Doll’s House & Three Sisters revived at Young Vic
The Young Vic has announced its summer/autumn 2012 season, which includes major revivals of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
The venue, which has not yet scheduled any performances during the Olympic period (27 July to 8 September 2012), will also stage Gbolahan Obisesan’s Fringe First-winning play Mad About the Boy in the Clare studio, and the premiere of Nathaniel Martello-White’s Blackta in the Maria.
Classics in the main house
Opening the season in the main house is Simon Stephens’ new version of Ibsen’s 1879 classic A Doll’s House, directed by Young Vic associate Carrie Cracknell and running from 9 to 26 July (previews from 29 June).
Nora’s world seems ideal: beautiful children, elegant home, adoring husband. But her life is shot through with lies and delusion. When the truth bursts into the open, Nora is shocked to discover how radically her life has to change.
Designed by Olivier and Tony Award-winner Ian MacNeil (Billy Elliot the Musical, Vernon God Little), the production marks a return to the Young Vic for Simon Stephens (Punk Rock, Harper Regan) following his version of Jon Fosse’s I Am the Wind, which ran at the venue in 2011.
A Doll’s House is followed in the main house by Chekhov’s Three Sisters, directed by Australian Benedict Andrews (The Return of Ulysses) and designed by Johannes Schütz.
Running from 13 September to 13 October (previews from 8 September), the production aims to “breathe fresh life” into the popular 1901 play, which centres on four siblings left stranded in a provincial backwater following the death of their father.
Prior to helming Three Sisters, director Andrews has a run of openings in London. He directs Cate Blanchett in Big and Little at the Barbican in April, followed by his Coliseum debut Caligula in May.
In the studios
Opening the new season in the smaller Clare Studio is Gbolahan Obisesan’s Mad About the Boy, running from 6 to 16 June.
Obisesan, who has previously worked at the Young Vic as a director (Sus), won a Fringe First for the play, which is directed by Iron Shoes’ Ria Parry, at Edinburgh last year.
Billed as a “lyrical and timely examination of what it means to be a man today”, Mad About the Boy tells the story of a teenage boy fighting to save his reputation, torn between the influence of his family, his friends and his school.
It will play at the Unicorn and the Bush before coming to the Young Vic.
In the Maria Studio, Young Vic artistic director David Lan will direct the premiere of Blackta, a new play by Nathaniel Martello-White.
Running from 26 October to 17 November, it’s a “biting and profound account of the highs and lows of trying to make it as a black actor – a ‘blackta’”.
Martello-White has previously worked as an actor, appearing in recent productions of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Brothers Size. He has also appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, City Madame, Marat/Sade (RSC), Innocence (Arcola) and Oxford Street (Royal Court).
Announcing the season, David Lan said: “After Hamlet and The Changeling, we’re presenting two more of my all-time favourites, amongst the greatest plays ever, alongside two strikingly bold new ones.”
