The Royal Lyceum Theatre's 2011/12 season will see eight new productions including four world premieres and a show at the Festival Fringe in August.
The new season includes John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, a contemporary take on the Marriage of Figaro, and Scots makar Liz Lochhead's Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off with Dundee Rep. Two more co-productions include the world premieres of Abi Morgan's new play "27" with the National Theatre of Scotland and The Infamous Brothers Davenport in collaboration with Vox Motus. The Christmas show is Beauty and the Beast by Stuart Paterson and the new season ends with black comedy The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
Royal Lyceum at the Fringe
As well as hosting Edinburgh International Festival productions, this year the Lyceum will be putting on a new play, Wondrous Flitting, at Traverse 2 as part of the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
In his first play for the Fringe since winning a Herald Angel award for A Madman Sings to the Moon (Brunton Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1999), Lyceum Artistic Director Mark Thomson has written and will direct this black comedy about a clash of worlds, inspired by a chapter in Ed Hollis’s book, The Secret Lives of Buildings.
Wondrous Flitting is a black comedy that sees a holy flitting house miraculously transported to contemporary Scotland.
Thomson is joined by designer Kai Fischer (The Beggar’s Opera) and Lyceum Associate Artist and sound designer, Philip Pinsky. The cast includes Grant O’Rourke (Romeo and Juliet, The Cherry Orchard, The Snow Queen), Liam Brennan (Every One, A View from the Bridge) and Molly Innes (Age of Arousal).
The Lyceum will open its 2011/12 Season with the playful and subversive Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off by Makar Liz Lochhead. Directed by Lyceum Associate Artist Tony Cownie, and designed by Neil Murray, this co-production with Dundee Rep is the beginning of a two year partnership between the two theatres.
The Lyceum then welcomes the National Theatre of Scotland in a co-production of the world première of Abi Morgan’s 27, directed by Vicky Featherstone. Religion and science meet in this new play from BAFTA award-winner Morgan, as a group of nuns open their doors, and minds, to some curious academics.
Vicky Featherstone, Artistic Director, National Theatre of Scotland and Director of 27 described it as an "important play about the ageing mind, faith and science can come to the stage.”
The Season’s third co-production is the Lyceum’s first collaboration with the acclaimed Vox Motus. The Infamous Brothers Davenport will have its world première at the beginning of the Lyceum’s Spring Season in January 2012.
Conceived, directed and designed by Artistic Directors Candice Edmunds and Jamie Harrison and written by Peter Arnott (The Breathing House), this highly visual production explores the destructive relationship between two young brothers amidst the magical world of Victorian séance and illusion of their creation.
The fourth and final world première is The Marriage of Figaro, a contemporary take on Pierre Beaumarchais’s well known tale.
Award-winning Scottish playwright DC Jackson, acclaimed for his plays My Romantic History, The Wall, The Ducky and The Chooky Brae has been commissioned by the Lyceum to create this new play. Mark Thomson will direct.
Having completed his seven year, five play exploration of Arthur Miller’s work, Lyceum Associate Artist John Dove returns to direct another American classic - John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. This very human story of love and friendship between two men on a journey is one of the greatest and most popular American plays.
The Lyceum Season concludes with a gruesome and unruly black comedy by the writer of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Martin McDonagh. The Lieutenant of Inishmore will be directed by Mark Thomson.
Finally the Lyceum’s Christmas production for 2011 will be Stuart Paterson’s Beauty and the Beast. After the success of last year’s The Snow Queen, the Lyceum will again bring Paterson’s magical tales to life on stage this Christmas.
Neil Murray will direct this production as well as design, having designed numerous shows for the Lyceum (The Importance of Being Earnest, Romeo and Juliet, Confessions of a Justified Sinner). Murray is also Associate Director and Designer at Northern Stage.
Mark Thomson said: “In our new Season, I hope our audiences will find some old friends, freshly delivered, alongside the vital excitement of new work. In tough times the arts offer a window that allows us to catch our breath, reflect on the world, and look out to dream about the future. It reminds us that we’re special, helps us laugh and on occasion makes us angry. It reminds us that we’re human.”
Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Plays 2011/2012
Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off
A Co-Production with Dundee Rep Theatre
By Liz Lochhead
Directed by Tony Cownie
27 (World Première)
A Co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland
By Abi Morgan
Directed by Vicky Featherstone
Beauty and the Beast (Christmas show)
By Stuart Paterson
Directed and Designed by Neil Murray
The Infamous Brothers Davenport (World Première)
Conceived, directed and designed by Jamie Harrison and Candice Edmunds
Written by Peter Arnott
Of Mice and Men
By John Steinbeck
Directed by John Dove
The Marriage of Figaro (World Première)
By DC Jackson
Directed by Mark Thomson
A contemporary take on Pierre Beaumarchais’s well known tale
The Lieutenant of Inishmore
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Mark Thomson
Dates to be confirmed.
Season tickets go on sale from 23 May and all tickets go on sale on 16 July.