Theatre Royal Bath is thrilled to announce the first season of work to be commissioned for the Ustinov Studio by its new Artistic Director, the internationally acclaimed and multi-award winning theatre and opera director Deborah Warner.
Deborah’s extraordinary talent encompasses theatre of all scales - from legendary Shakespearean productions, with stars including Fiona Shaw, Brian Cox, Ralph Fiennes and Glenda Jackson; to grand opera in some of the world’s most famous opera houses (her production of Benjamin Britten’s epic Peter Grimes has just opened at the Royal Opera House to five star reviews), and intimate theatre pieces including Fiona Shaw’s acclaimed performance of The Waste Land at Wilton’s Music Hall.
Deborah Warner has worked with leading companies and talent worldwide, holding prestigious positions including Resident Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Associate Director of the National Theatre, and Associate Director of the Barbican.
The inaugural production is Shakespeare’s The Tempest, followed by a re-staging of Benjamin Britten’s cantata, Phaedra, originally presented at the Royal Opera House. Phaedra also forms the inspiration for a newly-commissioned dance piece, Minotaur, from renowned choreographer Kim Brandstrup, performed in a double bill with Phaedra.
The season continues with a new production of one of the earliest English operas, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, directed by Isabelle Kettle and conducted by Michael Papadopoulos - two emerging artists of rare sensitivity and originality who were both participants in the 2019-21 Jette Parker Young Artist Stage Director at the Royal Opera House, and is completed with a specially commissioned new work ¡Showmanism!, devised and performed by the uniquely talented lip sync artist, Dickie Beau, celebrating the history of the theatre in all its forms.
Deborah Warner says of her inaugural season:
“I am excited to propose a new kind of programme for the Ustinov Studio. The past eight years have established the Studio as an undeniable and powerful force in contemporary theatre. As we enter a new decade it is essential that both this standing, and the theatre’s reputation, continue to flourish and build.
Where the recent emphasis has been on UK premieres of existing international work, I am proposing shifting that emphasis, instead including revivals of major classics alongside the development of new plays/theatre work - interpreted in the broadest sense, i.e. adaptations of existing novels; staging of poems; presentation of new theatre artists and their work etc. In addition I am proposing a major commitment to a music theatre programme - ie classical song in the form of song cycles (fully staged performances of this most theatrical genre) cantatas, solo/duo voiced pieces etc., as well as an annual staging of an opera each year.
Whilst this kind of programme is more usually found in a Festival situation, I think it is extremely well suited to a space committed to pushing and broadening our ideas of theatre.
The principle of the programme is one of diversity, with a repertoire constantly challenging and nudging ideas of theatre.”
Danny Moar, Director of Theatre Royal Bath says:
“Deborah’s track record as an extraordinary theatre maker of international renown speaks for itself.
Her appointment cements the Ustinov’s reputation as one of the country’s leading studio spaces and her opening season promises a thrilling new direction for the venue and its audiences.”
Deborah is joined at the Ustinov by conductor and pianist Richard Hetherington, who is Head of Music at the Royal Opera in Covent Garden, and who will be Deborah’s Director of Music for the Ustinov Studio.
FULL 2022 SEASON
Friday 1 July – Saturday 6 August
THE TEMPEST
By William Shakespeare
Director Deborah Warner
Designer Christof Hetzer
Lighting Designer Jean Kalman
Sound Designer and Composer Mel Mercier
The cast includes Dickie Beau, Gary Sefton, William Chubb and Stephen Kennedy.
“Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices,
That if I then had waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again..”
Caliban Act 3, Sc 2
Set on an enchanted island Shakespeare’s last play deals with magic, love, treachery, transformations, transmutations, the visible and the invisible. In Caliban, Ariel, and of course Prospero, Shakespeare created three of his most memorable and enigmatic characters. As with all his ‘late plays’, man’s complex and troubled journey from the desire for revenge to the path of mercy is centre stage. When Prospero takes his enemies hostage, the path is set for a traditional revenge drama, but instead ends in redemption, restoration and renewal.
Deborah Warner’s previous Shakespeare productions include Julius Caesar at the Barbican and across Europe, which starred Simon Russell Beale and Ralph Fiennes; productions of King Lear starring Glenda Jackson and Brian Cox in the title role; and ground breaking production of Richard II in which Fiona Shaw played the title role.
Deborah Warner will be joined by some of Europe’s finest creative talent, including designer Christof Hetzer whose opera designs have been seen around the world, including Tosca at the National Opera de Paris, Rigoletto in Vienna, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in Malmo and Eurydice for De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam.
Lighting Designer Jean Kalman was born in Paris in 1945 and since 1979 has created the lighting for countless theatre and opera productions in France, Japan, Great Britain, Holland, Brussels, Italy and New York. He has worked with numerous directors including Peter Brook and worked extensively with the late artist Christian Boltanski. Sound Designer Mel Mercier began his illustrious theatre career with Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw’s Medea at the Abbey Court in Dublin and has since worked across the UK and on Broadway.
Friday 12 August - Tuesday 23 August
PHAEDRA
by Benjamin Britten Sung by Christine Rice
MINOTAUR
by Kim Brandstrup
Director Deborah Warner (Phaedra)
Choreographer Kim Brandstrup (Minotaur)
Designer Anthony McDonald
Lighting Designer Jean Kalman
The cast includes the Royal Ballet’s Kristin McNally and Jonathan Goddard.
Benjamin Britten’s cantata Phaedra was written in 1975 for mezzo soprano Janet Baker. It was to be Britten’s last vocal work. Whilst often performed in concert, stagings of this intense and erotic work are still rare.
Following the success of Deborah Warner’s production at the Royal Opera House in 2020, music director Richard Hetherington and Olivier award nominee Christine Rice will re-imagine the piece in a piano version, specially developed for the intimate spaces of the Ustinov Studio.
On the day of her wedding to Theseus, Phaedra catches sight of his young son Hippolytus. She falls instantly in love. Consumed by lust and a longing for a love she knows cannot be requited, death will be her only escape. The scalding power of Britten’s score pushes Phaedra towards her doom in a remarkable and thrilling drama.
Christine Rice is one of the leading British singers of her generation, a regular performer at the major European opera houses, including Royal Opera House, Zurich, Glyndebourne, Madrid, Salzburg Festival, The Met, Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin and English National Opera
The second part of the evening features the world premiere of a newly commissioned dance piece, Minotaur, choreographed by Olivier Award-winner Kim Brandstrup, renowned for his work over four decades with The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, English National Ballet and Rambert.
Often depicted as a creature of great masculine power and invincible strength, the Minotaur is also a creature trapped, isolated and abandoned. The Greek hero’s journey into the labyrinth is a confrontation with this ambiguous world of masculinity. Ariadne - the sister of Phaedre - stands by the entrance to the maze. She wheels out the thread that will secure - hopefully - a safe return.
Friday 14 October - Saturday 5 November
DIDO AND AENEAS
by Henry Purcell
Director Isabelle Kettle
Musical Director Michael Papadopoulos
Designer Hyemi Shin
Purcell’s opera is a mainstay of the operatic repertoire, containing music and arias of astonishing beauty that are known and loved throughout the world.
The opera tells the story of Dido, the widowed Queen of Carthage, and her lover the Trojan prince, Aeneas, shipwrecked on his way to Italy, where he will found a new Troy.
Witches plot Dido’s destruction, conjuring a storm to break out when the royal couple are hunting. In the melee, a witch persuades Aeneas he must leave Dido and sail for Italy. Aeneas and his sailors prepare to leave, to the delight of the witches. Dido’s tragic response to her betrayal actions inspired Purcell to write one of the most beloved arias, “When I Am Laid In Earth”.
This landmark event will see opera being produced in the Ustinov Studio for the first time, the charming atmosphere and intimate environment lending themselves perfectly to musical productions.
Dido and Aeneas will be directed by Isabelle Kettle, a British director of opera and theatre, who has worked in New York, France and the U.K. She was the 2019-21 Jette Parker Young Artist Stage Director at the Royal Opera House where her credits include a double bill of Brecht & Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel (ROH Mainstage) and Handel’s Susanna (ROH Linbury Theatre).
Musical Director Michael Papadopoulos, named Rising Star in the March 2020 edition of BBC Music Magazine and a participant in the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, will play harpsichord and lead the ensemble of musicians.
Designer Hyemi Shin’s recent work has included The Return of Ulysses at the Royal Opera House, The Damnation of Faust at Glyndebourne in 2019 and the forthcoming Samson et Delilah, also at the Royal Opera House.
Produced by arrangement with Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Friday 11 November - Saturday 10 December
¡SHOWMANISM!
A Concise Histrionic of Performance
Devised and performed by Dickie Beau
Dramaturg Rupert Christiansen
Director Jan Willem Van Den Bosch
Designer Justin Nardella
Lighting Designer Marty Langthorn
Sound Designer Dan Steele
The uniquely talented Dickie Beau - the mercurial Ariel in this summer’s The Tempest - shape-shifts across a haunted landscape of performance that stretches back for thousands of years, tracing its roots and branches across unexpected realms. A live lip-synching archive, Dickie summons spirits of ritual and transformation, from Greek tragedians to pantomime dames, from Beckett to the bodhisattvas.
In ¡Showmanism!, he takes us on a journey embracing the politics and puzzles of performing personhood in and out of the spotlight. Both meta and physical, and sometimes a little bit mystical, Dickie channels a multitude of voices into a love letter to the origins and orientations of performance.
Respectful of its forebears, yet irreverent in form, ¡Showmanism! will be a vivid poem-in-motion, which says things both outward and inward, about itself, about art, about the world, and about being human.
LISTINGS
Ustinov Studio
Theatre Royal Bath
1 Saw Close
Bath BA1 1EY
Box Office:
theatreroyal.org.uk
01225 448844
All tickets £36.50 / £24.50 discounts
*A booking fee of £2.50 per ticket applies
THE TEMPEST
Friday 1 July - Saturday 6 August
Monday - Saturday 7.30pm, Matinees Thursday & Saturday 2.30pm (not Sat 2 or Thurs 7 July)
Press Night Thursday 7 July 7pm
PHAEDRA
MINOTAUR
Friday 12 August - Tuesday 23 August
Performance Schedule 7.30pm - August 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23
Press Night Thursday 18 August 7pm
DIDO AND AENEAS
Friday 14 October - Saturday 5 November
Monday - Saturday 7.30pm
Matinees Thursday & Saturday 2.30pm (not Sat 15 or Thurs 20 Oct)
Press Night Thursday 20 October 7pm
¡SHOWMANISM!
Friday 11 November - Saturday 10 December
Monday - Saturday 7.30pm
Matinees Thursday & Saturday 2.30pm, (not Sat 12 or Thurs 17 Nov)
Press Night Tuesday 22 November 7pm
