NYT Mounts London Season of Cymbeline at Arts

The Royal Shakespeare Company won’t be the only outfit bringing Shakespeare to the West End later this year. Ahead of the RSC’s Richard Wilson-led production of Twelfth Night in December (See News, 3 Sep 2009), the National Youth Theatre will mount a major new – clearly, youth-cast – production of Cymbeline, for a limited season from 12 to 24 October 2009 (previews from 8 October) at the Arts Theatre.

Brendan O’Hea directs the NYT production of the comedy, one of Shakespeare’s final plays. Imogen has secretly married her childhood friend and first love, Posthumus. Her furious father, the king, banishes the new groom, setting in motion a steadily darkening tale of betrayal, murder and a savage battle between the generations.

Cymbeline builds on NYT’s Shakespearean success last year when the company performed The Merchant of Venice at China’s National Theatre for the Beijing Cultural Olympiad. It also follows the NYT Six Pack season of new plays at Soho Theatre.

And, just ahead of the Arts, NYT will team up with Kneehigh Theatre for a new, site-specific piece FastBurn, in which a young business couple react to their own credit crunch. It runs free of charge at The Scoop by City Hall from 19-22 and 26-29 September, with performances at 8pm.