The Young Vic have announced details for their Spring 2022 season including the London transfer of Daniel Fish's revival of the Tony Award-winning Oklahoma! direct from an acclaimed Broadway run.
Also featured is The Collaboration, written by Anthony McCarten and directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, explores the complex and captivating relationship between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, starring Jeremy Pope and Paul Bettany as the iconic artists.
Deirdre McLaughlin directs a show in the Clare Theatre as the 2021 Genesis Future Director Award recipient. The award forms part of the Young Vic’s commitment to nurturing artists as they explore their craft.
Additionally, Five Plays brings together five directors and five writers, to make five-minute plays. James Barnes, David Furlong, David Gilbert, Abigail Sewell and Khadifa Wong direct works by babirye bukilwa, Gael Le Cornec, Martin Crimp, Erinn Dhesi and Mufaro Makubika.
Also announced is, following over twenty years supporting early-career artists, the Young Vic’s Directors Program will be reimagined as the Creators Program, a home for multi-disciplinary, anti-disciplinary and hybrid artists, while Creative Headspace #2 will see the Young Vic support up to 50 members of the Genesis Network with a paid opportunity to be creative on the Young Vic’s TikTok channel, with support and workshops on working in the medium.
Speaking about the announcement Young Vic Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah said: “There is a moment at the beginning of every theatre show when you and your fellow audience take a collective breath before diving into a story that could change you or your perspective irrevocably. To my mind, the work and projects announced today channel this energy. As we offer them, I ask that together we take a breath, listen carefully, and be open to reimagining what we thought we knew."
Full season details:
The Collaboration
By Anthony McCarten
Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah
16 February – 2 April 2022
Main House
“Boxers are like painters, both smear their blood on the canvas.”
New York, 1984. Fifty-six-year-old Andy Warhol’s star is falling. Jean-Michel Basquiat is the new wonder-kid taking the art world by storm. When Basquiat agrees to collaborate with Warhol on a new exhibition, it soon becomes the talk of the city.
As everyone awaits the ‘greatest exhibition in the history of modern art’, the two artists embark on a shared journey, both artistic and deeply personal, that re-draws both their worlds.
Paul Bettany (The Avengers, Wandavision) is the iconic Warhol and Jeremy Pope (Hollywood, Scandalous) plays the magnetic Basquiat in the world premiere of Anthony McCarten’s thrilling new drama, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah.
The Collaboration is Written by Anthony McCarten, and Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, with Set and Costume Design by Anna Fleischle, Sound Design by Emma Laxton and Projection Design by Duncan McLean.
Further cast and creative team to be announced.
Relaxed Performance: 8 March, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance: 10 March, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance: 18 March, 7.30pm
The Collaboration goes on sale to Soul Mates and Friends 16 December 12noon.
Public booking opens 21 December 12noon.
Oklahoma!
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs
Original Choreography by Agnes de Mille
Directed by Daniel Fish
26 April - 25 June 2022
Main House
This is Oklahoma! as you’ve never seen it before, re-orchestrated and reimagined for the 21st century. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, Daniel Fish’s bold interpretation transfers to the Young Vic, direct from an acclaimed run on Broadway and a U.S. tour.
Oklahoma! tells a story of a community banding together against an outsider, and the frontier life that shaped America. Seventy-five years after Rodgers and Hammerstein reinvented the American musical, this visionary production is funny and sexy, provocative and probing, without changing a word of the text.
“A smashing Oklahoma! is reborn. Daniel Fish’s wide-awake, jolting and altogether wonderful production is thrilling!” - New York Times
Oklahoma! is Directed by Daniel Fish, with Orchestrations, Arrangements & Music Supervision by Daniel Kluger, Choreography by John Heginbotham, Set Design by Laura Jellinek, Costume Design by Terese Wadden, Lighting Design by Scott Zielinski, Sound Design by Drew Levy, Projection Design by Joshua Thorson, and Casting by Jacob Sparrow, with Associate Director Jordan Fein, and Associate Set Designer Grace Laubacher.
Cast and additional creative team to be announced.
Audio Described Performance: 24 May 2022, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance: 9 June, 7.30pm
Oklahoma! goes on sale to Soul Mates 7 December 12noon, and Friends 16 December 12noon.
Public booking opens 11 January 2022, 12noon.
Five Plays
Five Plays brings together five directors and five writers, to make five, five-minute plays. This year sees James Barnes, David Furlong, David Gilbert, Abigail Sewell and Khadifa Wong direct works by babirye bukilwa, Gael Le Cornec, Martin Crimp, Erinn Dhesi and Mufaro Makubika.
Five Plays is Designed by Shankho Chaudhuri, with Casting by Annelie Powell.
Five Plays was launched in 2013, and to date has worked with 100 writers and directors. Each iteration sees five writers writing a five-minute play, rehearsed and staged over five days with five different casts. Five Plays is just one of the ways the Young Vic works with early-career directors and theatre-makers to develop their craft.