Ava Pickett has an impressive track record of imaginative historical dramas, including her award-winning Tudor-era play 1536, which had a West End run this year. Alongside co-writing a film about Joan of Arc with Baz Luhrmann, she has reconceived this ancient epic, with Michelle Dockery playing Helen returning to war-ravaged Troy. Theatre Royal Stratford East, London, 3 September-10 October At the Edinburgh festival in 1987, Tilda Swinton played a German widow who takes on the identity of her dead husband in a prose poem by the Berliner Ensemble’s Manfred Karge.
Almost 40 years later, she returns to the role of Ella/Max in a revised version, again directed by Stephen Unwin. Royal Court theatre, London, 5 September-24 October. Traverse theatre, Edinburgh, 29 October-7 November What greater “event theatre” than a new James Graham play?
This one brings a twist to Keynesian economics. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, it stars Rory Kinnear as John Maynard Keynes and explores his relationship with the Bloomsbury group and his impact on arts funding. Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova co-stars, making her West End debut.
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 21 September-12 December The celebrification of the West End continues apace with this version of Edward Albee’s 1962 play, bringing two starry screen talents together, although both Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup have proved themselves on stage before now. Directed by Marianne Elliott, they will engage in toxic slanging matches, psychological warfare and marital meltdown. @sohoplace, London, 21 September-19 December There is much to excite about this world premiere – a meta Martin Sherman play about the flamboyant pianist Liberace, with Simon Russell Beale taking the lead role. Fra Fee co-stars in the production directed by Alan Cumming and Ben Occhipinti.
It promises rhinestones aplenty. Pitlochry Festival theatre, 22 September-11 October An all-male production of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy comes amid some striking gender reversals at the RSC – Harriet Walter is also reprising her Brutus in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Julius Caesar. This show, directed by Daniel Evans, features Tony award-winner Jonathan Groff as Rosalind and the talented Fisayo Akinade as Celia.
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 26 September-7 November Poet-playwright Inua Ellams earned enormous praise for Barber Shop Chronicles and his adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. His Alfred Fagon award-winning drama sounds promising, with the exploration of an unlikely friendship between an enslaved woman and her former master in the lead-up to the formation of Nigeria. Royal & Derngate, Northampton, 28 September-10 October.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
