London Plays 2017
We’re starting to learn about next summer’s shows, but not a lot is available as yet. We’ll post here more information as it becomes available.
Not everyone loves a musical, as hard as that is to believe, but we defy you to give the London theatre a chance and not come away liking plays/the theatre a little more than you did before. We have seen some amazing actors and some amazing shows over the last two decades in London, and each summer surprises us with another gem. Sometimes, we have to go searching in the smallest theatres around town for them; other times, the great show is playing on one of London’s most famed stages. This year is already shaping up to have a little something for everyone!
Featured Plays 2017
These plays are part of the London 2017 program and have been paid for already in your program fees. We know two of the majors shows at the Globe and the National Theatre, but the other two are as yet to be determined.
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
We can’t go all the way to London and not see something at the Globe, right? The 2017 season has just been announced and it should be a wonderful summer of comedy and tragedy in equal measure. As a group, we will most likely see Much Ado about Nothing, a witty and engaging play that positions two of theatre’s most antagonistic lovers against each other: Beatrice and Benedick. He’s just back from a war; she’s unimpressed. Both feign disinterest and, at times, revulsion, but what their public sparring hides is that these were two personalities destined for each other. Under the artful direction Matthew Dunster, this show is sure to engage us all. Other Globe options while we’re there include Emma Rice’s production of Twelfth Night and a non-Shakespeare option, Tristan and Yseult … with this sort of line-up, it’s no surprise that Artistic Director Emma Rice has named this the “Summer of Love.”
National Theatre
The National Theatre, which consists of four different stages/individual theatres, is always a good bet for excellent theatre. Recent shows that have taken New York by storm (War Horse; One Man, Two Governors) got their starts at the National, as did the recent multi-award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. The National does amazing work! This summer involves the revival of a class of contemporary American theatre, Angels in America. If we can get tickets, we will most likely see Angels; it will be in the Littleton theatre and will start Nathan Lane, James McArdle, Andrew Garfield, and Russell Tovey, and it will be directed by the world-class and supremely talented Marianne Elliott – literally, every show she touches turns to gold!
Also at the National next summer will be a new play by Nina Raine, Consent. It promises to be a good, if possibly uncomfortable, show about rape and justice.
Optional Plays to Consider in 2017
It’s much too soon for any of the smaller theaters to have released their offerings, but I’ll pop some up here as we get closer so that you have some ideas of the rich diversity of what’s available at some of the major playhouses.
In the mean time, know that London theatre is much much cheaper than New York theatre and you get the same quality or better.
