Above the Stag announces new season

The Above the Stag Theatre, the UK's only full time professional LGBT theatre, has announced details of its upcoming autumn season which includes new stage adaptations and their traditional adult pantomime at their south London venue.

The first production in the season will be a stage adaptation of The Sum of Us by David Stevens and directed by Gene David Kirk. Originally an off-Broadway play, it was later adapted into a film starring Russell Crowe, and explores the volatile relationship between an ageing widower and his gay son.

"After meeting in a local pub, Jeff and a young gardener, Greg, hit it off and begin to date. When he meets Jeff's stubborn, opinionated Dad however, Greg begins to back off. Meanwhile Dad too has a new flame: a woman he met through a dating service. Put off by Jeff's homosexuality, prosaic Joyce too pulls away just before a surprising and poignant ending."

The production runs from 9 September to 4 October, with an official opening on 11 September 2015.

This will be followed by a new stage adaptation of Noel Coward's 'Brief Encounter' written and directed by Phil Wilmot, called A Brief Gay Encounter which runs from 14 October to 15 November 2015, with an official opening on 16 October 2015.

"A chance encounter at a railway station in 1945 leads two men to consider how much they must sacrifice in order to be together. This evocative production invites us to consider how far we've come and how much we've still in common with our grandfather's generation."

The final show of the year will be the traditional adult pantomime, which this year will be Tinderella: Cinders Slips it In, written by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper, running from 26 November to 16 January 2016, with an official opening on 2 December 2015.

"Once upon a time, a slave boy called Cinders lived with his murderous stepmother and her daughters in a little landlocked kingdom. Now although this kingdom lacked democracy and had been banned from Eurovision on behavioural grounds, it boasted a prince whose balls were the envy of the world. Indeed, there was no happier sight in all the kingdom than the prince's balls in full swing. The Prince took great pleasure and care in arranging his balls, which he liked to hold in all the fine rooms of the castle. And Cinders really fancied the Prince. But they would never meet... would they?"

Tickets are now on sale for all productions.