London theater guide: October 2024

Look Back in Anger

When: Before 23 November
Where: Almeida Theatre
Tickets can be purchased at link.

One of the most high-profile premieres of the new theater season in London took place at the Off West End’s Almeida Theatre – in late September it opened with a production of “Look Back in Anger,” based on the 1956 text by English realist writer John Osborne. The production was created as part of the Almeida’s “Angry and Young” program – over the course of several months, the theater will present several modern adaptations of plays that explore the nature of anger in the younger generation. “Look Back in Anger,” for example, tells the story of a young married couple trying to get on with their lives in 1950s postwar Britain. Against the backdrop of their family conflict, director Atri Banerjee opens up the most painful wounds of British society – the confrontation between the working class and the aristocracy, patriarchal staples and misogyny. It is noteworthy that Look Back in Anger is running on the stage of the Almeida Theater in parallel with the production of Roots, based on Arnold Wesker’s text written in 1958. While in the first production the audience’s attention is primarily focused on the main male character – the “young and angry” Jimmy, whose negative emotions rather depress both himself and others – in “Roots” the main place is given to the girl Betty, who is able to turn her rage against gender and class discrimination into a method of struggle against outdated social concepts.

Here in America

When: until October 19
Where: Orange Tree theater
Book tickets here..

There’s still time to catch the new hit of the season at Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre, one of the UK’s premier independent theaters, as Here in America runs for just under two weeks. The play tells the story of the relationship between two titans of American theater – Hollywood and Broadway director Elia Kazan and playwright Arthur Miller against the backdrop of the anti-communist McCarthyism movement in the United States in the late 1950s. Among other things, cultural figures were also subjected to repression for their “anti-American” views – there were entire lists of artists who were to be “canceled” and prevented from working. The creative duo Kazan-Miller is faced with a moral dilemma: to betray their colleagues and friends or to risk being left without the possibility of creative activity? In the end, their paths diverge – one of the protagonists stands trial and reads out the names of those who had ties to the Communist Party, while the other receives a suspended prison sentence for refusing to collaborate with the repressive authorities.

The Fear of 13

When: October 7 through November 30
Where: Donmar Warehouse
To buy tickets, go to link.

Off West End independent theater Donmar Warehouse will premiere “The Fear of 13” this month. The production is based on the documentary of the same name about American Nick Yarris, falsely accused of kidnapping, rape and murder and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Yarris was released from custody in 2004 as a result of DNA testing proving his innocence. The movie, which tells the story of an innocent man put away in prison for years, is presented as a monologue by Yarris himself, and the play will feature other characters in the story on different sides of the barricades. In the title role of the first stage adaptation of “The Fear of 13” will appear famous actor, Oscar winner Adrien Brody – incidentally, this performance will be his theatrical debut in London.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

When: through November 23
Where: Marylebone Theatre
Details and tickets at link.

Just in time for the anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Marylebone Theater has produced What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, based on the short story of the same name by Pulitzer Prize nominee Nathan Englander. Two Jewish married couples (one secular from Florida, the other ultra-orthodox from Jerusalem) are sitting around a table drinking a bottle of gin. In the course of the conversation between old friends, an idea arises to revive the “Anne Frank game”: the participants must answer the question of which of their “non-Jewish” friends they think would risk saving them in the event of a second Holocaust. In the course of the game, the characters uncover terrifying themes that increasingly pop up in the daily news bulletin in real life – terrorism, war in the Middle East, the rise of nationalist sentiment… Today, against the backdrop of rising left-wing sentiment and the support of the majority of the theater community in London for anti-Israel statements, the play What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is one of the few cultural events on the London stage that presents the other side of the ongoing conflict.

Oedipus

When: until January 4th
Where: Wyndham’s Theatre
Buy tickets at link.

Writer, playwright and director Robert Icke has already established himself as “the main hope of British theater”. He is known for his modern adaptations of classic world literature, from Chekhov and Ibsen to Orwell. For this new production he has chosen one of the major ancient Greek tragedies, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. After successful runs at the International Theater Amsterdam and a tour at the Edinburgh Festival, Ike’s production will run on the London stage until early January. The director has deconstructed classical material and turned Oedipus the King into a true political thriller: the action takes place in the days leading up to the British election, and the king himself, with his empty, high-minded promises, is a collage of contemporary British politicians, from Tony Blair to Boris Johnson.