Cumbernauld Theatre Trust launches Spring/Summer Season 2022

Cumbernauld Theatre Trust is delighted to announce details of the Spring/Summer season of theatre, dance, music, comedy and an inclusive programme of creative learning activities. Tickets for the full programme of live performance and creative learning activities go on sale on Tuesday, 1 February 2022 at 10.00am.

Located in the heart of Cumbernauld, on the Cumbernauld Academy campus, this state-of-the-art venue houses two performance spaces – a 270-seat auditorium and Studio Theatre, a dance studio, and an 84-seat cinema and café that will open in April.

The Spring/Summer season runs from February to August 2022 and is packed with best theatre, music and comedy to suit all ages and tastes.

Highlights from the 2022 Spring/Summer season include Cumbernauld Theatre Company’s bold reimagining of the Scottish Musical and A Play, a Pie and a Pint hit, Crocodile Rock, written and directed by Andy McGregor.

In addition to Crocodile Rock, we are delighted to be presenting a theatre programme full of drama, laughter, songs and stories: the hit theatre comedy The Ghosting of Rabbie Burns, Rapture Theatre’s A Night in the Ukraine, Standby, written by a former Police Officer showing the modern-day Police Service laid bare and William Shakepeare’s Julius Caesar from Company of Wolves.

Our music programme this season is a heady blend of the most talented and revered musicians and artists on tour this year with performances on our main stage from McGoldrick, McCusker and Doyle, Blue Rose Code, The Sounds of Simon, Scottish Opera, Cloudbusting – the music of Kate Bush, Yorkston Thorne Khan, a Mother’s Day treat from That Swing Sensation, Tony McManus and Julia Toaspern and from the producers of the smash-hit Girls’ Night OOT! there’s An Afternoon at the Musicals!

Our ever-popular Studio Theatre music programme is jam-packed with the best live music bands too: Savage Mansion, Eriska, Esperanza, Withered Hand, the return of The Homebird Sessions with Elaine Lennon and guests Nico Ev and David Latto, plus Campfires in Winter, Carla J Easton and Broken Chanter will all be performing as part of our Olive Grove presents music series too.

Our programme for family audiences is also brimming over with an array of wonderful and inspiring entertainment: for new parents, we are delighted to be presenting Little Top from Starcatchers and Superfan, a magical first circus experience for babies from birth to 18 months and their families. We are also hosting the Puppet and Animation Festival at Lanternhouse in the April school holidays with a selection of shows that blend beautifully crafted puppets and sensitive live performances and animated short films to develop creativity in our youngsters… There’s also Spike! A dinosaur caper – a magical story about the passing of time and the tales that bring families together from Starcatchers and Andy Cannon and The Polar Bears are coming in August with Go Go Go!

For older children, there’s also KID_X from MHZ and Feral, the multi-media, high energy, street dance influenced phenomenon and Like Animals, a funny and poignant look at love of the human (and not so human) variety from Superfan.

We are also introducing a new and regular comedy slot called Lanternhouse Laughs, in association with Gilded Balloon. Each of our Lanternhouse Laughs events will be a unique comedy highlight in our calendar, hosted by its very own compère and featuring 3 hand-picked comedy-circuit favourites, guaranteeing to bring the (Lantern)house down!

Our first Lanternhouse Laughs night is compèred by the star of BBC’s Scot Squad and award-winning comedian, Chris Forbes and what a line up we have in store: Kathleen Hughes and Rae Brogan and our headliner … local legend, Stu Who? For more details on our Lanternhouse Laughs nights visit: https://lanternhousearts.org/showtype/comedy/

Our Take Part programme is growing from strength to strength with a range of exciting creative opportunities for everyone to enjoy. Led by artists and practitioners and in addition to our drama, dance and creative arts programmes, this season we are also introducing a Wee Dance Club and a Silver Dance Club, Community Circus skill development sessions and iD arts clubs to develop confidence and skills across the performing arts for children and adults who identify as neurodivergent or have additional support requirements.

Sarah Price, Chief Executive of Cumbernauld Theatre Trust, said: “I’m so excited to be announcing the Spring/Summer season for Cumbernauld Theatre at Lanternhouse and to be heralding the long-awaited opening of our cinema in April. We have enjoyed terrific feedback from our visitors since launching Lanternhouse in October last year. Along with our Board and staff team I am delighted to see so many people enjoying the range of arts programming we have to offer and look forward to opening our doors for this new season shortly.”

Our Spring/Summer programme also includes a number of socially engaged arts projects including a community radio/podcast project creating short digital radio shows that explore the social history of Cumbernauld through verbatim storytelling, and Tricky Hat’s The Flames. The Flames is a performance company for creative people aged 50 plus, who wish to create high quality, collaborative work. If you are interested in learning how you can be part of The Flames project, please contact marketing@cumbernauldtheatre.co.uk for more information.

Tickets for the full programme of live performance and creative learning activities go on sale online at www.lanternhousearts.org and by telephone bookings to our Box Office: 01236 732887 on Tuesday 1 February at 10.00am. You can also download a brochure from our website too.