Richmond Shakespeare Reveals 26th Season Lineup

Richmond Shakespeare has announced its 26th season lineup of classic and contemporary plays and musicals. Season 26 will include Lord of the Flies, The Father, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cyrano De Bergerac, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Season memberships may be purchased online at www.richmondshakespeare.org.

"This might be one of the most exciting seasons we've ever had," exclaims artistic director James Ricks. "In this year's season, we will be producing a diverse collection of plays written in the Renaissance era, the Victorian age, the twentieth century, as well as the 21st century. Each production, in their own way, addresses the very human problem of finding our voices. Whether it's in the face of adversity, of consensus, or even our own personal limitations, finding that voice helps us not only forge our own identities, but also our fortunes. Sometimes those fortunes are magnificent, and sometimes catastrophic. We think it's going to be a very special season." 

Managing director Jase Smith Sullivan adds, "we are thrilled to be returning to our outstanding venues at Dominion Energy Center’s Gottwald Playhouse, The Steward School’s Cramer Center for the Arts, and Agecroft Hall. We are also excited to expand our partnerships and present a show at Virginia Repertory Theatre’s Theatre Gym this season. Ranging from the versatile Gottwald, the intimate Theatre Gym black box, the magnificent Cramer Center proscenium, and the stately Agecroft outdoor courtyard, each space offers a unique experience. With our diverse season and venues, we truly have something for everyone to enjoy."

The season kicks off in October at Dominion Energy Center's Gottwald Playhouse with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams and running October 10 – November 3 2024. This violent tale of the breakdown of civilized behavior in a setting of isolation and fear highlights the contrast between cooperation and competition. The story is set against the background of some type of apocalypse and a plane crash that forces a group of boys to cope with the human need for society and the animal need for survival. While protecting themselves from the outward threat of the beast, they discover that the real threat is their own primitive impulses.

Next up at Virginia Repertory Theatre’s Theatre Gym is The Father: A Tragic Farce by Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton and playing January 30 – February 16, 2025. A play that constantly confounds expectations and works almost like a thriller, with a sinister Pinteresque edge full of guile. The Father constantly makes you question the truth and the nature of reality. An astonishingly unguarded play about the cruelties of love and the limits of patience, and the way child-parent relationships become inverted as old age creeps up and mugs us. Winner of the 2014 Molière award for France’s best play, The Father makes us see things as if through the confused eyes of André, as he struggles to make sense of a progressively befuddling world.

  

What’s the buzz? The first musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to be produced for the professional stage, Jesus Christ Superstar has wowed audiences for over 50 years. A timeless work, the rock opera is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary and universally known series of events but seen, unusually, through the eyes of Judas Iscariot. Loosely based on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Superstar follows the last week of Jesus Christ’s life. The story, told entirely through song, explores the personal relationships and struggles between Jesus, Judas, Mary Magdalene, his disciples, his followers and the Roman Empire. Jesus Christ Superstar will be presented at The Steward School’s Cramer Center for the Arts March 6 – 23, 2025

Kicking off the Richmond Shakespeare Festival at Agecroft Hall in summer 2025 is Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Cyrano is a fearless soldier, a loyal braggadocio, and a man furiously self-conscious about his very protuberant nose. Embark on this glorious romance, swept through with beauty, wit and heart-stopping action. All this, supplied with panache by our iconic Cyrano – a gallant who lives life full-tilt, parrying foes with both swordplay and wordplay. Leading every charge with a glint in his eye, a soul full of poetry and a world of longing in his expansive heart. Just one thing stands in the way of his happiness. If he can see his way free of it, he may just carry the day. 

Closing out the season at Agecroft Hall is William Shakespeare’s beloved A Midsummer Night’s Dream. On Midsummer’s Night, the real and fairy worlds collide. Four young lovers, faced with the prospect of unhappy marriage or worse, flee the court of Athens and stumble into an enchanted forest. Nearby, a group of amateur actors rehearse a play to celebrate an upcoming royal wedding. As these mere mortals cross paths with a warring fairy King and Queen, chaos reigns in the natural world. The lines between reality and illusion start to blur and no-one but mischievous Puck knows what is true and what is magic.

Memberships to Richmond Shakespeare's Season 26 Season are on sale now. Visit www.richmondshakespeare.org for more information and to purchase online.

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