No. 468 - October 2009 Emeritus Life President: President: Vice President: Price 50p when sold Dr Wendy Toye CBE Simon Russell Beale CBE Nickolas Grace Academy of Music (BAM) and Neal Street NEWS from The Old Vic Productions. Embarking on an international tour through Asia The start of our sixth season here at The Old Vic and Europe, The launches with Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Bridge Project will Lee’s gripping courtroom drama Inherit the be a rri ving i n Wind. Kevin Spacey’s eagerly awaited return London at The Old to the Old Vic stage sees him play infamous Vic at the start of defence lawyer Henry Drummond. Playing summer. The new opposite him as prosecution attorney is David cast is led by Troughton - a well known stage and screen Christian Camargo, actor. With a cast of over forty and the Stephen Dillane, leadership of award- Anne-Marie Duff, Sam Mendes with Kevin Spacey winning Director, Trevor and Juliet Rylance Nunn, this promises to be who will perform a double-bill pairing of a remarkable opening to Shakespeare’s The Tempest and As You Like It. our new season. Previews start on 18th September The 24 Hour Plays Gala returns to The Old Vic and, with no Monday on Sunday 1 November for the sixth year performances, will run running. 40 internationally renowned actors, from Tuesdays to Sundays. directors and writers join forces to test their talents to the limit and create six short plays in January 2010 brings John Guare’s adrenalin- just 24 hours. Past participants have included; fuelled, Olivier award-winning play Six Degrees Gael Garcia Bernal, Jim Broadbent, Josh of Separation. Directed by David Grindley this is Hartnett, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Joseph Fiennes, a sharp, vivacious take on two worlds colliding. Rosamund Pike, Brooke Shields, Vince Vaughan Inspired by the real life story of a flamboyant and Catherine Tate. The 24 Hour Plays Celebrity con artist who managed to convince wealthy Gala is the principal annual fund-raising event residents of Manhattan’s Upper East Side he in support of Old Vic New Voices. This was the son of Sidney Poitier, the play department is dedicated to working with young originally debuted on Broadway in 1990. In people, developing emerging talent and 1993, it was adapted as a film starring Stockard building new audiences. The Old Vic receives no Channing (reprising her Broadway role), government subsidy so the Gala and other fund- Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. This raising events are vital to ensure this ongoing production will be the first major London work. revival of the play in almost 18 years. To keep up-to-date with news and information Summer 2010 brings the second season of The for all productions at The Old Vic you can join Bridge Project. Following a critically acclaimed our e-subscribers list by visiting inaugural year, Sam Mendes will once again www.oldvictheatre.com or become a fan on direct a transatlantic company of actors for the our new facebook page by searching ‘The Old second in a unique three-year series of co- Vic Theatre’. productions between The Old Vic, Brooklyn Founded in 1923 by The Vic-Wells Association LILIAN BAYLIS CH., M.A. (Oxon) Hon., LL.D. (Birm) Hon. The OLD VIC, Waterloo Road, London SE1 8NB Incorporating The Old Vic Association, SADLER’S WELLS, Rosebery Avenue, London EC1R 4TN The Old Vic Circle, The Old Vic Club, (also at the PEACOCK THEATRE, Portugal Street, Sadler’s Wells Society, Sadler’s Wells Circle Kingsway, London WC2A 2HT) Welcome to our new President SIMON RUSSELL BEALE CBE Simon Russell Beale in The Cherry Orchard Photo: Joan Marcus We are honoured and delighted that Simon Shaw’s Major Barbara. His Hamlet in Russell Beale has agreed to become our September 2000 was a particularly President. He has been rightly described as memorable performance. “the greatest stage actor of his generation”. th “... rightly described as Born in Malaysia on 19 January 1961 he was educated at St Paul’s Cathedral School, Clifton College and Gonville and Caius the greatest stage actor College Cambridge where he obtained a first in English. He graduated from Guildhall of his generation.” School of Music and Drama in 1983. His versatility was shown when he played He has a most distinguished acting career the role of King Arthur in the Monty Python starting when he acted the part of Desdemona in a school production aged 14. Musical Camelot, both on Broadway and in He acted in many roles at the Royal London. He has appeared in many television Shakespeare Company including Konstantin productions and last year became a in Chekhov’s The Seagull, Edgar in King television presenter with BBC Four series Lear, Richard III and as Ariel in Sam Mendes Sacred Music about Western Church Music. production of The Tempest. Sam Mendes He also was Smiley in BBC Radio 4 also directed him as Iago in Othello at the adaptation in all the John Le Carre novels National Theatre. He has been a regular at where George Smiley appears. Recently you the National Theatre since 1995 appearing will have seen him in two contrasting roles in roles such as Mosca in Ben Johnson’s in the Bridge productions at the Old Vic. Volpone, George in Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers, and the lead in Humble Boy by Charlotte Simon has received many awards including Jones written especially for him. He became Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a a key part in Trevor Nunn’s ensemble Musical – Candide in 2000, Laurence Olivier playing many roles including Benedick in Award for Best Actor – Uncle Vanya in 2003 Much Ado About Nothing and Andrew and he was appointed CBE in the Queen’s Undershaft in Hytner’s production of Birthday Honours List in 2003. 2 Lilian Baylis Theatrical Greetings…. Excellence Awards from your new Social Secretary Honor Blackman, Lynda Bellingham and Joy My name is Kirsten Sheridan, I live in Kent and Ranger were our panel who attended the 2009 I am an avid theatre-goer. I try to go to the Old Vic New Voices 24 hour Play Cycle at the theatre at least twice a month and I already Old Vic on Sunday 25th July. Also on the Panel have tickets booked for four plays in the next was Steve Winter from the Old Vic who master- two months! minded the whole event, lasting some three months and involving auditions for hundreds of I write reviews of plays at the Old Vic for an 18-25 year old hopefuls embarking on a career American website. My favourite playwrights in the theatre. His role on the panel was to include Shakespeare (naturally) Acykbourn, choose the best Producer. On the day, seven Tom Stoppard and Eugene O'Neill. plays were written over night and following the I am a supporter of the Old Vic, which is how I selection of the Actors and seven Directors, the discovered the Vic-Wells Association - a plays were rehearsed during the day prior to wonderful Association full of people passionate their evening presentation to a very full house about theatre. I was delighted when the at the Old Vic. committee elected me as the new Social The panel were unanimous in their choices and Secretary at the last meeting. recommended the following: Regular readers will already know that the Writer of the third play This is not the end Twelfth Night Party and Shakespeare's Birthday Ella Hickman Party are constants in our social diary, but we also try to organise other events during the Director of This is not the end year. Together with my fellow committee Natalie Ibu members, I will be thinking of interesting outings/events for us to attend, but I would also Actor in This is not the end like YOUR input. Is there somewhere in London James Baldwin you've always wanted to visit? A building you've passed by and wondered what goes on Actor in the fourth play Mothers ruin behind the closed doors? Please feel free to Rebecca Whitehead contact me at [email protected] with your suggestions and I will do my best to organise an Producer interesting social calendar. Morwenna Johnson Kirsten Sheridan The Awards in the form of a cheque for £250 and a certificate were presented by the well Annual General Meeting known Director of plays and films, Anthony Page, at a ceremony at the Old Vic on the 16th The Annual General Meeting of the Vic-Wells September. Association will take place on Monday, November 23rd 2009 promptly at 7pm. in the James Ranger Cable and Wireless Room at Sadler’s Wells. Are you on our e-mail list? The Vic-Wells Association Website Our website at www.vic-wells.co.uk has If you are on our e-mail list, you should have recently been given a complete make-over by a received, early in September, details of the new designer. If you have access to the possible rehearsals at Sadler's Wells for the internet, please do have a look at it and send in first part of the Autumn Season. If you did not any useful comments or suggestions. In do so, and would like to be included, or are on particular, let us know if you experience any the list and would like to withdraw, contact difficulty with any aspect of using parts of the Richard Reavill at [email protected] site or links from it. 3 NEWS from Sadler’s Wells Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui: Faun Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui examines the animalistic In the Spirit of Diaghilev nature of human movement and the power of mythology in Faun.