Everyman and Playhouse reveals 2025 season programme

Three new ‘homegrown’ productions in Hope Street will anchor the inaugural season from Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse’s new creative director Nathan Powell.

Takeaway, The Walrus Has A Right To Adventure and a new abridged version of Romeo and Juliet will join the programme at the Everyman which already includes a new production of Willy Russell's classic Shirley Valentine starring Liverpool actress Helen Carter.

And in a commitment to accessibility, theatre bosses say almost two thirds of seats for the new shows will cost no more than £21.

Powell, who was appointed creative director earlier this year, has also written Takeaway which runs from April 26 to May 17.

Speaking about the drama, set in a family restaurant and described as being “packed with big laughs, family tensions and pumping tunes”, Powell says: “​It’s a story about Liverpool as a whole, how it was built, where it is now, and about the communities that make up the city.

“I think it feels very ‘Everyman’ in that it asks big questions but there are also lots of laughs, silliness and humour. I’m hoping that stories like Takeaway that are rooted in this place, can also tell a national tale.” 

Wirral playwright Billie Collins’ The Walrus Has a Right To Adventure, which is at the Everyman from June 12-21, brings three stories from different corners of the globe together into a powerful narrative about instinct, expectation, identity, and what it means to be truly free. 

And Young Everyman and Playhouse directors' programme graduate Ellie Hurt will direct the abridged version of Shakespeare’s star crossed lovers tragedy from September 13 to October 4.

Meanwhile next Christmas’s Rock ‘n’ Roll panto will be Jack and the Beanstalk, written by Liverpool writer Chloe Moss.

Liverpool Playhouse is set to receive a number of touring productions over the year including several in which the Everyman and Playhouse is a co-producer. They are Wise Children’s version of the Hitchcock thriller North by Northwest, Actors Touring Company’s Tambo & Bones, and Hugh Whitmore’s Alan Turing drama Breaking the Code presented in conjunction with Royal & Derngate, Northampton and others.

Meanwhile among previously announced shows are a return for Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s Ghost Stories, which was premiered at the Playhouse in 2009 and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures’ The Midnight Bell – which was previously staged at the Williamson Square theatre in 2017, along with Tracy Ann Oberman in the acclaimed The Merchant of Venice 1936 which was originally due to be staged at the theatre in 2020 before the pandemic struck.

There are also a series of one-night appearances from comedy names throughout 2025.

Powell says: “I’m so excited for my first season to be underway. Liverpool has been home to me for many years and the city, and its broad artistic community are close to my heart.

“As a team we at the Everyman and Playhouse will continue our dedication to producing local stories with a national reach and in doing so, championing emerging creative talent, introducing audiences to new forms of storytelling, and breathing a fresh perspective into classic stories.”

Full details on the 2025 season and tickets HERE