The easing of restrictions has Knock and Run eager to stage the cancelled shows in 2021 with the same staging team and cast members.

The first show, The Unseen, will be presented at the Civic Playhouse from March 10 to 13.

The play, by US writer Craig Wright, is set in a prison where a totalitarian regime incarcerates men it believes is agitating people to revolt.

Two men, Wallace and Valdez, are repeatedly tortured for unknown crimes and manage to get together when an enigmatic new prisoner, who is an expert in communication, arrives and begins communicating through code.

The cast is Phillip Ross, Matthew Heys and Paul Sansom, with Patrick Campbell as director, assisted by Hannah Hickey.

Two Point Oh, a sci-fi thriller at the Civic Playhouse from April 21 to 24, focuses on the widow of a pioneering software mogul.

After the mogul is lost when his private jet plunges into the Pacific Ocean, his wife discovers a virtual-reality simulation of her husband developed before his demise.

Is he really alive, she wonders.

The play, by Jeffery Jackson, is directed by James Chapman, with Stephanie Rochet his assistant.

The cast is Ben Loutitt, Bec Kynaston, Tim Turner, Claire Williams and Patrick Campbell.

Trevor, by Nick Jones, which will be at Newcastle Theatre Company's venue from August 16 to 28, was inspired by true events.

The title character is a chimpanzee, who once performed in TV commercials with well-known actors.

But when Trevor no longer does that, people want to take him away from his female owner.

That leads the owner to create a web of lies to protect him.

Directed by Allison Van Gaal, assisted by Stephanie Priest, it stars James Chapman, Karen Lantry, Lissy Shand, Patrick Campbell, Zac Smith, Ben Loutitt and Marisa Saroca.

Another event at the Newcastle Theatre Company will be Play Date, a one-day festival of short plays on November 6 that celebrates new writing and collaboration.

Participants will be able to include dance, musical numbers, puppetry, mime, and physical theatre with their words.

Knock and Run is also introducing a monthly podcast that will have people associated with the company discussing all things theatre.

THE renowned British actor Peter Sellers was just 54 when he died in 1980 in a London hospital after suffering a heart attack.

But, as he was in the hospital for some time after the attack, he wandered around the building, with the things he saw bringing back memories of people and events in his life.

Actor and writer Carl Caulfield, who lived in England before moving to Australia in the mid-80s, found Sellers to be an intriguing person, with his comedy used to soften memories of harsh things in his life.

So he wrote this play, which premiered at Newcastle's Civic Theatre in 1998, with himself as Sellers.

As the play continues to be popular around the world, he decided to stage it here again on the 40th anniversary of Sellers' death.

Caulfield's brother-in-law, renowned actor, writer and director, Jonathan Biggins, directed the original production and once more contributed to making Sellers a very real person, as he moved in sleeping garb around a realistic hospital bedroom.

In the brisk 70-minute running time he commented about people he had met or seen, referring for example to having encountered English actor, singer and comedian George Formby,

When I'm Cleaning Windows is the title of one of Formby's hit songs. And he also made the movements of playing a kettle drum which he said he did while training in wartime to be a soldier.

There was an intriguing reference to impersonating an officer, which, he said, could have led to him being charged.

Sellers was married four times and his relationships, especially with Brit Eckland, whom he met while they were staying in a hotel in London, had them very unhappy at times. Eckland noted to have been worried that he could still see his previous love, Anne.

Sellers doesn't hesitate when he reveals that he was divorced by a woman for his mental cruelty.

Caulfield also brought out Sellers' determination to get people to recall him as a warm and friendly character when he notes, in a reference to one of his popular radio shows that he was "Goon forever", in relation to his life and relationships.

A comment about firing all his staff, likewise, shows he took care to protect himself from criticism.

The nature of Sellers' movements around the bedroom and its furniture increasingly made it clear that he is not long for this world, with the engaging ending showing that Sellers has died after he leaves the stage and makes his way up the auditorium's staircase in search of other long-gone family members.