BRIDGE THEATRE
SOUTHBANK
SE1 9PX
020 7452 3000
My Name is Lucy Barton
2 June to 23 June
by Elizabeth Strout
Unsteady after an operation, Lucy Barton wakes to find her mother sitting at the foot of her bed. She hasn’t seen her in years, and her visit brings back to Lucy her desperate rural childhood, and her escape to New York. Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout’s best-selling short novel, a haunting dramatic monologue, captivated readers in 2016.
Lucy Barton will be played by three-time Academy Award and four-time Tony nominee Laura Linney, making her London debut.
Hallelujah!
11 July to 28 September
by Alan Bennett
The Beth, an old fashioned cradle-to-grave hospital serving a town on the edge of the Pennines, is threatened with closure as part of an NHS efficiency drive. Meanwhile, a documentary crew eager to capture its fight for survival follows the daily struggle to find beds on the Dusty Springfield Geriatric Ward, and the triumphs of the old people’s choir (newest member: the Pudsey Nightingale).
NATIONAL THEATRE
SOUTHBANK
SE1 9PX
020 7452 3000
Translations
To 11 August
by Brian Friel
Owen, the prodigal son, returns to rural Donegal from Dublin. With him are two British army officers. Their ambition is to create a map of the area, replacing the Gaelic names with English. It is an administrative act with radical consequences.
Julie
To 8 September
by August Strindberg
Wild and newly single, Julie throws a late night party. In the kitchen, Jean and Kristina clean up as the celebration heaves above them. Crossing the threshold, Julie initiates a power game with Jean. It descends into a savage fight for survival. Julie will broadcast live to cinemas by NT Live on 6 September.
The Lehman Trilogy
To 22 September
by Stefano Massini
The story of a family and a company that changed the world, told in three parts on a single evening. Sam Mendes directs Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles who play the Lehman Brothers, their sons and grandsons.
An Octoroon
To 18 July
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ extraordinary play comes to the National Theatre after a sold-out run at the Orange Tree Theatre. In 1859, white Irish playwright Dion Boucicault writes a hit play about America. Today, a black American playwright attempts to do the same.
Exit the King
From 17 July
by Eugène Ionesco
Patrick Marber (Three Days in the Country, Hedda Gabler) directs his new version of Exit the King with a cast including Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill, A Christmas Carol) in the title role and Indira Varma (Game of Thrones, Man and Superman) as his first Queen. Somewhere in Europe the kingdom is disintegrating. It’s the last day of King Bérenger’s life. Queen Marguerite is preparing for the end and Queen Marie is in denial. The King is 400 years old and dying, but he’s clinging on for dear life…
Home, I’m Darling
24 July to 5 September
by Laura Wade
How happily married are the happily married? Every couple needs a little fantasy to keep their marriage sparkling. But behind the gingham curtains, things start to unravel, and being a domestic goddess is not as easy as it seems. Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd, Humans) plays Judy in this unsettling new comedy about one woman’s quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife.
SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE
56 PARK STREET
SE1 9AR
020 7261 9565
Hamlet
To 26 August
by William Shakespeare
Learning of his father’s death, Prince Hamlet comes home to find his uncle married to his mother and installed on the Danish throne. At night, the ghost of the old king demands that Hamlet avenge his ‘foul and most unnatural murder.’
As You Like It
To 26 August
by William Shakespeare
Rosalind, the daughter of an unjustly exiled duke, falls in love with the wronged Orlando, a courtier deprived of his birthright by his brother.
THE OLD VIC
103 THE CUT
SE1 8NB
020 7928 2651
A Monster Calls
7 July to 25 August
by Patrick Ness
Thirteen-year-old Conor and his mum have managed just fine since his dad moved to America. But now his mum’s very sick and she’s not getting any better. His grandmother won’t stop interfering and the kids at school won’t look him in the eye. Then, one night, at seven minutes past midnight, Conor is woken by something at his window. A monster has come walking. It’s come to tell Conor tales from when it walked before.
THE YOUNG VIC
66 THE CUT
SE1 8LZ
020 7922 2922
Fun Home
18 Jun 2018 to 1 Sep 2018
Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel
Winner of 5 Tony Awards, this electrifying Broadway version of Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel took America by storm. Meet Alison at three stages of her life. Memories of her 1970s childhood in a funeral home merge with her college love life and her coming out. Looking back on her complex relationship with her father, Alison finds they had more in common than she ever knew…
MENIER CHOCOLATE FACTORY
53 SOUTHWARK STREET
SE1 1RU
020 7378 1713
SPAMILTON
12th July to 8th September
by Gerard Alessandrini
Gerard Alessandrini brings his singular wit to the all-conquering musical Hamilton – in the words of its creator Lin Manuel Miranda, “I laughed my brains out”. Following the success of Forbidden Broadway, Alessandrini returns to the Menier to lampoon the multi-award-winning Hamilton, with Spamilton, which not only takes target at Broadway’s biggest export, but a host of the theatre world’s biggest names and musicals.
SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE
77-85 NEWINGTON CAUSEWAY
SE1 6BD
020 7407 0234
Infinite Joy
23 June to 14 July
by Brendan Cull and Robert Scott
A small stormy island, a tribe of teenagers and their “Mother” live in complete isolation. Cut-off from the outside world, when a piece of modern technology washes up on the rocks, it opens up a strange new world of endless possibilities. These possibilities offer infinite joy, but at what cost? A musical fable for Generation Y, devised and developed with the members of the Andrew Lloyd Webber company.
For King and Country
28 June to 21 July
by John Wilson
1918. The Western Front. Private Hamp, a young working-class soldier from the North of England, has been in the frontline of a bloody battlefield for three years. One day he decides to walk away…This tense court-room drama, set during the final months of the Great War, follows the young shell-shocked Hamp’s trial for desertion and his fight for his right to live. His defending officer, lawyer, Lieutenant Hargreaves, must face a seemingly insurmountable challenge – to save a young soldier from the firing squad.