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A musical set in Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel and a Roger McGough adaptation of a 17th century French play are highlights of the latest part of Liverpool’s Everyman Playhouses 2008 programme.

Poet Roger McGough has adapted Moliere’s play Tartuffe in verse for a special production while the glamour of the Adelphi in the 1930’s is brought to the stage as a musical for the Everyman Playhouse’s spring and summer season.

The effects of the Iraq war on soldiers families is explored in Ten Tiny Toes, a new production by Liverpool writer Esther Wilson, who has researched the story of campaigner Rose Gentle.

Tickets for the new season which runs from early April to July are on sale from Monday, 3 March, 2008.

The French comedy Tartuffe set in the reign of King Louis XIV was banned when it was first performed in 1664 as it was perceived as an attack on religion.

McGough says he read the play at school, though struggled to understand it then and returned to it as an idea when asked by the Everyman Playhouse for an adaptation for 2008.

“It’s a Liverpool thing,” says Roger McGough of his keenness to take on the project.

“It’s what Liverpool people do, adaptations, but it was a challenge.”

Gemma Bodinetz, Artistic Director of the Everyman Playhouse will direct Tartuffe and says the combination of McGough’s take on Moliere’s original has created something special, “The two together have an honest use of language, both wit and joy.”

“The joy of Roger’s adaptation is that it opens itself up to an audience.

“If people like reading Roger’s poetry then they’ll really enjoy Tartuffe.”

Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi celebrates the heyday of one of Liverpool’s most famous establishments in song and dance.

The Adelphi is the star of a musical

An affectionate look at the unique hotel the musical focuses on the Adelphi’s golden age in the 1930’s when it was at the centre of Liverpool society, playing host to the rich and famous who arrived on luxury liners.

The hotel itself was designed to replicate the glamour and glitz of ocean going liners, Gemma Bodinetz says that it was a mark of Liverpool’s confidence in the first half of the 20th century, “People really felt then that this was Liverpool’s time to project itself to the world.

“It’s a new departure for us to do an all singing all dancing musical at the Playhouse.”

The production written and directed by Phil Wilmott begins its run on 28 June, 2007.

The Everyman continues its commitment to supporting local writers with the production Ten Tiny Toes by Liverpool writer Esther Wilson.

Esther Wilson has researched the story of Rose Gentle who after her son Gordon was killed in Iraq set up Military Families Against the War with fellow campaigner Reg Keys.

The play tells the story of a mother, Gill, whose two sons join the army and experience the horrors of warfare.

“It’s not an anti Iraq play,” says Esther Wilson.

“It’s more about the effect on families of warfare.”

Ten Tiny Toes is at the Everyman from Friday, 13 June, 2008.