ANDREW SCOTT REUNITES WITH SIMON STEPHENS AND SAM YATES FOR
VANYA
FOR A STRICTLY LIMITED RUN IN THE WEST END
Wessex Grove, Gavin Kalin Productions and Kater Gordon today announce that Andrew Scott will return to the West End with VANYA, in a brand new adaptation of Chekhov’s masterpiece by Simon Stephens, and directed by Sam Yates. Designed by Rosanna Vize, the production opens at the Duke of York’s Theatre on 21 September, with previews at Richmond Theatre from 28 August to 2 September and previews in the West End from 15 September, running until 21 October. Public booking opens at 8.30am on Friday 9 June.
This Autumn, Andrew Scott will play every role in Simon Stephens’ definitive new version of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece of love, art, sex and attempted murder.
The production reunites Scott and Stephens who previously collaborated on Sea Wall and Birdland; and Scott with Yates following their work together on the short film, The Hope Rooms; and producers Benjamin Lowy and Emily Vaughan-Barratt from Wessex Grove after working with Scott on Sea Wall and Hamlet respectively.
The first performance at the Duke of York’s Theatre on 15 September will be for under 30s. All tickets are priced at £10, and patrons can apply for two tickets in a ballot. Further details of this will be announced shortly.
Andrew Scott: “Heartbreaking, hilarious, sexy, devastating- the genius and extraordinary humanity of Mr Chekhov just knocks me out. It’s a genuine honour and a singular challenge to bring this giant of a play to life in the West End in this new way and I’m so excited to be doing it alongside such brilliant, playful and talented people.”
Simon Stephens: “Anton Chekhov is my favourite writer. Andrew Scott is as good an actor as there is in the world. Sam Yates is an artist of the highest order. To work with these people in the heart of the West End; to be fearlessly creative and exploratory there; to have only the impulse to make art is all utterly thrilling. This is work that reminds me again and again that theatre is our greatest art form. The most alive. The funniest. The sexiest. The most heart breaking. The most human.”
Sam Yates: “It is a joy to collaborate again with Andrew Scott, an actor of singular sensitivity and power, on Simon Stephen’s adaptation of VANYA. Chekhov’s play is life-affirming and heart-breaking, and places human behaviour under the microscope. VANYA will push this examination to a new level, harnessing the power of the unique connection between actor and audience possible only in the theatre. Andrew’s inexhaustible invention and heart will be central to telling this story, a celebration of the multitudes we contain within ourselves, that we may collectively laugh at our imperfections, despair at our failures, and celebrate our compassion. I am delighted to be working with dynamic and daring Emily Vaughan-Barratt and Benjamin Lowy of Wessex Grove to bring VANYA to the West End and introduce this play to a new generation of audiences.”
Wessex Grove’s Benjamin Lowy and Emily Vaughan-Barratt: “At its heart, theatre is all about collaboration. When we began to collaborate with Andrew, Sam, and Simon on this project, we knew this illustrious trio would create something incredibly special. These three are artists at the top of their game, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring Simon’s VANYA to the West End. As producers, the creative team pushed us to think outside the box and help create a new generation of theatre-goer. Therefore, we are happy to announce an exclusive performance for under 30s with tickets at £10, enabling greater access to this incredible production.”
Twitter and Instagram: @vanyaonstage
Wessex Grove, Gavin Kalin Productions and Kater Gordon present
VANYA
After Anton Chekhov
Adapted by Simon Stephens
Performed by Andrew Scott
Directed by Sam Yates
Designed by Rosanna Vize
RICHMOND THEATRE 28 August – 2 September
DUKE OF YORK’S THEATRE 15 September – 21 October
BAFTA and Olivier-award winning actor, Andrew Scott’s recent theatre includes Three Kings (Old Vic: In Camera), Present Laughter, Design for Living (The Old Vic), Hamlet (Almeida Theatre and Duke of York’s Theatre), The Dazzle (Found111), Birdland (Royal Court), Aristocrats, Emperor and Galilean (National Theatre), Sea Wall (Paines Plough, The Old Vic, Bush Theatre), as well as numerous plays in Dublin, London and New York. For television his work includes School of Roars, The Pursuit of Love, Ripley, His Dark Materials, Modern Love, Black Mirror: Smithereens, as The Priest in Fleabag, Quacks, as Moriarty in Sherlock, The Town and The Hollow Crown. His recent films include Strangers, Catherine Called Birdy, Oslo, Sam Mendes 1917, A Dark Place, The Delinquent Season, Hamlet, King Lear, Cognition, Handsome Devil, Denial, Swallows and Amazons, This Beautiful Fantastic, Sam Mendes’ Spectre, Alice: Through the Looking Glass, Frankenstein, Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall, Matthew Warchus’ Pride, (BIFA for Best Supporting Actor), Locke and The Stag.
Simon Stephens’ plays include Cornelia Street, Morning Sun, Fortune, Light Falls, Maria, Fatherland, Rage, Heisenberg, Nuclear War, Song from Far Away; Birdland, Carmen Disruption, Blindsided, Morning, Three Kingdoms, Wastwater, Punk Rock, The Trial of Ubu, Marine Parade, Sea Wall, Harper Regan, Pornography, Motortown, On the Shore of the Wide World, One Minute, Country Music, Christmas, Port, Herons, and Bluebird. He has adapted Jose Saramago’s Blindness for the stage and also Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. He has written English language versions of Jon Fosse’s I Am the Wind; Odon Von Horvath’s Kasimir and Karoline (titled The Funfair); Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull and Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera. He has presented four series of the Royal Court Playwright’s Podcast. His book “A Working Diary” is published by Methuen. Stephens has been an Associate at the Royal Court, London and Steep, Chicago and a board member of Paines Plough. He has been an Associate Artist at the Lyric, Hammersmith, a Professor of Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University and an Associate Professor at the Danish National School of the Performing Arts, Copenhagen.
Sam Yates directs. His theatre credits include The Two Character Play (Hampstead Theatre), A Separate Peace (Curtain Call & Platform Presents), Incantata (Irish Rep, Gate Theatre, Dublin, Galway International Festival & Jen Coppinger), The Starry Messenger (Wyndham’s Theatre), Company, Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins (Royal Academy of Music), The Phlebotomist (Hampstead Theatre, nominated for Olivier Award for Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre), Glengarry Glen Ross (Playhouse Theatre and UK tour), Desire Under The Elms (Sheffield Crucible), Murder Ballad (Arts Theatre), Cymbeline (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), East is East (Trafalgar Studios and UK tour), The El. Train (Hoxton Hall), Outside Mullingar (Ustinov), Billy Liar (Royal Exchange Theatre), Cornelius (Finborough Theatre, 59E59 New York), Mixed Marriage (Finborough Theatre), and Purgatory by W.B. Yeats, and Macbeth: The Hour (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). His screen work includes the forthcoming Magpie (2023, feature film debut, written by Tom Bateman, produced by Werewolf Films and Kate Solomon for 55 Films, with Daisy Ridley, Shazad Latif, Matilda Lutz), Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar, The Hope Rooms, (Winner Grand Prize Future Filmmaker Award, RIIFF 2016), Cymbeline, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Love’s Labour’s Lost (The Complete Walk, Shakespeare’s Globe); and music videos Emeralds and Auld.
Rosanna Vize’s theatre credits include Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Glass Menagerie, The Almighty Sometimes (Royal Exchange Manchester), King Priam (ENO), Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith), Brown Girls Do It Too (Soho Theatre), Mavra and Pierrot Lunaire (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden),Gulliver’s Travels (Unicorn Theatre), Camp Siegfried, Midsummer Party (The Old Vic), Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Leicester Curve Theatre), The Two Character Play (Hampstead Theatre, Upstairs), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Curve Theatre and UK tour), Shedding A Skin (Soho Theatre), The Enemy (National Theatre of Scotland), Harm (Bush Theatre), The Comeback (Noël Coward Theatre), Incantata (Irish Rep Theatre, NYC), Hedda Gabler (Sherman Theatre), The Phlebotomist, Yous Two (Hampstead Theatre), The Audience (Nuffield Theatre, Southamption), Don Carlos (Exeter Northcott), Incantata (Galway Festival), An Adventure, Leave Taking (Bush Theatre), King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe), Earthworks and Myth (RSC), Low Level Panic (Orange Tree Theatre), After October (Finborough Theatre), Henry I (Reading Between the Lines), and Girls (Soho Theatre, Hightide & Talawa Theatre). For film, Harm Film. Her up-coming productions include The Turn of the Screw (Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen), and Macbeth (Donmar Warehouse).
Listings Information
VANYA
Duke of York’s Theatre
St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4BG
TICKETS
From £15
RICHMOND THEATRE 28 August – 2 September
Performances at 7.30pm
DUKE OF YORK’S THEATRE 15 September – 21 October
Monday to Saturday at 3pm and 7pm
Access performances:
BSL interpreted performance 3 October 2023 at 7pm
Audio Described performance 5 October 2023 at 7pm
At every London performance, a limited number of £30 tickets will be available via a weekly lottery in partnership with Todaytix.