Bridge Theatre Announces Laura Linney's Return in MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON; and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
By: Stephi Wild Oct. 12, 2018
After a sell-out run in June this year in which Laura Linney made her London Theatre debut, she will return to the Bridge to reprise the title role in Richard Eyre's production of My Name is Lucy Barton. Running from 23 January -16 February 2019 for a strictly limited 26 performances, this haunting dramatic monologue is adapted by Rona Munro from Pulitzer Prize-winning Elizabeth Strout's 2016 New York Times best-selling short novel of the same name. Evening performances are Monday to Saturday at 7.45pm with Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets for My Name is Lucy Barton will go on sale for Priority Members today at 10am, for Advance Members on Thursday 18 October 2018 at 10am with tickets released for public sale on Friday 19 October 2018 at 10am.
Unsteady after an operation, Lucy Barton wakes to find her mother sitting at the foot of her bed. She hasn't seen her in years, and her visit brings back to Lucy her desperate rural childhood, and her escape to New York. As she begins to find herself as a writer, she is still gripped by the urgent complexities of family life.
Laura Linney and Richard Eyre have worked together twice before - on stage Eyre directed Linney in a Broadway production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible and on screen he directed her in his and Charles Wood's adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's The Other Man.
On Broadway, Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning Laura Linney made her debut in Six Degrees of Separation and subsequently played Nina in The Seagull, Thea Elvsted in Hedda Gabler, Yelena Andreyevna in Uncle Vanya, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, La Marquise de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses and most recently alternated the roles of Regina Hubbard Giddens and Birdie Hubbard in The Little Foxes for the Manhattan Theatre Club. On film, she made her screen debut in Lorenzo's Oil and was most recently seen in The Dinner. Her extensive film credits also include The Truman Show, Kinsey, Sully, Primal Fear, Hyde Park on Hudson, You Can Count on Me and Mystic River. Her many small screen credits include Tales of the City, The Big C, which she also produced, Frasier and most recently Ozark for Netflix.
Elizabeth Strout's debut novel was Amy and Isabelle which was subsequently adapted into a film for HBO. Her further writing credits are Abide with Me, Olive Kitteridge, which was adapted into an Emmy award-winning mini-series also for HBO, The Burgess Boys, My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible.
Rona Munro has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television including the award-winning trilogy The James Plays for the National Theatre of Scotland, the National Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival. Her other theatre writing credits include Scuttlers for the Royal Exchange Theatre, Iron and The Last Witch for the Edinburgh International Festival and Little Eagles for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Richard Eyre is a multi award-winning theatre, film, opera and television Director. Eyre was Director of the National Theatre from 1988-1997 and alongside his numerous theatrical awards he is also the recipient of the Companion of Honour.
Joanne Froggatt plays the central role, Frances, in the premiere of Lucinda Coxon's Alys, Always based on the novel by Harriet Lane. The production, with a cast also featuring Robert Glenister, is directed by Nicholas Hytner and will begin previews at the Bridge on 25 February with opening night on 5 March and performances until 30 March 2019. Evening performances are Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm with weekday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm (check website for details). Further casting for Alys, Always will be announced at a later date. Tickets for Alys, Always will go on sale for Priority Members today at 10am, for Advance Members on Thursday 18 October 2018 at 10am with tickets released for public sale on Friday 19 October 2018 at 10am.
Frances works on the books pages of a Sunday newspaper. She's quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside, looking in. One evening, driving back to London after visiting her infuriating parents, she comes across an upturned car crumpled on the side of the road. She waits with the injured driver, Alys Kyte, until the ambulance arrives. Later, when Alys's famous family gets in touch, Frances finds herself for the first time ushered into the world on the other side of the window. And she begins to wonder: what would it take to become a player? A gripping psychological thriller that excavates the fault line that separates the entitled from the unentitled.
Joanne Froggatt will play Frances. On television she played Anna Smith in all six seasons of Downton Abbey for which she was the recipient of a Golden Globe award as well as three Emmy nominations. She is currently filming the feature film of the same period drama. Last year she was seen in Sundance TV and ITV's Liar which has now been commissioned for a second series. Her previous theatre credits include The Knowledge and Little Platoons at the Bush Theatre, All About My Mother at the Old Vic, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Manchester Royal Exchange, Playhouse Creatures at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Be My Baby for Soho Theatre. On film Froggatt recently played alongside Ed Harris and Rich Sommer in the independent feature A Crooked Somebody. Her other film credits include Mary Shelley, One Last Thing, Starfish, A Street Cat Named Bob and Filth. For her film debut in In Our Name she won Best Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards.
Robert Glenister can soon be seen in the forthcoming Moonlight and Night School as part of Jamie Lloyd's Pinter at the Pinter season. His many other theatre credits include Glengarry Glen Ross at the Playhouse Theatre, Great Britain and Blue Remembered Hills for the National Theatre, Noises Off at the Old Vic and Novello, The Late Middle Classes for The Donmar Warehouse, Hedda Gabler for the Theatre Royal, Bath, The Winterling for the Royal Court and Measure for Measure, The Spanish Tragedy and Little Eyolf for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His many television credits include Curfew, Paranoid, The Musketeers, Cold Feet, Close to the Enemy, Vera, The Great Train Robbery, The Café, We'll Take Manhattan, Hustle and Spooks. Glenister's film credits include The Aeronauts, Journey's End, Live by Night, Cryptic, Creation, Laissez Passer, The Visitors, All Forgotten, Secret Rapture and Quadrophenia.
Lucinda Coxon's previous 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 multiple award-winning The Danish Girl starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, The Crimson Petal and the White starring Romola Garai for BBC, Wild Target starring Emily Blunt, The Heart of Me starring Paul Bettany and Helena Bonham-Carter and the recently released The Little Stranger starring Domnhall Gleeson and Ruth Wilson.
Alys, Always was Harriet Lane's debut novel, published in 2012, and was followed in 2014 with Her. Previously Lane wrote for the Guardian and the Observer as well as Vogue and Tatler.
Nicholas Hytner co-founded the London Theatre Company with Nick Starr. He was Director of the National Theatre from 2003 to 2015, where the productions he directed included The History Boys, Hamlet, One Man, Two Guvnors, and Othello. His films include The Madness of George III, The Lady in the Van and The History Boys. His book Balancing Acts was published by Jonathan Cape last year. For the Bridge, Hytner has directed Young Marx, Julius Caesar and Allelujah!
Nicholas Hytner will direct an immersive production of William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream running at the Bridge from 3 June - 31 August 2019 with opening night on 11 June 2019. Evening performances are Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm with weekday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm (check website for details). Tickets for A Midsummer Night's Dream will go on sale for Priority Members today at 10am, for Advance Members on Thursday 18 October 2018 at 10am with tickets released for public sale on Friday 19 October 2018 at 10am.
Reuniting the creative team who previously presented Julius Caesar at the Bridge earlier this year, A Midsummer Night's Dream will have designs by Bunny Christie, costumes by Christina Cunningham, lighting by Bruno Poet and sound by Paul Arditti. Music will be by Grant Olding.
Shakespeare's great comedy plunges its audience into the heart of an enchanted forest, a place of change and infinite possibility. In the Bridge's immersive production, you sit close up to the action, or follow it on foot into a dream world of feuding fairies and uncontrollable desire.
With seating wrapped around the action, there will also be several hundred immersive tickets at £25 available in advance for each performance with a special allocation of £15 immersive tickets held for Young Bridge, a free scheme for those under 26.
Having previously directed William Shakespeare's As You Like It, Hamlet, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Timon of Athens, Twelfth Night and The Winter's Tale, Nicholas Hytner will now direct his first production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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