EMMA Rice’s Wise Children company will return to York Theatre Royal in the autumn season with Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers.

New productions of Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge and Athol Fugard’s Hello And Goodbye will be further highlights.

Touring shows will include the first revival of Sarah Waters' The Night Watch and the return of Susan Hill’s chilling ghost story The Woman In Black.

Summer shows Swallows & Amazons, from July 26 to August 24, and Hetty Feather, from August 30 to September 1, will be followed in the main house by the Original Theatre Company's revival of The Night Watch in a co-production with the Theatre Royal from September 4 to 7. Olivier-nominated playwright Hattie Taylor has adapted Waters' novel set in 1940s' London.

The Theatre Royal and Wise Children will team up to stage Malory Towers, Blyton's story of high jinks, high drama and high spirits at a girls’ boarding school, from September 10 to 14. Emma Rice adapts and directs this original Girl Power story, described as “nostalgic, naughty and perfect for now”.

In the first of two co-productions with the Royal & Derngate, Northampton, Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster directs Miller’s A View From The Bridge from September 20 to October 12.

"This gripping drama is compulsive viewing," she says. "It simmers with tension and explodes with passion. It feels more relevant today than it has ever been, in its examination of the power of desire, models of masculinity, and in attitudes to immigration, which once again have become a hugely contentious political issue in current times."

Looking further ahead, the York and Northampton theatres will co-produce Alone In Berlin, from March 3 to 21 next year, adapted by Alistair Beaton from Hans Fallada's novel, "the greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis".

Based on true events, Alone In Berlin follows a quietly courageous couple who, in dealing with their own heartbreak, stand up to the brutal reality of the Nazi regime.

York Theatre Royal, resident company Pilot Theatre, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and Derby Theatre, the consortium that came together to stage productions aimed at younger audiences, will follow up this spring's Noughts and Crosses with Emteaz Hussain's adaptation of Alex Wheatle's Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize winner Crongton Knights.

Running in York from February 25 to 29 next year, the production will be directed by Corey Campbell, artistic director of Strictly Arts Theatre Company, and Pilot artistic director Esther Richardson.

John R. Wilkinson will direct the Theatre Royal’s revival of Tony award-winning playwright Athol Fugard’s Hello And Goodbye in the Theatre Royal Studio from November 14 to 30. This tense meditation on family, selfishness and redemption is set in South Africa with the story revolving around Johnnie being visited by his sister, Hester, after a very long absence.

Wilkinson is an associate artist at the Theatre Royal and the tenth recipient of the Genesis Future Directors Award at the Young Vic, where he directed a sold-out production of Winter by Norwegian author and dramatist Jon Fosse in February 2018.

Berwick Kaler and Matt Aston will co-direct the pantomime Sleeping Beauty from the earlier start of December 7 to January 25. Dame Berwick, who hung up his boots and costumes after 40 years this year, is writing the show for panto regulars Martin Barrass, A. J Powell, Suzy Cooper and David Leonard.

The full programme and ticket details can be found at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Box office: 01904 623568.

Charles Hutchinson