SOUTH WEST

BATH Theatre Royal (01225 448844) Bath Shakespeare Festival 2003: Bremer Shakespeare Company’s The Comedy of Errors; Concentric Circles’ Othello, March 7-8; New York Splinter Group’s Shakespeare’s R amp; J, March 11-15; Ustinov Studio Compagnie Mimodram, Georgia’s Hamlet, March 6-8; Zimbabwe’s Over the Edge The Taming of the Shrew, March 12-15; Box Clever’s key stage 2 Twelfth Night Marathon, March 15.

BRISTOL Old Vic (0116 9877877) Betrayal, to Mar 1; Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Mar 13-Apr 5; Great Expectations, Apr 10-May 3; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, May 8-Jun 7; BOV Theatre School’s The Canterbury Tales, Jun 12-21; circus skills in Midnight Summer Dreams, Jul 2-5. Tours: James and the Giant Peach, 1950s Caribbean Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. Studio Old Vic Youth Theatre season. Bruckner’s Pains of Youth, March 13-15; Simon Armitage’s Eclipse, March 14-15 late night; Ibsen’s League of Youth, March 19-21; David Farr’s The Queen Must DieLucinda Coxon’s The Ice Palace, March 27-29; Jill Tomlinson’s The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark daytimes for under-7s, April 2-26; visual theatre festival Mayfest, April 28-May31; Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s Tonight at 8.30 June 11-21.

EXETER Northcott (01392 493493) Relatively Speaking, to March 1; Mick Martin’s The Life and Times of Young Bob Scallion, March 20-29; Young Company in Oh What A Lovely War, April 19-26. Tours: The Cherry Orchard, Great Expectations.

SALISBURY Playhouse (01722 320333) Ayckbourn’s Communicatung Doors, to February 15; Hare’s Amy’s View, February 20-March 15; Terry Johnson’

Hysteria, March 20-April 5; Victoria Wood’s Par and Margaret, April 10-May 3; Gorky’s Barbarians, May 9-24. Tour Reunion: Salberg Studio Zoe Lewis’s Pool Death, February 27-March 22; Stage 65 Youth Theatre in Richard III, April 24-26; new short plays Up the Revolution; Again, May 14-16; The Elephant Man, June 12-14.

SOUTHAMPTON Nuffield (02 ) Rattle Of A Simple Man, March 20-April 12; Penny Gold’s When We Are Rich, May 1-24.

SOUTH

BASINGSTOKE Haymarket (01256 465566) Othello, to February 22; Haymarket Youth Theatre in The Visit , February 27-March 1; from Exeter, Relatively Speaking, March 5-22; The Daughter-in-Law, April 25-May 10.

HORNCHURCH Queen’s (01708 443333) Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, to March 8; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, March 14-April 5; Brief Encounter, April 25-May 17; Roger Hall’s comedy Middle-Age Spread, May 23-June 14.

NEWBURY Watermill (01635 45834) A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to March 22; Ade Morris’s Gigolo, March 25-29 (and regional tour April 1-May 10); new play rehearsed readings Raising Voices, March 31-April 5; Marivaux’ The Triumph of Love, April 9-May 17; Ayckbourn musical Dreams From A Summer House, May 21-July 5; youth theatre in Ade Morris’s car-theft Accelerate, July 9-12; West Berkshire village schools in Ade Morris’s communicate-or-die Call To The Sky, July 16-19.

EAST MIDLANDS

COLCHESTER Mercury (01206 573948) Private Lives March 13-29; The White Devil April 24-May 10; Three Sisters June 5-21. Tours Arabian Nights; Stones, Wild Girl, Wild Boy.

DERBY Playhouse (01332 363275) Educating Rita February 1-March 1; Ray Grewal’s British Asian My Dad’s Corner Shop March 22-April 12; The Entertainer April 26-May 24; Oh! What A Lovely War! May 31-June 28.

IPSWICH New Wolsey (01473 295900) amnesia with I Am Who I Am February 6-8; 60s girl group songs in Leader of the Pack, February 27- March 15, April 8-19. Tours: Abomination, After Mrs Rochester, Moon On A Rainbow Shawl, Not Now Bernard, Wild Girl Wild Boy, The Winter’s Tale.

LEICESTER Haymarket (0116 253 9797)) An Ideal Husband March 27-April 12; Amanda Whittington’s Leicester-set fantasy Bollywood Jane May 2-17; Theatre of Darkness’s recording studio show in session May 27-29; Quicksilver’s bullying play for 7+ Sea of Silence June 12-14. Tour 1984 Studio Local writers’ Love in the 21st Century February 14-15; for 8-12s, Mine March 7-8 (also touring local schools); Kali Theatre’s culture collision marriage drama Sock ‘em With Honey; March 20-29; Hangama Theatre’s culture clash marriage comedy When Amar Met Jay April 25-May 3; The Cripple of Inishmaan May 22-June 7; Tariq Ali’s murder satire The Illustrious Corpse June 12-21.

NORTHAMPTON Royal (01604 624811) The Weir Feb 7-15;22;26-28; Waiting For Godot February 19-21,24-25; March 1; After Mrs Rochester March 6-15; Amy’s View March 20-April 5; Shon Dale-Jones’ offbeat celeb. comedy-thriller The Man Next Door April 25-May 3; Habeas Corpus May 23-June 14. Tours: A Laughing Matter, 1950s Caribbean Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, Reunion, She Stoops to Conquer.

NOTTINGHAM Playhouse (0115 941 9419) 1950s Caribbean Moon On A Rainbow Shawl to February 22; Robert LepageMarie Brassard Polygraph February 26-March 8; Steven Berkoff Trilogy March 3-5; Travesties May 2-17; Andy Barrett’s new Hollywood in Notts. Comedy The Day That Kevin Came May 30-June 21; The Silver Sword June 26-July 12. Tour :Midnight’s Children.

WALES

CARDIFF Sherman (029 2064 6900) Mike Kenny on Mrs Dylan Tomas Caitlin February 3-15; Sherman Youth Theatre’s hauntings piece Deadhand February 28-March 1; and devised Dressing Up April 3-5. Tour: Silas Marner.

MILFORD HAVEN Torch (01646 695267) Russell’s One for the road to February 15; Torch Youth theatre in Ubu Roi February 20-21 then Oresteia-based Thread of Blood March 4-5. Tours: As You Like It, Silas Marner.

MOLD Clwyd Theatr Cymru (0845 330 356501352 755114) Anthony Hopkins Theatre Oh What A Lovely War, to March 1 (then Cardiff New, March 18-22); Leader of the Pack, March 19-April 5 Emlyn Williams Theatre Dylan Thomas’ Portrait of the Artist As A Young Dog, February 11-22; Silas Marner, April 1-12.

WEST MIDLANDS

BIRMINGHAM Rep (0121 236 4455) Bull Ring drama Wallop Mrs Cox, February 18-March 1; The David Hare Trilogy in repertory: Racing Demon March 7-April 19; The Absence of War, March 14-April 19; Murmuring Judges, April 4-19; staged film Brassed Off, May 29-June 21; Northern Stage Ensemble’s Animal Farm. Tours Midnight’s Children, Of Mice and Men.

Door (studio) Jyll Bradley’s Girl-Watching, to February 15; season of work-in-progress Beyond the Boundaries February 22-March 15; Carl Miller’s Descent March 4-8; Amber Lone’s Paradise March 20-April 12 (and community tour) Ansell Broderick’s Bad Hand, April 16-19; Crispin Whittell’s comedy Darwin in Malibu May 9-31; young people’s festival Transmissions July 2-12.

Tours: The Blue Room, The Drowned World.

COVENTRY Belgrade (024 7655 3055) The Woman in Black, February 10-15; for over-6s Rumpelstiltskin, April 8-26; Larkin With Women, May 16-31; The Mysteries, August 5-23 in Coventry Cathedral ruins. Tours: Art, Office Suite.

NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME New Vic (01782 717962) Love Me Slender, to February 15; The Lonesome West, February 21-March 15; East Is East, May 9-31. Tours: Henry VA Woman Killed With Kindness. Reunion.

NORTH WEST

BOLTON Octagon (01204 520661) Moliere’s The Hypochondriac, to February 22; Private Lives, March 6-April 5; Mamet’s Boston Marriage, April 10-May 3; Mark Chatterton’s butcher-shop musical Ham!, May 8-31; Steel Magnolias, June 5-28; community play The Big Room, July 2-5. Bill Naughton Theatre Youth group activ8 in Animal Farm, February 12-15; Peshkar Production Oldham race riot drama Just Before the Rain, February 17-19; activ8 in David Holman’s Whale, May 21-24.

CHESTER Gateway (01244 340392) A Passionate Woman, February 20-March 15.

KESWICK Theatre By The Lake (017687 74411) A Passionate Woman, April 2-26, from Chester. Summer season in rep Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings, May 24-October 31; Blithe Spirit, June 6-November 1; Lisa Evans’ adaptation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, July 18-October 29. Tour: Othello.

Studio Peta Murray’s ballroom dance play Wallflowering, May 23-October 31; Kiss of the Spider Woman, June 13-November 1; Simon Block’s Not A Game for Boys, July 25-October 29.

LANCASTER Dukes (01524 598500) Educating Rita, February 13-22 then in rep to March 29 with Oleanna, February 26-March 28; in Williamson Park Grimm Tales, July 4-August 9. Tours: El Sombrero de Tres Picos, Island, Why the Whales Came.

LIVERPOOL Playhouse (0151 709 4776) Tours: Of Mice and Men, She Stoops To ConquerA Laughing Matter, Steven Berkoff Trilogy March 20-22.

Everyman (0151 709 4776) Maurice Bessman’s A Little Pinch of Chilli, March 13-29.

MANCHESTER Library Theatre (0161 236 7110) Schweyk in the Second World War, to March 17, Sondheim songs assembled Putting It Together, March 21-April 5. Tour: Great Expectations.

Royal Exchange (0161 833 9833) The Seagull and Brad Fraser’s mid-life crisis Cold Meat Party in rep, February 26-May 10; Hobson’s Choice, May 14-June 28; Mark Long and Emil Wolk’s Sherlock Holmes in Trouble, July 2-August 9. Studio nightly-varied New Orleans-set The Buddy Bolden Experience March 12-22; Chekhov stories Ward Six, 25-26, 30 April, 1-2,8-9 May; experimental theatre fortnight This Way Up, May 19-31; homelessness comedy Doorway June 4-7; Aisha Khan’s future-moon play for 7-12s Moonshed, June 11-28; new performers’ collage Blue, July 10-12.

OLDHAM Coliseum (0161 624 2829) Rock Macbeth From A Jack to a King, January 30-February 22; Macbeth, March 4-8; April in Paris, March 20-April 12; The Steamie, April 24-May 10; The Government Inspector Oldhamised in A Little Local Difficulty, May 22-June 14; I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, June 19-July 12.

NORTH EAST

HARROGATE Theatre (01423 502116) The Norman Conquests, to February 22; foot-and-mouth drama Silence Of A Dale (2001). Tours: The Boy Who Fell Into A Book, Othello, Reunion.

HULL Truck (01482 323638) Lee Hall’s sex-abuse comedy Cooking With Elvis, February 13-March 15.

LEEDS West Yorkshire Playhouse (0113 213 7700) Quarry Theatre: The Accrington Pals, February 21-20 March. Tours: Henry V, Midnight’s Children, A Woman Killed With Kindness. Courtyard Theatre: wild knights during Four Nights in Knaresbrough, February 7-March 8; Northern Soul Once Upon A Time in Wigan, March 11-22; Mark Catley’s drugs ‘n’ danger Sunbeam Terrace March 27-April 12. Tours Reunion, Why the Whales Came.

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE Northern Stage Ensemble at Newcastle Playhouse (0191 230 5151) Tour 1984 Gulbenkian Studio Mind the Gap’s Don Quixote, February 21-22, 25-26; Iago’s Stories, March 12-15; Blue and Beyond-Synaesthesia, May 1-2. Tours El Sombrero de Tres Picos, Lockerbie 103, The Wind in the Willows.

SCARBOROUGH Stephen Joseph Theatre (01723 370541) Media rules, newspapers in Chris Dunkley’s How to Tell the Truth, to February 15; wartime film-making in Peter Robert Scott’s Parting Shots, February 18-March 1.

Tour: Diary of an Action Man, Henry VA Woman Killed With Kindness.

SHEFFIELD Crucible (0114 249 6000) Euripides’ Iphigenia, to March 1; Stephen Russell adapts Philip Pullmans’ The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, March 12-April 5. Studio Macbeth to February 22.

YORK Theatre Royal (01904 ) When We Are Married, March 7-29; Kate Atkinson’s Abandonment, April 4-26; Beauty and the Beast, April 10-May 3 daytimes. Tour: John Gabriel Borkman Studio Youth productions NT Shell Connections, March 27-29; Trainspotting, May 9-31.

SCOTLAND

DUNDEE Rep Theatre (01382 223530) Dancing at Lughnasa, March 19-April 5; Robert Kemp’s rewrite of Moliere’s Miser as The Laird O’ Grippy, April 23-May 10. Tours: Mistero Buffo, Tally’s Blood.

EDINBURGH Royal Lyceum (0131 248 4848) Art, February 15-March 15; Michael Tremblay’s If Only, March 22-April 12; Peter Arnott’s The Breathing House, April 26-May 17.

GLASGOW Citizens’ (0141 429 0022) Dial M For Murder, to March 1; Osborne’s The Entertainer, March 14-April 5. Circle Studio Colette’s Cheri, to March 1; Diderot’s The Nun, March 13-April 5. Stalls Studio Wallace Shawn’s The Fever, to March 1; Neil Labute’s Bash, March 12-April 5.

PERTH Theatre (01738 621031) Kes, February 21-March 8; Heaven Can Wait, March 21-April 5. Tour Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay, Mistero Buffo.

PITLOCHRY Festival Theatre (01796 484626) Summer season in rep The Matchmaker, May 2-October 16; Stepping Out, May 8-October 15; Double Indemnity, May 15-October 13; The Steamie, May 22-October 18; Jimmy Chisholm as Charles Dickens The Haunted Man, June 15-October 18; Man and Superman, June 26-October 17. Outside Stellar Quines in Judith Adams’

site-specific gardeners’ adventures Sweet Fanny Adams in Eden, July 28-August 3, 6-7,15-17.

ST. ANDREWS Byre (01334 475000) Scots-Italian love Sin Ann Marie Di Mambro’s Tally’s Blood, February 27-March 15; Educating Rita, June 5-28.

Tours: Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay, Mistero Buffo.