Oresteia - 2015 - West End Articles Page 9

Fire in the night signals the return of Agamemnon from 10 long years of war in Troy. Triumphant and with a captive slave, the prophetess Cassandra, in tow, the warrior king arrives home and is welcomed by Clytemnestra, wife and mother who seethes with a vengeance born of the slaughter of their daughter Iphigenia. Revenge begets revenge; fate will be fulfilled. The first great play of Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, Agamemnon delivers a visceral and haunting theatrical experience.

The Old Globe today shared its 2016 Summer Season, which will feature new and familiar works directed by four major American stalwarts. The season features the welcome return of Steve Martin (Bright Star) with the World Premiere of his new play Meteor Shower, an adult comedy, directed by Gordon Edelstein, in a co-production with Long Wharf Theatre, where he serves as Artistic Director. Paul Gordon's musical Sense and Sensibility will have its West Coast premiere, presented in association with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where it had its world premiere in February 2015, directed by CST Artistic Director Barbara Gaines. The Summer Shakespeare Festival will include Macbeth, directed by Brian Kulick, Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company, and Love's Labor's Lost, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall.

A major revival of Noel Coward's hilarious masterpiece, Private Lives will embark on a prior to the West End UK tour starring stage and screen stars Tom Chambers (Top Hat, Strictly Come Dancing) as the loveable and charming Elyot and Laura Rogers(Tipping The Velvet, An Ideal Husband) as the unconventional and vivacious Amanda, alongside Charlotte Ritchie (Call The Midwife, One Night in November) as Sybil and Richard Teverson (Downton Abbey) as Victor.

'[Thank you] to an incredible cast of British and American actors who make the Atlantic look like a little creek you can just kind of pop across,' said Dame Helen Mirren upon receiving her 2015 Tony Award. The stage and screen star reprised her critically-acclaimed performance in THE AUDIENCE after a West End run in 2013, and she was just one of many to 'pop across' an ocean for a stab at Broadway.  An unprecedented amount of British talent took over Broadway last year, bringing us such productions as THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, WOLF HALL: PARTS 1 & 2, and SKYLIGHT.   It doesn't seem like the trend is ending anytime soon. This fall, Broadway will welcome a slew of British actors- some of whom will be making their US stage debuts in incoming productions. And it's not just performers. We're getting some complete British imports in shows like A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE and KING CHARLES III. Below, we're taking a moment to shine a spotlight on this season's British imports.

As previously announced, the Kennedy Center will present a Barbican and Les Theatres de la Ville de Luxembourg, in association with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, production of ANTIGONE by Sophocles, in a new translation by T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Anne Carson from tonight, October 22, through October 25, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

Homer's The Odyssey, staged on Thursday 12 November throughout London, and directed by the Almeida's Artistic Director, Rupert Goold and Associate Director, Robert Icke, concludes the theatre's groundbreaking season: Almeida Greeks. This one-off reading will feature over 40 actors and artists, who will be announced shortly, and will be live-streamed online from a variety of unusual locations across the capital, with some opportunities for audiences to join the action live at particular points on location.

Artistic Director Christopher Haydon today announces the Gate Theatre's new season Nuclear: A Season about the Family. The season opens with the world premiere of Nina Segal's In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises), followed by the world premiere of The Iphigenia Quartet which includes Agamemnon by Caroline Bird, Iphigenia by Suhayla El-Bushra, Clytemnestra by Lulu Raczka and Chorus by Chris Thorpe.

Brian Kulick will step down as the Artistic Director of Off-Broadway's acclaimed Classic Stage Company following the current 2015-16 season. Kulick will be succeeded by the company's current Associate Director, Tony Award-winner John Doyle. Doyle will assume the position in July of 2016. Kulick, who has led Classic Stage Company for twelve seasons, will direct two of the current season's mainstage productions: Mother Courage and Her Children, starring Tonya Pinkins and Nathan the Wise, starring F. Murray Abraham. Doyle is directing the season's final offering, Peer Gynt.

San Francisco Opera today announced cast changes for the Company's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, presented October 8–28, 2015, and for Mozart's The Magic Flute, presented October 20–November 20, at the War Memorial Opera House.

SU Drama's 2015/16 season features six productions, including three musicals, starting in October with the Cole Porter classic Kiss Me, Kate. Second in the season is Agamemnon, the haunting Greek classic, followed by a co-production with Syracuse Stage, Peter Pan. After winter break, the season continues with Punk Rock and the country-flavored musical The Spitfire Grill. Closing the season in May is the comedy A Flea in Her Ear.

The cast also includes Obi Abili, Kirsty Bushell, Samuel Edward-Cook, Finbar Lynch, Patrick O'Kane, and Kathryn Pogson.

Classical Greek theatre will take over Classic Stage Company when it begins its 2015/2016 season with the inaugural GREEK FESTIVAL!

Following a successful sell-out run at the Almeida earlier this year, Robert Icke's reworking of Aeschylus's Oresteia has transferred to the West End, making its home at the Trafalgar Studios. Bringing the story into the 21st century, the production portrays Agamemnon (Angus Wright) as a modern day politician working hard to win the war while trying to maintain life as a family man.

Single tickets are on sale today for Manhattan Theatre Club's three productions presented as part of the 2015-2016 season at New York City Center - Stage I: Ripcord, the world premiere comedy by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce; Prodigal Son, the world premiere play written and directed by Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley; and the American premiere of Incognito, the new play by Nick Payne, directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes.

CPH's historic 100th Season will open on an operatic note, with the world premiere of Ken Ludwig's A COMEDY OF TENORS. BroadwayWorld has just confirmed the full cast -- featuring several Broadway vets. Scroll down for the complete list of stars!

English Touring Theatre and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse today announce the full cast for the world premiere of their co-production of The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead. The production reunites Simon Armitage and Nick Bagnall after their recent collaborations on The Last Days of Troy and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Nick Bagnall directs Lee Armstrong, Simon Dutton, Roger Evans, Polly Frame, David Hartley, Ranjit Krishnamma, Chris Reilly, Sule Rimi, Danusia Samal, Colin Tierney and Susie Trayling.

Full casting is announced for the first major London revival of The Cocktail Party in over 25 years, which will be staged in the main auditorium at the iconic Coronet, and marks a transitional moment in the building's redevelopment as the larger space becomes home to the Print Room's eclectic programme. Directed by rising star Abbey Wright, this new Print Room production of TS Eliot's masterpiece plays from 14 September to 10 October, with a cast that includes Helen Bradbury, Richard Dempsey, Hilton McRae, Chloe Pirrie, Christopher Ravenscroft, John Wark and Marcia Warren.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) are pleased to announce complete casting for Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Prodigal Son, the new play written and directed by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Outside Mullingar).

Bakkhai is the second of the Almeida's trilogy of the Greeks, following on from Oresteia and coming before Medea. Euripides' 5th century BC play has been boldly recreated by Robert Icke, translated by Anne Carson and is directed by James Macdonald.

The Almeida Theatre's critically acclaimed, sold out production of Oresteia, by Aeschylus, re-imagined for the modern stage by Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke (The Fever, Mr Burns, 1984) will transfer to the Trafalgar Studios in the West End from August. Press night September 7th.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that Greg Reiner will join the NEA as the director of theater and musical theater starting on September 8, 2015. Reiner will manage NEA grantmaking in theater and musical theater and represent the agency to the field. 

Classical Greek theatre will take over Classic Stage Company when it begins its 2015/2016 season with the inaugural GREEK FESTIVAL!

Director Blanche McIntyre, winner of the TMA Best Director award in 2013 and the Critics' Circle Most Promising Newcomer award in 2011, this autumn directs at HOME Ted Hughes' adaptation of The Oresteia, Aeschylus' epic drama about war, bloodshed, revenge, and justice.

Classic Stage Company has announced that Marcel Spears is this year's recipient of the Rosemarie Tichler Fund grant.

Direct from two completely sold-out engagements in London, producers Scott Rudin and Lincoln Center Theater will bring the Young Vic's critically-acclaimed production of Arthur Miller's A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE to Broadway this fall.  The production, which swept the 2015 Olivier Awards — winning for Best Revival, Best Director, and Best Actor (Mark Strong) —will begin previews Wednesday evening, October 21 and open on Thursday, November 12 at the Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45 Street.  A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE will play an 18-week limited engagement through Sunday, February 21, 2016.