The Young Vic has confirmed details of its new season for 2021 to welcome back theatre makers and audiences.
Young Vic Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah has confirmed details of the Young Vic’s new season to welcome back audiences for the first time since he Young Vic’s 50th Birthday celebrations in October 2020.
On the 9th July, the theatre will present Changing Destiny, Booker Prize-winnerBen Okri’s stunning new adaptation of the 4,000-year-old Egyptian poem of Sinuhe the Warrior King. Directed by Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah and designed by award-winning architect Sir David Adjaye, the production will run until the 21st August.
The season will then continue with Klippies, the acclaimed debut by Jessica Siân, playing at the theatre from the 4th to the 13th August. This coming-of-age drama set in the twentieth year of South Africa’s democracy about the intensity of first love will be directed by Genesis Future Directors Award recipient Diyan Zora.
Meanwhile, AI (23rd-25th August) is a play that has been developed by Chinonyerem Odimba and Nina Segal, written alongside GPT-3 OpenAI technology. By using this advanced deep-learning artificial intelligence system to generate human-like script and dialogue, Genesis Fellow and Associate Director Jennifer Tang and Company will create a new play for the stage.
From the 25th September, Cush Jumbo is set to star in the title role of Hamlet in this new production of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Directed by Greg Hersov, the production will run at the theatre until the 13th November.
The season is also set to include productions of Love Reign (18th-23rd October), Sundown Kiki (5th-12th November) and Best of Enemies (2nd December-22nd January 2022).
Kwame Kwei-Armah, Young Vic Artistic Director, said: “This pandemic has wielded an unquantifiable wound to theatre-makers and theatres, the repercussions of which we will continue to feel for a long time. We have seen a year of racial reckoning reverberate through our sector, a cry of pain and a call to do better. To announce a new season of work fills my heart with optimism, as it comes with the hope that artists can return to their craft, and as we rebuild, we improve on what was good, and take time to undo the broken systems and structures. My message with this new season is Welcome Back and Welcome Home. The Young Vic is a civic centre and a home-away-from-home for our community. It is a space for us to hear extraordinary stories told by the world’s finest artists that help us see the world through someone else’s eyes.”
For more information and to book tickets visit: https://www.youngvic.org/