Rebecca Hall & Sinead Cusack Build Bridge Project???

Sinead Cusack and Rebecca Hall are lined up to join Simon Russell Beale in Sam Mendes’ 2009 pairing of The Cherry Orchard and A Winter’s Tale, according to the Daily Mail. The productions will be the first offerings from the Bridge Project (See News, 3 Apr 2007), a transatlantic venture forged between Mendes, the Old Vic and New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Rehearsals begin in October for an opening in New York in January and then at the Old Vic next summer, with some international stops in between.

The Bridge Project was originally due to launch this year with Mendes directing Stephen Dillane in Hamlet and The Tempest, but those productions were called off when Dillane withdrew due to family illness (See News, 20 Jul 2007). This summer’s programming gap at the Old Vic has been filled by the Theatre Royal Bath transfer of Pygmalion, coincidentally directed by Rebecca Hall’s father, Sir Peter Hall (See News, 2 Nov 2007).

Rebecca Hall made her stage debut in her father’s 2002 production of Mrs Warren’s Profession, which she followed with screen credits including Starter for 10, The Prestige and the upcoming adaptation of Frost/Nixon. Cusack was last seen on stage in Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll.