Stage and screen stars Gillian Anderson and Juliet Stevenson will both appear in the Young Vic theatre’s 2014 line-up, taking on lead roles in A Streetcar Named Desire and Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days as part of the newly announced season.
The 2014 programme will also see playwright Simon Stephens turn his hand to Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard following his hit adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, which played two hugely successful runs at the Southwark venue prior to its West End transfer, the return of Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne with their new play The Valley Of Astonishment, Ivo Van Hove’s production of A View From The Bridge and the UK premiere of 1927’s Golem.
Happy Days will kick off the season from 23 January (press night 30 January) to 22 February, with Stevenson making her Young Vic debut in Beckett’s existential masterpiece about the human capacity for hope.
Directed by Natalie Abrahami, who returns to the venue following her success with 2012’s After Miss Julie, Olivier Award-winner Stevenson will take on the iconic role of Winnie, a middle-aged woman who confronts her despair at being buried up to her waist in earth with absurd diversions, lurches of optimism and fragments of memory, following acclaimed stage appearances in Duet For One at the Almeida and in the West End, and Death And The Maiden at the Royal Court.
Following Happy Days into the Young Vic’s main house is Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge, which will be directed by the internationally renowned director who brought immersive epic Roman Tragedies to the Barbican in 2009.
Van Hove’s production, which plays from 4 April (press night 11 April) to 24 May, will bring to life Miller’s dark tale of obsession, telling the story of a man who betrays his principles and the trust of the people around him to pursue an obsessive desire.
Brook and Estienne’s The Valley Of Astonishment will continue the 2014 season, playing from 20 June (press night 23 June) to 12 July with a cast including Kathryn Hunter and Marcello Magni, both of whom return to the venue following their performances in 2008’s Fragments, and William Nadylam and Jared McNeill, who joined forces for the Olivier Award-winning writing duo’s last Young Vic offering The Suit.
Uniting neurological research and Persian verse to transport audiences from the familiar to the extraordinary, the production, which is also directed by Brook and Estienne, focuses on the experiences of individuals who see the world in a radically different light, rewriting the rule of sensory perception so that sound has a colour, colour has a taste and the number eight is a fat lady.
Following his radical restaging of Three Sisters at the venue in 2012, Benedict Andrews will return next summer to direct Great Expectations star Anderson in Tennessee Williams’ influential work A Streetcar Named Desire.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which received its last major London revival in 2009 at the Donmar Warehouse, taking home a string of Olivier Awards, follows the downward spiral of Blanche DuBois and her collision with the visceral Stanley Kowalski.
A Streetcar Named Desire marks Anderson’s fourth London stage outing, following her Olivier Award nominated performance in A Doll’s House at the Donmar Warehouse, The Sweetest Swing In Baseball at the Royal Court and the West End production of What The Night Is For. The actress is still arguably best known for her performances on screen, which include her long-term, Golden Globe-winning role as Agent Dana Scully in cult series The X-Files and more recent starring roles in Any Human Heart and The Fall.
Also returning to venue next year is director Katie Mitchell, who will direct a new version of Chekhov’s vigorous tragicomedy The Cherry Orchard written by The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time’s Simon Stephens.
The Olivier Award-winning playwright will put his unique take on the tale about a family intent on resisting the loss of their ancestral home as an old world order crumbles around them from 10 October (press night 16 October) to 29 November, with casting still to be announced.
After the success of The Animals And Children Took To The Streets at the National Theatre last year, London-based performance company 1927 will bring its tale about technology and its misuse to the Young Vic from 9 December (press night 12 December) to 17 January.
Written and directed by Suzanne Andrade, Golem will synchronise original animation, live music and performance to bring to life its dark and fantastical story about a man and his machines.
Before the new season begins and taking over the venue’s Maria space in the run-up to Christmas is Beauty And The Beast, which features a cast including acclaimed disabled artist Mat Fraser, former Miss Exotic World winner Julie Atlas Muz (HBO’s Bored To Death), Jonny Dixon and Jess Mabel Jones.
Playing from 4 to 21 December with a press night on 9 December, the adult fairy tale, which promises to explode any notions of Disney schmaltz to reveal the deepest hopes and fears at the heart of all love stories, will be directed by Phelim McDermott, Artistic Director of internationally renowned theatre company Improbable.
To top off the Young Vic’s exciting new season, the venue also announced today that forthcoming musical The Scottsboro Boys has extended its run to 21 December and current West End Hit A Doll’s House will transfer to New York in the New Year.