Michael Grandage will direct a star-studded line-up of actors including Derek Jacobi, Felicity Jones and Dominic West in The Josephine Hart Poetry Week, five nights of readings from some of the world’s greatest poets.
Taking place from 8 to 12 October at the Arts theatre, Jacobi, Jones and West will be joined by Rosamund Pike, Eddie Redmayne and Samuel West as they read work from T.S. Eliot, Auden, the World War I Poets, Larkin and the American Poets. Each evening will also be introduced and hosted by a leading figure in the arts world, with Melvyn Bragg, David Hare, Richard Eyre, Alan Yentob and Tom Stoppard set to read from Hart’s writing on the poets before the actors take to the stage.
Presented by the Michael Grandage Company, the week follows two similar seasons at the Donmar Warehouse programmed under Grandage’s former Artistic Directorship at the theatre. Grandage today announced that he was “thrilled to continue our collaboration with the Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation, adding: “It’s wonderful to continue Josephine’s legacy to hear the work of these great poets in such distinguished company.”
The first female director of Haymarket Publishing, Hart enjoyed an illustrious career in poetry and writing, founding the Josephine Hart Poetry Hour at numerous libraries in London and New York, and publishing books including Damage, Sin, Oblivion and The Stillest Day. She also worked in theatre, producing shows including the first ever West End production of T.S. Eliot’s poetry with Let Us Go Then, You And I at the Lyric theatre.
In keeping with the first season of programming in the West End by the Michael Grandage Company, which includes Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple Of Inishmaan and Sheridan Smith in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, all tickets for The Josephine Hart Poetry Week will be price £10, with Grandage commenting it was to continue the company’s commitment “to make work of the highest quality accessible to everyone”.