Sheffield talent stars on stage as Crucible Theatre reopens with Together Festival

The world-famous venue was in the TV spotlight as the venue for the World Snooker Championships, which was also the base of one of the weekend’s experiments with trialling capacity audiences as the coronavirus lockdown rules are relaxed further.

The Together festival has been curated by a panel of artists, audience members and theatre representatives. The 13 works go on stage from May 24 to June 5. They begin with Spiltmilk Dance in Desert Island Flicks, a spoof of 60 great movie moments in 60 minutes.

Closing the festival is Sheffield’s former poet laureate Otis Mensah.

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Artists from across the region were invited to submit productions to feature in the programme, with the panel, led by RTYDS associate artistic director Anthony Lau, working together to create the festival line-up.

Anthony said: “This final selection of 13 artists and companies is a celebration of the extraordinary talent in this city and region.

“There is a huge breadth of work and, over the two weeks of the festival, there will be pieces ranging from dance and physical theatre to new writing, spoken word, singing and drama.

“There will be circus and puppets, something to make you laugh and something to make you think. In showcasing some of the most exciting artists in Sheffield, we wanted to bring all of us back together too.

The festival is about putting local talent on our stages, front and centre, but it is also about bringing audiences back into our auditorium. It is about the chatter of finding your seat and the collective hush before a show begins. It is about sharing laughter and being told a story together as one. It is about the liveness of theatre and being back together after too long apart."

The theatre will be configured for social distancing and the safest, most relaxed experience for everyone. Measures include e-tickets, the ability to purchase tickets in distanced bubbles and new cleaning routines.

Find the full festival line-up and box office at sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

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