NUFFIELD will showcase some of Southampton’s best amateur theatre companies in Open Season, which is due to start in the New Year.

An Italian Straw Hat, presented by Maskers Theatre Company, marks the start of Nuffield’s Open Season from January 24 to 28. With strong and memorable characters, this light-hearted comedy transports us to Paris, 1900, where we meet a horse eating a straw hat belonging to a lady who finds herself in a rather compromising position. She can't return home without it or risk being rumbled, and so sparks a chain of events…

Members of Maskers are pictured performing in a previous site specific version of The Importance of Being Earnest at Hamptworth Lodge and in their own Shirley studio with Our Town.

Southampton University Players present Monstrous Regiment from January 31 to February 4. This play tells the story of Polly Perks who needs to join the army to find her lost brother. However, in Borogravia, women aren’t allowed to join the army, or do much of anything interesting, really. A haircut, a change of clothes, and an extra pair of socks later, Polly becomes Private Oliver Perks, marching off to war as part of the finest army in the world. As the enemy forces are fast approaching, it appears the best man for the job might just be a woman.

Award-winning Southampton Operatic Society joins forces with Debut Youth Theatre to present one of the world’s most enduringly popular musicals, Lionel Bart’s Oliver from February 7 to 11. Based on the Dickens novel Oliver Twist, this story of the workhouse boy who wanted more has everything you could ask for in a captivating drama. There’s pathos, horror, humour, true love and of course, a host of unforgettable songs.

University of Southampton Light Opera Society (LOpSoc) brings to the Nuffield Theatre a fresh and unique production of The Mikado, one of the most loved Gilbert & Sullivan operettas from February 15 to 18. With a new aesthetic twist and setting, witty libretto and gorgeous music, this is a production to please newcomers and Gilbert & Sullivan fans alike.

Tickets are on sale now from 023 8067 1771 or nuffieldtheatre.co.uk