Kevin Spacey and David Liddiment announce the first season of The Old Vic Theatre Company

Company to include Hugh Bonneville, Neil Pearson, Ian McKellen, Stephen Tompkinson, Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey, artistic director, and David Liddiment, producer, announced today, Thursday 22 April, the first season of plays to be presented by the newly-formed Old Vic Theatre Company.

The season will open in September 2004 and run until July 2005 and will comprise four productions, two of them British premieres. Kevin Spacey will lead the company, directing the first play and appearing in two later productions.

The Old Vic Theatre Company will play throughout the year at The Old Vic where their programme of work will be financed in three ways: through ticket sales, investors in the productions, and sponsorship. Ticket prices will be in line with those of the commercial theatre, but with the aim of building a young audience there will be 100 seats at £12 set aside at each performance for young people aged 25 and under.

The exception to this is the panto, when the Old Vic will be presenting two performances at substantially reduced prices for the local community.

Cloaca by Maria Goos
16 September – 11 December.

Opening the season will be the British premiere of Cloaca by the acclaimed Dutch writer Maria Goos whose work has never before been seen in the UK. Kevin Spacey directs a cast which will include Hugh Bonneville, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Neil Pearson and Stephen Tompkinson. The designer is Rob Jones. Four lifelong friends are reunited in middle age; their lives finely balanced between hope and disillusion. Maria Goos’ play is a darkly funny examination of friendship and aspirations, exploring how men compromise their emotional lives in the constant quest for money, power, and reputation.

Cloaca was written in 2002 for the theatre company Het Toneel Speelt and was the hit of that season in the Netherlands, as was her play Family the previous year. Both plays were adapted into successful feature films.

Tickets: £10, £15, £20, £25, £32.50, £40

Aladdin by Bille Brown
17 December 2004 – 22 January 2005

The Old Vic celebrates Christmas and honours its vaudeville past with a classic family panto. Ian McKellen plays Widow Twankey in Australian writer Bille Brown’s new version of Aladdin, directed by Sean Mathias.

Tickets: £10, £15, £20, £25, £32.50, £35

Children’s discounts on selected matinees

National Anthems by Dennis McIntyre
1 February – 23 April 2005

The Old Vic production of Dennis McIntyre’s National Anthems marks the British premiere of a play which was first seen in the USA in 1988. Set in Detroit, Michigan, and played in real time, the play takes us to the heart of 80’s suburban America, and is at once a searing critique of suburban values and a hard-hitting parable about the American dream. Kevin Spacey takes one of the three roles in this powerful and intimate drama, and David Grindley directs.

Tickets: £10, £15, £20, £25, £32.50, £40

The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry
3 May – 23 July 2005

Philip Barry’s sparkling and witty Broadway comedy, never before seen in the West End became one of the great movies of Hollywood’s golden age and inspired the Cole Porter musical High Society. Kevin Spacey will play C. K. Dexter Haven in this production which is co-produced with Triumph Entertainment. Additional casting and the director will be announced at a later date.

Commenting on the season, Kevin Spacey said, ‘I am delighted to announce our first season today with four productions that I hope will be both challenging for us as a company and entertaining for our audiences. We are particularly pleased to have as our opening production a new play from a different culture by an unknown writer, Maria Goos. This underlines just how important new work is to The Old Vic Theatre Company.

At the same time, mindful of the historic traditions of this theatre, classics will also take their place. In due course I intend to tackle Shakespeare and some of the great roles that have made this theatres reputation such a remarkable one.

And as reputations go, to have Sir Ian McKellen, one of the great actors of all time, return to The Old Vic stage in a specially written new panto is a great coup. I personally look forward to this production, as the panto is an entirely new form for me because the tradition does not exist in America.

But my passion for American writer Dennis McIntyre led me to hang on to the rights of National Anthems for many years in the hope that I would find the right time and the right place to perform it. To have David Grindley as my director thrills me because of the remarkable attention to detail his work represents and because he is such an emerging major talent in this country.

And finally, to present the London premiere of the classic play, The Philadelphia Story will be a fantastic and fun way to finish off our first season. We can only hope that as we look toward our plans for seasons two, three, four and beyond, that we will continue to be blessed with the range of work that this first season offers us.’

 The New Season:

Cloaca by Maria Goos
16 September – 11 December.

Aladdin by Bille Brown
17 December 2004 – 22 January 2005

National Anthems by Dennis McIntyre
1 February – 23 April 2005

The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry
3 May – 23 July 2005

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