Arcola Theatre, Studio 2 – until 21 December 2019

Reviewed by Riley Anderson

4****

The power of story never ceases to amaze me. Imagine a story over 100 years old still being as relevant today as it was at the time of its conception, exploring themes and elements of human nature that transcend time and can be condensed in to a book, a song or a 75 minute performance.

Amanda Lomas’s adaptation of Knut Hamsun’s 1890 novel Hunger is a perfect example of such a story.

Hunger is the journey of The Young Man (Kwami Odoom) who has moved to the city to pursue a career as a writer, and it seemingly begins quite positively, there’s an upbeat soundtrack that is matched by Natasha Harrison’s ‘hustle and bustle of the city’ choreography, but soon it becomes apparent we are at the beginning of this young mans decline.

Initially the show is nuanced, the minimal set makes room for a series of transitions between scenes that give us a sense of presence in the city. We meet a whole host of characters, multi roled excellently by Jessica Tomlinson, Archie Backhouse and Katie Eldred, who really flesh out the story and bring a sense of naturalism to the piece, as well as allowing us some light comic relief.

The tone of the piece get perpetually darker, the lighting become more intrusive, the characters take a more sinister tone, and the feeling of isolation presides through the auditorium as The Young Man becomes more and more detached from society. Unable to find work to pay his rent, he is evicted by his once understanding landlady, too proud to tell his his parents as he thinks they’ll brand him a failure, and too proud to ask his friend for help, he ends up on the street trying to navigate his way through a city that views him more and more sinisterly.

The play culminates in The Young Man meeting a woman who takes an interest in him. Wrongly mistaking him for a student who likes a drink and a good time, she invites him into her home in order to progress, and he decides to come clean and tell her about his situation, which in turn, results in her kicking him out, leaving him again, with nothing.

This play is undoubtedly relevant to today’s audience, tackling themes of appearance, pride, and ultimately rejection. Fay Lomas’s direction accentuates these themes and utilises all of the other elements of the production to shine a spotlight on The Young Mans physiological battle.

Richmond Theatre – until 30 November 2019

Reviewed by Carly Burlinge

4****

The Entertainer is a new production of John Osborne’s classic, which first premiered in 1957.

Set in 1983 amongst the Falklands war and political crisis. Archie Rice (Shane Richie) is a washed up, old school obscene entertainer trying to  do anything to keep his show alive and running but he’s failing miserably in the process and his  enthusiasm is  starting to fade. The tax man has been chasing his tail for 20 years which he has managed to avoid. His family life is dysfunctional and unstable and his wife Phoebe Rice (Sara Crowe) who enjoys a good drink and is uncontrolled from start to finish is struggling in day to day life is depressed, continually putting herself down and pushing Archie Rice (Shane Ritchie) away. Their son Mike Rice is away fighting in the Falklands whilst Archie Rice’s daughter Jean Rice (Diana Vickers) has returned for the weekend having joined the protests against Thatcher’s government and sending the troops out. Their other son Frank Rice (Christopher Bonwell) is Archie’s feed in his stage act.

Archie’s dad Billy Rice (Pip Donaghy) hates politics, makes lots of racist remarks throughout the play and  tells it as it is, but seems to be generally trying to keep the family together.

Its clear from the beginning that The Entertainer is at a particular point in British history with Britain being at war and different opinions being split between families. Also a cultural change in comedy.

Shane Ritchie embraces the mood of Archie down on his luck with his outspoken opinions often racist or sexiest causing the audience to sometimes become uncomfortable and uneasy to watch as well as the nervous laughs. I would say this show is not for everyone but it was good to see Shane Richie in a heavier role, his performance felt authentic and relatable, a thought provoking experience that makes the audience question their own position in modern society.

There were a few technical issues on stage but very minor, the lighting was very well suited to the show and the sound was of good quality. I enjoyed the props and outfits and felt they fit in well with the performance.

Last of all I feel that Richmond theatre needs a mention. It is a beautiful Victorian building cosy and comfortable with plenty of character and a great atmosphere.

THE BOULEVARD THEATRE PRESENTS
THE SUNSET LIMITED
By Cormac McCarthy
Directed by Terry Johnson

• CASTING IS TODAY ANNOUNCED FOR THE LONDON PREMIERE OF CORMAC MCCARTHY’S THE SUNSET LIMITED, DIRECTED BY TERRY JOHNSON
   
• THE CAST WILL BE GARY BEADLE AND JASPER BRITTON
   
• THE PLAY RUNS AT THE BOULEVARD THEATRE FROM 16 JANUARY

The Boulevard Theatre today announces casting for the London premiere of The Sunset Limited, a gripping play about redemption, faith and free by multi award-winning writer Cormac McCarthy. The two hander features performances from Gary Beadle, who will play the role of ‘Black’ and Jasper Britton, who will play the role of ‘White’. 

The Sunset Limited will be directed by Olivier and Tony Award-winner Terry Johnson (Mrs Henderson Presents, La Cage aux Folles and The Graduate). Cormac McCarthy‘s other celebrated works include The Road, All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men. This production also marks the first time Cormac McCarthy’s work has been seen on a London stage.

Gary Beadle has appeared in a number of TV dramas including Patrick Melrose, Death in Paradise, Silent Witness, Grantchester, and as a regular for several years in EastEnders.  He was most recently on stage in The Treatment at the Almeida Theatre where his credits also include The Testaments.  Other theatre includes Les Blancs (National Theatre), Now We Are Here (Young Vic) and a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (Royal Court).

Jasper Britton is a prolific stage and screen actor, who recently appeared in celebrated Agatha Christie play Witness for the Prosecution at County Hall. Other theatre highlights include playing Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem at the Watermill Theatre and Bolingbroke in Richard II with the RSC in London and New York. Other RSC credits include The Jew of Malta and Henry IV Part I and II. His many other stage credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Sheffield Crucible), Oedipus (National Theatre) and The Visit (Complicité).  On screen, his films include Terence Malick’s The New World, and he is set to appear in HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel.

Terry Johnson is the winner of nine British Theatre awards including the Olivier Award for Best Comedy on two occasions, Playwright of the Year and Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards’ Best New Play. Productions as writer or director include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Hitchcock Blonde, Entertaining Mr Sloane, The Graduate, Dead Funny, Hysteria, Elton John’s Glasses and The Memory of Water. In 2010, Johnson won the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles.

Cormac McCarthy is one of America’s greatest living novelists. His 2006 novel The Road won him the Pulitzer Prize, and the earlier No Country for Old Men was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name that won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Blood Meridian, another work by McCarthy, was listed by TIME magazine as one of the greatest English-language works since the 1920s. His plays include The Sunset Limited and The Stonemason.

Two men meet on a subway platform; the chance encounter instantly changing the trajectory of both their lives.  Thrown together, their conversation quickly turns to the most essential and existential questions facing humanity. While their beliefs seem irreconcilable, the answers they seek could mean the difference between life and death.

The Sunset Limited will play at the Boulevard Theatre from January 16.

Yvonne Arnaud – until 30 November 2019

Reviewed by Heather Chalkley

3***

This is one of the first times Ayckbourn expands his writing beyond the intimacy of your living room. Written in the 70’s, he takes the opportunity to dabble with the wider realms of society, intertwining politics and Politics. Ayckbourn has fun characterising the members of a committee, who have come together to plan the summer fair in the small town of Pendon.

The meetings are set in the ballroom of the Swan Hotel, once popular, definitely seen better days. You have prominent members of the local community taking the lead on bringing a small group of towns people together. Robert Daws (Ray) has the tremendous task of chairing the meeting, keeping the peace and finding a way to make the pageant happen. He manages to tip toe round some of the sensibilities, then in contrast challenging his wife, Helen (Deborah Grant), head on! The result is the energy and fervour of a young Marxist teacher, Eric (Craig Gazey) carry’s the committee members along on a crest of enthusiasm and slightly over the top speech. The central focus for the summer fair becomes a pageant. The organisation of the pageant becomes a battle between left and right wing politics, rich and poor, youth and maturity. The result is hilarious. Gazey (Eric) carries a youthful pent up swagger and an ardent rhetoric. Harry Gostelow (Tim) was a complete caricature, surprising everyone with his extreme views on ‘filthy’ Marxist sympathisers and declaration of war! The reactions of his fellow players is priceless, with Ray (Daws) trying desperately to calm everything down. My favourite moments are delivered by Elizabeth Power (Audrey) as the deaf minute taker and mother of the local councillor. Her comedic timing is on point – reading the lips of Philippa (Rhiannon Handy), who has the voice of a mouse, having her knitting needle taken mid stitch and playing the piano throughout the action scene, to name but a few.

The set played into the comedy with dodgy lights and people coming and going at odd times with equipment. The Creatives have done a great job on the costumes, particularly for the pageant. The extra stitches to make trousers and jackets inflexible was very funny.

Robin Herford (Director) is true to the classic Ayckbourn farcical comedy style and manages to get a message out there – do not take yourself or life too seriously

DAVID MITCHELL

STARS AS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

THE UPSTART CROW

A NEW COMEDY BY BEN ELTON

FULL CASTING ANNOUNCED

GIELGUD THEATRE PREVIEWS FROM:

FRIDAY 7 FEBRUARY

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Full casting for Ben Elton’s stage adaption of the critically acclaimed BBC TV sitcom Upstart Crow – which opens at the Gielgud Theatre on 7 February 2020 and will see David Mitchell make his West End debut – has been announced.

Joining Mitchell as Will Shakespeare and Gemma Whelan as Kate, in bringing their TV characters to life on stage is Helen Monks (Raised by Wolves / Inside No. 9) as Susanna, Rob Rouse (Grownups) as Bottom and Steve Speirs (Stella / Rovers) as Burbage. Mark Heap (Friday Night Dinner / Spaced) who TV viewers will know as Robert Greene, will play a new character, Dr John Hall.

Also joining the cast is Danielle Phillips (Ready Player One / Father Brown), Jason Callender (Shadow and Bone / 4 O’Clock Club) and Rachel Summers (This Islands Mine). This 11-week season is directed by Olivier award-winning Sean Foley (The Ladykillers, Jeeves and Wooster and The Miser).

Ben Elton says: “Besides Will and Kate many of the other characters from the TV sitcom feature in this new play and I’m delighted that they will all be played by the original actors. Steve Speirs returns as Burbage the Actor, no doubt relishing the extra opportunity that live theatre offers for serious shouting and strutting. Hilarious Helen Monks is back as Shakespeare’s grumpy daughter Susanna. Top comic Rob Rouse will once again have us laughing at his Bottom and the show stopping Mark Heap who played Robert Greene is returnED in villainous guise! Gotta say, the brilliant new actors who are joining Upstart Crow for the first time will have to really pull up their puffling pants if they don’t want to get upstaged!

‘Tis 1605 and England’s greatest playwright is in trouble. Will Shakespeare has produced just two plays; Measure for Measure, which according to King James was incomprehensible bollingbrokes by any measure, and All’s Well That End’s Well which didn’t even end well. Will desperately needs to maketh a brilliant new play to bolster his reputation and avoid being cast aside by King and country. But Will’s personal life is encountering more dramatic twists and turns than any theatrical story he can conjure. How the futtock can a Bard be expected to find a plot for a play whilst his daughters run amok and his house is used as refuge for any old waif and stray. As time runs out, can Will hold on to his dream of being recognised now and for all time, as indisputably the greatest writer that ever lived, or will family woes thwart Will’s chances of producing his masterwork?

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6AR

Press Night: 17 February at 7.00pm

Final show: 25 April

Evening Performances: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm

Matinees: Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30pm

Website: UpstartCrowTheComedy.com

Twitter: @UpstartCrowPlay

The Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham – until Saturday 30 November 2019

Reviewed by: Louise Ford 

4****

Queen are the Champions!

The arrival at the Royal Concert Hall Nottingham of the rock musical, We Will Rock You, written by Ben Elton with lyrics by Queen was an excellent way to start the festive season.  

It builds on the Queen fever generated by the film Bohemian Rhapsody from last year. The show originally hit the stage in 2002 and delivers 24 of Queen’s legendary songs .

The current show is directed by Cornelius Baltus, costumes by Kentaur, set designs by Stufish Entertainment Architects and choreography by Lajos Turi Peter, packs a powerful punch!

The impressive opening set, is the backdrop to this futuristic tale, where Rock and Roll has been replaced by mindless electronically-generated pop. The musical set in the future features Galileo Figaro (Ian McIntosh) at odds with the world controlled by internet ga ga, and his mouthy sidekick, he names Scaramouch (Elena  Skye). Galileo and Scaramouch under take a romantic journey which leads them to be captured by The Rebels, led by Brit (David Michael Johnson). The rebels soon realise that Galileo is The Dreamer and they all join forces to rediscover Rock and Roll and defeat the Globalsoft Corporation.

The show is one of contrasts; the set alternating between the sterile monochrome world of internet gaga and the rebels chaotic and post apocalyptic hide out, the costumes of internet gaga are shiny and uniform whereas the Bohemian rebels are in an eclectic mix of punk and rock and rock outfits, the nameless foot soldiers of Globalsoft Corporation compared to the imaginatively and amusingly named rebels, which evoke the glory days of rock and roll.

The live band, carefully concealed behind the set are unveiled at the end of the show for a hand clapping finale and an impressive guitar solo. 

The pantomime villain Killer Queen (Jennifer O’Leary) stole the show with her impressive renditions of the Queen power ballads, Another One Bites The Dust, Don’t Stop Me Now and of course Killer Queen.

The finale has the audience on their feet, clapping, stamping and singing to We Will Rock You and We are The Champions.

New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme – until 25 January 2020

Reviewed by Joanne Hodge

5*****

Theresa Heskins has adapted this classic Mark Twain tale for the Christmas season at The New Vic, and I have to say it’s a triumph for an audience of all ages. 

The New Vic Workshop – under the guidance and design expertise of Laura Willstead – have very cleverly re-created Tudor London inside the confines of this theatre-in-the-round, and though the backdrop of lit houses are small in size, they are great in impact. A moving representation of the Thames was very cleverly wound across the stage by a cast full of multi-talented actors, musicians and puppeteers. You’d struggle to find a more hardworking ensemble. 

Laura’s creative genius was again put to use with the inclusion of puppets to represent the younger years of the two lead characters, along with the various animals found regularly in street entertainment of the time. 

I have to say, I mustn’t have studied the programme in great detail prior to curtain-up, as I was genuinely baffled and bemused when Bird twins Danielle [Edward – “The Prince”] and Nichole [Tom – The Pauper] appeared on stage for the first time together – I turned to my companion to query if it were some very clever CGI! These identical twin sisters have been cast perfectly in the title partnership. The comedic characterisation was some of the finest I’ve seen, you ended up rating for both of these ‘boys’, even through their less likeable moments. 

I enjoyed the unique narration of the story – being played out by a travelling theatre group of the time – it gave a fresh take on a classic tale. 

As the show began, I thought that it may have been pitched incorrectly as a family Christmas production, but once warmed into the story, there were many laughs to be had, and the wide-ranging audience all seemed to enjoy the clever – and the sometimes downright cheesy – comedy moments. Particular mention must go to Player Queen Gareth Cassidy, who literally jumped from his Beefeater role to that of Floating Mary [watch it, you’ll get the joke ;o)] with camp aplomb. 

I don’t want to give too much away, as I really recommend that if able, you go and see the show yourself. The Prince and The Pauper is a great way to spend a couple of hours, and you’ll leave feeling genuinely Christmassy, and ready to enjoy a mince pie and mulled wine.

WEST END PRODUCTION OF

D E A R   E V A N   H A N S E N

BOOKING EXTENDED TO 30 MAY 2020

The West End Production of Dear Evan Hansen which officially opened last week at the Noël Coward Theatre, today announces a further release of tickets with the critically acclaimed production now booking to 30 May 2020. 

The cast comprises Sam Tutty as Evan Hansen, Lucy Anderson as Zoe Murphy, Rebecca McKinnis as Heidi Hansen, Lauren Ward as Cynthia Murphy, Doug Colling as Connor Murphy, Rupert Young as Larry Murphy, Jack Loxton as Jared Kleinman, Nicole Raquel Dennis as Alana Beck and Marcus Harman who will play Evan Hansen at certain performances. They are joined by Tricia Adele-Turner, David Breeds, Haydn Cox, Natalie Kassanga, Hannah Lindsey, Mark Peachey, Courtney Stapleton, Alex Thomas-Smith and James Winter. 

The winner of six Tony^® awards including Best Musical, as well as the 2018 Grammy award for Best Musical Theatre Album, Dear Evan Hansenis directed byfour-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, features a book by Tony award-winner Steven Levenson and a score by the Tony, Grammy and Academy Award-winning composers of The Greatest Showman and La La Land, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul.

A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted: a chance to finally fit in.  Both deeply personal and profoundly contemporary, Dear Evan Hansen is a new musical about life and the way we live it.

Reuniting the original Broadway creative team for this West End production, Dear Evan Hansen is produced by Stacey Mindich and features choreography by Danny Mefford, scenic design by David Korins, projection design by Peter Nigrini, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, sound design by Nevin Steinberg and hair design by David Brian Brown.  Music supervision, orchestrations and additional arrangements are by Alex Lacamoire.  Ben Cohn is the Associate Music Supervisor.  Vocal arrangements and additional arrangements are by Justin Paul.  Casting by Jill Green CDG. Sash Bischoff, Adam Quinn and Danny Sharron are the Associate Directors. Judith Schoenfeld is the Production Supervisor. US General Management 101 Productions, Ltd; UK General Management – Ambassador Theatre Group. Adam Speers is the UK Executive Producer.

Dear Evan Hansen has won the Drama League Award for Outstanding Musical Production and for the off-Broadway production, two Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards and two Helen Hayes Awards.  The Grammy Award-winning Original Broadway Cast Recording of Dear Evan Hansen produced by Atlantic Records, was released in February 2017, making an extraordinary debut on the Billboard 200 and entering the chart at #8 – the highest charting debut position for an original cast album since 1961. The album went on to win the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album and recently became only the third cast recording this decade to go gold.  A deluxe version of the cast recording, including six bonus tracks and a pop cover from Katy Perry of ‘Waving Through a Window’ is available digitally.

Dear Evan Hansen opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre to great critical acclaim on 4 December 2016 where it has broken all box office records and is now in its third year of standing-room-only audiences.  A record-breaking US national tour launched in October 2018 and is currently in its second year touring North America.

A digital lottery takes place each week when Patrons who are selected will be offered the option to purchase two tickets at £25 each. Full details for Dear Evan Hansen’s digital lottery can be found at delfontmackintosh.co.uk/DEHLottery or www.dearevanhansen.com/london

SHEFFIELD THEATRES TO HOST THE INAUGURAL

RTYDS ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SCHEME

Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, Robert Hastie, today announces that the company will partner with the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme to host the first RTYDS Associate Artistic Director, as part of RTYDS’ commitment to the development of Artistic Directors as cultural leaders.

RTYDS has launched the RTYDS Associate Artistic Director Scheme – a new opportunity for an experienced and exceptional director to work in a leading regional theatre at a senior level. In this inaugural year, the company have chosen to partner with Sheffield Theatres. The scheme aims to provide a director with the tools to continue to develop their craft whilst learning about the role of an artistic director in cultural leadership.

Sheffield Theatres will enable the successful candidate to learn about the complexities of running a company and a building from within the Senior Management Team. During the residency the director will also stretch their artistic capabilities by making work on the mid-scale.

The Associate Artistic Director residency will also give the director the opportunity of working with RTYDS on its national programmes and provide an insight to theatre industry and theatre throughout the country.

Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, Robert Hastie, said today, “We’re proud to be deepening our relationship with RTYDS – who have done so much to nurture multiple generations of British directors – as we partner for the inaugural RTYDS Associate Artistic Director Scheme. This brand-new role will give the candidate the opportunity to become part of the core team here at Sheffield Theatres, and play a part in significantly influencing our future course. We’re looking for an artist with experience of making ambitious, innovative, inclusive theatre, who wants to improve their leadership skills, and is excited about embracing the full range and variety of Sheffield Theatres’ work.”

Sue Emmas, Artistic Director of RTYDS, commented, “There are a number of brilliant artist development opportunities for directors at an early stage of their career – and RTYDS provides some of them through our present schemes – but there is a limited offer for more experienced directors to enrich and develop both their craft and leaderships skills, that’s why we introduced the RTYDS Associate Artistic Director Residency. Sheffield Theatres reputation for investing in the next generation of theatre makers makes it the perfect host for this first residency. The varied programme over three theatre spaces, alongside the newly announced talent development space The Bank, will provide the successful director with a rich environment to develop their craft and learn about the challenges and demands of the role of artistic director in a leading regional theatre”.

Potential candidates can apply for the role of Associate Artistic Director from today. Interviews will take place early 2020, and the director will commence their new role in September 2020. For further information, please see: www.rtyds.co.uk

ROBERT ICKE WINS BEST DIRECTOR

AT THE 65^TH EVENING STANDARD THEATRE AWARDS

AHEAD OF THE WEST END TRANSFER OF THE SMASH HIT & SELL OUT ALMEIDA THEATRE PRODUCTION OF

STARRING THE MULTI-AWARD WINNING JULIET STEVENSON

ANNOUNCED ALONGSIDE ADDITIONAL TOUR DATES &

EXTENDED WEST END PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

★★★★★

The Guardian, The Telegraph, Financial Times, The Sunday Times, WhatsOnStage

★★★★

The Times, Evening Standard, The Observer, Independent, The Stage, Metro

Robert Icke (The Wild Duck, Hamlet, Mary Stuart, Oresteia, 1984) wins prestigious 65^th Evening Standard Theatre Award, for The Doctor, ahead of its West End transfer. The 2019 awards ceremony, which took place last night, Sunday 24 November, at the London Coliseum, saw Robert Icke pick up the award for Best Director, a joint award for The Doctor and his production of The Wild Duck at the Almeida in 2018. Robert last won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director with his production of Oresteia in 2015, for which he also picked up an Olivier Award, making him the youngest ever recipient of the award at the age of 28.

Robert Icke’s sold-out, five-star Almeida Theatre production of The Doctor, which transfers to the West End in 2020, will also be extending its run at the Duke of York’s Theatre with an additional ten performances, running from 18April – 18 July 2020. Prior to this, the production will travel to Australia for the 2020 Adelaide Festival (27 February – 8 March), as well as enjoying a limited run at the Theatre Royal Brighton (30 March – 4 April) and Richmond Theatre (6 April – 11 April), ahead of arriving in the West End. Press night will be held at the Duke of York’s Theatre on Thursday 30 April at 7pm.

Upon winning Best Director at the 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Robert Icke said “I’m delighted to have received this award this evening and equally delighted that we are taking The Doctor not only to the Adelaide Festival but on a short UK tour. In the spirit of what the remarkable Sir Ian McKellen spoke about this evening, taking work beyond London is vital and I am therefore thrilled that many more people will have access to this production and to Juliet’s luminous performance.”

***

First, do no harm.

On an ordinary day, at a private hospital, a young woman fights for her life. A priest arrives to save her soul. Her doctor refuses him entry.

In a divisive time, in a divided nation, a society takes sides.

The latest smash-hit by “Britain’s best director” (Telegraph) is a “provocative, wonderfully upsetting” (Independent) whirlwind of gender, race and identity politics, and a “devastating play for today” (Financial Times).

***

The production stars Juliet Stevenson (Hamlet, Mary Stuart, Wings, Duet for One), who was also nominated in this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Juliet received her nomination in the Best Actress category for ‘delivering one of the peak performances of the theatrical year’ (The Guardian), with her spellbinding and devastating portrayal of Professor Ruth Wolff in The Doctor.

This is the third West End transfer for Robert Icke and Juliet Stevenson in as many years, following the critical and commercial smash-hit productions of Mary Stuart and Hamlet.

Further casting to be announced in due course.

The Doctor, by Robert Icke, very freely adapted from Professor Bernhardi by Arthur Schnitzler, has been critically lauded since its opening at the Almeida in August 2019. With a creative team of critically acclaimed collaborations on past productions, including Robert Icke’s Hamlet and Oedipus, The Doctor has designs by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting by Natasha Chivers and sound and composition by Tom Gibbons. Casting is by Julia Horan.

The Doctor is presented by the Almeida Theatre and Ambassador Theatre Group, and Benjamin Lowy, Fiery Angel, Glass Half Full Productions, Scott Rudin and Sonia Friedman Productions.