TRH Productions have released production photos for the West End premiere of Venus in Fur starring Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones, The Tudors) and David Oakes (Victoria). David Ives’ intoxicating dark comedy of desire and fantasy opens tonight at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Directed by Patrick Marber, this Broadway smash-hit will run for a strictly limited nine-week engagement at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until 9 December with over 200 seats at £15 for every performance.
Venus in Fur first premiered off Broadway in 2010 before transferring to the Manhattan Theatre Club in November 2011 where it received widespread critical acclaim, winning Nina Arianda (Vanda Jordan) the 2012 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.
Set in downtown Manhattan, Venus in Fur tells the story of enigmatic actress Vanda Jordan who appears unannounced for an audition with writer-director Thomas Novachek. Vanda is determined to land the leading role in his new production – despite seeming wrong for the part – and over the evening that follows, their charged meeting becomes a seductive dance to the end.
Director Patrick Marber is joined by an award winning creative team with set and costume design by Rob Howell, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, composition and sound by Tom Gibbons and Ilene Starger as Casting Director.
Website: www.VenusOnStage.com
Twitter: @VenusOnStageLDN
Facebook: facebook.com/VenusOnStageLDN
Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, London SW1Y 4HT
www.trh.co.uk
Box Office: 020 7930 8800
First performance on 6 October
Final performance on 9 December
Opening Night for Press on 17 October
Performances Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm Thursday and Saturday at 3pm
Tickets on sale through
Amazon Tickets. @AmazonTheatreUK
Natalie Dormer plays Vanda Jordan. Dormer is known globally for film and television roles including Margaery Tyrell in HBO series Game of Thrones, Anne Boleyn in The Tudors for Showtime, Cressida in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, Focus Features' The Forest, Ron Howard's Rush, and Ridley Scott's The Counselor. Upcoming, Dormer stars opposite Sean Penn and Mel Gibson in The Professor and the Mad Man, and the independent thriller In Darkness, which she also co-wrote. She is currently in production on FremantleMedia's Picnic at Hanging Rock in Australia. Venus in Fur sees Dormer reunite with Patrick Marber, who wrote After Miss Julie (Young Vic) for which she received widespread critical acclaim in the title role. Her other stage credits include Sweet Nothings (also at the Young Vic) and .45 (Hampstead Theatre).
David Oakes plays Thomas Novachek. Oakes is best known for portraying Juan Borgia in the Emmy Award-winning Showtime Original series The Borgias, for playing William Hamleigh in Emmy Award-winning mini-series The Pillars of the Earth, for BBC’s The White Queen in the role of George, Duke of Clarence and, most recently, on screen as Prince Ernest in ITV’s Victoria, for which he is currently filming the second series. Stage credits include Kit Marlowe in Shakespeare In Love (Noel Coward Theatre) and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre). Oakes will also appear in the film adaptation of Albert Sánchez Piñol's thriller Cold Skin set for release later this year.
Patrick Marber is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, actor and director. His productions of his own work includes Dealer’s Choice (NT & Vaudeville), After Miss Julie (BBC TV), Closer (NT, Lyric & Music Box NY) Howard Katz (NT), Three Days in the Country (NT) Don Juan in Soho (Wyndhams). His other directing credits include Travesties (Menier Chocolate Factory/ Apollo Theatre) The Caretaker (Comedy Theatre), Blue Remembered Hills (National Theatre), ‘1953’ (Almeida) and The Old Neighborhood (Royal Court Theatre). Other plays include The Red Lion, The Musicians, The School Film (all for NT) and Hoop Lane (BBC Radio 3). His film credits include Closer (directed by Mike Nichols), Notes on a Scandal (directed by Richard Eyre), Old Street and Love You More. For television his co-writing credits include The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge. More recently Ivo van Hove directed Marber’s version of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for the National Theatre starring Ruth Wilson. His plays have won Evening Standard, Olivier, Time Out, New York and London Critics’ Circle and Writers’ Guild Awards. His TV work has received BAFTA, British Comedy and Royal Television Society Awards. His screenplays have been nominated for Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Awards. He received the British Independent Film Award for Notes on a Scandal.
David Ives was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play for Venus In Fur, which has been produced all over the country and the world, and was turned into a film by Roman Polanski. He is also well known for his evenings of one-act comedies All In The Timing and Time Flies. Other plays include New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza; The Liar (adapted from Corneille); The School For Lies (adapted from Molière); The Metromaniacs (adapted from Alexis Piron); Is He Dead? (adapted from Mark Twain); Ancient History, and Polish Joke. A Chicago native, he lives in New York City.
Rob Howell has worked extensively in costume and set design in theatre and opera within the UK and abroad including at the Royal Court, Almeida, Donmar Warehouse, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Welsh National Opera, Royal Opera House and Metropolitan Opera, New York as well as at numerous other West End and Broadway Theatres. Recent credits include The Ferryman (Royal Court) and Groundhog Day (UK and Broadway). He has received three Olivier Awards and multiple nominations for Tony and Olivier Awards for both Set and Costume Design, including the Olivier Award for Best Set Designer for Troilus and Cressida, Vassa and Richard III in 2000 and for Hedda Gabler in 2006. He received an Olivier Award in 2012 and a Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Tony Award in 2013 and for his designs for Matilda the Musical in New York and London.
Hugh Vanstone has designed the lighting for over 200 productions and worked extensively with UK national companies and on Broadway. He has received many awards including three Oliviers, a Tony and a Molière. As associate artist at The Old Vic, he has recently lit Art, No’s Knife, Groundhog Day (UK and Broadway), The Caretaker, The Master Builder and Future Conditional. Other work includes: Dreamgirls (Savoy), Welcome Home, Captain Fox and Closer (Donmar); The Red Lion (National Theatre, Dorfman); Closer (Donmar and in New York); An Act Of God (New York & tour); Matilda (RSC and internationally); Strictly Ballroom (Australian tour); Don Quixote (Royal Ballet); Tanz Der Vampire (throughout Europe & Russia); Shrek The Musical (New York, West End & UK tour); Ghost (London and internationally).
Tom Gibbons’ recent Theatre Includes: Hamlet (Almeida/West End); A View From the Bridge (nominated for Best Sound Design Olivier Award 2015) (Young Vic/West End), Life of Galileo, Happy Days, A Season in the Congo, Disco Pigs (Young Vic) Hedda Gabler, Sunset At The Villa Thalia, The Red Barn, People, Places and Things (Winner for Best Sound Design, Olivier Awards 2016) (National Theatre/West End); Les Miserables (Wermland Opera, Sweden); The Lorax (Old Vic); The Crucible (Walter Kerr Theater Broadway); Oresteia (Almeida Theatre/Trafalgar Studios); Anna Karenina (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Moderate Soprano, Elephants (Hampstead Theatre); White Devil, As You Like It (RSC); Translations, Plenty (Sheffield Crucible); Mr Burns, 1984 (Almeida/West End/Broadway); The Absence of War, Romeo & Juliet (Headlong); Lion Boy (Complicite); Henry IV, Julius Caesar (Donmar, St Ann’s Brooklyn); Grounded (Gate Theatre); The Spire (Salisbury Playhouse); London, The Angry Brigade, Wasted (Paines Plough); Roundabout Season (Shoreditch Town Hall, Paines Plough); The Rover (Hampton Court Palace); Love Love Love (Royal Court); Dead Heavy Fantastic (Liverpool Everyman); Chalet Lines, The Knowledge, Little Platoons, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (Bush Theatre).
Ilene Starger is a Casting Director and Producer. West End theatre credits include The Libertine (as Casting Director/Executive Producer for TRB and TRH); Breakfast at Tiffany’s (as U.S. Casting Director for 2009 TRH production; also for 2016 UK tour.) Broadway credits include Waiting for Godot, No Man’s Land, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Casting Director & Associate Producer), Marlene, The Elephant Man, Dance of Death, The Diary of Anne Frank, Dirty Blonde, Closer (Artios Award.) Film credits include Custody (also Associate Producer), The Rewrite, Pink Panther 1 & 2, Music and Lyrics, Two Weeks’ Notice, Night at the Museum (Artios Award), School of Rock (Artios Award), Sleepy Hollow, A Simple Plan, The Parent Trap, First Wives’ Club, Marvin’s Room, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, No Way Out. TV credits include: Witness to the Mob, The Great Gatsby, Earthly Possessions. Starger is a former VP of Casting for Walt Disney and Touchstone Pictures.
