RSC Barbican Season
The Royal Shakespeare Company's 1999-2000 Barbican season opens on 27th October with The Taming of the Shrew at the Pit. Starring Monica Dolan and Stuart McQuarrie, it is directed by Lindsay Posner.
Also in the season are King Lear (with Nigel Hawthorn), Antony and Cleopatra with Alan Bates and Frances de la Tour, Timon of Athens with Michael Pennington, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Volpone, Oroonoko, Don Carlos and The Family Reunion.
The first main house production Lear, is a co-production with Thelma Holt and the Sainokuni Shakespeare Company (Japan). It will be directed by Yukio Ninagawa and will open on 22nd October. It is currently playing at the Saitama Arts Centre in Japan and, after its London run, will transfer to Stratford from 3rd December to 26th February.
From Star Trek to Dublin
Star Trek: the Next Generation and Deep Space 9 star Colm Meaney is currently appearing as "Captain" Jack Boyle in Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock at the Donmar Warehouse. The play, set in Dublin during the civil war of 1922, opened on Monday of last week.
Spanish Award for Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave has been awarded the Spanish Donostia award for contribution to cinema. She shares it with Anjelica Houston and Spanish actor/director Fernando Fernan Gomez-Gomez.
Eric and Ernie Memorabilia
If you fancy owning something belonging to Eric Morcambe or Ernie Wise, there is just time to pop along to eBay (UK) before the end of Monday 26th September to bid for oen of six items up for sale.
ROH Box Office Opening
The first part of the revamped Royal Opera House opens to the public on Monday. Although the rest of the building will not be open until 4th December, the box ofice is now reading and 87,000 tickets are going on sale. Telephone bookings will be able to be made from 8am on Monday to 8am on Wednesday, after which they will be open from Monday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm.
Earlier this week, the ROH announced that it had reached £95m of its £100m redevelopment fund appeal. The full cost of the rebuilding of the House is £214m.
RNT's Battle Royal Cast
The cast for Nick Stafford's new play Battle Royal, to open at
the Lyttleton on 9th December (previewing from 2nd) was announced this week.
Directed by Howard Davies, it will star Zoe Wanamaker, Simon Russell Beale and
Brendan Coyle.