Theatre News

Gate Stages Wedekind’s Lulu & Goes Outdoors

The new season at the Gate Theatre will feature eight shows including Anna Ledwich’s  new staging of Wedekind’s Lulu; the world premiere of Lorrie Moore’s How to be An Other Woman adapted and directed by Natalie Abrahami; and award-winning comedian Tom Basden’s radical reworking of Kafka’s The Trial directed by Lyndsey Turner.

It will also see the launch of Gate Outdoors, a summer festival of contemporary theatre taking place across London.

The summer season kicks off with Spring Awakening author Frank Wedekind’s provocative play Lulu, in a new version adapted and directed by Anna Ledwich (16 June to 10 July 2010, previews from 10 June).

The story follows the fortunes and ultimate tragedy of a young woman, a femme-fatale, who skips from one husband to the next, leaving a trail of broken hearts and broken bodies in her wake. Sinead Matthews (Eigengrau, Our Class, The Wild Duck) stars in the title role.

It’s followed by the inaugural Gate Outdoors season, which will see plays performed in locations including a cafe on Portobello Road (Ant Hampton & Silvia Mercuriali’s Etiquette), Holland Park Gardens (David Leddy’s Susurrus) and the Square Outside the National Theatre (Domini Public by Roger Bernat).

Running from 19 July to 1 August, the short season culminates with The Knowledge Emporium, a collaboration with Slung Low comprising a walk-about round the streets of Notting Hill.

Programming at the Gate’s Notting Hill base continues from 2 September
to 2 October 2010 (previews from 25 August) with the world premiere of
Natalie Abrahami‘s new adaption of Lorrie Moore’s short story How to be An Other Woman.

And rounding off the season is Joseph K, adapted by writer and comedian Tom Basden (Party) from Franz Kafka’s The Trial. Gate associate Lyndsey Turner (Posh) returns to direct following her production of Nocturnal at the Gate last year.