£5 First Previews Lottery with TodayTix

We are very excited to introduce £5 First Previews alongside Kwame Kwei-Armah’s first YV season. All first previews of Main House productions will be sold at just £5 via a TodayTix lottery, starting with the first show of the season: Twelfth Night.

You will be able to enter the £5 First Preview Lottery for one week until noon the day prior to the first preview performance of each production (don’t worry, we’ll remind you).

Priority Booking is now open for all shows. Public booking opens from 10am on Monday 23 April.

Find out more about all the shows in the new season by heading over to youngvic.org.

Just announced: A Midsummer Night’s Dream + See Me Now

We have just announced 2 exciting new shows for 2017! Joe Hill-Gibbins returns to the Young Vic with a dark production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream designed by Johannes Schütz. And See Me Now shares the true stories of sex workers – a collaboration between Young Vic, Look Left Look Right and HighTide.   

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (17 Feb – 1 Apr 2017) 

Joe Hill-Gibbins returns to the Young Vic with a thrillingly nightmarish take on Shakespeare’s Dream.

The dark heart of Titania and Oberon’s domain is explored as Joe Hill-Gibbins returns to the Young Vic’s Main House stage with a bold new production. In a world of grotesque transformations and sexual provocation, repressed conflicts between young lovers and their parents are released. There’s no magic in this place – manipulation leads to complications and desire becomes dangerous.

Design and light for A Midsummer Night’s Dream is by Johannes Schütz, with costumes by Michaela Barth, sound by Paul Arditti, movement by Jenny Ogilvie and dramaturgy by Zoë Svendsen.

Joe Hill-Gibbins follows his Measure for Measure with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other credits at the Young Vic include: The Changeling (The Maria , Main House), The Glass Menagerie, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and A Respectable Wedding.  Joe was Genesis Fellow at the Young Vic between 2010 and 2012. Other theatre credits include: Little Revolution (Almeida); Edward II (National Theatre); The Village Bike (Royal Court); and The Girlfriend Experience (Young Vic and Royal Court / Drum Theatre Plymouth). His opera credits include Powder Her Face (ENO).

Internationally acclaimed set designer Johannes Schütz returns to the Young Vic theatre after Three Sisters in 2012. His other theatre credits include: The Merchant of Venice (Royal Shakespeare Theatre), Big and Small (Barbican); On the Chimborazo (Münich Kammerspiele); Mama and the Whore (Schauspielhaus Bochum); Katherine of Heilbronn, Summer Folk (Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, In the Greifswald Street (Deutsches Theater Berlin); Schiff Der Träume, Hysteria and Macbeth (Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus). Johannes also worked on numerous productions for the Salzburg Festival and Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris. His publications include: Stages 2000-2007 and Johannes Schütz: Models & Interviews 2002-2015. His opera credits include: Orpheus and Eurydice and Ariadne on Naxos, works by Brecht and Schiller in Bochum and Mainz.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare runs 17 February – 1 April 2017 in the Young Vic’s Main House. It is directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins with design and light by Johannes Schütz, costumes by Michaela Barth, sound by Paul Arditti, movement by Jenny Ogilvie and dramaturgy by Zoë Svendsen.

 

See Me Now (11 Feb – 4 Mar 2017) 

Photo by Damien Frost 

A new Young Vic, Look Left Look Right and HighTide co-production, See Me Now is created and performed by those who have been, or currently are sex workers.

Based on workshops and testimony given by the performers, writer Molly Taylor weaves together a series of moving and funny true stories in a production directed by Mimi Poskitt.

Neither victims nor villains but everything in between, See Me Now challenges the stereotypes and stigma around sex workers and celebrates the group of male, female and transgender performers who share their stories on stage.

Director Mimi Poskitt said: “Sex workers are one of the most marginalised groups in the world. This project was born out of wanting to work with and understand more about who sex workers are. The industry is multi-faceted, often invisible, yet shrouded in controversy. Over the past year we have been fortunate enough to work with an awesome group of performers who have shared their own deeply personal histories. They are writers, teachers, musicians, cleaners, parents; they work in IT, in public services. By no means definitive, what they are creating reflects a kaleidoscope of life experiences; some touching, some tough, some hilarious.”

A version of See Me Now was originally performed as part of The Brolly Project in August 2015, a Young Vic Taking Part project. The team worked closely with outreach projects across London to find a company of participants who have, or do work in the sex industry. The aim was to make an original performance created by the company, formed by whatever they chose to share. A reading of The Brolly Project took place in September as part of the 2016 HighTide Festival.

Molly Taylor is a writer and theatre-maker and an Associate of Look Left Look Right. Her other theatre credits include: The Neighbourhood Project (The Bush Theatre), What We Talk About When We Talk About Food (commissioned by the Wellcome Trust), My Desert Island (Old Vic New Voices) and Make We Waka (Lagos Theatre Festival/British Council). Molly developed her writing practice when on attachment at the National Theatre of Scotland; her one-woman play Love Letters to the Public Transport System had a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012 and has since been performed at the Royal Court and internationally.

Mimi Poskitt is the Founder and Artistic Director of Look Left Look Right. Her directing credits in theatre include work at the Royal Court, Roundhouse, Lyric Hammersmith, Covent Garden, Coney and the Old Vic New Voices. In addition, Mimi’s work has toured across the UK and worldwide including Sri Lanka, Australia and Nigeria. As an Assistant Producer for ITV and the BBC, she won a Royal Television Society Award for a documentary about 9/11 and was nominated for The Hospital Club’s h.Club 100, which recognises the most innovative and influential people in the British creative and media industries.

See Me Now created by Mimi Poskitt, Molly Taylor and the company and directed by Mimi Poskitt runs in the Young Vic’s Maria theatre 11 February – 4 March 2017. Sound is by Emma Laxton with music composed by Tom Parkinson.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Wednesday 28 September at 10am. You can become a friend and book today at www.youngvic.org

JUST ANNOUNCED | Four new shows for 2016 + casting for Blue/Orange

2016 looks set to be an exciting year at the YV. We’ve just announced 4 new shows; A Man of Good Hope, Once in a Lifetime, The Emperor and The Nest. That’s not all, we’ve also announced casting for Blue/Orange. Some of the world’s most extraordinary writers, actors and directors join forces to tell incredible stories as we journey from South Africa to Hollywood and beyond.

Take a look below for more on our exciting lineup. It’s a big world in here – and it’s yours.

The Emperor
3 – 24 Sept

Kathryn Hunter, Walter Meierjohann and Colin Teevan reunite following their critical and popular hit Kafka’s Monkey for this world premiere production.

“His majesty knew that a joke was a dangerous form of opposition.”

Master of transformation Kathryn Hunter brings to life an extraordinary fable of corruption, avarice and the collapse of absolute power.
A world premiere based on the astonishing book by legendary journalist Ryszard Kapuściński, from the team that brought you Kafka’s Monkey. Hunter creates a mesmerising cast of characters, all servants to an autocratic ruler on the brink of downfall. In a kingdom obsessed with title and tradition, the lowly and the loyal have incredible stories to tell.

Buy tickets / More info

A Man of Good Hope
6 Oct – 12 Nov

Critically acclaimed South African company Isango Ensemble return to the Young Vic for the UK premiere of a gripping tale of survival, based on the book by Jonny Steinberg.

The true story of one refugee’s epic quest across Africa, brought to life with music from the world-renowned Isango Ensemble.
Asad is a young Somali refugee with a painful past, miraculously good luck and a brilliant head for business. After years in a refugee camp and then learning to hustle in the streets of Ethiopia, he sets off for the promised land of South Africa. But when he arrives, he discovers the violent reality of life in the townships – and his adventures really begin.
This adaptation of Jonny Steinberg’s riveting book is told through roof-lifting songs and dance accompanied on the marimba.

A collaboration with the Royal Opera House.

Buy tickets / More info

The Nest
28 Oct – 26 Nov

Ian Rickson returns to the Young Vic with Conor McPherson’s new translation of The Nest by Franz Xaver Kroetz.

Parents-to-be Kurt and Martha just want the best for their baby. They’re not afraid of hard work – the latest buggy doesn’t come cheap. But when Kurt’s boss offers him a chance to make some easy money with a mysterious side job, his rashness catches up with him.
Conor McPherson has written a powerful new version of the German classic.
A fable about the moral and environmental cost of our materialistic nesting instincts, directed by Ian Rickson.

Buy tickets / More info

Once in a Lifetime
25 Nov – 14 Jan

Olivier Award-winning Richard Jones returns to the Young Vic to direct Christopher Hart’s adaptation of Kaufman and Hart’s classic Hollywood comedy.

Hollywood, 1930. The first-ever talking motion picture is a smash hit. Suddenly every actor needs a voice. Three New Yorkers head west to open an elocution school. But in a city heaving with clueless ingénues, all-powerful studio moguls and neurotic screenwriters, success is trickier than it sounds. Misadventures abound. Our three heroes vie to become the next big thing in Tinsel Town.

Buy tickets / More info

Blue/Orange
12 May – 25 Jun

Daniel Kaluuya (Black Mirror, Sucker Punch) and Luke Norris (Poldark, A View from the Bridge) are set to appear in Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange in a new production by director Matthew Xia. You might remember Luke for his incredible performance as Rodolpho in A View from the Bridge (Young Vic and West End) and Daniel from his brutal portrayal of Mobutu Sese Seko in A Season in the Congo.

Christopher has been confined to a psychiatric ward for a month. He wants out. The problem is he still thinks oranges are blue. His doctor, convinced he needs help, wants to section him. The senior consultant thinks it’s all a question of culture: at home in Shepherd’s Bush Christopher will be amongst ‘people who think just like him’. And besides, it costs taxpayer money to keep Christopher in care.
Race, ethics, sanity and prejudice collide in Joe Penhall’s exquisitely sharp ‘state of the nation’ classic. Matthew Xia directs this Olivier Award-winning play, as timely now as it ever was.

Buy tickets / More info

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For more info and to book tickets, click here. Take a look at our 2016 Season Brochure here.

JUST ANNOUNCED | 2016 Genesis Future Directors Award Winners

2016 Genesis Future Directors Award winners Ola Ince will direct Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman (6 – 16 April 2016) and Bryony Shanahan will direct trade by debbie tucker green (16 – 26 November 2016). Tickets go on sale today.

Dutchman by Amiri Baraka
6 – 16 April

Lula and Clay meet on the subway on an oppressively hot New York day. Flirtation and conversation quickly turn to violent attraction. As the train ride comes to an explosive end, who will make it out unscathed?

Dutchman exposes the traumatic black experience and the reality of modern race relations. Amiri Baraka’s cry of rage, written in 1964, is as crucial today as when it was first performed to critical acclaim off Broadway.

Genesis Future Directors Award recipient Ola Ince directs Amiri Baraka’s famously provocative intervention in the debate on race. Get to know Ola and take a look at her biography below.

For more info and to book tickets: www.youngvic.org/whats-on/dutchman

trade by debbie tucker green
16 – 26 Nov

Sex, money and power.  For some women, financial freedom come at a painful price.

Worlds collide at an idyllic Caribbean resort as three very different women unravel the lies that bind them together in the name of fair trade.

debbie tucker green’s darkly humorous play about the costs of sex is directed by Bryony Shanahan, winner of a 2016 Genesis Future Directors Award. Take a look at her biography below.

For more info and to book tickets: www.youngvic.org/whats-on/trade

Ola Ince first worked at the Young Vic in 2012 on One Million Tiny Plays About Britain and subsequently as Boris Karloff Assistant Director to Sacha Wares on Wild Swans. She is currently Resident Associate Director at the Lyric Hammersmith. Her work as a director includes: Rachel, The Soft of Her Palm (Finborough) and Games (Pleasance). As an associate and assistant director credits include: Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Hammersmith & Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh); Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith); Fog (UK Tour), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Dara, A Taste of Honey (National Theatre); Porgy & Bess (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Josephine & I (Bush Theatre).

Bryony Shanahan directs at the Young Vic for the first time. She is co-artistic director of Snuff Box Theatre and in 2014 she won a BBC Performing Arts Award to work at the Royal Exchange, where she assisted on Sarah Frankcom’s Hamlet with Maxine Peake. Other directing credits include: Weald (2016, Finborough Theatre); Operation Crucible (Finborough Theatre & UK tour); Boys Will Be Boys (Women Centre Stage, National Theatre); Bitch Boxer (Soho Theatre, national tour & Adelaide Fringe Festival) and Chapel Street (national tour). As an assistant and associate director, her credits include: The Skriker (Manchester International Festival, Royal Exchange), Our Country’s Good (National Theatre; as staff director) and Around The World In 80 Days (New Vic Theatre/Royal Exchange Theatre). In 2015, Bryony won the BBC Alumni Award.

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Amiri Baraka was a poet, playwright and political activist. Born Everett LeRoi Jones, he changed his name multiple times during his lifetime finally settling on Amiri Baraka.  These changes in identity reflect his shifting political beliefs from his involvement in the Beat movement to Black Nationalism and a conversion to Marxism. Over six decades Baraka established himself as a strong literary voice and a powerful orator. His published work, which encompasses poetry, plays and short stories includes: The Dead Lecturer, Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, 1961-1995, Blues People: Negro Music in White America, Black Magic and Dutchman, which was first performed off-Broadway in 1964, and won the Village Voice Obie Award in the same year.

debbie tucker green is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director. Her work returns to the Young Vic following dirty butterfly in 2014 and generations in 2007. Stage works include: hang, truth and reconciliation, random, stoning mary (Royal Court); trade (RSC/RSC at Soho); born bad (Hampstead) for which she won an Olivier Award in 2004 and then an OBIE award for the play’s Soho Rep production in 2011, and nut (National Theatre). TV and film credits include random, which won a BAFTA for Best Single Drama in 2012 and MVSA Award for Best UK Film in 2011 and second coming, which won the 2015 International Film Festival Rotterdam Big Screen Award and is also BAFTA nominated.

GENESIS FOUNDATION
Established in 2012, the Genesis Future Directors Award was created to nurture emerging directors by providing them with an opportunity to explore and develop their craft while creating their first fully resourced production at the Young Vic, recognised for its engagement with young directors. The Award will provide Ola Ince and Bryony Shanahan with mentoring and support from the theatre’s unique creative network, which includes Artistic Director David Lan, Genesis Fellow Gbolahan Obisesan, Lead Producer Daisy Heath and Associate Artistic Director Sue Emmas.
www.genesisfoundation.org.uk

JUST ANNOUNCED | YV 2016 Season

We’ve just announced new shows for 2016! Two world premieres, award-winning new writing and the world’s greatest directors come to the Young Vic in 2016. 

Jane Horrocks celebrates the music of her youth in If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me featuring the music of ‘new wave’ artists, choreographed and directed by Aletta Collins (10 March – 16 April). We’ve also got a new production of Joe Penhall’s award-winning Blue/Orange directed by Matthew Xia (12 May – 18 June). Simon Stone writes and directs a new version of Lorca’s Yerma (29 July – 10 September) in his first original work in the UK. We then have Cuttin’ It, a double award-winning play by Charlene James focusing on female genital mutilation, directed by Gbolahan Obisesan in the Maria studio (20 May – 11 June).

Take a look below for more on our exciting lineup. It’s a big world in here – and it’s yours.

IF YOU KISS ME, KISS ME

Jane Horrocks stars in this world premiere of a show unlike any you’ve seen.

Part gig, part dance piece, at its heart nation’s favourite Jane Horrocks sings her own gritty and soulful versions of the new wave music she grew up with in the Northwest.

With gorgeously evocative choreography by director Aletta Collins, a company of brilliant dancers and a fabulous live band, If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me follows a woman’s life through desire, love, motherhood and loss.

An unforgettable evening at the theatre with the energy of the best night out you’ve ever had.

Buy tickets / More info

BLUE/ORANGE

Christopher has been confined to a psychiatric ward for a month.  He wants out.  The problem is he still thinks oranges are blue.

His doctor, convinced he needs help, wants to section him.  The senior consultant thinks it’s all a question of culture: at home in Shepherd’s Bush Christopher will be amongst ‘people who think just like him’.  And besides, it costs taxpayer money to keep Christopher in care.

Race, ethics, sanity and prejudice collide in Joe Penhall’s exquisitely sharp state of the nation classic. Matthew Xia directs this Olivier Award-winning play, as timely now as it ever was.

Buy tickets / More info

CUTTIN’ IT

‘We’re opposites, even though we came from the same, she’s nuttin like me, an that shames me.’

Teenagers Muna and Iqra get the same bus to school but they’ve never really spoken. Muna wears TopShop and sits on the top deck gossiping about Nicki Minaj’s latest beef, while Iqra sits alone downstairs in her charity shop hand-me-downs.

They were both born in Somalia but come from different worlds. But as they get closer, they realise that their families share a painful secret.

Tackling the urgent issue of FGM in Britain, Charlene James’ devastating new play reveals the price some girls pay to become a woman.

Winner of the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and the Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Play.

Buy tickets / More info

YERMA

The enfant terrible of Australian theatre creates his first original work for the UK.

Simon Stone’s version of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck was a sensation at the Barbican last year. Now he writes and directs a new version of Federico Garcia Lorca’s masterpiece Yerma.

This achingly painful story of a young woman desperate to become a mother expresses the anguish of a society battling to free itself from its past.  Simon Stone’s new version re-imagines Lorca’s original for London today.

Buy tickets / More info

That’s not all. We’ve also added more performances to the YV run of Carrie Cracknell & Lucy Guerin’s Macbeth (now 26 Nov – 23 Jan 16). A Girl is a Half-formed Thing also extends its run from 17 February to 26 March.
Previously announced and just as exciting, Olivier Award winning Bull by Mike Bartlett returns to the YV on 11 December – 9 January. Peter Brook and Marie-Helene Estienne’s Battlefield from 3 to 27 February. Across the pond, the Young Vic’s acclaimed productions of A View from the Bridge opens on Broadway on 21 Oct and runs until 21 Feb 16  followed by A Streetcar Named Desire at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York from 23 Apr until 22 May 16.
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Become a Friend now and get priority booking from today. Public booking opens Wednesday 7 October at 10am.
Take a look at our 2016 Season Brochure here.

Just announced: Battlefield, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing + the return of Bull

We’ve just announced 3 exciting shows! The first show of 2016 will be Battlefield, a new work directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne, inspired by Brook’s legendary production of The Mahabharata. In the Maria studio, Annie Ryan’s acclaimed ★★★★★ stage adaptation of Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing will have its London premiere following a run at this year’s Edinburgh Festival. We’re also very pleased to welcome back the Olivier Award-winning Bull this December.

Battlefield (3 – 27 Feb 16)

Destruction never approaches weapon in hand. It comes slyly, on tiptoe, making you see bad in good and good in bad.

The internationally renowned team of Peter Brook, Marie-Hélène Estienne and Jean-Claude Carrière together revisit the great Indian epic The Mahabharata 30 years after Brook’s legendary production took world theatre by storm.

The devastation of war isteaing the Bharata family apart. The new king must unravel a mystery: how can he live with himself in the face of the devastation and massacres that he has caused.

An immense canvas in miniature, this central section of the ancient text is timeless and contemporary, asking how we can find inner peace in a world riven with conflict.

This powerful story, touching on our search for reason in a fractured world, is performed by Carole Karemera (Sometimes in April), Jared McNeill (The Valley of Astonishment), Ery Nzaramba (The Suit) and Sean O’Callaghan (Beyond Caring).

Battlefield based on The Mahabharata is by Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carrière and Marie-Hélène Estienne. It is directed by Peter Brook and Marie- Hélène Estienne. Music is by Toshi Tsuchitori and light is by Philippe Vialatte. 

A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (17 Feb – 19 Mar 16)

A fearless, unflinching portrait of one girl’s turbulent journey into an adult world.

Fraught family relationships, dangerous intimate liaisons and dark moments of exploitation form a fascinating, fast-paced ride through a complex mind.

Aoife Duffin reprises her her celebrated performance in Annie Ryan’s spellbinding adaptation of Eimear McBride’s best-selling novel. This London premiere follows the show’s triumphant opening at the Dublin Theatre Festival and a sold out season at the 2015 Norfolk and Norwich Festival.

Music and sound for the production is by Mel Mercier. Design is by Lian Bell with light by Sinéad Wallace and costume design by Katie Crowley.

A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, adapted and directed by Annie Ryan is produced by The Corn Exchange and Young Vic in association with Cusack Projects Limited.

Bull (11 Dec 15 – 9 Jan 16)

Mike Bartlett’s Olivier award-winning play returns to the Young Vic for a limited run following rave reviews and audience acclaim last year.

“Brilliant, unflinching and very funny” (Financial Times), Bull is a razor-sharp play that walks the fine line between office politics and playground bullying. Bull offers ringside seats as three employees fight to keep their jobs.

Don’t miss your chance to see this daring production the second time around.

Bull by Mike Bartlett is produced by Supporting Wall and Young Vic. It was originally produced by Sheffield Theatres.
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Tickets go on sale to the public on Wednesday 5 August at 10am. Book now: www.youngvic.org