Our selection for the Young Vic new season

The Young Vic’s line-up for 2014 promises to be its most exciting season to date. There are big names, radical reinterpretations of popular classics, and a distinctly European flavour – and that’s just the main house shows.

The season kicks off in January (23-Feb 22) with Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, starring Juliet Stevenson in one of the surrealist innovator’s greatest roles. Stevenson will be a familiar face for lovers of both stage and screen; she is an Olivier Award-winning stage actress, as well as making regular film and television appearances in the likes of Truly, Madly, Deeply, Emma and The Hour.

Another famous face to tread the boards at the Young Vic next year is Gillian Anderson of The X-Files fame, who takes on the iconic role of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ classic play A Streetcar Named Desire. This new summer production is directed by Benedict Andrews, who won acclaim for his production of Three Sisters at the Young Vic last year.

Elsewhere in the season, other renowned directors are given the opportunity to flex their muscles. Belgian visionary Ivo van Hove takes on Arthur Miller’s 20th-century tragedy A View from the Bridge (4 April-24 May), followed by a production that brings not one but two acclaimed directors to the Young Vic. New play The Valley of Astonishment (20 June-12 July) reunites Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne at the theatre after their international hit with The Suit. This is a precious opportunity to see Brook’s work in the UK.

The final celebrated director to join the Young Vic’s stellar line-up is Katie Mitchell, who has brought an innovative approach to classic plays both in the UK and Germany. She directs Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (10 October-29 November) in a new version by prominent playwright Simon Stephens, whose much-praised version of A Doll’s House for the Young Vic is soon to make the trip over the pond to New York.

The season is concluded with another tantalising offering, as internationally acclaimed theatre company 1927 open their first new theatre show in four years. Golem (9 December-17 January ’15), a meditation on mankind’s relationship to machinery, follows the huge success of their previous show The Animals and Children Took to the Streets, which has travelled the world and sold out at the National Theatre.

If this is what the main house has on offer, we can’t wait to hear more about what will be going on in the rest of the building over the next 12 months. We recommend booking as soon as possible, as tickets for such an exciting programme are likely to be snapped up quickly.

To book any of these shows, click here.

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