JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN Comes to The Bridge Theatre in September

Simon Russell Beale will play the title role in Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman in a new version by Lucinda Coxon at the Bridge Theatre. Directed by Nicholas Hytner with set designs by Anna Fleischle and costume designs by Liam Bunster, John Gabriel Borkman will have its first performance on 24 September 2022 with opening night on 29 September 2022 with the run concluding on 26 November 2022. Booking opens today at 10am for Bridge Priority members and public booking is from 10am on 22 March 2022. Further casting and the full creative team will be announced shortly.

John Gabriel Borkman, once an illustrious entrepreneur, has been brought low by a prison sentence for fraud. As he paces alone in an upstairs room, bankrupt and disgraced, he is obsessed by dreams of his comeback. Downstairs, his estranged wife plots the restoration of the family name. When her sister arrives unannounced, she triggers a desperate showdown with the past.

Simon Russell Beale (John Gabriel Borkman) was last at the Bridge in A Christmas Carol and Bach & Sons, both also directed by Nicholas Hytner. His previous theatre credits include The Lehman Trilogy at National Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway. His other collaborations with Hytner include The Alchemist, Much Ado About Nothing, Major Barbara, Collaborators, London Assurance and Timon of Athens, all at The National Theatre. As well as being the recipient of multiple theatre awards, in 2003 he was made a CBE for his services to the Arts and in 2019 he was made a Knight Batchelor.

Lucinda Coxon previously collaborated with Nicholas Hytner at The Bridge on the world premiere of Alys, Always. Her other theatre writing credits include Herding Cats, Happy Now, The Eternal Not, Nostalgia, The Shoemaker's Wife, Vesuvius, Wishbones, Three Graces, The Ice Palace and Waiting at the Water's Edge. Her screen writing credits include the award-winning The Danish Girl starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, The Little Stranger starring Domhnall Gleeson and Ruth Wilson, The Crimson Petal and The White starring Romola Garai for the BBC, Wild Target starring Emily Blunt and The Heart of Me starring Paul Bettany and Helena Bonham-Carter.

For the Bridge Theatre Nicholas Hytner has directed Young Marx, Julius Caesar, Allelujah!, Alys, Always, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Two Ladies, Beat the Devil, The Shrine, Bed Among the Lentils, A Christmas Carol, Bach & Sons and The Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage. This month he directs Ralph Fiennes in David Hare's Straight Line Crazy also at The Bridge and in June he will direct Alex Jennings in Stephen Beresford's The Southbury Child at Chichester Festival Theatre and The Bridge. Previously he was Director of The National Theatre from 2003 to 2015.

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