England's Bristol Old Vic has announced its programming for the Autumn and Winter seasons of 2024 and 2025, including a mixture of revivals, Fringe favorites, regional tours, and more.
Kicking off the previously announced Summer series will be Talawa Firsts on Tour, Bougie Lanre’s Boulangerie, and Love in Gravitational Waves, as well as the mixed reality installation Museum of Austerity. Newly announced for the June programming, High Steaks will take over the Studio, exploring the cultural impact of labia shaming and labiaplasty. Presented by award-winning queer performer ELOINA June 18 through 22, the blend of performance art and comedy clowning is strictly for audiences 18 and up.
Once the summer season has been completed, September will bring Somebody Jones's How I Learned to Swim, a coming-of-adulthood story exploring Black people’s relationship to water that will run September 17 through 21. It will be followed September 24 through 28 by My Mother’s Funeral, a new play by Kelly Jones that tackles the inequalities around death, and the cost of turning your loved ones into art.
From September 6 to 21, Bristol Old Vic’s 2022 production of Ross Willis' Wonder Boy, directed by Olivier winner Sally Cookson, will be revived before embarking on a tour across England, made possible by a touring grant from Arts Council England. The story of 12 year-old Sonny, living with a stammer and trying to find a way to be heard, was highly acclaimed.
Come October, Playbill Pick and Edinburgh Fringe favorite Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz will be on offer, running October 15 through 19. The debut work by 2022 Bruntwood Prize-winning writer Nathan Queeley-Denis, the piece is a love letter to Birmingham exploring Black masculinity through Beyoncé lyrics, techno raves, and the deeply intimate relationship between a man and his barber.
Playbill Pick: Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
In November, Bristol Old Vic, Rose Kingston, Malvern Theatre and Royal & Derngate, Northampton will join forces to co-produce Never Let Me Go, which will play the Old Vic November 6 through 23. Kazuo Ishiguro’s international best-selling novel arrives on stage in this world premiere production of Suzanne Heathcote’s gripping new adaptation, directed by Christopher Haydon. When memory and reality collide, challenging us to think about what it means to be human, what it means to have hope and heart—to love and to lose—becomes clear.
Coming in December will be a family friendly production of The Little Mermaid. Originally programmed for 2021, this production will be directed by Olivier winner Miranda Cromwell (Death of a Salesman) and written by Sonali Bhattacharyya (Chasing Hares). This adaptation of the classic story is not related in any way to the Walt Disney animated film or its stage adaptation.
The New Year will bring Play On!, Cheryl L. West's 1997 musical loosely based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Running January 16 through 25, Play On! is set in the 1940s jazz scene of New York’s Cotton Club, and features the music of Duke Ellington. Directed by Michael Buffong, the show is produced by Talawa, the U.K.'s leading Black British Theatre Company. The work premiered at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre before a 1997 Broadway run. The upcoming Talawa production is the work's first major staging since a Pasadena Playhouse production in 1999.
The Shakespearean bent will continue through March and April, when the Old Vic will co-produce a new production of Romeo and Juliet with Belgrade Theatre and Hackney Empire. Running March 13 through April 5, the show will fuse Shakespeare’s classic text with original elements of rap, R&B, and soul. Directed by Belgrade Theatre’s Creative Director, Corey Campbell, the production will feature set and costume design by Simon Kenny, and collaboration with local Coventry artists That’s A Rap (lyrics), and A Class (music).
For more information, including a variety of additional family friendly programming, visit BristolOldVic.org.uk.
