Vicki Mortimer News

Bristol Old Vic today announced a bold season for Autumn–Winter 2021/22. The programme includes new productions from brilliant talent, long-awaited new dates for world premieres and new ways to share those stories live and online.

Johann Sebastian Bach, irascible and turbulent, writes music of sensuous delight for his aristocratic patrons, and gives voice to his deep religious faith in music for the church.  He’s touchy, he’s fabulously rude, he has high standards (he stabs a bassoonist for playing badly) and he’s constantly in trouble with his employers. 

Joining Simon Russell Beale who will play Johann Sebastian Bach in the world premiere of Nina Raine's Bach & Sons are Samuel Blenkin as Carl, Pandora Colin as Maria Barbara, Ruth Lass as Katharina, Douggie McMeekin as Wilhelm, Racheal Ofori as Anna Magdalena and Pravessh Rana as Frederick the Great.

Simon Russell Beale will play JS Bach in the world premiere of Nina Raine's Bach & Sons, directed by Nicholas Hytner.  Performances at The Bridge are from 23 June – 9 September 2021 with opening night on 29 June 2021. 

For one year only, pantomime comes to the National Theatre. Jude Christian and Cariad Lloyd's hilarious and heartfelt version of Dick Whittington, first staged at Lyric Hammersmith in 2018 and freshly updated for 2020, will open in the socially distanced Olivier theatre on the 11 December.  

Award-winning scenic and costume designer Peter McKintosh was meant to be working on a production of 12 Angry Men at the Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon in Tokyo until Covid-19 hit. But with social distancing now in place, the show is going ahead, with McKintosh working his magic virtually instead.

We had a chat with lighting designer Neil Austin and playwright Chinonyerem Odimba to discuss the groundbreaking work done by Freelancers Make Theatre Work, an organisation that advocates for the rights of freelance workers in theatre. We learned their thoughts about the current artistic climate in the UK, where they see the industry going, and what so desperately needs to change.

We at #scenechange are launching an action to wrap our theatres in a positive message. Over this weekend, with the theatres' collaboration, we will wrap the buildings we love in our positive message tape #MissingLiveTheatre.

A group of leading Theatre Designers have formed #scenechange a?" a Community that brings designers together at a moment of great uncertainty for the theatre industry and its creative professionals, to join in conversation and explore how to navigate a way through this time.

Wise Children today announced The School for Wise Children's Summer Spread a?" offering a delicious array of theatrical courses delivered online by Emma Rice and her trusted team of collaborators. Guest tutors include Simon Baker, Nandi Bhebhe, Lez Brotherston, Tanika Gupta, Joel Horwood, Laura Keefe, Poppy Keeling, Nadine Lee and more.

After a hugely successful debut in 2018 at London's Old Vic Theatre and a subsequent UK tour, Emma Rice's highly theatrical adaptation of Angela Carter's Wise Children is a welcome and absurdist addition to the BBC's Culture in Quarantine series, filmed at York Theatre Royal in 2019.

The Visit plays on the Olivier Stage at The National Theatre. Based on the play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt adapted by Tony Kushner, original English version by Maurice Valency. Read the reviews!

Three years after the National's enthralling revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, the playwright returns with his new adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's tragicomic 1956 parable a?' which has also been turned into an Ingrid Bergman-starring film and a Kander and Ebb musical.

The Visit plays on the Olivier Stage at The National Theatre until 13 May.

In the town of Slurry, New York, post-war recession has bitten. Claire Zachanassian, improbably beautiful and impenetrably terrifying, returns to her hometown as the world's richest woman. The locals hope her arrival signals a change in their fortunes, but they soon realise that prosperity will only come at a terrible price.

In the town of Slurry, New York, post-war recession has bitten. Claire Zachanassian, improbably beautiful and impenetrably terrifying, returns to her hometown as the world's richest woman. The locals hope her arrival signals a change in their fortunes, but they soon realise that prosperity will only come at a terrible price.

David McVicar's compelling new production of Benjamin Britten's last opera is an extraordinary tour-de-force that takes you inside a troubled mind and leaves you as ill-at-ease as you might expect, but strangely uplifted too, the beauty present in even a dying world underlined and celebrated.

The National Theatre has announced its upcoming lineup for December 2019 - June 2020.

The 2019 UK Theatre Awards winners were revealed today (Sunday 27 October) in a lunchtime ceremony at London's Guildhall.

Jodie Prenger will host this year's UK Theatre Awards, which take place on Sunday 27 October at London's Guildhall. The Blackpool-born actor has spent 2019 touring the UK in a succession of hit productions including Abigail's Party and Annie, and is currently starring in the tour of the National Theatre's production of A Taste Of Honey, which transfers to the West End in December.