Theatre News

Opening: Kursk, Bedroom Farce, Williams’ Trigorin

29 March 2010

Amongst the major London openings – in the West End and further afield – this week are:

OPENING TONIGHT, 29 March 2010 (previews from 26 March), Bryony Lavery’s Whatsonstage.com Award-nominated Kursk returns to the Young Vic, following its acclaimed run in 2009 and subsequent transfer to the Edinburgh Fringe. Staged by pioneering theatre company Sound&Fury, it’s an immersive theatrical experience inspired by the Russian submarine disaster of August 2000.

ALSO TONIGHT, theatre company Rogues Gallery present their monthly new writing night Rogue Writers at the Canal Cafe Theatre, promising “an informal, exciting, and inspiring evening of new work” as extracts from four new plays are performed.

OPENING TUESDAY, 30 March 2010 (previews from 24 March), Alan Ayckbourn‘s Bedroom Farce returns to the West End as Peter Hall’s revival, first seen last autumn at the Rose Kingston, transfers to the Duke of York’s (See News, 9 Mar 2010). The 1975 comedy centres on four couples who are at different stages in their relationships and whose lives intersect over the course of one very chaotic evening across three bedrooms.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 31 March 2010 (previews from 29 March), Inspector Sands return to the BAC with If That’s All There Is, a “mini epic of longing, envy, disappointment and psychobabble”. Inspired by the Peggy Lee song and seen through the eyes of a jaded therapist and an awkward teenage girl, the play focuses on the increasing panic of a couple who are about to get married. Until 10 April.

OPENING THURSDAY, 1 April 2010 (previews from 30 March), Mark Ravenhill‘s acclaimed collection of short plays Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat runs in rep with Phillip Whiteman’s new 7/7 play Eschara at the Union Theatre. Until 24 April.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 30 March), Galleon Theatre Company celebrates its 20th anniversary with a revival of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at Greenwich Playhouse, where it continues until 25 April.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 30 March), The Notebook of Trigorin, Tennessee Williams’ free adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, receives its London premiere at the Finborough Theatre, directed by former artistic director Phil Willmott. Boasting a callously bisexual Trigorin, a particularly ferocious Arkadina and an especially long suffering Constantine, Williams’ version is an intensely personal response to The Seagull that “has more to say about the highs and lows of a lifetime in American Theatre than 19th Century Russia”.