickets online at www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk, or phone the Box Office on 01943 609539. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with the latest Ilkley Playhouse news and some backstage gossip!