The Bridge Project at the Old Vic
Sam Mendes' ambitious three-year trans-Atlantic Bridge Project comes to the Old Vic, having started at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and toured to Singapore. Simon Russell Beale and Ethan Hawke star in both The Cherry Orchard and The Winter's Tale.
Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, in Tom Stoppard's new version, pits Russia's old landowning classes (now unable to manage their assets) against the aspirations of the enfranchised peasantry. The Gayev family, Mme Ranevskaya and her brother Gayev, are a dying breed while the likes of Lopakhin - aiming for the middle classes - are richer now than their previous masters.
Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, one of his late romances, contrasts an angst-ridden first half (where Sicilian king, Leontes unjustly accuses his wife, Hermione and his best-friend Polixenes of having an affair and that her unborn child is a bastard) with the lighter-hearted, magical second half, set in the Bohemian countryside (years later, when that very child, Perdita, raised as a shepherd, falls in love with Polixenes' son, Florizel). And just what has Paulina been keeping from Leontes all these years? Only the fantastic and moving revelations of the final scene will tell.
The cast, split between America and Britain, is headed by Simon Russell Beale as Lopakhin & Leontes; Sinead Cusack as Madame Ranevskaya & Paulina and Ethan Hawke as Trofimov & Autolycus. Rebecca Hall is Varya & Hermione, Josh Hamilton is Yasha & Polixenes, Richard Easton is Firs & Old Shepherd/Time, Michael Braun is Florizel (WT), Selina Cadell is Carlotta (CO), Morven Christie is Anya & Perdita, Paul Jesson is Gayev & Camillo, Dakin Matthews is Pischik & Antigonus, Mark Nelson is the Stationmaster & Dion, Charlotte Parry is Dunyasha & Mopsa, Gary Powell is Cleomenes (WT), Tobias Segal is Yepikhodov & Clown and Hannah Stokely is Emilia (WT), with Jessica Pollert Smith.
Sam Mendes ran the Donmar Warehouse for a decade (where his final shows, with Simon Russell Beale, also paired Chekhov and Shakespeare), after which he scored major Hollywood success with American Beauty (starring Old Vic artistic director, Kevin Spacey) and now Revolutionary Road.
The plays are performed in repertoire.
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