Theatre by the Lake has announced next year’s line-up of plays - including five world premieres.

Among the shows on offer will be the comedy musical Malory Towers, based on the Enid Blyton books about a post-war all-girl school.

There will also be a production of the Hitchcock spine-chiller Rope, the Sixties farce Boeing Boeing, and The Borrowers will be the Keswick theatre’s Christmas show.

The original ‘Girl Power’ story, Malory Towers is a show for girls, boys and all us grown-up children who still dream of midnight feasts and Cornish clifftops. The show will be the spring production on the main stage.

This will be the first season under the leadership of new artistic director, Liz Stevenson and it starts in March in the Studio with the world premiere of One Side Lies the Sea, a co-production with Pentabus.

A collaboration between its creators and rural coastal communities in north west Cumbria, Cornwall and the East Riding of Yorkshire, the show weaves a musical journey through the extraordinary communities that inhabit the coastline and telling their stories.

In Cumbria, one of the stories comes from the Solway’s very own ancient Viking tradition of Haaf net fishing.

The show opens at the Keswick theatre before embarking on a national rural tour which takes in Cumbrian village halls and community centres.

Summer season will feature a company of 11 actors who will perform across six plays in two separate auditoria. The Main House season opens with Boeing Boeing followed by Rope, directed by Liz Stevenson and a world premiere of The Climbers by Carmen Nasr and directed by Guy Jones (literary associate at The Orange Tree Theatre).

The play is a mesmerising exploration of our fascination with the mountains, the drive to conquer and the agony of life or death decisions, fittingly premiering in what is often credited as the adventure capital of England and reputed birthplace of the British rock climbing movement.

Launching the Studio season of three world premieres is Kieran Knowles’ Wilt. The play is set in a park ranger’s office and looks into the pressure on the public sector, the nature of change and the decline of accessible green spaces.

This season of firsts continues with These Walls by Laura Lomas.

Originally commissioned and developed by Clean Break, the story follows two women who share a prison cell, one of whom is expecting a child. A raw, poignant exploration of freedom, friendship, loss and motherhood.

The Studio also features Drown Your Empty Selves by award-winning playwright, Joseph Wilde. Jack is immortal. Every hundred years he staggers back to the same pub in the hope of seeing the only person in the world who might know him: Rose.

Wilde’s playful and irreverent piece is a beautifully drawn eulogy, charting the decline of the British pub and will be directed by Kash Arshad who recently directed TBTL’s summer show Guards at the Taj

The year ends with a new production of The Borrowers which promises to fizz with acrobatic feats, original music and to turn the stage into a giant adventure playground. For more infromation, go to www.theatrebythelake.com