Theatre News

Tom Cruise in spotlight of The Yard's autumn season

”These are your lives.” by Alexander Rennie will explore the impact of celebrity culture

Award-winning venue The Yard in Hackney has announced its autumn season, which includes a new play by writer/director Alexander Rennie inspired by Tom Cruise's infamous antics on Oprah Winfrey's sofa.

The play, titled These are your lives., is billed as a "darkly comic piece" that will "deconstruct the veneer surrounding modern celebrity".

It utilises "a verbatim script courtesy of Tom Cruise" (pictured).

Running from 9 September to 4 October 2014, it was developed by Rennie at the Yard, where he has previously been an associate artist.

These are your lives. is followed by Swedish playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri's award-winning The Hundred We Are (14 October-8 November), translated by Frank Perry.

The play centres on a trio of women and is described as "a funny take on our deep desire to live a life that emulates a Hollywood film".

The production at The Yard will reunite Khemiri, Perry and director Jamie Harper, who previously collaborated on Invasion!.

The Yard's artistic director Jay Miller said today: "We're really thrilled to be hosting two shows that speak to each other about the challenge of retaining a coherent sense of who we are, in a world that is dominated by distractions.

"As The Yard continues to present work that explores how text is written and performed and the reception of that text by an audience, both shows will seek to marry the live event with new writing."

Currently at the venue, a converted warehouse in Hackney Wick that opened in 2011, the critically acclaimed Beyond Caring continues until 26 July.