The new season at West Yorkshire Playhouse kicks off on September 4 with a production of Billy Liar.

It celebrates 50 years of Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall’s stage and screen classic and is directed by Scarborough-born Nick Bagnall who has appeared at the Playhouse in the past as an actor in Bus and in Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead.

From September 17, all the world’s a stage for Rosalind as the Quarry theatre is transformed into the Forest of Arden for Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

The world premiere of a controversial new play Crash takes place from October 16. Oscar-nominated writer William Nicholson said at the recent launch of the Autumn / Winter season that the recent banking scandal made him “full of outrage, fury and massive anger”.

Over the last few year’s the Playhouse’s Christmas production has been a big hit and this year’s event will be no exception.

Ghosts of Christmases past, present and future visit the Playhouse from November 20 to January 15 in Bryony Lavery and Jason Carr’s new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Finally, for the little people in particular, the formidable team of playwright Mike Kenny and director Gail McIntyre have joined forces once more to stage Big Stories for Little People. They are presenting a new version of the traditional tale Aladdin. It runs rom December 3 to January 15.