New Adventures have announced that Matthew Bourne’s award-winning The Midnight Bell will return in 2025, opening at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham on 15 May.

It will then embark on a 17-week countrywide tour including many venues for the first time with this production: Bath, Truro, York, London, Leicester, Salford, Newcastle, Northampton, Plymouth, Brighton, Nottingham, Norwich, Liverpool, Sheffield and Bradford.

In 1930s London, ordinary people emerge from cheap boarding houses nightly to pour out their passions, hopes and dreams in the pubs and fog-bound streets of Soho and Fitzrovia. Step inside The Midnight Bell, a tavern where one particular lonely-hearts club gather to play out their lovelorn affairs of the heart; bitter comedies of longing, frustration, betrayal and redemption.

Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell is inspired by the work of the great English novelist Patrick Hamilton who created some of the most authentic fiction of his era; stories borne out of years of social interactions with the working man and woman at his favourite location - the London Pub.

Bourne said: “The Midnight Bell with its entangled tales of lonely souls, looking for love, was rather appropriately the piece that brought us back to National touring following nearly two years away due to the covid pandemic in 2021. At that time audiences and company were masked and socially distanced but immensely grateful to be back and particularly with a piece that explored the deep-rooted need for human connection. Touring was necessarily limited and audience confidence still slowly returning so I am particularly thrilled to be bringing back this heart-felt piece and to be presenting it in many venues for the first time. This was a truly collaborative work with all of my celebrated creative team delivering their very best work, along with an all-star cast of the cream of New Adventures most beloved stars along with the best of our emerging talent. We look forward to, once again, opening the doors of The Midnight Bell in 2025…please join us… mines a gin and tonic!”

Matthew Bourne once again joins forces with the Olivier and Tony award-winning team of composer Terry Davies, set and costume designer Lez Brotherston, lighting designer Paule Constable, and sound designer Paul Groothuis.

The cast will feature fourteen of New Adventures’ finest actor/dancers in roles that challenge and reveal the darker reaches of the human heart. Full casting will be announced shortly.

For more info on The Midnight Bell, please click here.