Donmar Revives Osborne & Premieres Marber's JulieDate: 22 April 2003
Michael Grandage has announced the next two productions in his first year as artistic director of London's Donmar Warehouse. Following revivals of Frenchman Albert Camus' Caligula and American Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures this summer, Grandage turns to British output in the autumn with a revival of a rarely performed drama by John Osborne and the premiere of a play by Patrick Marber.
Osborne's The Hotel in Amsterdam will run from 11 September to 15 November 2003 and will be directed by Robin Lefevre whose recent productions in the West End have included Afterplay with John Hurt and Penelope Wilton, The Homecoming with Ian Holm and Peggy for You with Maureen Lipman.
The Hotel in Amsterdam, which concerns three couples planning a secret weekend away, premiered at the Royal Court in 1968. One of the original "angry young men" of the 1950s and 60s, Osborne is best remembered for his seminal 1956 work Look Back in Anger. His other plays include The Entertainer and Luther.
The Hotel in Amsterdam will be followed by the stage premiere of [Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie, based on August Strindberg's 1888 clash of the classes stage classic Miss Julie, about a footman who seduces a count's daughter on the night of a midsummer festival. In Marber's piece, the drama is relocated from a Swedish estate to an English country house in July 1945 on the night of the British Labour Party's election victory.
A writer, director and actor, Marber's other stage plays include Closer, Dealer's Choice and Howard Katz. Written in 1995, After Miss Julie was directed by Marber himself for a BBC2 televised drama starring Kathy Burke, Phil Daniels and Geraldine Somerville. The premiere of the stage version will be directed by Michael Grandage and will run at the Donmar from 20 Novmeber 2003 to 7 February 2004.
Meanwhile, starting performances at the Donmar this week (24 April 2003) is Grandage's production of Caligula, with Michael Sheen playing the power-mad dictator. It continues to 14 June 2003 and is followed 20 June to 23 August 2003 by Sondheim's Pacific Overtures
Further casting and creatives for the autumn productions have not yet been announced. Public booking for both will open on 16 June 2003.
- by Terri Paddock
Related Content
