LAST season at Nottingham Playhouse was largely a home-grown buffet, with new works by local pensmiths to the fore. This season is more an international banquet. Settings range from 1950s Cuba to fairytale France, via the Soviet Union. But Playhouse regulars shouldn't feel intimidated by the selection on offer. Far from it; there are more than enough key ingredients judged to have hit the spot in previous Playhouse seasons. Not to mention some classic revivals that are likely to get mouths watering.

First up, for example, is Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit which was last performed at the Playhouse 50 years ago. The play tells the story of writer Charles Condomine who contacts a clairvoyant while researching a novel and inadvertently gets a beyond-the-grave visit from his first wife Elvira.

The well-loved, wit-sprinkled play has now passed into am dram catalogues but artistic director Giles Croft thought it was about due a professional outing.

"I never would have thought of doing it, except I heard a Radio 4 adaptation while I was driving and thought, 'This is fantastic'," said Giles.

"I think it will be hugely enjoyable. It's funny and clever and still quite surprising. It's a rather dark story about death and loss but told in this brilliant inventive and funny manner. It will be an invigorating start to the season."

In October, we move from Coward's joyous, souffle-light touch to heartier Graham Greene fare with a new stage adaptation of Our Man In Havana. The play reunites the tried-and-tested collaboration of adapter Clive Francis and director Richard Baron whose previous effort, The Hound of the Baskervilles, was such a popular Playhouse success.

It assembles a host of famous telly names – including Peak Practice's Simon Shepherd, Darling Buds' Philip Franks, The Bill's Beth Cordingly and comic-turned-actor Norman Pace – to tell the story of a secret agent whose far-fetched fictional "briefings" turn out to be alarmingly on the money.

From Greene, we move to heart-wrenching Brecht in November, as The Playhouse joins forces with its West Yorkshire namesake, plus Shared Experience theatre company, to stage the little-performed Caucasian Chalk Circle.

As families flee a war-ravaged Russian city, a wealthy mother abandons her child. The baby is cared for by a servant girl but, come peacetime, the mother returns to claim her child. Who will win?

"Often people think Brecht is going to be very difficult but he's actually hugely accessible," says Giles. "He tells big stories in this incredibly theatrical manner which makes for exciting viewing."

The play will harvest community talents with a big choir set to be drawn from Nottingham's brightest local singers.

The end of November sees the unlikely giving-way of Brecht to the start of panto season.

The Playhouse panto, directed and written by Kenneth Alan Taylor, is one of the highlights of Nottingham's theatre season, its fame stretching far wider than the traditional West Hallam-East Bridgford boundaries. Taylor's consistent ability to provoke tear-shedding hilarity means his pantomimes attract crowds from across the country.

While Kenneth won't be cooing "Here I am, dears" from the stage this year, equally outrageous long-server John Elkington will be taking over dame duties as Madame Fifi in Beauty and the Beast. Expect all the usual dancing-in-the-aisles musical numbers and ad-libbed bonhomie.

Then, for anyone with a lurking dread of the new year blues, the Playhouse is set to provide some post-panto therapy.

Forever Young, by turns poignant and riotous, is set in a nursing home for actors. John Elkington will be removing his sky-high wigs and silk gloves to play himself, 40 years on, a retired panto star looking back on his career. He is joined by another stalwart of the Kenneth Alan Taylor posse, Rebecca Little, who will also have emerged fresh from panto to play a more senior version of herself.

Both ex-panto stars start the play slumped in chairs, patronised by a nurse and forced to do children's clapping songs. But, as soon as nursey leaves the room, the stage explodes in a riot of rock 'n' roll colour and daft slapstick as the OAPs revert to their panto type.

"We thought, 'We have these wonderful performers here and they rarely come back and do other work'" explains Giles. "Wouldn't it be wonderful to keep these actors here for another production?"

Forever Young was inspired by a German play Giles saw in Hamburg. Most German theatres retain resident acting companies and the piece featured these local actors fast-forwarded through time with all their beloved on-stage quirks still intact.

"I thought, 'Why don't we do that with our panto actors?'" recalls Giles.

The play has been translated and then further adapted so that anyone familiar with the Playhouse panto will be able to re-live their favourite skits along with the characters.

"It's a mixed programme but what we have tried to do this season is to go for very recognisable titles and to work with people we've worked with before," concludes Giles. "We did two new plays last season and it depended on audiences trusting us.

"This season is much more easily accessible and, hopefully, will be delivered with great quality and joie de vivre."

For more information or to book tickets for any of these shows, call 0115 941 9419.