The new theatre company created by Dominic Dromgoole will celebrate Oscar Wilde’s work in new year-long season at the Vaudeville Theatre.
Opening in the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK, Classic Spring has announced its programme of plays at the Vaudeville as well the first casting and creatives to celebrate the work of Oscar Wilde.
The new season will open with A Woman of No Importance from the 6th October until the 30th December , directed by Dominic Dromgoole. Early casting for the production includes Eve Best as Mrs Arbuthnot, Eleanor Bron as Lady Pontefract, and William Gaunt as the Venerable Archdeacon Daubeny.
2018 will begin with a production of Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan from 12 January to 7 April 2018 which will be directed by actress , director, comedian and playwright Kathy Burke. January 2018 will also see Frank McGuinness’s adaptation of De Profundis, Wilde’s letter to Lord Alfred Bosie from Reading Gaol, for the stage, from the 3rd to the 6th January 2018.
Meanwhile in April next year, Guy Chambers will present a limited run for a new folk opera titled The Selfish Giant, offering audiences a chance to see a work in progress by one of the world’s most recognised contemporary songwriters.
Other productions in the season will also include An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest – with dates, casting and creatives to be announced soon.
Talking about the news of the season Artistic Director of Classic Spring Dominic Dromgoole said: “My ten years as Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe allowed me to explore Shakespeare in the kind of theatre he wrote for: the thrust stage and open air of the ‘wooden O’. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to do the same with Oscar Wilde, in the kind of space he wrote for: the velvety darkness and proscenium arched stage of one of the West End’s most perfect playhouses, the Vaudeville, just across the road from where Wilde once lived, loved, wrote and entertained at his very first home in London.”
A Woman of No Importance will play at the Vaudeville Theatre from the 6th October until the 30th December. To book tickets visit: Discount Theatre.com, Theatre People.co.uk and UK Tickets.co.uk.