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Young Vic announces new season of work for 2021

Kwame Kwei-Armah

Young Vic Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah announceD a new season of work, welcoming theatre-makers and audiences back through the doors to create and experience live performance for the first time since the Young Vic’s 50th Birthday celebrations in October 2020.

AT A GLANCE…

LEGENDARY TALES, REIMAGINED

  • The season opens with Changing Destiny, Booker Prize-winner Ben Okri’s stunning new adaptation of the 4,000-year-old Egyptian poem of Sinuhe the Warrior King, directed by Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah and designed by award-winning architect Sir David Adjaye
  • The complete creative team announced for the highly-anticipated Hamlet, with Cush Jumbo in the title role, directed by her long-time collaborator Greg Hersov

PLAYS THAT EXPLORE OUR PAST AND SPEAK TO OUR PRESENT

  • Best of Enemies, a new play by Olivier Award-winner James Graham, follows the debates that changed politics and television forever, directed by Jeremy Herrin in a co-production with Headlong
  • Klippies, the acclaimed debut by Jessica Siân, a coming-of-age drama set in the twentieth year of South Africa’s democracy about the intensity of first love, directed by Genesis Future Directors Award recipient Diyan Zora

PLAYING WITH DIGITAL

  • A unique collaboration between human and computer minds, AI is a play developed by Chinonyerem Odimba and Nina Segal, written alongside GPT-3 OpenAI technology. Using this advanced deep-learning artificial intelligence system to generate human-like script and dialogue, Genesis Fellow and Associate Director Jennifer Tang and Company will create a new play for the stage. In this unique hybrid of research and performance, the script will be brought to life over a series of evenings by the writers, actors and company, alongside insights into how the artists collaborated with the AI
  • Best Seat in Your House, an innovative multi-camera immersive broadcast experience inviting audiences to play with the broadcast form. Viewers choose between taking The Director’s Chair – with the possibility to cut live to any camera in the theatre at any time throughout a show ­– or relax and enjoy the live edit of a show with The Director’s Cut

FOR AND WITH OUR LOCAL COMMUNTY

  • Young Vic Taking Part present the third YV Unpacked tour, taking a professional production to venues such as elderly care homes, homeless shelters and rehabilitation centres. Love Reign, an eclectic piece of new writing about friendship, is Written by Shereen Jasmin Phillips and Directed by Stef O’Driscoll
  • Taking Part also bring the world of theatre and ballroom together in an explosive evening of music, dance, walking and partying with Sundown Kiki, a bold celebration of Queer South London in all its glory, with Creative Direction by Jay Jay Revlon, Directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu

Kwame Kwei-Armah, Young Vic Artistic Director, said: “This pandemic has wielded an unquantifiable wound to theatre-makers and theatres, the repercussions of which we will continue to feel for a long time. We have seen a year of racial reckoning reverberate through our sector, a cry of pain and a call to do better. To announce a new season of work fills my heart with optimism, as it comes with the hope that artists can return to their craft, and as we rebuild, we improve on what was good, and take time to undo the broken systems and structures.

My message with this new season is Welcome Back and Welcome Home. The Young Vic is a civic centre and a home-away-from-home for our community. It is a space for us to hear extraordinary stories told by the world’s finest artists that help us see the world through someone else’s eyes.

With Ben Okri’s Changing Destiny and Shakespeare’s Hamlet we bring you the tales you thought you knew, and present them afresh. These stories have withstood the test of time because they continue speak to what it means to be human, and I believe now, more than ever, they deliver messages we need to hear. We also bring you bold work to illuminate our present. Our co-production with Headlong, Best of Enemies is a new play from James Graham that places its fingers on the political pulse of 1960s America, but could not feel more current today.

Emerging from the pandemic into a world which feels more digitalised than ever before, our ambitious experiment with technology continues. With AI, we ask great human and computer minds to come together, to see how each may inform the other in the creation of art. With Best Seat in Your House – our offer of multi-camera broadcasts – we invite audiences to play with technology, redefining the live streaming experience for ultimate flexibility and choice. 

Our Directors Program, which for the last twelve months has served over 4,000 artists, will continue adapting to meet the needs of its members, including finding ways to interrogate the structures that limit our future generations of theatre-makers. They continue helping artists develop their craft; in this season we see a new version of Klippies, directed by Genesis Future Directors Award recipient Diyan Zora.

And Taking Part, our creative engagement department, will continue extending its arms as wide as possible to our local boroughs, touring a brand new play Love Reign to venues like hospitals, prisons, and residential homes, and with Sundown Kiki, they welcome Queer South London to our space to tell their stories.

Both the Young Vic Directors Program and Taking Part, supported by the wider YV team, have overcome the hurdles of this pandemic year to reach their networks and connect them to art. I feel this moment is a celebration of their achievements, as much as it is anticipating the excellence to come.

So, we can’t wait to welcome you back into our theatre. Some elements, such as the measures we have in place to ensure your safety, might feel slightly different as protecting our staff and audiences is – and always will be – our priority. But much will feel exactly like the Young Vic home you remember. We are committed to keeping ticket prices low, starting at £10. We continue with our £5 first previews. We will keep giving 10% of our tickets free to those who experience barriers to accessing the arts, our local communities, and early-career artists – irrespective of box office demand. So join us to participate in the magic of live theatre, as we take you from Ancient Egypt to Artificial Intelligence, and everything in between.

Welcome back and welcome home.”

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Young Vic: Cast announced for The New Tomorrow

Young Vic

Kwame Kwei-Armah, Artistic Director of the Young Vic, today announced the cast of The New Tomorrow, a weekend of pop-up performances celebrating the Young Vic’s 50th birthday. The New Tomorrow– the first piece of live theatre at the Young Vic since the pandemic closed UK theatres in March – will interrogate
the change that has come and is coming, and what the next 50 years might hold.

Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́, Adjoa Andoh, Matthew Dunster, Paapa Essiedu, Martina Laird, Anoushka Lucas and Sophie Stone will perform short works from writers and artists Jade Anouka, Marina Carr, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Ruth Madeley, Amy Ng, Stef Smith, Jack Thorne, Isobel Waller-Bridge and Steve Waters, directed by Young Vic Genesis Fellow and Associate Director Jennifer Tang. The performance will be hosted by Kwame Kwei-Armah, and also feature speeches from activists Shahidha Bari and Tom Gill, with Kwame Kwei-Armah Jr. as DJ.

Tickets for The New Tomorrow have been previously won via ticket lottery, however the performance will be live streamed for free from the Young Vic
via Facebook Live on Sunday 4 October at 4pm.

Together with the 50th Projection Project and The Unforgotten, The New Tomorrow marks the beginning of We are the New Tide, the Young Vic’s year-long 50th birthday programme which will run until September 2021.

The New Tomorrow is co-produced with Benjamin Lowy and Emily Vaughan-Barratt for Wessex Grove.

 

 

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Young Vic’s A Streetcar Named Desire streamed on Youtube as part of National Theatre At Home

Blanche DuBois (Gillian Anderson). Photo by Johan Persson
  • The cast includes Gillian Anderson as Blanche, Ben Foster as Stanley and Vanessa Kirby as Stella.
  • The 2014 NT Live broadcast of the Young Vic and Joshua Andrews co-production of Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Benedict Andrews.
  • The critically-acclaimed production, captured live from the Young Vic theatre, remains the fastest-selling production in Young Vic history.
  • Broadcast as part of NATIONAL THEATRE AT HOME – the National’s new initiative to screen a selection of much-loved National Theatre Live productions on YouTube for free over the next two months.
  • NT Live has been broadcasting for ten years and screens to over 2,500 cinemas in 60 countries.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE will be shown on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel on Thursday 21 May, 7pm BST as part of NATIONAL THEATRE AT HOME

As Blanche’s (Gillian Anderson) fragile world crumbles, she turns to her sister Stella (Vanessa Kirby) for solace – but her downward spiral brings her face to face with the brutal, unforgiving Stanley Kowalski (Ben Foster).

During this unprecedented time which has seen the closure of theatres, cinemas and schools, NATIONAL THEATRE AT HOME is providing access to content online for audiences to watch from their homes.Audiences around the world can stream NT Live productions for free via YouTube every Thursday at 7.00pm BST and they will then be available on demand for seven days.

Alongside the streamed productions, NATIONAL THEATRE AT HOME will also feature the National Theatre at Home Quiz, to be played from home featuring familiar faces from the world of stage and screen as the quizmasters. On the final Monday of each month people will be able join the virtual quiz directly from their homes via the NT’s YouTube channel and Facebook page live at 7pm. 

 National Theatre Live turned ten on 25th June last year – the date of the first ever NT Live broadcast which was Phédre starring Academy Award® winner Helen Mirren. Over ten years over 80 theatre productionshave been shown in 3500 venues worldwide, reaching an overall audience of more than 10 million people. NT Live currently screens in 2500 venues across 65 countries. Recent broadcasts include Cyrano de Bergerac with James McAvoy, Present Laughter with Andrew Scott, Fleabag with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, All My Sons with Sally Field and Bill Pullman, All About Eve with Gillian Anderson and Lily James, Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo, Julius Caesar with David Morrissey and Ben Whishaw, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Sienna Miller.

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YOUNG VIC: Ruth Wilson to star in the UK Premiere of The Second Woman, a co-production with LIFT Festival

The Second Woman

One woman. 100 men. 24 hours.

The Young Vic and LIFT Festival today announced that two-time Olivier award-winner, Golden Globe winner, and Tony and BAFTA nominated actress Ruth Wilson will star in the UK Premiere of The Second Woman. Nat Randall and Anna Breckon’s internationally acclaimed show sits at the intersection of performance, video and film, as 100 different men are invited to appear opposite Ruth Wilson as ‘Virginia’ who performs the exact same scene again and again, for a full 24 hours. In their first collaboration since 2014, this Young Vic and LIFT co-production brings an exciting new version of this internationally acclaimed epic feat of endurance theatre and live cinema to London as part of LIFT 2020.

The Second Woman takes inspiration from the 1977 John Cassavetes film Opening Night. An all-female-identifying and non-binary team capture and mix the action live from multiple cameras, in a piece of extraordinary theatre that shines a light on the nature of gender and power relationships. The Second Woman will begin at 4pm on Friday 19 June, and conclude at 4pm on Saturday 20 June.

‘24 hour’ tickets and ‘Advanced Timed’ tickets go on sale to the public tomorrow, Tuesday 10 March, at 3pm GMT. ‘On The Door’ tickets will be available to buy in person from the Young Vic Box Office throughout the 24-hour performance duration. For more information on tickets, please click here.

Ruth Wilson said, “I am absolutely thrilled, and a little scared to be part of Nat Randall and Anna Breckon’s truly unique theatrical experience. I have a feeling that The Second Woman will challenge all norms of what it means to be actor and audience, to be performer and observer. And what better place to be breaking the mould, than at the Young Vic, in association with LIFT Festival. Please come share this weird and wonderful journey with me.”

The Second Woman is Created by Nat Randall and Anna Breckon, with Script and Direction by Anna Breckon and Nat Randall, Video Design by EO Gill and Anna Breckon, Lighting Design by Amber Silk and Kayla Burrett, Sound Design by Nina Buchanan, Set Design by FUTURE METHOD STUDIO, Original Hair and Makeup Design by Sophie Roberts and Produced with Fenn Gordon for Tandem.

The Second Woman is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and originally supported by Next Wave 2016.

 

YV: IDemystify

FESTIVALS AS A PATHWAY FOR CREATING NEW WORK

In partnership with LIFT

Nat Randall, Anna Breckon & Malik Nashad Sharpe

Young Vic Theatre, 4 June

Artists are invited to take a look at making work for theatre festivals in this event presented by YV:IDemystify, in partnership with LIFT. Nat Randall, Anna Breckon and Malik Nashad Sharpe will address how creators of work respond to festival contexts, how shows are proposed and developed within these, how originators of work interact with the curated nature of festivals, and how they may subsequently take their work further.

This event is part of the YV:IDemystify series of free events for theatre makers to promote the sharing of best practice models, help open up new pathways in the industry and aid people in navigating their creative journeys.

 

Listings

The Second Woman
Main House, Young Vic, 66 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LZ
19 June, 4pm – 20 June, 4pm
Tickets: £15, £25 and £45
https://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/the-second-woman

YV: IDemystify – Festivals as a Pathway for Creating New Work.

In partnership with LIFT
Young Vic, 66 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LZ
4 June, 4 PM
Tickets: FREE, booking essential
https://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/festivals-pathway

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Due to popular demand, sold out run of Fairview at the Young Vic extends for six more performances only

Fairview

Due to public demand, the Young Vic today announced that the currently sold out production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fairview will extend until Thursday 23 January 2020 for six additional performances. These additional performances are on sale now, Friday 6 December, with tickets priced from £10 – £43.

It’s Grandma’s birthday and the Frasier family have gathered to celebrate. Beverly just wants everything to run smoothly, but Tyrone has missed his flight, Keisha is freaking out about college and Grandma has locked herself in the bathroom.

“Dazzling and ruthless…a glorious, scary reminder of the unmatched power of live theatre to rattle, roil and shake us wide awake.”—The New York Times (Critic’s Pick)

Fairview was the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for women playwrights. The show is directed by Young Vic Genesis Fellow and Associate Director Nadia Latif.

The complete cast includes Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Donna Banya, David Dawson, Julie Dray, Nicola Hughes, Matthew Needham, Rhashan Stone and Esther Smith.

Written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, Directed by Nadia Latif, with Design by Tom Scutt, Lighting Design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, Sound Design and Composition by Xana, Choreography by Malik Nashad Sharpe, Casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG, with Jerwood Assistant Director Rob Awosusi and Boris Karloff Trainee Assistant Director Yasmin Hafesji.

Listing

Young Vic

66 The Cut, Waterloo, London, SE1 8LZ

Box Office: 020 7922 2922 / www.youngvic.org

Fairview

Main House

Until 23 January 2020

Performances:

Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm

Matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2.30pm

Access Performances:

Audio Described performance: 12 December, 7.30pm

Captioned performance: 9 January, 7.30pm

Relaxed performance: 14 January, 7.30pm

Tickets:                               £10, £20, £33, £43 (Concessions available)

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New cast members announced to star alongside Wendell Pierce & Sharon D Clarke in West End transfer of Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN

Death of a Salesman

Elliott & Harper Productions and Cindy Tolan today announced new cast members joining Wendell Pierce and Sharon D Clarke in the West End transfer of the highly acclaimed, sold-out Young Vic production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the Piccadilly Theatre from 24 October 2019.

Two of Britain’s hottest young actors join the company to play Willy Loman’s sons.  Sope Dirisu will play Biff Loman and Natey Jones will play Happy Loman.  Sope’s theatre credits include the title role in Coriolanus for the RSC, Ogun in The Brothers Size for the Young Vic and Mohammed Ali in One Night in Miami for the Donmar Warehouse.  His screen credits include Black Mirror for Netflix and the upcoming film Gangs of London.  Amongst Natey’s recent theatre credits are Small Island for the National Theatre,Doctor Faustus, Don Quixote and The Alchemist for the RSC and Tina: Tina Turner, The Musical in the West End.

Victoria Hamilton-Barritt joins the company to play The Woman and Jenny and Carole Stennett joins to play Miss Forsythe.

Reprising their roles performed at the Young Vic alongside Wendell and Sharon are:  Ian Bonar as Bernard, Trevor Cooper as Charley, Joseph Mydell as Ben Loman, Matthew Seadon-Young as Howard Wagner and Stanley, Nenda Neurer as Letta andFemi Tomowo as Willy Loman’s father and musician.  Emmanuel Ogunjinmi will understudy Biff and Happy with further ensemble members to be announced shortly.

Following her recent award-winning successes on Company and Angels in America, Marianne Elliott co-directs Death of a Salesman with Miranda Cromwell, who worked as Associate Director on both
shows. Together, they bring a unique vision to one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century, seen through the eyes of an African-American family.

Wendell Pierce, who is best known for his roles in The Wire, Suits and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan will reprise his revelatory performance as Willy Loman with the Olivier award-winning Sharon D. Clarke, who is currently wowing audiences at London’s Kiln Theatre in Blues in the Night, reprising her heart-rending performance as Linda Loman.

Joining directors Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell on the creative team are designer Anna Fleischle, lighting designerAideen Malone, sound designer Carolyn Downing, composer and musical director by Femi Temowo; with fight direction by Yarit Dor and casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG.

Arthur Miller – playwright –  was born in New York City and studied at the University of Michigan.  His plays include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, The American Clock, Broken Glass, Mr Peters’ Connections and Rescurrection Blues.  He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949.  Other works include the novelFocus, the screenplay Misfits, the memoire Timebends and texts for the books In Russia, In the Country and Chinese Encounters, in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath.  Recently published collections include Collected Plays, Collected Essays andPresence: Collected Stories.

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Complete cast announced for The Jumper Factory – visiting HMP Brixton and HMP Wandsworth, then playing at HOME Manchester 10 – 14 September

The Jumper Factory

The Young Vic today announced the complete cast for The Jumper Factory. Joining original company members Ayomide Adegun, Jake Mills, Pierre Moullier and Raphael Gwilliams-Akuwudike are Joe Haddad and Rasaq Kukoyi. The production is presented by a cast of young men aged from 18 – 25, whose lives have all been affected in some way by the criminal justice system. The production will be staged for prisoners in HMP Brixton and HMP Wandsworth in early September, before playing at HOME Manchester from 10 – 14 September.

 “I wait whilst the world carries on, whilst my family grow old, whilst my lovers move on, and I count down the days, and I wait…”

How would you survive in prison?

Nearly two years ago, Young Vic Taking Part took the Young Vic’s production of The Brothers Size into HMP Wandsworth. The show was performed to several wings of the prison, and followed by a series of response workshops led by playwright Luke Barnes and directorJustin Audibert. The result of the workshops was the creation of a new piece of theatre – developed with eight of the prisoners andwritten by Luke Barnes – called The Jumper Factory. The show explored universal themes such as family, masculinity and redemption and told their stories of experience behind bars and the resilience they need to face a world that moves on without them.

Following the success of the performance at HMP Wandsworth, a future life was developed for the show. The Jumper Factory was performed by a company of young men aged 18-25 with little or no professional experience in acting and whose lives have all been affected in some way by the criminal justice system. The show toured to venues around the UK including Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich in addition to a sell-out run at the Young Vic in London.

Rushand Chambers and Tej Obano from the original The Jumper Factory company have gone on to further professional work. Rushand Chambers joins the UK touring cast of Disney’s The Lion King, whilst Tej Obano secured new agent representation off the back of his performance in The Jumper Factory and has been cast in David Hare’s The Permanent Way at the Vaults in London. This performance run at HOME Manchester marks the final staging with the rest of the original cast; many of them have secured agents, places at top schools including International Theatre School Jacques Lecoq and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, or further professional acting engagements.

The Jumper Factory was conceived by Young Vic Taking Part and Justin Audibert, written by Luke Barnes and Directed by Josh Parr,with Sound Design by Mike Winship, Lighting Design by Jess Glaisher and Costume Design by Catherine Kodicek.

 

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Full cast announced for Blood Wedding

Blood Wedding

Young Vic Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah today announced the complete cast for Blood Wedding. Multiple award-winning director Yaël Farber (Les Blancs, Mies Julie, The Crucible) brings Federico García Lorca’s famous tragedy to the Young Vic this September in a new version by Marina Carr.

 We’re all curious about what might hurt us…

What do you do when the day that is supposed to be the happiest of your life becomes a living nightmare? A repressed, passionate love affair rears its head on the day two young people tie the knot. What is done cannot be undone.

 The full cast for Blood Wedding includes Bríd Brennan, Scarlett Brookes, Gavin Drea, Aoife Duffin, Annie Firbank, Olwen Fouéré, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, Faaiz Mbelizi, Steffan Rhodri, Thalissa Teixeira and David Walmsley.

 Written by Marina Carr, Directed by Yaël Farber, with Design by Susan Hilferty, Lighting by Natasha Chivers, Sound by Emma Laxton, Composition byIsobel Waller-Bridge and Movement by Imogen Knight.

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Sold out production of acclaimed DEATH OF A SALESMAN with Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke to transfer to West End this autumn

Sharon D Clarke (Linda) Wendell Pierce (Willy Loman) Death of a Salesman (c) Brinkhoff Mogenburg

Elliott & Harper Productions and Cindy Tolan have today announced the transfer of the highly acclaimed, sold-out Young Vic production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman to the Piccadilly Theatre from 24 October 2019 to 4 January 2020, with a press night on Monday 4 November 2019. 

Tickets for Death of a Salesman at the Piccadilly Theatre go on general sale on Thursday 13 June 2019, with 200 tickets available at £15 at each performance.

Following her recent award-winning successes on Company and Angels in America, Marianne Elliott co-directs Death of a Salesman with Miranda Cromwell, who worked as Associate Director on both shows. Together, they bring a unique vision to one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century, seen through the eyes of an African-American family.

Wendell Pierce, who is best known for his roles in The Wire and Suits, will reprise his revelatory performance as Willy Loman with the Olivier award-winning Sharon D. Clarke reprising her heart-rending performance as Linda Loman.  Full cast to be announced.

Joining directors Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell on the creative team are designer Anna Fleischle, lighting designerAideen Malone, sound designer Carolyn Downing, composer and musical director by Femi Temowo; with fight direction and additional movement support by Yarit Dor and casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG.

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) was born in New York City and studied at the University of Michigan.  His plays include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, The American Clock, Broken Glass, Mr. Peters’ Connections, and Resurrection Blues. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949. Other works include the novel Focus, the screenplay The Misfits, the memoir Timebends, and texts for the books In Russia, In the Country, and Chinese Encounters, in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath. Newly published collections include CollectedEssays and Presence: Collected Stories.

Listings:

Elliott & Harper Productions and Cindy Tolan present the Young Vic Production of
DEATH OF A SALESMAN 
By Arthur Miller
Directed by Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell

 Piccadilly Theatre
16 Denman Street,

London,

W1D 7DY

Dates:  Thursday 24 October 7.30pm to Saturday 4 January at 7.30pm

Matinees Wednesday and Saturday 2pm

Press Night:  7pm, Monday 4 November 2019

Tickets from £15

Box Office:  0844 871 7630

 Tickets on priority sale from Monday 10 June via Young Vic & ATG

Tickets on general sale from Thursday 13 June

https://www.atgtickets.com/

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Death of a Salesman – God I love this show

Wendell Pierce

Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell have treated us to a mesmerising evening that is overflowing with suspended furniture, sliding door frames, live music, Arinzé Kene in a vest and a inspired new version of Death of a Salesman, at the Young Vic. 

Inspired as in the Loman family are black, which casts their drudgery in pre-civil rights America in a whole different light. This Salesman stars Sharon D Clarke and Wendell Pierce as Linda and Willy Loman. 

Elliott and Cromwell co-direct with attention grabbing pace. And 70 years on, Arthur Miller’s play has chilling resonance. And it’s all here: the pathos, time bending and drama of intense despair. This revival illuminates the classic as the past haunts the present time and place majestically. 

Memory and reality are never overplayed.

Wendell Pierce

Wendell Pierce

It may demand a lot from audiences and take risks, but that’s what all great theatre should do. And if some don’t come off, it’s one of the few classic tragic plays that can usually fall back on its script or the astonishing performances of its cast.

Particular plaudits with Elliott & Harper’s impressive production, of course, go to Sharon D. Clarke who’s turned loyal wife Linda Loman into a thing of very slow-burning, bluesy pain. 

Wendell Pierce leads the collapse of the Loman family as the deluded Salesman: out of time. His Willy is lofty, pathetic and explosive. 

Sharon D Clarke

Sharon D Clarke

The design by Anna Fleischle is a beautifully fragmented and disjointed shell of a home: The Young Vic shimmers in rich primary colours through short sharp bursts of light through a prism or wooden frames. Hats off to the glorious sound by Carolyn Downing and clever music by Temowo. 

Halfway through Act 1, though, I felt this was Marianne Elliott on both autopilot and at the peak of her powers: standing, at times, in the shadow of huge successes on both revivals of musical Company and Angels in America.

But Act 2 left me reeling and emotionally shattered. Make of that what you will. 

The final scene is 10/10. 

Personally, I thought the whole thing was so brilliantly executed that it should become a permanent fixture on The Cut. 

A perfect revival. 

Death of a Salesman runs at the Young Vic from May 9-June 29, youngvic.org

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