Michael Sheen as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Shakespeare himself are among the highlights of the 2011/12 season at the Young Vic.
Sheen, who will play the tormented Prince of Denmark from 28 October to 21 January (press night 9 November), returns to Shakespeare for the first time since playing Henry V for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1997. Since then the actor has achieved international fame with screen roles in The Queen, The Damned United, Fantabulosa!, Bright Young Things, Dirty Filthy Love and Underworld. An accomplished stage actor, he received Laurence Olivier Award nominations for Amadeus at the Old Vic, Look Back In Anger at the National Theatre, Caligula and Frost/Nixon at the Donmar Warehouse, before going on to recreate his role as interviewer David Frost on the big screen.
Ian Rickson, the former Artistic Director of the Royal Court and the director of recent hits Jerusalem and Parlour Song, will tackle Shakespeare for the first time by directing Sheen in Hamlet.
Following Hamlet, director Angus Jackson is to bring his Chichester Festival Theatre production of Edward Bond’s Shakespeare bio-play Bingo to the Young Vic from 16 February to 31 March 2012 (press night 23 February), with Stewart recreating his performance as the Bard.
Bond’s 1973 drama centres on the final years of Shakespeare’s life. With his glory years behind him, Shakespeare finds himself faced with the same situation as his greatest creation, King Lear: what should he do with his land and power?
Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor Stewart is well placed to play the Bard, having played numerous Shakespearean roles during his lengthy career. Recent performances include the title role in Macbeth – which he recreated on Broadway – Claudius in Hamlet opposite David Tennant and Prospero in The Tempest. His other work includes Waiting For Godot opposite Ian McKellen in the West End, and his much-acclaimed solo version of A Christmas Carol, while he is well known to many for his screen roles in Star-Trek: The Next Generation and X-Men.
Prior to that, two stars of television comedy will team up for Government Inspector, David Harrower’s new adaptation of Gogol’s 1836 comedy, which plays from 3 June to 9 July (press night 9 June).
The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt and Smack The Pony’s Doon Mackichan will play an unscrupulous mayor and his wife in this satire about a small Russian town sent into disarray by the news that a government inspector is due to arrive. A simple case of mistaken identity exposes the hypocrisy and corruption at the heart of the town.
In addition to co-writing and starring in three series of The Mighty Boosh and its live show, Barratt has appeared in Sky Arts’s recent adaptation of Chekhov’s The Bear and C4 sitcom Nathan Barley. Mackichan’s credits also include The Day Today, Brass Eye and Knowing Me, Knowing You, while she has previously appeared on stage in A Respectable Wedding at the Young Vic, Loot at the Tricycle theatre and Boeing Boeing in the West End.
They are joined in Government Inspector by Kyle Soller, who appeared in the Young Vic’s recent production of The Glass Menagerie, and directed by Richard Jones, who returns to the venue following Annie Get Your Gun and The Good Soul Of Szechuan.
The new season at the Young Vic also includes the return of 2010 hit The Beauty Queen Of Leenane (20 July to 3 September), once again starring Rosaleen Linehan as Mag, with Derbhle Crotty joining her as daughter Maureen.
The Young Vic’s 2008 co-production with the Opera Group, Street Scene, also returns for a short run between 15 September and 1 October. This production of Kurt Weill’s operatic musical about working class life in 1947 won the 2008 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical.
Speaking about the new season, Young Vic Artistic Director David Lan said: “Our 40th anniversary season was a huge success with almost every seat in the house sold every night. It’s great to be able to follow that with one of the strongest line-ups we’ve ever had.”
The new programming follows the already announced I Am The Wind, Terminus and ENO/Young Vic co-production The Return Of Ulysees.
CB