As autumn is slowly coming to the metropolis of theatre, more and more new productions are coming up.

A few of the stagings I wouldn’t want to miss:

The Daughter In Law

Young Vic

(The Cut, Waterloo, London, SE1 8LZ)

Box Office: 020 7928 6363

Best known as a great novelist, Lawrence was also a remarkable playwright, heir to and the equal of Strindberg and Chekhov. His passionate belief in the power of intimacy and sexuality rings out in his finest play, one of the most memorable of the 20th century The story is set against the background of the industrial unrest of 1912 and life in the pits. Minnie the daughter in law of the title fights to win the commitment of her husband Luther against the domineering figure of his mother. Young Vic Artistic Director directs the Daughter-in-Law, David Lan, whose previous work includes acclaimed productions of “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Doctor Faustus”.

12 Oct 2002  

The Frogs

National Theatre Olivier, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX

Box Office: 020 7452 3020

Sondheim's Frogs - at the National for five shows only

Author: Stephen Sondheim (adapted from Aristophanes);

Opening Night: 7 Nov 2002

Closing: 15 Nov 2002

Kontakthof

Barbican Theatre,Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS

Box Office: 020 7638 8891              

Pina Bausch, world-renowned for her fusion of physical theatre and dance, returns to the Barbican with the first piece that she brought to London in 1982, Kontakthof. Bausch has re-devised this piece, however, for male and female performers of 65 and over. Using men and women from her hometown of Wuppertal, most of who have never performed before, she has created a piece that examines the resilience and frailty of the human condition.

Opening Night: 28 Nov 2002

Closing: 30 Nov 2002   

Afterplay

Gielgud, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6AR

Box Office: 0870 890 1105

John Hurt stars in Afterplay  John Hurt and Penelope Wilton star in the British Premiere of The Gate Theatre, Dublin production of Afterplay, a new play by Brian Friel, which will open for a limited season on Thursday September 19, at the Gielgud. Afterplay revisits the lives of Andrey Prozorov, the lackadaisical brother from Chekhov's The Three Sisters, and Sonya Serebriakova, from Uncle Vanya. It takes place 20 years on and is set in a run-down cafe in Moscow in the early 1920's.This production received its world premiere at The Gate Theatre in Dublin in March this year and had a critically acclaimed sell-out run.

It is directed by Robin Lefevre.

Opening Night: 19 Sep 2002

Booking Until: 1 Dec 2002   

Bright

Soho, 21 Dean Street, London, W1D 3NE

Box Office: 020 7478 0100

Clair is Bright. Too bright. She positively crackles with energy. She has a flat, a boyfriend, and a life until one night she loses it and finds herself sectioned to a psychiatric ward. Polly Wiseman’s new play explores the worryingly similar worlds of madness and hyper-intelligence.

Lyndsey Marshall, the Olivier award 2002 nominee for Best Supporting Actress, plays Clair.

Bright is presented alongside Playing Fields. Both plays were developed and written by writers on the Soho Young writers’ Programme, a yearlong workshop programme for aspiring writers aged 15-25.

Author: Polly Wiseman; Director: Paul Jepson;

Opening Night: 23 Oct 2002

Closing: 2 Nov 2002

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

Criterion, Piccadilly Circus, London, W1V 9LB 

Box Office: 020 7413 1437

The Reduced Shakespeare Company continues the West End run of its cult hit, which previously enjoyed countless outings at the Edinburgh Festival and a long stint at the Arts in 1992. The alternative RSC have edited the full Shakespeare canon into two hours, including all sixteen comedies distilled into just one short extract, with the history plays performed as a ball game. The show is now in its sixth year.

Author: Adam Long, Daniel Singer, Jess Winfield, with additional material by Reed Martin; Director: Adam Long;

Booking Until: 30 Mar 2003

Live from Golgotha

Drill Hall, 16 Chenies Street, London, WC1E 7ET 

Box Office: 020 7637 8270

A TV crew travel back in time to 'cover' the Crucifixion meanwhile, in the modern world, a computer hacker attempts to erase Christianity from the databanks of history.

Gore Vidal, American wit, man of letters and lifelong cynic, has written an outrageous and hilarious novel. Now it receives its incendiary stage premiere in an adaptation by Malcolm Sutherland.

Author: Gore Vidal; Adapted by: Malcolm Sutherland; Director: Malcolm Sutherland;

Opening Night: 10 Nov 2002

Closing: 1 Dec 2002

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN 

Box Office: 020 7863 8000

The Dance Theatre of Harlem returns to London after its Sadler's Wells premiere 14 years ago. Now celebrating its 33rd year, the Company's two programmes feature both classic favourites and recent works from the repertoire.  

Programme 1 features Twist, a dynamic ballet choreographed by Dwight Rhoden in tribute to Dance Theatre of Harlem's work in reinvigorating neoclassical ballet. New Bach explores Robert Garland's choreographic synthesis of classical technique and natural urban dance styles in three movements of Bach's Violin Concerto in A Minor. The Company also presents George Balanchine's The Four Temperaments, regarded as one of the greatest translations of music into dance.

Programme 2 traces the spiritual journey of the African Diaspora in music, song and dance. Celebrating the fusion of Indian and African cultures, Dougla traces the customs and traditions of the Dougla people in a spirited wedding to the choreography of Geoffrey Holder. Always an audience favourite, Robert Garland's Return pays tribute to the legendary music of James Brown and Aretha Franklin. This programme also features South Africa Suite, choreographed by Artistic Director Arthur Mitchell, Augustus Van Heerden and Laveen Naidu. Set to the music popularised by the Soweto String Quartet, the ballet characterises a playful and majestic style of movement inspired by Dance Theatre of Harlem's historic 1992 tour of South Africa.

Opening Night: 4 Nov 2002

Closing: 9 Nov 2002

The Maids

Barbican: The Pit Theatre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS 

Box Office: 020 7638 8891

Jean Genet’s play gets a radical dance makeover by Theaterhaus Stuttgart and choreographers Koffi Koko and Ismael Ivo. Using Middle-Eastern exoticism, African ritual and Brazilian carnival, the dance/theatre piece tells the story of two sister maids who, frustrated by and resentful of their lot in life, attempt to take revenge on their mistress and society. Another of Genet’s works, the short film Un Chant d’Amour, also provides inspiration for the setting of the piece – a prison – where the themes of dominance, humiliation, dependence and role-playing are intensified. Yoshi Oida, long-time collaborator with Peter Brook, directs.

The film “Un Chant d’Amour” will be shown in The Pit following the performance.

Author: Jean Genet; Director: Yoshi Oida; Choreographer: Koffi Koko and Ismael Ivo;  

Opening Night: 15 Oct 2002

Closing: 19 Oct 2002

Outlying Islands

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AS

Box Office: 020 7565 5000

In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, two young Cambridge ornithologists arrive on a remote, uninhabited Scottish island, sent by the Government to survey the island's birds. For Robert, it is the fulfilment of his dream to find the elusive Leach's Petrel - a bird that only makes landfall to breed on outlying islands. For John, it is a chance to learn from his talented mentor.

With them on the island are Kirk, the authoritarian leaseholder, and his niece Ellen, a young woman who dreams of the stars of silent comedy. Left alone, surrounded by the vast Atlantic, they are briefly drawn together before their innocence and youth is destroyed forever.  

OUTLYING ISLANDS is the fourth collaboration between David Greig and director Philip Howard after EUROPE (1994), THE ARCHITECT (1996) and THE SPECULATOR (1999). David Greig is also a founder member of Suspect Culture

(TIMELESS, MAINSTREAM, CASANOVA, LAMENT). His other work for theatre includes VICTORIA (RSC).  

Author: David Greig; Music by: Gavin Marwick; Director: Philip Howard; Lighting Designer: Chahine Yavroyan; Set Designer: Fiona Watt;

Cast Includes: Robert Carr, Lesley Hart, Sam Heughan, Laurence Mitchell

“Outlying Islands is wild, strange, fascinating and deeply unsettling” - The Guardian  

Opening Night: 10 Sep 2002

Closing: 28 Sep 2002

© 2002 Andrea Kapsaski

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