Theater News

London Spotlight: June 2010

Bete on This

David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce

One of the more anticipated current revivals is La Bête at the Comedy. It’s by David Hirson and directed by the never-fails Matthew Warchus. The starry cast includes the very funny David Hyde Pierce, Mark Rylance, and Joanna Lumley. Oscar Wilde’s baroque Salome is at the Hampstead (June 22-July 17). Jamie Lloyd directs the tale that brings in John the Baptist’s head on a tray and seven dropped veils.

Sam Mendes brings his Bridge Project version of As You Like It to the Old Vic (June 12-August 21) with Stephen Dillane, Juliet Rylance, Christian Camargo, Thomas Sadoski, Ron Cephas Jones and Michelle Beck mingling from both sides of the Atlantic.

More Shakespeare is found at the Globe, as Henry IV, Part I bows under the stewardship of company head Dominic Dromgoole. Jamie Parker is Prince Hal, and the marvelous Roger Allam is Falstaff. At the Open Air in Regents Park, The Comedy of Errors romps in (June 24-July 31). You might want to journey to Theatre Royal, Bath for Simon Callow in his solo show, The Man From Stratford: Being Shakespeare (June 28-30).

There will undoubtedly be immediate interest in Through a Glass Darkly, Andrew Upton’s adaptation of the 1961 Ingmar Bergman film. Michael Attenborough directs at the Almeida (June 10-July 31) with the very busy Ruth Wilson in the cast and returning to the venue after playing Stella in last year’s Streetcar Named Desire revival.

New plays also include Moira Buffini’s Welcome to Thebes at the National’s Olivier (June 15-August 18). Former company artistic director Richard Eyre does the helming honors and Tim Hatley the set designing duties for a work set in ancient Thebes but somehow in the present day. Sucker Punch by Roy Williams, who knows how to pack a wallop in his drama, comes to the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Downstairs (June 11-July 24). A boxing ring is prominent in a piece about friendship.

Now that the May election is over, the Tricycle presents Women, Power and Politics in two rotating programs billed as “Then” and “Now,” which look at, as the titles promise, women in politics over the years. Another take on politics is at the Young Vic, where Barrie Keeffe’s Sus (June 8-26) is about election night 1979, when Margaret Thatcher was the victor. The play is set in a police station.

Those searching out musicals might want to venture to the New Wimbledon where the Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe My Fair Lady will be presented by the Wimbledon Light Opera Society (June 9-12). Those in the mood for dance only can tap their way to Tap Dogs at the Novello (June 15-
September 5).

An item some theater-goers may have thought they’d never see — or see again — is Terence Rattigan’s After the Dance at the National’s Cottesloe in Thea Sharrock’s production, designed by Hildegard Bechtler. Adrian Scarborough is one of the actors examining the mad 20’s and aftermath.

In the Fringe, Anthony Weigh’s Like a Fishbone opens at the Bush (June 7-August 10) and follows an architect tapped to design a memorial for a dreadful crime in a small, remote village. Or why not try Everything Must Go at the Barbican (June 6-26)? It’s by Kristin Fredricksson but is hyped as a father-daughter collaboration that wowed the Edinburgh Festival crowd. At the Finborough Theatre, a reading series highlighting playwrights who’ve worked at the busy outpost will take place under the umbrella title Vibrant, including works by Naomi Wallace and Mark Ravenhill.

Family fare includes a brief run of Guess How Much I Love You, at the Greenwich (June 3-5).