Photos: First Look at IDA RUBENSTEIN: THE FINAL ACT at the Playground Theatre

The Playground Theatre presents Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act, with Naomi Sorkin - former ballerina with the American Ballet Theatre - in the role of Ida.

The full cast are Darren Berry as Ravel, Marco Gambino as D'Annuzio, Naomi Sorkin as Ida Rubinstein, Max Wilson as Edward Clement, and Kathryn Worth as Sorreto/Romaine Brooks.

The stellar creative team includes director and choreographer Christian Holder (choreography includes American Ballet Theatre and Joffrey Ballet), designs by twice-BAFTA winner and Emmy award-winning designer David Roger, lighting by Declan Randall, videography by Matthew Ferguson, and Ida's costumes by Charles and Patricia Lester.

Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act tells the untold story of dance's forgotten diva, the early 20th-Century Russian impresario, performer, and femme fatale. From Paris to Palestine, from dancing with the Ballets Russes to commissioning Ravel's Boléro, Ida Rubinstein's career as a dancer and impresario saw her working with artists such as Stravinsky, Nijinsky, and Debussy. But despite her varied career and fame in her own time, her name is all but forgotten, whilst her contemporaries live on in memory.

Now Naomi Sorkin, actor and former ballerina with American Ballet Theatre, recounts the Russian heiress' dramatic life: her scandalous Salomé that lead her embarrassed family to commit her to an asylum, her rise to the heights of fame in Paris, her bisexual love affairs, the assassination of her long-time lover Lord Moyne, and her selfless devotion to wounded soldiers in both World Wars.

Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act combines text, movement, music, projections, and film to evoke a long-gone era of theatrical extravagance.

Photo Credit: Gareth McLeod

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