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Sheffield Theatres today announces the final show to complete its 2018/19 Crucible season, along with a myriad of exciting visiting productions, new co-productions and great opportunities for the local community to get involved in theatre.

The epic story of Life of Pi will be brought to the Crucible stage from Thursday 27 June '“ Saturday 20 July 2019. After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, there are five survivors stranded on a single lifeboat '“ a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, a sixteen year-old boy and a hungry Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive? This new stage adaptation by Lolita Chakrabarti of Yann Martel's Man Booker Prize winning novel is a world premiÃ¨re production.

Also new to the line-up for 2019 is The Department of Distractions in the Studio, a co-production by Third Angel and Northern Stage in association with Sheffield Theatres. This conspiracy-theory documentary-expose asks, what aren't you looking at? You see their work '“ but you never see them. They say their job is to plant stories in the world '˜to make life more interesting': a single glove in the street, a torn up love letter in a Metro carriage; a phone box that rings as you walk past. Snags in the fabric of everyday life that make you think, what's going on there...? In the Studio from Friday 25 January '“ Saturday 2 February 2019.

There are brilliant opportunities for local people to take part in Sheffield People's Theatre in 2019, with a chance to work with renowned companies in a week-long residency, culminating in a sharing on Sheffield Theatres' stages. There'll be chance to develop skills in theatre making, devising and physical exploration with some of the most creative and exciting theatre companies in the country, including Frantic Assembly, Barrel Organ and Showstoppers.

The dazzling new line up in the Lyceum includes: a trip back to the electric 1980s with Club Tropicana the Musical (Monday 4 '“ Saturday 9 March 2019), Northern Ballet's sensational Victoria (Tuesday 19 '“ Saturday 23 March 2019), the returning English Touring Opera with Macbeth and Idomeneo (Tuesday 16 & Wednesday 17 April 2019), Showstoppers' will be presenting two shows: The Kids Show and The Improvised Musical (Saturday 20 April 2019), Matthew Bourne's re-imagining of Swan Lake (Tuesday 21 '“ Saturday 25 May 2019), the fabulous comedy caper The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (Wednesday 29 '“ Saturday 1 June), family favourite Annie starring Craig Revel Horwood (Tuesday 4 '“ Saturday 8 June 2019), the must-see production of The Girl on the Train (Monday 24 '“ Saturday 29 June), a look back to the 1960's with Hair (Monday 1 '“ Saturday 6 July 2019), Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians (Wednesday 17 '“ Saturday 20 July 2019), and, finally, puppets behaving badly in Avenue Q (Monday 29 '“ Saturday 3 August).

Across the season, the Studio is set to host a range of touring productions, including: good dog (Thursday 7 & Friday 8 February 2019), Gypsy Queen (Saturday 9 February 2019), the fabulous Anna-Jane Casey performs The Life in a Day (Monday 1 April 2019), Thebes Land (Tuesday 9 & Wednesday 10 April 2019) and the return of Snooker Legends (Thursday 11 April 2019).