Lyric Hammersmith's 2018 Season to Feature New Adaptations, Innovative Shakespeare Staging, and More

Today the Lyric Hammersmith announces their 2018 Season comprising a new adaptation, an innovative Shakespeare staging, a major festival production, a stunning revival, an award-winning contemporary opera and a brand new dance production.

Following on from the previously announced Things I Know to be True by Frantic Assembly, Toyah Willcox comes to the Lyric in an audacious new staging of Derek Jarman's seminal film, Jubilee.

In March, Sean Holmes' production of Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars comes to the Lyric after a sell-out run at The Abbey Theatre. This is followed by the revival of the Royal Opera's award-winning operatic production of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis in April.

The internationally renowned choreographer Hofesh Shechter brings his Shechter II company of talented young dancers to the Lyric Hammersmith for 6 performances only. Shechter II will be performing a double-bill of Hofesh's blackly comic Clowns and a brand new creation to sit alongside it.

The Lyric's co-production of Fatherland arrives in London in May/June as part of LIFT, following its world premiere at Manchester International Festival in 2017.

To take us in to next autumn, a new condensed staging of two of Shakespeare's most brutal and poetic plays will both be performed in one production by one company in o t h e l l o m a c b e t h, directed by Jude Christian and Sean Holmes.

In 2018 the Lyric will continue its commitment to opening theatre to new audiences through its Free First Night Scheme, through which the theatre gives at least 2,500 free tickets each year to people who live or work locally to attend the first performance of each production.

The Lyric Hammersmith's Artistic Director Sean Holmes said:

'It's a real pleasure to announce such a vibrant and provocative season. Punk rebellion, Irish revolt, ground-breaking opera, electrifying dance, Shakespeare doubled and Frantic Assembly at their best make for a rich and compelling Lyric season: one that promotes emerging talent and celebrates the artistic benefits of collaboration in all its forms."

Jubilee

Adapted for the stage by Chris Goode from the original screenplay by Derek Jarman & James Whaley.

Directed by Chris Goode

A Royal Exchange Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and Chris Goode & Company production

15 February - 10 March 2018

Press Night: Tuesday 20 February 2018 at 7pm

Faith in the establishment collapsing everywhere. The far-right on the march. Culture wars and random violence - all decked out in red, white and blue. But a spirit of anarchy hangs in the air, the desire to burn it all down and start over...

THIS CAN ONLY BE 1977. ...RIGHT?

Derek Jarman's iconic film captured punk at its giddy height: a riot of music, DIY fashion, and every kind of sex - with a little pyromania thrown in. Now, forty years on, this new stage adaptation of Jubilee remixes it for the social and political turmoil of 2017. Centred around a marauding girl gang on a killing spree and a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth I, it's a story of what happens when creativity and nihilism collide.

Featuring a soundtrack to die (horribly) for, and with a cast led by one of the film's original cast members, legendary punk warrior Toyah Willcox, Jubilee is a free-spirited, gloriously rude, take-no-prisoners blast of a show, for young punks, old punks, and anyone who's ever wanted to set the world on fire.

The Lyric's main house auditorium will be reconfigured to recreate in part the Royal Exchange's theatre in-the-round.

Director Chris Goode

Designer Chloe Lamford

Lighting Designer Lee Curran

Sound & Music Timothy X Atack

Movement Director Sasha Milavic Davies

Cast includes: Travis Alabanza, Harold Finley, Craig Hamilton, Gareth Kieran-Jones, Tom Ross-Williams, Sophie Stone, Temi Wilkey, Toyah Willcox

Suitable for ages: 16+

The Plough and the Stars

By Sean O'Casey

Directed by Sean Holmes

A Lyric Hammersmith and Abbey Theatre production

15 March - 07 April 2018

Press Night: Tuesday 20 March 2018 at 7pm

Th' time is rotten ripe for revolution

Following a sell-out season at The Abbey Theatre as part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the 1916 Easter Rising, as well as a successful Irish and US tour, The Plough and the Stars, comes to the Lyric as a co-production with The Abbey Theatre.

Set amid the tumult of the Easter Rising, The Plough and the Stars is the story of ordinary lives ripped apart by the idealism of the time.

The residents of a Dublin tenement shelter from the violence that sweeps through the city's streets. A revolution that will shape the country's future rages around them. What kind of Ireland awaits them?

This is a dynamic re-imagining: loyal to the spirit of O'Casey's play whilst unleashing contemporary resonances for a modern audience.

The Plough and the Stars was first performed at The Abbey Theatre in 1926. The audience rioted. Now regarded as a masterpiece, this provocative play is an essential part of our understanding of Ireland in 1916.

Olivier Award-winning director Sean Holmes brings a new perspective to Sean O'Casey's absorbing play, which was nominated for 4 Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2016.

Director Sean Holmes

Set Designer Jon Bausor

Costume Designer Catherine Fay

Lighting Designer Paul Keogan

Sound Designer Philip Stewart

Cast to be announced.

4:48 Psychosis

By Philip Venables

Based on the play by Sarah Kane

Directed by Ted Huffman

The Royal Opera production, a co-commission with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, in association with the Lyric Hammersmith.

23, 24, 26, 28, 30 April, 02 & 04 May 2018

Press Night: Tuesday 24 April 2018 at 7.30pm.

The performance lasts approx. 1 hour 30 minutes, with no interval.

Philip Venables' opera 4.48 Psychosis received its premiere in an acclaimEd Royal Opera production directed by Ted Huffman at the Lyric Hammersmith in May 2016. It went on to win the award for Achievement in Opera at the 2016 UK Theatre Awards and received an Olivier Award nomination in the 2017 list.

Venables is the first to set music to a play by Sarah Kane. Despite the dark nature of its subject and the eventual fate of its troubled creator, 4.48 Psychosis is a work that contains humour and warmth as well as tremendous emotional power, all of them underlined in Venables' entirely original and hard-hitting operatic version, which received exceptional reviews when it first appeared and seems assured to excite and move audiences on its first revival.

Sung in English and contains themes of an adult nature.

Music Philip Venables

Text Sarah Kane

Conductor Richard Baker

Director Ted Huffman

Designer HannaH Clark

Video designer Pierre Martin

Lighting designer D.M. Wood

Sound designer South Intermedia

Cast to be announced.

Hofesh Shechter / Shechter II

Clowns/New Creation (UK Premiere)

A Hofesh Shechter Company Production in association with Lyric Hammersmith and HOME

08 May - 12 May 2018

Press Night: Tuesday 08 May at 7.30pm

Hofesh Shechter has been described as 'one of the British dance scene's hottest properties, the creator of works that are full of raw, visceral energy, set to blasting percussive scores that he composes himself ' (New York Times). The internationally-acclaimed choreographer, whose landmark pieces include Political Mother and 2017's Grand Finale, now brings his unique, high-energy work to the Lyric Hammersmith for the first time, as part of a UK and world tour.

Shechter's blackly comic portrayal of a group of anarchic clowns was rapturously received at Nederlands Dans Theater in 2016, and he now creates a brand new companion piece to sit alongside it. With its razor-sharp lighting and pulsating score, Shechter's work has the energy of a rock gig combined with beautiful, moving choreography.

Clowns/ New Creation is performed by Shechter II, the 8 strong apprentice company chosen from the most inspiring young talent across the world.

Produced by Hofesh Shechter Company. Clowns was originally commissioned by NDT (2016). The evening, Clowns/New Creation, is produced in association with HOME Manchester and the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, and received production support from Fondazione I Teatri Reggio Emilia and a production residency at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, Brighton.

Choreography and Music Hofesh Shechter

Lighting Design (Clowns) Lee Curran

Performed by Shechter II

Company includes Riley Wolf, Juliette Valerio, Zunnur Sazali, Adam Khazmuradov, Natalia Gabrielczyk, Emma Farnell-Watson, Robinson Cassarino and Neal Maxwell.

Fatherland

Created by Scott Graham for Frantic Assembly, Karl Hyde and Simon Stephens.

Commissioned and produced by Lyric Hammersmith, Manchester International Festival, Frantic Assembly, the Royal Exchange Theatre and LIFT. Supported by PRS for Music Foundation.

25 May - 23 June 2018

Press Night: Thursday 31 May 2018 at 7pm

This bold new production, by Scott Graham, Karl Hyde and Simon Stephens, focusing on contemporary fatherhood in all its complexities and contradictions, premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre as part of Manchester International Festival. Fatherland will open in May and will be a part of the 2018 LIFT festival.

This intensely physical production is performed by a 13-strong cast who will be joined by the Chorus of Others, a cacophony of voices, specially formed as part of Fatherland, for the production at the Lyric. Fatherland features exclusive songs and music written by Karl Hyde (Underworld) and Matthew Herbert.

Inspired by conversations with fathers and sons from Corby, Kidderminster and Stockport, the three co-creators' hometowns, Fatherland explores identity, nationality and masculinity. In a vivid and deeply personal portrait of 21st-century England at the crossroads of past, present and future, Fatherland is a show about what we were, who we are and what we try to be.

Co-Author & Director Scott Graham

Co-Author & Composer Karl Hyde

Co-Author & Writer Simon Stephens

Designer Jon Bausor

Lighting Designer Jon Clark

Co-Composer & Music Producer Matthew Herbert

Sound Designer Ian Dickinson for Autograph Sound

Choreographer Eddie Kay

Dramaturg Nick Sidi

Casting Director Anne McNulty CDG

Cast to be announced.

o t h e l l o m a c b e t h

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Jude Christian and Sean Holmes

A Lyric Hammersmith and HOME production.

05 October - 03 November 2018

Press Night: Wednesday 10 October 2018 at 7pm

On sale date 10 January 2018

One company. Two directors. One set. Two plays. o t h e l l o m a c b e t h. An audacious condensed staging of two of Shakespeare's most brutal and poetic plays, exploring fear, jealousy, power and revenge. Two stories in which powerful men are manipulated into destroying their societies, their households, their loved ones and themselves.

In this dynamic and visceral production these two iconic plays will be performed together by one exciting company of actors, examining escalating cycles of violence; abuses of power and the role and nature of the "tragic hero".

This production will be designed by one of the Linbury Prize 2017 Designers. The Linbury Prize is the UK's most prestigious award for Stage Design, providing a unique opportunity for graduating designers to work with some of the UK's leading theatre, opera and dance companies. The finalists will each get the chance to work with one of the participating companies and four of the twelve will win a commission to realise their designs, with one designer being awarded the overall winner's title.

Directors Jude Christian & Sean Holmes

For more information visit www.lyric.co.uk.

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