New autumn/winter 2018 season announced at The Old Vic
A new season has been announced at The Old Vic which is set to feature a new play by Lucy Prebble about Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, and Emma Rice's first production with her new company.
Following the world premiere of Sylvia, which is about the Suffragette movement, choreographer Annie-B Parson will bring her multi-media production 17c . The piece is about Samuel Pepys, a 17th century Member of Parliament whose diary provides historians with valuable first-hand accounts of events such as the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Produced by Dance Umbrella, it will run from 26th September.
Emma Rice will then direct her adaptation of Wise Children, Angela Carter's 1991 novel which is about two chorus girls and their showbiz family. It is the first production Rice has produced with her new company, which is also called Wise Children, since she left her post as artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe. It runs at The Old Vic from 8th October.
Jack Thorne's production of A Christmas Carol returns to the theatre for the festive period, with Stephen Tompkinson taking over the reins from Rhys Ifans as Ebenezer Scrooge. Matthew Warchus' production premiered at the theatre last Christmas to positive reviews, and will be revived from 27th November.
It has also been announced that in 2019, A Very Expensive Poison, which chronicles the events leading to the death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, will get its world premiere. Lucy Prebble has adapted Luke Harding's book which exposed the truth behind the death of the spy in London in 2006. Dates and casting are yet to be announced.
Currently at The Old Vic, Ben Chaplin stars in Mood Music, which is about a legal battle over the rights to an artist's music. This is followed up by Andrew Scott in Sea Wall, Sally Cookson's production of A Monster Calls, and Sylvia, which stars Beverley Knight as Emmeline Pankhurst.
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