Tag: The Old Vic

The Old Vic takes in The Brightening Air

Chris O’Dowd, Brian Gleeson, Rosie Sheehy, Seán McGinley and Hannah Morrish will come together for The Brightening Air, an entrancing tale of fate, family and unseen forces in 1980s Ireland. 

From writer and director Conor McPherson (The Weir, Girl from the North Country), the play will have its world premiere at The Old Vic.

Dermot (O’Dowd) returns home to County Sligo with hidden aims. His siblings (Gleeson and Sheehy) are desperate to hold on to the family home but with an ex-clergyman uncle and sister-in-law (McGinley  and Morrish respectively) looking for their own answers, plans soon go awry.

The full cast features Derbhle Crotty (Portia Coughlan), Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty (Juno and the Paycock), Gleeson (Bad Sisters), Aisling Kearns (Juno and the Paycock), McGinley (A Whistle in the Dark), Morrish (The Merchant of Venice 1936), O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) and Sheehy (Machinal). They are joined by understudies Ella Maria Carmen, Callum Cronin, Joseph McCarthy and Amy Vicary-Smith.

Set & costume is by Rae Smith, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by Gregory Clarke, movement & intimacy by Lucy Hind, casting by Serena Hill, voice by Charlie Hughes-D’Aeth, dialect by Danièle Lydon and fights by Kate Waters.

The associate director is Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, associate set is Niall McKeever, the costume supervisor is Poppy Hall, the props supervisor is Fahmida Bakht and the music associate is Benjamin McQuigg.

The Brightening Air is at The Old Vic from April 10-June 14, 2025. Tickets are on sale now: oldvictheatre.com

Bertie Carvel, Patsy Ferran to headline The Old Vic’s Pygmalion

Bertie Carvel and Patsy Ferran will star in Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw’s classic play, at The Old Vic this autumn.

Richard Jones (Endgame, The Hairy Ape) directs Carvel (The 47th) and Ferran (Camp Siegfried) in the story of Eliza Doolittle (Ferran), who aspires to more than selling flowers on the streets of Covent Garden.

After a chance meeting with Professor Henry Higgins (Carvel) and Colonel Pickering, she finds herself the subject of a rash bet to pass her off as a lady amongst the great and the good of London society.  

A funny, biting and subversive satire on class, the ruthless linguist Higgins attempts to transform the brilliantly irrepressible Eliza – who breaks the mould he creates for her.

Pygmalion will play at The Old Vic from September 6-October 28, 2023.

Rehearsals underway for The Old Vic’s Sylvia

Beverly Knight and the cast of Sylvia are now in rehearsals ahead of the musical’s launch at The Old Vic next month.

Previews begin on January 27 for the show, which will tell the story of Sylvia Pankhurst – feminist, activist, pacifist, socialist and rebel – the lesser-known Pankhurst at the heart of the Suffragette movement who changed the lives of working women and men across the world.

Sylvia debuted as a work-in-progress back in 2018 and now returns to The Old Vic, blending dance, hip hop, funk and soul with original music by Josh Cohen and DJ Wade.

A ZooNation production, Knight heads the cast as Emmeline Pankhurst alongside Sharon Rose as Sylvia Pankhurst and Kelly Agbowu, Verity Blyth, Bradley Charles, Kimmy Edwards, Alex Gaumond, Jade Hackett, Sweeney Holdsworth, Stevie Hutchinson, Kate Ivory Jordan, Hannah Khemoh, Sinead Long, Jaye Marshall, Kandaka Moore, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Razak Osman, Jay Perry, Kirstie Skivington, Ellena Vincent and Malachi Welch.