SYNOPSIS
The Winter’s TaleThe West End goes international as a ground-breaking Anglo-US venture arrives; The Bridge Project, with an incredible ensemble cast, will perform William Shakespeare’s classic, The Winter’s Tale. The project is a three year partnership involving the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Neal Street Productions and the theatre in which The Winter’s Tale will be performed; The Old Vic.
Originally labelled a comedy play by Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale has since been relabelled by some critics as a romance. When a character states ‘a sad tale’s best for winter’, the play’s map is plotted. Over the course of this Shakespearian classic, a tale of jealously, passion and rage is explored and it plots the transition of tragedy to comedy, winter to spring and revenge to romance.
A production of The Cherry Orchard starring Judi Dench established Sam Mendes as a British theatre superstar, whilst he was still under the age of 25. Following on from the successful performance of Chekov’s work, Mendes went on to direct several productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company including The Tempest and Richard III. Mendes has also directed many highly-acclaimed plays for the National Theatre such as The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, as well as Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. After working as the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse from 1992, the year of 2003 saw Mendes start the film and theatre production company, Neal Street Productions, who are an associate of The Bridge Project. His film debut, American Beauty, won the Academy Award for Best Picture and won Mendes the award for Best Director.
Daughter of theatre legend, Sir Peter Hall, Rebecca Hall will be performing the role of Hermione, Queen to Leontes. In 2003, Hall won the Charleson award for her debut theatrical role in a production of Mrs Warren’s Profession. Three years later, Hall made her feature film debut as Rebecca Epstein in the film adaptation of David Nicholl’s Starter for Ten, alongside James McAvoy. She has since gone on to star in Woody Allen’s recent film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, in which she was the co-lead opposite Scarlett Johansson.
The Winter’s Tale will be performed alongside Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard. The Bridge Project’s productions will play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the first three months of 2009 then travel to Singapore, New Zealand, Spain and Germany, before arriving at The Old Vic,
The Winter’s Tale will appear at The Old Vic from the 23rd May 2009 to 15th August 2009.
