BAFTA Award-winning actress Anne-Marie Duff (Bad Sisters, Suffragette, Nowhere Boy) has been announced to lead the cast in a savage new staging of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes by Olivier Award-winning director Lyndsey Turner (The Witches, The Crucible). She will return to perform at the Young Vic Theatre for the first time in 17 years in this story of greed, ambition and a family on the edge. The production runs in the Main House from 2 December to 8 February with opening night for press on Wednesday 11 December. Tickets are available now at www.youngvic.org
Anne-Marie Duff said: “The Little Foxes is a formidable play by a formidable writer – I couldn’t put it down. It’s a searing drama about corruption, betrayal and the relentless pursuit of power. At the heart of it is Regina, a charismatic yet ruthless character who, when the reins are unleashed, goes full force to take matters into her own hands. It’s a joy to return to the Young Vic stage and bring Lillian Hellman’s classic play to life with the brilliant Lyndsey Turner.”
There are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it.
Then there are people who stand around and watch them eat it.
After a lifetime spent watching her brothers grow rich, Regina Hubbard has had enough of standing around. When a businessman offers the family the prospect of untold wealth and power, a sequence of events unfolds that sets brother against brother, father against son and Regina against the whole pack of them.
Design is by Lizzie Clachan, Lighting Design by Lucy Carter, Sound Design by Tingying Dong, Fight Direction by Kev McCurdy, Accent Coach Penny Dyer, Casting by Jess Ronane CDG CSA.
The Little Foxes is produced in association with Second Half Productions.
Further casting to be announced.
Anne-Marie Duff is a multi-award-winning actress with a hugely successful stage and screen career. Notable roles include Fiona Gallagher in Channel 4’s Shameless, Queen Elizabeth in BBC’s The Virgin Queen, John Lennon’s mother Julia Stanley in Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Nowhere Boy and the eponymous heroine in Saint Joan at the National Theatre. She played Erin Wiley in Sex Education, Ma Costa in His Dark Materials and recently starred in Bad Sisters receiving the Best Supporting Actress BAFTA. This summer she returns as Dr Susannah Newman in the Channel 4 thriller, Suspect. She has worked extensively on stage for over 20 years. Her Young Vic credits include The Daughter in Law and The Soldiers Fortune. She most recently performed in The House of Shades at the Almeida. She made her Broadway debut as Lady Macbeth in 2014. She also performed the role at the National Theatre where her other credits include Collected Stories, Strange Interlude, King Lear, War and Peace, Husbands and Sons, Common. Other theatre credits include Oil (Almeida), Sweet Charity, Days of Wine and Roses (Donmar Warehouse). Her film credits include Suffragette, On Chesil Beach, The Magdalene Sisters, Notes on a Scandal.
Lyndsey Turner is an Associate Director at the National Theatre. Her work includes: The Witches, The Crucible (also West End) and Under Milk Wood (National Theatre), A Number (Old Vic); Far Away, Faith Healer, Fathers and Sons (Donmar Warehouse); Hamlet (Barbican); The Treatment, Chimerica (Almeida); Girls and Boys, Posh (Royal Court).
Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans, grew up in New Orleans and New York City, and attended New York University and Columbia. Her career as a playwright began in 1934 with The Children’s Hour, the first of several plays that would bring her international attention and praise, among them The Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine, Another Part of the Forest, The Autumn Garden and Toys in the Attic. Hellman was twice the recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the best play of the year (for Watch on the Rhine and Toys in the Attic). She was also awarded the Gold Medal for Drama from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1972 a definitive edition of all her work for the theatre was published as The Collected Plays.
Hellman received the National Book Award for An Unfinished Woman in 1969. She subsequently wrote two additional volumes of autobiography, Pentimento and Scoundrel Time. In the decades before her death in 1984, Hellman divided her time between New York and Martha’s Vineyard.
BSL Performance: Tue 7 January, 7.30pm
Captioned Performances: Tue 17 December, 7.30pm & Sat 4 January, 2.30pm
Relaxed Performances: Sat 11 January, 2.30pm & Thu 16 January, 7.30pm
Sensory Adapted Performance: Thu 9 January, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performances: Thu 19 December, 7.30pm & Sat 18 January, 2.30pm