The Bridge Theatre has confirmed a 2022 run for their new adaptation of Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman.
Originally announced in 2019 for a 2020 run, Covid had delayed the production. Simon Russell Beale stars in the title role as Borkman, in a brand new version of the play by The Danish Girl screenwriter Lucinda Coxon.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, the production will run from 24 September to 26 November 2022 at the Bridge Theatre.
Set designs are by Anna Fleischle and costume designs by Liam Bunster, with further members of the creative team, and cast, announced soon.
John Gabriel Borkman, once an illustrious entrepreneur, has been brought low by a prison sentence for fraud. As he paces alone in an upstairs room, bankrupt and disgraced, he is obsessed by dreams of his comeback. Downstairs, his estranged wife plots the restoration of the family name. When her sister arrives unannounced, she triggers a desperate showdown with the past.
Simon Russell Beale is one of the UK’s most accomplished actors. He was last at the Bridge in A Christmas Carol and Bach & Sons, both directed by Nicholas Hytner. His previous theatre credits include The Lehman Trilogy at National Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway. Other collaborations with Nicholas Hytner include The Alchemist, Much Ado About Nothing, Major Barbara, Collaborators, London Assurance and Timon of Athens, at the National Theatre.
Lucinda Coxon previously collaborated with Nicholas Hytner at The Bridge on the world premiere of Alys, Always. Her other theatre writing credits include Herding Cats, Happy Now, The Eternal Not, Nostalgia, The Shoemaker’s Wife, Vesuvius, Wishbones, Three Graces, The Ice Palace and Waiting at the Water’s Edge. Her screen writing credits include the award-winning The Danish Girl starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, The Little Stranger starring Domhnall Gleeson and Ruth Wilson, The Crimson Petal and The White starring Romola Garai for the BBC, Wild Target starring Emily Blunt and The Heart of Me starring Paul Bettany and Helena Bonham-Carter.
For the Bridge Theatre Nicholas Hytner has directed Young Marx, Julius Caesar, Allelujah!, Alys, Always, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Two Ladies, Beat the Devil, The Shrine, Bed Among the Lentils, A Christmas Carol, Bach & Sons and The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage.
This month Hytner directs Ralph Fiennes in David Hare’s Straight Line Crazy at The Bridge Theatre, and in June he will direct Alex Jennings in Stephen Beresford’s The Southbury Child at The Bridge. Previously he was Director of the National Theatre from 2003 to 2015.
