News: Bridge Theatre announces new productions opening from May

Shows have been announced for the reopening of the Bridge Theatre.

Simon Russell Beale is set to play J S Bach in the world premiere of Nina Raine’s (Consent) Bach & Sons, directed by Nicholas Hytner, running at the London Bridge venue from 23 June to 9 September.

Creative team for the show includes associate director is James Cousins, with set designs by Vicki Mortimer, costumes designed by Khadija Raza, lighting by Jon Clark, sound by Gareth Fry and music supervised by George Fenton.

Bach & Sons follows Johann Sebastian Bach, who writes music for his aristocratic patrons and lends his voice to deep religious faith in music for the church. He’s touchy, turbulent and fabulously rude, and he has high standards that get him in constant trouble with his employers.

Music is the family business – both his wives and all his children are musicians. His eldest son, Wilhelm, is brilliant, chaotic and paralysed by his father’s genius. Tense, industrious Carl is less talented than his father but more successful. As the years pass, their gripping family drama provokes furious arguments about love, God and above all music.  What is it all for?

The Bridge Theatre will also see the European premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks’ White Noise, directed by Polly Findlay. The show runs from 5 October to 13 November.

Creatives include set design by Lizzie Clachan, costumes by Natalie Pryce, lighting by Jackie Shemesh and sound by Donato Wharton.

Thirty-somethings Leo, Misha, Ralph and Dawn have been inseparable since college. Making their way together in the big city, they are liberal, open-minded and socially aware. Misha is producing the hit online show “Ask A Black”; Ralph is waiting for tenure at his university, and as a lawyer, Dawn spends her days fighting for social justice. Leo would be a talented visual artist – if only he could sleep.

As best friends and lovers, confident in their woke-ness, their connection with each other is stronger than anything else – until, that is, Leo is assaulted by the police in a racially motivated incident. Shaken to the core, he brings to the group an extreme proposition. White Noise takes an unflinching look at race in the 21st century from both a black and white perspective.

Vox Motus‘ Flight returns to the Bridge from 17 May to 6 June. In a collaboration with the Barbican, this theatre installation made its debut at the Bridge before lockdown brought things to a halt.

From a private booth, audiences are drawn into this tale of orphaned brothers and their desperate odyssey across Europe, the action unfolding in an exquisite world of moving miniatures.

Based on Caroline Brothers’ novel Hinterland, Flight combines timely themes with engrossing images to honour the resilience of refugee children adrift in dangerous lands. Audiences are seated individually and given headphones for this intimate experience staged by Candice Edmunds and Jamie Harrison who is magic and illusions designer for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Due to open in December is Bryony Lavery’s previously announced adaptation of Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage.

The show will be directed by Nicholas Hytner and sees the story take place twelve years before His Dark Materials.

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