That was April in London theatre-land - cast announcements, transfers and thesp spots
02/05/2017
Jam, Finborough Theatre
* Incoming from Broadway is new play Oslo about the Oslo Peace accords which will have a short run at the National Theatre in September before transferring into the West End
* Bertie Carvel is back at the Almeida, this time he's been cast with Richard Coyle in the new James Graham play Ink which is set on Fleet Street in the 1960s. Bertie is playing Rupert Murdoch and Richard is playing Larry Lamb.
* Stan fave Forbes Masson (loved him as the devil in Dr Faustus) will appear in Terror, Lyric Hammersmith which opens in June. The play is set around a court case and the audience gets to decide whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.
* The new Bridge Theatre's first season was announced which naturally generated a lot of excitement because Ben Whishaw is playing Brutus in a promenade performance of Julius Caesar, alongside David Morrissey as Mark Anthony and Michelle Fairley as Cassius. There were other gems in the season announcement too, Rory Kinnear is taking the lead in a new Richard Bean play Young Marx alongside Oliver Chris. (I wrote a piece on the new season and ticketing.)
* Hattie Morahan and Kate O'Flynn have been cast in Alice Birch’s new play Anatomy of a Suicide at the Royal Court with Marmite director Katie Mitchell taking the helm.
* Another Stan fav, Harry Melling has been cast in Jam at the Finborough Theatre about a teacher and student confronting the past 10 years on from when he ruined her life. Sounds a bit like the reverse of the scenario of Blackbird.
* And Hollywood star Cate Blanchett is returning to London next year to be directed by Ivo Van Hove in a stage version of the 1950s film All About Eve. No theatre or dates announced yet - my money is on the Barbican, which is a favourite venue of Van Hove, and it can also seat a lot of people.
Thesp spots
It’s been a comparatively quiet month, Bill Paterson was at the press night of Consent at the National Theatre and George Mackay was watching Jude Law in Obsession at the Barbican. Finally, he’s not technically a thesp but I also saw Philip Ridley on Charing Cross Road one lunch time.