Old Vic Tunnels Scorched by Mouawad Premiere

The UK premiere of Scorched, a play by Lebanese-Canadian Wajdi Mouawad, will be the next full-scale play showcased in the Old Vic Tunnels at Waterloo Station. The Dialogue production, which runs from 6 September to 2 October 2010 (previews from 3 September) follows Delirium’s Nation and HighTide’s Ditch in the found space, acquired and christened by the Old Vic in February.

Scorched follows the journey of twins Simon and Janine. A visit to a family solicitor after their mother’s death leads them deep into her previous life in the Middle East. Mouawad, a Lebanese-Canadian, fled Lebanon at the outbreak of civil war and uses his own experiences as a basis for his work: Scorched was inspired by a bus attack Mouawad witnessed before his departure.

Written in French, Mouawad’s plays have gained him an international reputation. Based in Canada, he is artistic director of French theatre at the National Theatre and is the winner of numerous awards such as the Grand Prix de la Francophonie and the Grand Prix du Theatre.

Dialogue Productions is committed to bringing international theatre to the UK. The production is directed by Dialogue artistic director Patricia Benecke and designed by Naomi Dawson, with lighting by Chahine Yavroyan, music by Nikola Kodjabashia and translation by Simon Scardifield. The production is funded by the Edmund de Rothschild Foundations and Badf Jafar.

The Old Vic announced its acquisition of the previously disused railway tunnels in February, creating a new, non-profit performance space for a series of at least four shows and art installations this year. The space was first unveiled in May 2009 in a collaboration between the Old Vic and site-specific specialists Punchdrunk.

That inaugural show, simply called Tunnel 228 after British Rail’s name for the space, took over the disused vaults for 15 days, with 15,000 free tickets snapped up within hours of being announced. The 2010 Tunnels season, with show runs typically between two to five weeks, will culminate with an Old Vic New Voices community production entitled Platform, which will see 100 Londoners devising a new piece of theatre specifically for the space.

Waterloo Station is now playing host to theatrical endeavours both above and below ground, The Railway Children began its run in the old Eurostar terminal in July.

– by Lydia Onyett & Terri Paddock