Network, the dystopian TV news drama comes to the stage with Bryan Cranston. Image by Jan Versweyveld.
NATIONAL THEATRE
SOUTHBANK
SE1 9PX
020 7452 3000
Network
To 24 March
by Paddy Chayefsky
I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.
Howard Beale, news anchorman, isn’t pulling in the viewers. In his final broadcast he unravels live on screen. But when the ratings soar, the network seize on their newfound populist prophet, and Howard becomes the biggest thing on TV.
Network depicts a dystopian media landscape where opinion trumps fact. Hilarious and horrifying by turns, the iconic film by Paddy Chayefsky won four Academy Awards in 1976. Now, Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour) and director Ivo Van Hove (Hedda Gabler) bring his masterwork to the stage for the first time, with Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) in the role of Howard Beale.
Follies
To 3 January
Book by James Goldman, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves.
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SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE
56 PARK STREET
SE1 9AR
020 7261 9565
Romantics Anonymous
To 6 January
Angélique makes beautiful chocolates, carefully infused with all the emotion that seems to overwhelm her in daily life. Jean-René runs a chocolate factory that is running out of steam, rather like his own existence. Both seek help from the usual sources: Jean-René favours self-help tapes and Angélique joins a support group, Les Émotifs Anonymes.
Romantics Anonymous is an unusual and tender love story in which the obstacles to happiness are not the usual external barriers, but those sneaky little ones we know all too intimately: the ones within.
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THE OLD VIC
103 THE CUT
SE1 8NB
020 7928 2651
A Christmas Carol
18 November to 20 January 2018
By Jack Thorne
Rhys Ifans is Scrooge at the Old Vic. Photo by Helen Maybanks
Matthew Warchus directs Charles Dickens’ timeless classic A Christmas Carol in a joyous new adaptation. On a bitter Christmas Eve night a cold-hearted miser is visited by four ghosts. Transported to worlds past, present and future, Ebenezer Scrooge witnesses what a lifetime of fear and selfishness has led to and sees with fresh eyes the lonely life he has built for himself. Can Ebenezer be saved before it’s too late?
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THE YOUNG VIC
66 THE CUT
SE1 8LZ
020 7922 2922
The Jungle
To 6 January
by Joe Murphy & Joe Robertson
The Jungle at Calais is re-created at the young Vic
Okot wants nothing more than to get to the UK. Beth wants nothing more than to help him.
Meet the hopeful, resilient residents of “The Jungle”– just across the Channel, right on our doorstep. Join refugees and volunteers from around the world over fresh baked naan and sweet milky chai at the Afghan Café.
How To Win Against History
30 December
Book, Music and Lyrics by Seiriol Davies
The 5th Marquis of Anglesey was one of the world’s wealthiest men until he lost it all by being too damn fabulous. A riches-to-rags story becomes a hilarious, ripped-up musical in an outrageous performance by Seiriol Davies and the company.
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MENIER CHOCOLATE FACTORY
53 SOUTHWARK STREET
SE1 1RU
020 7378 1713
Barnum
Book by Mark Bramble
To 3 March
Barnum tells the story of P.T. Barnum, the Greatest Showman on Earth, who combines razzle-dazzle with charm and brass to sell “humbug” to cheering crowds. A joyful and moving musical portrait of the nineteenth century’s greatest show-biz legend, Barnum is a colourful, dynamic spectacle full of circus, side-show legends, toe-tapping songs and immense heart.
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SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE
77-85 NEWINGTON CAUSEWAY
SE1 6BD
020 7407 0234
Mother Courage and her Children
Josie Lawrence brings an impressive range of light and shade to Brecht’s Mother Courage. Photo by Scott Rylander.
by Bertolt Brecht
To 9 December
In a land ravaged by war, Mother Courage pulls her cart with her three children in the wake of the army, trading with soldiers and attempting to make profit from the war.
Widely considered to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, Brecht’s Mother Courage And Her Children has been described as the greatest anti-war play of all time.
Dear Brutus
by J. M. Barrie
To 30 December
1917. In a remote English village there are rumours of an enchanted wood. One of the inhabitants – a mysterious old man – invites eight strangers to stay. They all have something in common. When, one evening, the wood miraculously appears the guests feel compelled to enter. What happens there has the power to change their lives forever…
