The Lyric Hammersmith has announced its new summer season running May 2017 to January 2018 including three major new productions: a UK premiere, a new adaptation of a classic and the return of the now traditional Lyric pantomime.
In June, the Lyric will present the UK Premiere of Ferdinand von Schirach’s Terror (Wednesday 14 June – Saturday 15 July) in a translation by David Tushingham, a gripping and timely play that has been stirring debate around the globe. The audience are at the centre of this courtroom drama, voting to decide the verdict at each performance. Guilty. Not Guilty. You Decide.
A hijacked plane is heading towards a packed football stadium. Ignoring orders to the contrary a fighter pilot shoots the plane down, killing 164 people to save 70,000. Put on trial and charged with murder, the fate of the pilot is in the audience’s hands. Enter the courtroom. Hear the evidence. Make your judgement. The production is directed by the Lyric’s Artistic Director, Sean Holmes and designed by Olivier Award-winner Anna Fleischle.
In the autumn, Lesley Sharp takes to the Lyric stage playing Irina Arkadina in a vibrant new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull (Tuesday 3 October – Saturday 4 November) by Lyric Associate Artist Simon Stephens.
Chekhov’s celebrated masterpiece is given vibrant new life in this dynamic starring Lesley Sharp as Irina Arkadina. Switching effortlessly between the ridiculous and the profound The Seagull forensically examines the transcendence and destructiveness of love. The burning need to create Art and how harshly that need can be crushed permeates this classic play.
The festive season will see the return of the much loved Lyric pantomime with a brand new production of Jack And The Beanstalk (Saturday 18 November – Saturday 6 January 2018). The classic tale gets the full Lyric treatment with anarchic humour, talking animals, songs for all ages, magic, sweets and snow.
Before then, the previously announced Paul Auster’s City Of Glass will extend its run at the Lyric Hammersmith by a week running until Saturday 20 May (now playing Thursday 20 April – Saturday 20 May). The first part of Paul Auster’s landmark series of novels, The New York Trilogy, the story will be brought vividly to life on the Lyric stage in an original stage adaptation by Tony Award-winning 59 Productions and Olivier Award-nominated playwright Duncan Macmillan.
When reclusive crime writer Daniel Quinn receives a mysterious phone call from a man seeking a private detective in the middle of the night, he quickly and unwittingly becomes the protagonist in a real-life thriller of his own. Featuring design inspired by the acclaimed graphic novel by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, the brand new production will feature cutting edge projection-mapping, which combined with stagecraft, magic and illusion will immerse audiences into Quinn’s increasingly dystopic and fragmented world.
In May, Amici, the Lyric’s resident dance theatre company which integrates able-bodied and disabled performers, will reprise two past productions: Tightrope (Friday 26 & Saturday 27 May) and 35 Amici Drive (Tuesday 23 & Wednesday 24 May), playing in repertory for the first time as a company.
Tightrope, Amici’s 30th anniversary show, is a touching story of an old circus company who have stuck together, struggling against the odds to survive – but will this be their final performance? Then, in Amici’s 35th anniversary show, first staged in 2015, the residents of 35 Amici Drive are under threat of eviction from their homes. Will they overcome in their struggle to stay, or will they face the wrecking ball?
The Lyric Hammersmith’s Artistic Director Sean Holmes said: “This Lyric season offers a unique series of audience experiences.
“From the groundbreaking visual imagery of City Of Glass to deciding the fate of the accused in Terror; from Chekhov as it’s never been seen before to the glorious communion between actors and audience that is the hallmark of the Lyric panto. This season has it all.”