Donmar Warehouse artistic director Michael Longhurst will revive his acclaimed Royal Court, West End and Broadway production of Nick Payne’s Constellations which will run at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre from 18 June to 12 September 2021.
In an innovative producing model, devised in response to the pandemic, four brand new casts will take turns to appear in the two-hander. The couples are Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah (18 June to 1 August), Peter Capaldi and Zoë Wanamaker (23 June to 24 July), Omari Douglas and Russell Tovey (30 July to 11 September), and Anna Maxwell Martin and Chris O’Dowd (6 August to 12 September). The production will run in accordance with the latest UK government social distancing guidelines.
Constellations, co-produced with Wessex Grove and Eleanor Lloyd Productions, will take place at the Vaudeville while the Donmar Warehouse building remains closed until September 2021. The Donmar is currently undertaking a series of essential building works at its Earlham Street home to replace key infrastructure within the venue.
Speaking about artistic projects for summer 2021, artistic director Michael Longhurst said: “We are delighted to have been able to utilise this period of closure for vital building work. In the meantime, I am proud that international transfers, national touring, digital innovation through new collaborations, a community production and a West End revival with a twist, mean we will continue to engage audiences and artists during this time.
“Reviving Constellations with four brilliant casts in rep – varying the age, ethnicity, sexuality and nationality of the lovers – feels like a thrilling way to help reanimate the West End, offering audiences multiple new interpretations of this life-affirming play about choice.
“I am so grateful to this astonishing company of actors who have united to celebrate the possibilities of the multiverse and the joy of live performance. We are also putting the finishing touches to our reopening season, which we will be sharing soon, and can’t wait to welcome audiences back to our improved theatre on Earlham Street in September.”
While its physical space is closed for essential building works, Donmar Associate Sacha Wares’ new company Trial & Error, together with writer Ella Hickson and ScanLAB Projects, are creating a performance titled Adult Children in a digital replica of the Donmar auditorium. To stage this short play, the theatre environment, locations and over 50 performers and audience members are all being separately captured using 3D scanning techniques. Adult Children will be available from May.
The Donmar has also announced a UK tour of Blindness in 2021. Following its sell-out run as one of the first UK venues to reopen in summer 2020, Simon Stephens’ sound installation, based on the novel by José Saramago, directed by Walter Meierjohann with the voice of Juliet Stevenson, has transferred to New York (where it is currently playing at the Daryl Roth Theatre), The Netherlands, Mexico (voiced in Spanish by Marina De Tavira), New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Next, UK audiences will be able to experience Blindness at the Oxford Playhouse, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Theatr Clwyd, Yvonne Arnaud, Festival Theatre Edinburgh, Eden Court and Poole Lighthouse between 28 May and 17 July 2021.
Following a successful live broadcast, the Donmar Local Company’s inaugural production Assembly, written by Nina Segal and directed by Joseph Hancock, is available to view on the Donmar Warehouse’s YouTube channel for another three weeks until 25 April 2021.
As part of the Donmar’s commitment to accessible ticket prices, over 500 free tickets for Constellations will be available for audiences aged under 26 as part of the Donmar’s Young+Free scheme. In addition, 5,000 tickets priced at £20 will be available across the run.
