The Lyric Hammersmith has announced their 2018 season comprising a new adaptation, an innovative Shakespeare staging, a major festival production, a stunning revival, an award-winning contemporary opera and a brand new dance production. Highlights include:
- Toyah Willcox stars in the London transfer of this new stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s seminal film Jubilee, in a timely 40th-anniversary co-production with the Royal Exchange and Chris Goode & Company
- Dynamic re-imagining of Sean O’Casey’s revolutionary masterpiece, The Plough and the Stars, directed by Sean Holmes, a co-production with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin
- The return of 4.48 Psychosis, the Royal Opera’s production of Sarah Kane’s last play, winner of the Achievement in Opera award in the 2016 UK Theatre Awards
- The internationally renowned choreographer Hofesh Shechter brings his Shechter II company to the Lyric Hammersmith for six performances only
- Fatherland, a bold new production focusing on contemporary fatherhood with music by Karl Hyde (Underworld) and Matthew Herbert, co-commissioned by Lyric Hammersmith, Manchester International Festival, Frantic Assembly, the Royal Exchange and LIFT
- o t h e l l o m a c b e t h, a new condensed staging of these two iconic plays, performed together as one production by one exciting company, in a co-production with HOME
Following on from the previously announced Things I Know to be True by Frantic Assembly, Toyah Willcox comes to the Lyric in an audacious new staging of Derek Jarman’s seminal 1978 film, Jubilee, running from 15 February to 10 March 2018 with a press night on 20 February.
Faith in the establishment collapsing everywhere. The far-right on the march. Culture wars and random violence – all decked out in red, white and blue. But a spirit of anarchy hangs in the air, the desire to burn it all down and start over… THIS CAN ONLY BE 1977. …RIGHT?
Toyah Willcox
Derek Jarman’s iconic film captured punk at its giddy height: a riot of music, DIY fashion, and every kind of sex – with a little pyromania thrown in. Now, forty years on, this new stage adaptation of Jubilee remixes it for the social and political turmoil of 2017. Centred around a marauding girl gang on a killing spree and a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth I, it’s a story of what happens when creativity and nihilism collide.
Featuring a soundtrack to die (horribly) for, and with a cast led by one of the film’s original cast members, legendary punk warrior Toyah Willcox (now playing a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth I), Jubilee is a free-spirited, gloriously rude, take-no-prisoners blast of a show, for young punks, old punks, and anyone who’s ever wanted to set the world on fire. The Lyric’s main house auditorium will be reconfigured to recreate in part the theatre in-the-round of co-producer Manchester’s Royal Exchange, where it premieres in November.
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In March, Sean Holmes’ production of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars comes to the Lyric after a sell-out run at the Abbey Theatre. This is followed by the revival of the Royal Opera’s award-winning operatic production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis in April.
The internationally renowned choreographer Hofesh Shechter brings his Shechter II company of talented young dancers to the Lyric Hammersmith for six performances only. Shechter II will be performing a double-bill of Hofesh’s blackly comic Clowns and a brand new creation to sit alongside it.
The Lyric’s co-production of Fatherland arrives in London in May/June as part of LIFT, following its world premiere at Manchester International Festival in 2017.
Moving into next autumn, a new condensed staging of two of Shakespeare’s most brutal and poetic plays will both be performed in one production by one company in o t h e l l o m a c b e t h, directed by Jude Christian and Sean Holmes.
In 2018 the Lyric will continue its commitment to opening theatre to new audiences through its Free First Night Scheme, through which the theatre gives at least 2,500 free tickets each year to people who live or work locally to attend the first performance of each production.
The Lyric Hammersmith’s Artistic Director Sean Holmes said:
“It’s a real pleasure to announce such a vibrant and provocative season. Punk rebellion, Irish revolt, ground-breaking opera, electrifying dance, Shakespeare doubled and Frantic Assembly at their best make for a rich and compelling Lyric season: one that promotes emerging talent and celebrates the artistic benefits of collaboration in all its forms.”
