Of all the things robbed from us by the pandemic, this probably falls in the less important end of things but I had a ticket for Ruth Wilson’s 24 hour extravaganza The Second Woman which of course had to be cancelled. So news that it is coming back is very exciting, just have to hope lightning strikes twice and I can secure a ticket again. Oh, and some other things are coming to the Young Vic too 😉
Their first show of 2023, opening 9 March, is Further than the Furthest Thing, the multi-award-winning play by Zinnie Harris, directed by Genesis Fellow / Young Vic Associate Director Jennifer Tang.
Based on real events, on a remote volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic, the islanders of Tristan da Cunha have lived undisturbed for centuries, defying the swirling currents of modernity. Cut off and exposed to the elements, their survival has created a complex bind with their land. But when one of the inhabitants brings an outsider to the island, their way of life is changed forever.
The company includes: Gerald Kyd (The Seagull, Deep Blue Sea), Archie Madekwe (Midsommar, See), Cyril Nri (Trouble in Mind, The Barbershop Chronicles, The Bill), Kirsty Rider (The Sandman, The Doctor, Nora: A Doll’s House), Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated Jenna Russell (Fun Home, Piaf), with live vocals by Shapla Salique (No Boundaries).
Golden Globe and two-time Olivier Award winner Ruth Wilson (Luther, His Dark Materials, Hedda Gabler) stars in The Second Woman, an internationally acclaimed feat of endurance theatre and live cinema.
Over a full 24 hours – Friday 19 – Saturday 20 May, 4pm-4pm – 100 different men are invited to star opposite Ruth Wilson, as she performs over and over a scene between a man and a woman in a relationship that has lost its creativity and romance.
In an epic endurance performance inspired by John Cassavetes’ film Opening Night, none of the 100 different Martys have met or rehearsed with Ruth Wilson’s Virginia and most of them are non-actors.
Whether you choose to stay for 24 minutes or the full 24 hours, The Second Woman is a unique, cinematic theatre experience in which the stage offers the audience a wide-angle view of the action, while multiple cameras capture and share live close-ups.
Beneatha’s Place, written and directed by Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah, will have its UK premiere this summer from 27 June to 5 August. This blistering satirical drama about history, power and the cost of letting go is inspired by the ground-breaking 1950s’ civil rights drama A Raisin in the Sun.
Lagos, 1959. The newly married Beneatha, and her Nigerian husband, rising political star, Joseph Asagi Funmilayo, are moving into their home in the white suburbs. But soon overbearing aunties and mysterious neighbours descend, pulling the young couple into the political storm of Nigerian independence and changing their lives forever.
Lagos, current day. A group of Ivy League professors meet with Beneatha in the same house to decide the future of their university. As they debate whose histories should be taught, and whose privileges examined, tensions threaten to reach breaking point.
The House of Telfar and the House of Dunn are back in the explosive Sundown Kiki Reloaded following the sell-out run of Sundown Kiki in 2021. Watch the worlds of theatre and ballroom come together as the two families go head-to-head in an evening of pumping music, dance and partying that celebrates a Queerer London in all its glory.
Brought to you by the one and only UK Father of House of Revlon and pioneer of the London Ballroom Scene Jay Jay Revlon and award-winning director Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy). Created with and performed by Queer Black and Brown artists, the acclaimed show returns to the Young Vic. And we are ready for the DRAMA!!!
untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play by Kimber Lee jumps through time – wriggling inside of and then exploding lifetimes of repeating Asian stereotypes, wrestling history for the right to control your own narrative in a world that thinks it can tell you who you are. This powerful world premiere is directed by Roy Alexander Weise and opens at the Royal Exchange Theatre as part of Manchester International Festival from 23 June to 22 July, before transferring to the Young Vic from 18 September to 4 November.
Kim is having one of those days. A terrible, very bad, no-good kind of day, and the worst part is…it all feels so familiar. Caught up in a never-ending cycle of events, she looks for the exit but the harder she tries, the worse it gets and she begins to wonder: who’s writing this story? She makes a break for it, smashing through a hundred years of bloody narratives that all end the same way. Can she find a way out before it’s too late?
