Empty theatres to host broadcasts of plays for major new BBC series celebrating performing arts

Stages of empty theatres around the UK will be used to record plays that will be shown by the BBC as part of a major season celebrating the performing arts.

As part of the BBC’s Culture in Quarantine initiative, BBC Lights Up will see the Corporation work with more than 12 theatres and producers across the UK, for a three-week season that will feature 15 newly-recorded plays to be broadcast on TV and radio, as well as on the iPlayer. The line-up features a mix of premieres and shows being filmed for television for the first time.

Plays in the season include the National Theatre of Scotland’s Adam, a play inspired by the life of Adam Kashmiry who also stars. It is described as the story of a “young transgender man and his journey to reconciliation”.

The season also includes new play Buttercup from Liverpool-based theatre company 20 Stories High, written and performed by Dorcas Sebuyange.

In addition, it features the international premiere of Harm, a Bush Theatre commission written by Phoebe Eclair-Powell and filmed exclusively for television, as well as writer and performer Natasha Marshall’s semi-autobiographical comedy Half Breed from Soho Theatre, which will be televised for the first time, directed by Miranda Cromwell.

BBC Arts director Jonty Claypole said: “This has been the worst year in living memory for the performing arts - and the crisis is far from over. It is only right that the BBC - which has worked arm in arm with writers, performers and off-stage talent day-in day-out over the last 100 years - should support and celebrate our performing arts at this time.”

He added: “The shows come from every corner of the UK - from Belfast to Glasgow, Cardiff to London. And, as well as broadcasting new and recent productions, we are also using our broadcast and digital platforms to celebrate all that theatres do for our society. Theatre has been at the heart of our culture for centuries and will continue to be so for many to come.”

Pale Sister, written by Colm Tóibín for Lisa Dwan, will also be made into a television production for the first time, and the season also includes the international premiere of the Lyric Theatre’s new play Sadie starring Abigail McGibbon and written by David Ireland. It is directed by Conleth Hill.

Jeremy Herrin will direct Katherine Parkinson’s Sitting, in which she will also star. The play had runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Arcola Theatre in London, as part of the BBC Arts and Avalon playwriting scheme Debut.

As part of BBC Lights Up, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a new adaptation by Gbolahan Obisesan of The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma, and the station will also broadcast a double-bill of Nick Payne’s award-winning stage play Constellations and Elegy.