THE 2019 season in the Studio at York Theatre Royal challenges you to “Go on, take a punt and pull a tenner out!”.

In return audiences will see new and bold performances that push boundaries to surprise and delight. Sometimes radical, often political and always thought-provoking.

Award-winning writer Rob Ward’s Gypsy Queen on February13, tells the story of bareknuckle fighter and traveller ‘Gorgeous’ George O’Connell who enters the world of professional boxing and finds himself in the opposite corner to boxer Dane ‘The Pain’ Samson, a gay boxer fighting his own battles.

Off the Middle Theatre Company’s In Other Words, February 19-20, is an intimate, humorous and deeply moving love story, connected by the music of Frank Sinatra as it explores the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and the transformative power of music in our lives.

Sparkplug from March 19-20 March is inspired by real events and the playwright David Judge’s background as an actor and spoken word artist. This punchy and poetic exploration of family, race, identity and love tells of a white man who becomes the adoptive father, mother and best friend of a mixed-race child.

Michael Sabbaton’s one-man play The Turk on March 21 March is set in 1838 in a cabin aboard The Otis where drunken and dying Johann Maelzel confronts his existence with the chess-playing automaton known as The Turk.

As the title suggests Oh No It Isn’t! on April 17-18 is set in the world of pantomime and writer-performer Luke Adamson knows what he’s talking about having appeared in York Theatre Royal panto both as a youngster and an adult. The setting is a moth-eaten regional theatre where backstage tensions threaten to boil over onstage.

Written by Naomi Sumner Chan, Same Same Different, April 26-27, is inspired by her own experiences as a trans-racial adoptee from Hong Kong adopted to white British parents. A verbatim play about adoption, identity and belonging telling what it’s like to grow up in a family and community who look different from you.

Tickets to all these shows are just £10.

For more information contact the York Theatre Royal box office on 01904 623568 or go to yorktheatreroyal.co.uk