AUTUMN SEASON at Greenwich Theatre

After what feels like an eternity, live performance is back at Greenwich Theatre this autumn in a season that features drama, comedy, music and – praise be! – the great Andrew Pollard’s much-loved annual pantomime.

The season kicks off on 27 September with Dead Rabbits’ production of Tiger Lady which tells the astounding real-life story of Mabel Stark who, despite being mauled many times, became world-famous through her death-defying big cat act with the legendary Ringland Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus 100 years ago.

From 28-30 September The Killer Question focuses on the death of murder-obsessed game show champion Walter Crump. The show not only has a deadly twist in its tail but, just to make it even more tantalising, the audience decides on the night which actor will play Walter.

While The Killer Question is playing in the main auditorium, the theatre’s studio space is given over to Unknown, a play based on a true story which highlights the terrible truth that more than 800 homeless people, many of them never identified, died on our streets in the two years before the pandemic hit.

Arise: Legacy And Hope Concert, on 1 and 2 October, is a Pegasus Opera production marking Black History Month and celebrating in song the vast artistic significance of the black diaspora.

The theatre’s big autumn drama is the world premiere of Into Battle by Hugh Salmon, which runs from 7-31 October. It’s another true story, this one exposing the toxic class warfare that erupted at Balliol College, Oxford, before the First World War between Old Etonian undergraduates and those seeking to help the city’s poor. Its relevance to the present is self-evident.

A one-nighter on 1 November parodies DH Lawrence’s controversial classic in Not: Lady Chatterley's Lover.

And then it’s time for the season’s highlight – the annual panto. The Queen Of Hearts, which runs from 19 November to 2 January, features its regular team of legendary dame Andrew Pollard, ace villain Anthony Spargo, musical director Steve Marwick and designer Cleo Pettit.

This time, the company will be telling a tale of courtly love and royal intrigue which revolves around a plot to steal a secret jam recipe. Oh, how we’ve missed you, Andrew!

Details of all the shows at https://greenwichtheatre.org.uk/whats-on/