A new Simon Stephens play coming to the London stage is a prospect to set many a theatrical mouth watering.
The Stockport-born playwright has been behind many of the most exciting, acclaimed, divisive and talked about productions of recent years, from the Olivier Award record-equalling The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time and widely lauded Young Vic production of A Doll’s House, to the challenging Three Kingdoms and the fame-skewering Birdland.
Carmen Disruption, inspired by the titular Bizet opera, arrives at Islington’s Almeida Theatre next month, and has a cast boasting a previous Olivier winner (Noma Dumezweni), a 2015 Olivier nominee (John Light), a rising star of stage and screen (Jack Farthing), and an operatic sensation (Viktoria Vizin). That’s without even mentioning the ever-glorious Sharon Small.
Then there’s director Michael Longhurst, whose production of Constellations at the Royal Court had theatre hearts a flutter during the 2012/2013 awards season and whose production of Bad Jews has just transferred from the St James Theatre to the Arts Theatre.
All in all then, there’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to Carmen Disruption, isn’t there?
That would explain, then, why we leapt out of our seats, gave a yelp of excitement and proceeded to sing the Toreador Song at the top of our little lungs when we received these images of rehearsals, taken by Marc Brenner, before anyone else!
Carmen Disruption tells a tale of disparate lives in an opulent European city, where a stunning prostitute, an outspoken cabbie, a global trader and a dreaming teenager are all looking for something.