YORK Theatre Royal is launching an extraordinary new year – and one the theatre has been working towards for a long time.

In March, the theatre will close to undergo a major capital development of the building, working with other key organisations in the city to continue to produce a programme of work while it is closed.

The £4.1m redevelopment project will transform the auditorium and the foyer, resulting in a far better experience for audiences and those using the café and restaurant facilities throughout the day.

The current building will close with a public open day on Sunday, March 15, and will reopen will be in time for the 2015 pantomime.

A rehearsed reading of Anthony and Cleopatra, featuring Niamh Cusack, Paterson Joseph and Sally Bretton will start the new season in aid of the theatre’s fundraising appeal for the redevelopment. They will be joined by Charlie Covell, Alex Gianinni, Niall Costigan, Kieran Hill, Matthew Rixon, Danny Miller, David Neilson and James Norton on Sunday, February 2, and will be directed by George Costigan.

York Light will perform South Pacific, the last week-long production in the building as its currently known, from Tuesday, March 3 to Saturday, March 14.

Following the closure of the theatre, performances will begin in the De Grey Ballroom, starting with Adam’s Apples from leading German theatre company Landesbuehnen Sachsen and Bodytalk.

Based on the 2005 German-Danish black comedy film, Manuel Schöbels staging stays close to the plot of the film, focusing on the theme of the Book of Job.

The central character, as part of his rehabilitation, chooses the small, but significant task of making an apple pie live on stage, amongst dialogue spoken in German, an English chorus and physical theatre movement. It is a very accessible piece of theatre for non-German speakers, which takes place on Wednesday, April 8 and Thursday, April 9.

Performances in the De Grey Ballroom will continue throughout the theatre’s closure and include Tutti Frutti and York Theatre Royal’s Rapunzel, the first of three plays written by Mike Kenny as part of the season, and the regular Ballroom Dances.

On Saturday, May 9, the theatre will partner with the University of York and Parrabbola for a major new cultural venture for York and the North.

The York International Shakespeare Festival is a member of the prestigious European Shakespeare Festivals Network and will include a screening of the 1921 silent film Hamlet: Drama of Vengeance from Silents Now, Romeo and Juliet from The Flanagan Collective in association with York Theatre Royal, King Lear from Northern Broadsides and a host of other work adapted and inspired by Shakespeare from around the world.

The festival will run from Saturday, May 9, to Saturday, May 16, and take place in venues across the city and on the University of York campus.

From March, York Theatre Royal’s residency at the National Railway Museum will also begin. At the heart of all this activity will be another large-scale production to follow the successful achievements of the York Mystery Plays 2012 and Blood and Chocolate.

From Friday, July 31 to Saturday, September 5, it’s all aboard as the stunning adaptation of E Nesbit’s classic novel The Railway Children returns to York.

After two sell out seasons in York in 2008 and 2009, the production went on to delight audiences at London’s Waterloo Station and in Toronto and won the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.

York Theatre Royal has a packed programme to excite theatregoers of all generations.

Alongside this programme will be a variety of youth theatre projects and holiday activities, as well as participation projects such as Sing and Sign and On Our Turf, which takes free arts festivals to Pocklington, Selby, Helmsley and Easingwold.

To book, visit yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or phone 01904 623568.