The National Theatre announced further casting and dates for its 2026 season, including Cate Blanchett in ELECTRA/PERSONA, Anne-Marie Duff in SOME WOMAN, and new casts for CLOUD 9 and THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE.
This festive season, the National Theatre will stage Anupama Chandrasekhar's (The Father and the Assassin) new play, an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's beloved family tale The Jungle Book, directed by Indhu Rubasingham.
The Donmar Warehouse is now presenting Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, in a new version and directed by Benedict Andrews. Check out photos from opening night here!
Photos-first look at the world première of Sasha Hails’ debut stage play, Possession, directed by Oscar Pearce is currently in rehearsal. Completing the Arcola summer season in Studio 1, this powerful new play interweaves the stories of four mothers across continents and time, through colonial and contemporary Democratic Republic of Congo, and Victorian and present-day London.
Arcola Theatre, led by Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen and Executive Producer Leyla Nazli, has announced the world première of Sasha Hails' debut stage play, Possession, to be directed by Oscar Pearce.
With The Girl Who Was Very Good at Lying, and FIJI currently running at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Omnibus Theatre have announced the full company for the world premiere of Jacob Roberts-Mensah's DRUM. Sarah Amankwah directs Benjamin Sarpong-Broni (Mike Eghan) and Joshua Roberts-Mensah (James Barnor).
It seems almost a lifetime ago that the National Theatre made the decision to start streaming shows from their archive to shine a light in the darkness of these times. Beginning with One Man, Two Guv'nors, their screening of the peerless production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus marks the last of these shows and ends this wonderful series on a triumphant high.
Shakespeare's Globe has announced the 201920 Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Season. Centred around She Wolves and Shrews, the season is a celebration and interrogation of women, power, and the role of the feminine in shaping our past, present and future. The candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse will play host to a world-premiere of Ella Hickson's new play Swive [Elizabeth], Shakespeare's Henry VI, Richard III, and The Taming of the Shrew, and Middleton's Women Beware Women. Sandi and Jenifer Toksvig have written a new family show dubbed, Christmas at the (Snow) Globe, and a series of candlelit ghost tales will include a new story from Jeanette Winterson. Other events running throughout the season include half-term storytelling festival, Half Term Tales at the Globe, with the new Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell, and a double bill of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas, marking the centenary year since the removal of the sex disqualification act. The Globe's flagship project for secondary and post-16 students, Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank, reaches its 14th year with Macbeth.
London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From timely plays to the beginning of open-air theatre season, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews, interviews and features!
Shakespeare's Globe is delighted to announce the Summer Season 2019. Celebrating and interrogating our 'sceptred isle' through Shakespeare's history plays, a year-long journey begins with Richard II, opening 22 February in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, continuing into the Globe Theatre this summer with Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. The season also includes A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, and the return of 2018's As You Like It. Robin Hood tales will form the core of the Read Not Dead series this year, and festivals throughout the summer include Women & Power and Poland is Hamlet. This year's Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production will be Romeo and Juliet, opening on 28 February, with 20,000 free tickets available to state secondary schools. The Shakespeare's Globe Touring Ensemble will once again present a trio of plays for the audience to choose from: The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, and Twelfth Night.
In the intimate candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe, Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus has once again been brought to life on the London stage. In this version however, director Paulette Randall has switched the lead's gender, with Jocelyn Jee Esien taking on the role of the ambitious and knowledgeable Faustus.
Shakespeare's Globe is delighted to announce the full cast of Paulette Randall's Doctor Faustus, opening in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on Saturday 1 December.
New casting announced for the new National Theatre season. Full cast has been announced for Brian Friel's Translations including Colin Morgan and Ciaran Hinds, part of the Travelex season with thousands of tickets available at £15. Eric Kofi Abrefa and Thalissa Teixeira join Vanessa Kirby in the cast of Julie, part of the Travelex season with thousands of tickets available at £15. Sam Mendes directs The Lehman Trilogy, a co-production with Neal Street Productions, cast includes Adam Godley, Ben Miles and Simon Russell Beale. Full casting is announced for the award winning An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, transferring to the National Theatre in a co-production with the Orange Tree Theatre. The NT will tour to 30 venues in 27 towns and cities across the UK and Ireland, for a total of 83 playing weeks over the next year. Rufus Norris' Macbeth to tour to 18 venues across the UK and Ireland from autumn 2018. War Horse returns to the National Theatre marking the centenary of Armistice Day.
Michael Longhurst's acclaimed production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus returns to the Olivier theatre this January following a sell-out run of performances last year. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a rowdy young prodigy, arrives in Vienna determined to make a splash. Awestruck by his genius, court composer Antonio Salieri has the power to promote his talent or destroy it. Seized by obsessive jealousy he begins a war with Mozart, with music and, ultimately, with God.
Jealousy stalks this seminal work by the late Peter Schaffer, making a triumphant return to the theatre where it debuted in 1979. Court composer Salieri is cursed with just enough musical appreciation to realise how mediocre his efforts are in comparison with Mozart - whose instinctive genius is yoked to an obscene child persona - a realisation that shakes his fundamental faith. If music is God's art, why isn't his virtue rewarded with a divine voice? Why does the Almighty choose instead, as his conduit, someone who Salieri deems so unworthy?