OJO Moves African Macbeth to Wilton’s Music HallDate: 18 November 2004
Out of Joint’s Africa-set promenade production of Macbeth will return for a second month-long London season in the new year, running at Wilton’s Musical Hall from 6 January to 5 February 2005 (See News, 23 Jul 2004).
Directed by Out of Joint artistic director Max Stafford-Clark as part of the company’s tenth anniversary celebrations, the production has just completed a two-month UK tour, during which it visited numerous non-theatrical venues including mills, factories and scenery workshops. It also ran for four weeks at London’s Arcola Theatre. As part of this Macbeth - designed by Es Devlin – audiences are led through a modern Africa-inspired warzone.
The majority of the 15-strong cast will reprise their roles at Wilton’s, including Danny Sapani (His Dark Materials at the National, Julius Caesar at the Globe) as Macbeth and Monica Dolan (She Stoops to Conquer, A Laughing Matter for OJO and the National) as Lady Macbeth. They’ll be joined by child performers from the local area.
Ticket pricing for the new Wilton’s dates will be sold under an “airline-style” booking system. Those booking earliest for each performance can buy from an allocation costing just £10 per tickets, after which prices rise to £20, £25 and £30.
Stafford-Clark explains the rationale for the pricing: “This production combines promenade elements with unreserved seating, so all tickets offer an equally good experience. But it’s important that we can be as financially accessible as possible. This system seems an excellent way of meeting our costs while still offering low-price tickets, even to those who do not normally benefit from concessions.”
Built by pub owner John Wilton in 1858 as an extension of his drinking house, Wilton's Music Hall is the world's oldest surviving extant music hall. It was closed in the 1880s and later became a Methodist church and then a rag warehouse. Once condemned, it was saved by the intervention of Sir Laurence Olivier, Peter Sellers and Sir John Betjeman. The building re-opened for performances in 1999 after temporary repair. Still only partially restored, last year the building reached the final of BBC1’s Restoration programme (See News, 11 Sep 2003).
- by Terri Paddock
