24 November 2022
Newsdesk
Highlights of the season include:
The London transfer of Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, in a new adaptation by comedian, writer and actor Tom Basden, directed by Daniel Raggett. The production stars BAFTA winner Daniel Rigby and opens in March 2023
Cast and creatives announced for Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan adapted by Nina Segal and directed by Anthony Lau, a Lyric co-production with English Touring Theatre and Sheffield Theatres, opening at the Lyric in April 2023
The UK premiere of award-winning hit US comedy School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh, directed by Monique Touko opening June 2023
A new adaptation of Euripides’ The Bacchae by Katherine Soper, directed by Kwame Owusu and performed by actors from the Lyric’s ground-breaking performance training programme, SPRINGBOARD, will run in the Studio in July 2023
The second year of For the Culture: Celebrations of Blackness, a festival of curated events to accompany Main House shows, kindly supported by Hammersmith BID
The Lyric reaffirms its accessibility pledge with up to 2,000 free tickets available for those who work and/or live in Hammersmith & Fulham; £5 tickets for all shows for under 25s living in West London and up to 7,000 tickets under £15 across all shows.
Rachel O’Riordan, Artistic Director of Lyric Hammersmith Theatre said:
“We are so excited to be able to share our spring season with you. Our new season celebrates bold stories with a rebellious spirit. Next year, you can expect a ground-breaking UK premiere, heart-warming comedies and a provocative re-lensed adaptation of an 80 year old classic. This new season has something for everyone; it asks big questions but never loses sight of joy, hope, comic relief and escapism – theatre has the power to open your heart and your mind; join us in our beautiful West London home for laughter, entertainment and thrills.”
The season opens with the first major London revival of Dario Fo and Franco Rame’s riotous Accidental Death of an Anarchist (a co-production with Sheffield Theatres and in association with Playful Productions) in 20 years in an adaptation by Tom Basden (ITV’s Plebs, Netflix’s After Life and BBC comedy Here We Go), directed by Daniel Raggett and starring Daniel Rigby (Lyric’s Noises Off, Channel 4’s Flowers, Netflix’s Black Mirror and BBC’s Eric and Ernie). This will be followed by a brand new adaptation and co-production of Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan commissioned by English Touring Theatre, in a co-production between Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, ETT and Sheffield Theatres, adapted by Nina Segal and directed by Sheffield Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director Anthony Lau.
Completing the season is the UK premiere of the hit US comedy School Girls; Or the African Mean Girls Play, written by award-winning Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Monique Touko (Stage Debut Award for Best Director, 2022). The Lyric’s ground-breaking SPRINGBOARD programme continues with a production of Euripides’ The Bacchae, in a new adaptation by Katherine Soper (Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright) and directed by Kwame Owusu which runs in the Studio in July 2023.
TICKETING
Free First Night
Thanks to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, people who live or work in Hammersmith & Fulham get two free tickets to the first night of all Main House Lyric productions and four free tickets for Lyric Pantos.
School Tickets
The Lyric offers a discounted schools rate for all Main House shows, which is available to all schools, colleges and universities.
We offer tickets at £15 per student with one free teacher ticket for every ten students and two free teacher tickets for SEND schools. This offer is available for all performances Monday – Wednesday during the main run of the show (subject to availability).
Thanks to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, state schools in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham are offered free tickets to Lyric’s annual Panto.
Young Lyric Membership
The Lyric offers Young Lyric Membership for young people aged 0-25 who live in one of the 10 West London Boroughs (Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond upon Thames, Wandsworth and Westminster). You can sign up membership as an individual (over 18) or as a parent/carer of a young person (under 16). Young Lyric members get £5 tickets to Main House shows, access to low cost or free courses and masterclasses, access to free bursary spaces for classes, performance opportunities and many more opportunities throughout the year.
Tickets go on sale today at www.lyric.co.uk
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Sheffield Theatres co-production in association with Playful Productions
Written by Dario Fo and Franca Rame in a new adaptation by Tom Basden
Directed by Daniel Raggett
Starring Daniel Rigby
Monday 13 March – Saturday 08 April 2023
Press Night: Friday 17 March 2023
An anarchist has fallen to his death from a police station window. But did he jump or was he thrown?
As the police prepare for an inquiry into the incident, an unhinged showman known only as the Maniac is arrested and brought into the station. Seizing the opportunity to put on a show, he leads the police in an absurd recreation of their version of events, exposing the cover-ups, corruption and profound idiocy of an institution in free-fall.
A razor-sharp satire, Tom Basden’s wickedly hilarious adaptation relocates Dario Fo’s classic farce to contemporary London and features a show-stopping performance from Daniel Rigby as the Maniac.
Dario Fo (Writer) an Italian actor-author. His stage career began with political cabaret, moved on to one-act farces, and then to satirical TV and in Italy’s major theatres. In 1968, he broke with conventional theatre to set up a co-operative dedicated to producing politically committed work in what were then known as ‘alternative venues’. His best known work, including Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Mistero Buffo and Trumpets and Raspberries, dates from this period. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, and the official citation the Swedish Royal Academy stated that he had ‘emulated the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden.’
Franca Rame (Writer) founded the Theatre Company of Dario Fo Franca Rame alongside her husband in 1958 (Compagnia Teatrale Dario Fo Franca Rame). Her writing includes The Rape (1975), Open Couple (1983), Let’s Talk About Women (1991), Steal a Bit Less (1992), Sex? Don’t Mind if I Do (1996) and Mother Peace: Let Mothers Decide About War (2005). Franca Rame collaborated on all Dario Fo’s works. In the 1970s she founded ‘Red Aid’ and in 1988 the ‘Nobel Committee for the Disabled’. From 2006-8 she was a Senator of the Republic of Italy. Rame and Fo published A Sudden Life (Guanda 2009), Escape from the Senate (Chiarelettere 2013) and A Forgotten Callas (Panini 2014).
Tom Basden (Adaptor) is a three-time BAFTA-nominated writer. His work for theatre includes Party (Sydney Festival and Arts Theatre), Joseph K (Gate Theatre), There Is a War (National Theatre), Holes (Edinburgh Festival and The Arcola) and The Crocodile (Manchester International Festival). He has also won an Edinburgh Comedy Award for his stand up shows. On screen, he writes and stars in the sitcoms Here We Go for BBC1 and Plebs for ITV2, and is a regular cast member in After Life for Netflix. He has also written episodes of Peep Show, Fresh Meat and The Wrong Mans. For Radio 4, Tom has made two series of the sketch show Cowards, three series of his sitcom Party and four series of Tim Key’s Late Night Poetry Programme.
Daniel Raggett’s (Director) work includes Anna X by Joseph Charlton, which he directed as part of Sonia Friedman's 2021 Re:Emerge season in the West End. The hit production starred Golden Globe Award-winner Emma Corrin in the title role and was broadcast on Sky Arts. Daniel previously directed a new version of Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Tom Basden for Sheffield Theatres, and adapted and directed Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice for the Gate Theatre (Nominated for Best Director, Off West End Awards). Daniel has also worked extensively as an associate director on productions at the National Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway, including on West Side Story (Broadway) and Network (Broadway/National Theatre). He was nominated as an Emerging Talent at the 66th Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2022.
Daniel Rigby (Maniac) is a BAFTA Award-winning actor and has worked extensively in theatre and television. He previously appeared on the Lyric Main House stage in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. Other theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frost/Nixon (Crucible Theatre); Twelfth Night (National Theatre); Breaking the Code (Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester); Holes (The Invisible Dot/Arcola Theatre); Berk in Progress, Holes (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre/London & National Tour/Adelphi Theatre – West End London/ Music Box Theatre – New York). Television includes: The Ballad of Renegade Nell (Lookout Point/Disney+ UK); After Ever After (King Bert/Sky 1); Landscapers (HBO/Sky); The Witchfinder (BBC); Tom Jones (Mammoth Screen); Flowers (Kudos/Channel 4); Jericho (ITV); Big School (BBC Comedy/BBC1); Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment (Channel 4); Ernie & Ernie (BBC2).
The Good Person of Szechwan
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, ETT and Sheffield Theatres co-production, commissioned by ETT
Written by Bertolt Brecht
Adapted by Nina Segal
Directed by Anthony Lau
Saturday 15 April - Saturday 13 May 2023
Press Night: Thursday 20 April 2023
The cast includes Nick Blakeley playing Third God; Melody Brown playing Mrs Mi Tzu/Old Woman; Aidan Cheng playing Yang Sun; Jon Chew playing Lin To/Shu Fu; Callum Coates playing First God; Togo Igawa playing Husband/Priest/Court Clerk; Suni La playing Mrs Shin; Camille Mallet de Chauny playing Jobless Man/Policeman/Cousin; Louise Mai Newberry playing Mrs Yang/Wife; Tim Samuels playing Second God; Ami Tredrea playing Shen Te/Shui Ta; and Leo Wan playing Wang.
Designer Georgia Lowe; Lighting Designer Jessica Hung Han Yun; Composer DJ Walde; Sound Designer Alexandra Faye Braithwaite; Casting Director Jacob Sparrow CDG.
"What is the cost of being good?”
Three gods search for just one honest person on earth to justify humanity’s existence. Finding Shen Te, penniless but principled, they reward her with a life-changing amount of cash. But starting her own business in a money-centred, unequal society, her fortune soon turns to frustration as the more kindness she shows, the more complicated life becomes.
In its 80th anniversary, Brecht’s popular play is brought up to date in a new version by Nina Segal, directed by Anthony Lau (Anna Karenina).
The German-born playwright, poet and director Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg, Germany in 1898. He established himself as a playwright during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as Baal, Man Is Man, The Threepenny Opera and The Mother. In 1933, as Hitler came to power in Germany, Brecht fled to Scandinavia before eventually settling in the USA where he remained until 1947. During the war years, he wrote many of his best known plays including The Life of Galileo, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Her Children and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. He returned to Europe in 1947 and shortly after his arrival formed the Berliner Ensemble. He died in Berlin on 14 August 1956 but remains a hugely influential theatre practitioner.
Nina Segal (Adaptor) is a playwright and TV writer. Her play In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises) was produced at the Gate to critical acclaim. Nina is currently under commission to Soho Theatre, ETT, the Rose Theatre, the RSC and the Unicorn Theatre. Her most recent play, O, Island!, was shortlisted for the prestigious George Devine Award. For TV, Nina wrote on Hanna Series 2 for NBC and Amazon. She has two script commissions with ITV Studios and is developing other TV projects in the UK.
Anthony Lau (Director) is RTYDS Associate Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres. He was previously Laboratory Associate Director at Nuffield Southampton Theatres and trained as a director at LAMDA and at the National Theatre Studio. For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: ROCK, Anna Karenina and The Band Plays On (Co-Director). Other credits as Director include: The Shadow Factory and Juicy and Delicious (Nuffield Southampton Theatres); A Better Man and The Cherry Orchard parallel project (Young Vic); The Common Land (Rose Theatre Kingston); Dreaming in America (Shoreditch Town Hall); Still Life/Red Peppers (Old Red Lion); The Taste of Us (HighTide Festival); I am a Camera (Southwark Playhouse).
Ami Tredrea (leads the cast in the role of Shen Te/Shui Ta) most recently appeared in Lyndsey Turner’s new staging of The Crucible (National Theatre) as well as Mike Bartlett’s The 47th (The Old Vic). Television credits include The Three-Body Problem (Netflix) and My Lady Jane (Amazon). Ami will make her feature debut in Strangers (Blueprint Pictures/Film4/Searchlight Pictures) directed by Andrew Haigh.
YOUNG LYRIC
In response to The Good Person of Szechwan, Young Lyric will create a series of teacher CPD sessions, exploring new approaches to teaching Brecht for drama teachers in secondary schools across West London. The production will be accompanied with a complimentary digital education resource pack exploring Anthony Lau’s approach to staging this production, Nina Segal’s adaptation and the reframing of this production with interviews from other members of the creative team and drama educators.
School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production
Written by Jocelyn Bioh
Directed by Monique Touko
Thursday 08 June – Saturday 15 July 2023
Press Night: Wednesday 14 June 2023
1986. Ghana’s prestigious Aburi Girls Boarding School.
Queen Bee Paulina and her crew excitedly await the arrival of the Miss Ghana pageant recruiter. It’s clear that Paulina is in top position to take the title until her place is threatened by Ericka - a beautiful and talented new transfer student. As the friendship group’s status quo is upended, who will be chosen for Miss Ghana and at what cost?
Bursting with hilarity and joy, this award-winning comedy explores the universal similarities (and glaring differences) facing teenage girls around the world.
Don’t miss the UK premiere of this critically-acclaimed smash hit show.
Jocelyn Bioh (Writer) is an award-winning Ghanaian-American writer/performer from New York City. Her written works for theatre include: Merry Wives (Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park, PBS Great Performances), Nollywood (MCC Theater), Goddess The Musical (Berkeley Rep; Upcoming: Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C. Spring of 2023) and the multi-award-winning School Girls; Or the African Mean Girls Play which was originally produced at MCC Theater in 2017/2018 and has gone on to have over 50 regional productions in the USA. She will make her Broadway debut as a playwright with the World Premiere of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at Manhattan Theatre Club in the fall of 2023. She is a former TOW playwriting fellow (2017) and has been commissioned by MTC, Atlantic Theater Co., Williamstown Theatre Festival and Second Stage. Jocelyn has also written for TV on Russia Doll, Spike Lee's She’s Gotta Have It, the upcoming Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things, the upcoming new Star Wars series The Acolyte and is also writing the live screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Once On This Island for Disney+. She was the 2022 recipient of the Outstanding Adaptation Drama Desk Award.
Monique Touko (Director) is a London based multidisciplinary artist working in theatre, radio and film. Her skill set includes facilitation, devising, international work, new writing, script reading, drama school shows and projects, training actors, and working with young people. Monique won the Stage Debut Award for Best Director in 2022 for Malindadzimu – her professional debut. Recent theatre credits include: The Clinic (Almeida); Fair Play (Bush Theatre); Malindadzimu (Hampstead Theatre). Her assisting credits include: Wishlist (Royal Exchange Manchester and Royal Court); Yellowman (Young Vic); On the Exhale (Traverse Theatre), Cock (Chichester Festival Theatre); Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre), Rosmersholm (Duke of York Theatre); Blood Wedding (Young Vic).
Produced in association with Mark Gordon Pictures and Francesca Moody Productions.
YOUNG LYRIC
In response to School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play, Young Lyric will deliver a two-week performance project with 15 local West Londoners aged 16 – 21. Theatrically exploring the concept of ‘toxic femininity’ the project will culminate in a new performance piece celebrating the joy in difference, diversity and individual cultural identity.
The Bacchae
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production
By Euripides
Adapted by Katherine Soper
Directed by Kwame Owusu
Thursday 20 – Saturday 22 July 2023
Following the success of Lysistrata in the Studio in 2022, the next cohort of SPRINGBOARD trainees will return to the Studio stage in this new production.
Katherine Soper’s (Adaptor) first play, Wish List, won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, The Stage Debut Award for Best New Play, and caused Katherine to be nominated as Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards. It was performed at the Manchester Royal Exchange and Royal Court, directed by Matthew Xia, and is published by Nick Hern Books. Her next play, The Small Hours, was written for National Theatre Connections. Katherine has written for The Big House and is currently under commission to the Royal Court.
Kwame Owusu (Director) is a writer and director based in London. He was the Resident Assistant Director at the Lyric 2021/2022 and is a Young Associate at the Gate Theatre. His first play, Resist, is about political radicalism, and his second, Dreaming and Drowning (Winner of the Mustapha Matura Award 2022) is about a young man navigating racism and searching for belonging. Kwame participated in the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers’ Group 2020/202. His play Horizon was commissioned for the Bush Theatre’s 2022 community play. He is currently writing an audio piece which will debut as part of the English Touring Theatre’s Fucked Up Bedtime Stories (for adults). Recently directed Stoning Mary (Arts University Bournemouth, 2022) and will be the Staff Director at the National Theatre on Rachel O’Riordan’s production of Romeo and Julie in 2023. Other directing credits include Pomana (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); The Wolf from the Door (John Thaw Studio Theatre); Rota (‘Shorts Festival’, Antwerp Mansion); and Whiskey Wednesdays (Kickitdown Productions).
For the Culture: Celebrations of Blackness
Second year of events honouring Blackness through art, performance, conversation, love, and joy
Curated by Associate Director Nicholai La Barrie
Spring 2023
In 2023 the Lyric will continue celebrating Black joy, talent, culture and creativity through a series of events following a successful launch of this new festival in 2022. The Lyric will invite artists and audiences back to reminisce, dance and celebrate the festival’s second year. In response to Frantic Assembly’s Othello (19 January – 11 February 2023), there will be a facilitated workshop centred on Black men’s mental health. Later in the year, we will host an event exploring Black beauty inspired by School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play (08 June – 15 July 2023).
Kindly supported by Hammersmith Bid.
ALSO COMING UP AT THE LYRIC IN 2023/2024
Cinderella
Written by Vikki Stone.
Saturday 18 November 2023 - Saturday 06 January 2024
Press Day: Saturday 25 November 2023
Tickets on sale now for our 2023 Lyric Panto, Cinderella.
The Fairy Godmother of panto returns! Dust off your carriage and polish your slippers, for you shall go to the ball next winter.
Award-winning writer and composer Vikki Stone returns to the Lyric following her British Panto Award for Best Script for Aladdin in 2021.
Vikki Stone (Writer) is an award-winning writer, composer, comedian and musician. Most recently she was musical director, pianist and band leader of the ITV Saturday night show Romeo & Duet, making her the first on-screen female musical director of a primetime entertainment show in the UK. Writing credits include: co-adapting hit tv show Hey Duggee for a UK tour, #zoologicalsociety for Royal & Derngate, Aladdin for the Lyric, Ten Pieces Special Report for BAFTA-nominated children’s music series BBC Ten Pieces, and Alice In Wonderland, which is heading to The Liverpool Everyman in 2023. TV appearances include: BBC Proms coverage for BBC Four, Romeo & Duet, Richard Osman’s House of Games, Celebrity Pointless and the BAFTA award-winning Ten Pieces for BBC. Awards include: 2022 - The British Panto Awards - Best Script – Winner; 2021/2020/2019 - Stiles and Drew Best New Song – Nominee; 2019 - Best Musical Show - Leicester Comedy Festival – Winner.
Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Pins and Needles co-production
Wednesday 22 November - Saturday 30 December 2023
Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas has become a must-see Christmas show and returns to the Lyric Studio for 2023. The Lyric family favourite, co-produced with the Oliver Award-nominated Pins & Needles Productions, is a great introductory theatre experience for young children and bursts into life with live music, playful puppets and a magical set.
Join Santa as he awakes from a dream of sun, sea and sand only to find it is the busiest day of the year: Christmas Eve. Watch as he prepares for his Christmas deliveries, feeds his reindeer and finally takes flight into the snowy night.
Pins and Needles Productions is an award-winning, female-led theatre company based in Bristol, led by Director/Designer partnership Emma Earle and Zoe Squire. They create imaginative, transformational theatre for all ages and are passionate about finding playful ways to tell stories full of heart, humour and magic. Pins and Needles Productions are well known for their bold adaptations of children’s books and are incredibly proud to have been trusted to adapt two of Raymond Briggs’ classic books for the stage; Father Christmas and The Bear, both of which are playing in the UK this Christmas. Recent work includes OZ, a new adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which played at Tobacco Factory Theatres in 2021; Oi Frog & Friends!, produced by Kenny Wax Family Entertainment, which was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Family Show in 2020; and Select A Quest, an online interactive adventure. In 2018, they won the UK Theatre award for Best Show for Children and Young People for Little Mermaid, co-produced with the egg, Theatre Royal Bath, and their musical adaptation of Mr Popper’s Penguins has toured the USA extensively, following runs in the West End and New York. Work for older audiences includes Flies by Oliver Lansley and their current project in development, an immersive, non-linear adaptation of The War of the Worlds by Matt Grinter.
www.pinsandneedlesproductions.co.uk
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
Lyric Square, King Street, London, W6 0QL
Box office: 020 8741 6850
www.lyric.co.uk
Tickets from £10
LISTINGS
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Pins and Needles co-production
Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas 2022
Based on the book by Raymond Briggs
Directed by Emma Earle
Dates: until 31 December 2022
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production
Jack and the Beanstalk
By Jude Christian and Sonia Jalaly
Directed by Nicholai la Barrie
Dates: until 07 January 2023
Press Day: Saturday 26 November 2022, 2pm and 6pm
A Frantic Assembly production, co-produced with Leicester Curve
Othello
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Scott Graham
Dates: 19 January – 11 February 2023
Press Night: Tuesday 24 January, 7pm
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Sheffield Theatres co-production in association with Playful Productions
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
By Dario Fo and Franca Rame
In a new adaptation by Tom Basden
Directed by Daniel Raggett
Dates: Monday 13 March – Saturday 08 April 2023
Press Night: Friday 17 March, 7pm
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, ETT and Sheffield Theatres production
Commissioned by ETT
The Good Person of Szechwan
By Bertolt Brecht
Adapted by Nina Segal
Directed by Anthony Lau
Dates: Saturday 15 April - Saturday 13 May 2023
Press Night: Thursday 20 April, 7pm
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre presents
For the Culture – Celebrations of Blackness
Curated by Nicholai La Barrie
Spring 2023
Full festival programme to be announced soon
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production
School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play
By Jocelyn Bioh
Directed by Monique Touko
Dates: Thursday 08 June – Saturday 15 July 2023
Press Night: Wednesday 14 June, 7pm
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production
The Bacchae
By Euripides
Adapted by Katherine Soper
Directed by Kwame Owusu
Dates: Thursday 20 July – Saturday 22 July 2023
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production
Cinderella
By Vikki Stone
Dates: Saturday 18 November 2023 – Saturday 06 January 2024
Press Day: Saturday 25 November 2023
A Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Pins and Needles co-production
Raymond Brigg’s Father Christmas 2023
Dates: Wednesday 22 November – Saturday 30 December 2023
