Production

The Tobacco Factory produces its own family-friendly Christmas show every year and we have become well-known for our new adaptations of literature classics.  We are proud of the fact that these shows are entertaining for everyone as well as theatrically ambitious; at their best they appeal to the once-a-year-at-Christmas audiences and to those that go to the theatre every week. Recent productions include Alice through the Looking Glass (by Hattie Naylor after Lewis Carroll, directed by Andy Burden), The Ugly Duckling (devised, directed by Sally Cookson), A Christmas Carol (by Toby Farrow after Charles Dickens, directed by Andy Burden) and Treasure Island (by Dan Danson and Richard da Costa after Robert Louis Stevenson, directed by Dan Danson).

In 2009 we are producing our Christmas show, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and supporting a number of other productions particularly by investing in shows that have come through our own developmental programmes. Until 2008 the theatre annually produced around four full productions on its own (with a cast of five or more, substantial rehearsal period and big design values). Many of them were critical successes, and some were commercial successes, but the sole-producer model has become perilously risky and financially unsustainable. However, from 2010 we will enable and be actively involved in a greater number and wider range of productions but without carrying the same level of financial risk as before.

We will be:

• co-producing shows with more partners, including other venues and production companies that share our values
• producing or co-producing shows on a range of scales
• touring our own work, or assisting others to tour
• making small investments into productions that would not otherwise be able to play at the Tobacco Factory

We look forward to working with a broader range of partners, on a greater range of productions, and to providing a production ladder for shows coming through the development process.