London
Marianne Elliott’s production of ”Death of a Salesman” confirmed to open at the venue
The Young Vic has announced its 2019 season, featuring Idris Elba, Marianne Elliott and a new revival of Blood Wedding.
Sharon D Clarke, Wendell Pierce and Arinzé Kene are to star in an upcoming revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, directed by Marianne Elliott.
Clarke has worked extensively on stage and screen, and was most recently been seen on screens in the new series of Doctor Who. She will star in the West End in the transfer of Caroline, or Change from November 2018 and her other recent stage credits include The Life.
Pierce makes his UK stage debut and in the US is known for his roles in The Wire and Suits. His stage work includes The Piano Lesson on Broadway and Cymbeline at the Public Theater in New York. Kene can currently be seen in the West End transfer of his play Misty which originally ran at the Bush Theatre.
Arthur Miller's iconic 1949 play follows the Loman family, headed up by Willy, who has been working as a salesman all his life. Running from 1 May to 29 June, the piece is a co-production between the Young Vic, Elliott and Harper and Cindy Tolan. Design will be by Anna Fleischle, light by Aideen Malone, sound by Carolyn Downing and casting by Charlotte Sutton.
Running from 29 July to 24 August will be Idris Elba and the venue's artistic director Kame Kwei-Armah's collaboration entitled Tree, a co-production with Manchester International Festival and Green Door Pictures.
Combining music, dance and film, the piece explores contemporary South Africa and uses Elba's Mi Mandela album as its soundtrack. Tree has Set and costume design by Jon Bausor, sound by Paul Arditti, video design by Duncan McLean, music supervisor and composer Michael 'Mikey J' Asante, choreographer Gregory Maqoma and casting by Pippa Ailion.
Yaël Farber will direct a new version of Federíco Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding, adapted by Marina Carr. The piece runs from 29 September to 2 November.
The Young Vic's associate director Nadia Latif will direct Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview in the main space from 28 November 2019 to 18 January 2020, following the piece's sell-out run in New York. The piece originally premiered in July 2018 at the Soho Rep.
Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born will collaborate on a part theatre, part dance and part visual art installation entitled Bronx Gothic in the Maria Studio from 1 to 29 June. The piece explores life growing up in the Bronx and what it means to be brown in a world that values whiteness.
Also running in the Maria Studio from 21 January to 2 February is Draw Me Close, created by playwright and filmmaker Jordan Tannahill, in association with the National Theatre and National Film Board of Canada. A VR play, the show is about a mother who has to cope with a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Luke Barnes has collaborated with HMP Wandsworth to present The Jumper Factory in the Maria Studio, a piece following eight inmates explaining how they survive life behind bars. Directed by Josh Parr, the show is staged by a cast of young men aged 18 to 25 whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system.
From 6 to 16 February, Genesis Future Directors Award-winner Lekan Lawal will direct April de Angelis' surreal play Wild East in the Clare Studio, while Genesis Future Directors Award winner Caitriona Shoobridge will direct Hattie Naylor's Ivan and Dogs from 10 to 20 July.