Michael Grandage Company’s season which will take up residency at the Noel Coward Theatre between December 2012 and February 2014. There will be five productions in total: Privates on Parade, Peter and Alice, The Cripple of Inishmaan, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry V.

 

The inaugural season of work for the Michael Grandage Company is a five production programme comprised of new writing, alongside the classical and twentieth century repertoire. This unique West End season brings together writers, actors and other artists in a single venture over fifteen months.

 

 

“Come see the privates on parade

You’ll say: how proudly they’re displayed”

 

Private Steven Flowers is posted to the Song and Dance Unit in South East Asia where serving under the flamboyant Captain Terri Dennis he discovers it takes more than just a uniform to become a man. 

 

Simon Russell Beale plays the cross-dressing Captain Dennis whose performances of Marlene Dietrich, Vera Lynn and Carmen Miranda form the centrepiece of Peter Nichols‘ award-winning comedy set against the murderous backdrop of the Malaysian campaign at the end of the Second World War.

 

 

Director Michael Grandage

Set and Costume Designer Christopher Oram

Lighting Designer Paule Constable

Choreographer Ben Wright

 

 

 

“Of course that’s how it begins: a harmless fairy tale to pass the hours”

 

When Alice Liddell Hargreaves met Peter Llewellyn Davies at the opening of a Lewis Carroll exhibition in 1932, the original Alice in Wonderland came face to face with the original Peter Pan. In John Logan’s remarkable new play, enchantment and reality collide as this brief encounter lays bear the lives of these two extraordinary characters.

 

Judi Dench plays Alice and Ben Wishaw plays Peter in Logan’s first new play since Red, which went on to win six Tony Awards in 2010. 

 

Director Michael Grandage

Set and Costume Designer Christopher Oram

Lighting Designer (TBC)

Composer and Sound Designer Adam Cork

 

 

by Martin McDonagh

 

“I shouldn’t laugh at you Billy … but I will”

 

Set on the remote island of Inishmaan off the west coast of Ireland, word arrives that a Hollywood film is being made on the neighboring island of Inishmore. The one person who wants to be in the film more than anybody is young Cripple Billy, if only to break away from the bitter tedium of his daily life. Martin McDonagh’s comic masterpiece examines an ordinary coming of age in extraordinary circumstances and confirms his position as one of the most original Irish voices to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century.

 

Daniel Radcliffe plays the title role in the first major London revival since its premiere at the National Theatre in 1996.

 

 

Director Michael Grandage

Set and Costume Designer Christopher Oram

Lighting Designer Paule Constable

 

 

by William Shakespeare

 

“The course of true love never did run smooth”

 

Lysander loves Hermia and Hermia loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius; Demetrius used to love Helena but now loves Hermia. When Hermia's father insists she choose Demetrius as a suitor she escapes with Lysander into the surrounding forest where Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of the Fairies are having their own battle of love. As the human and magical worlds collide mischief and chaos erupt as love at first sight proves a reality for some and makes an ass of others.

 

Sheridan Smith plays Titania and David Walliams plays Bottom in this new production of one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies.

 

Director Michael Grandage

Set and Costume Designer Christopher Oram

Lighting Designer Paule Constable

 

 

by William Shakespeare

 

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
”

 

Can the King of England hold his nerve to embrace his duty, command his men and lead his country to victory in France? Shakespeare’s great play of nationhood investigates the bloody horrors of war and the turbulence of a land in crisis.

 

Jude Law and Michael Grandage continue their collaboration that began with Hamlet in 2009. Law also appeared in the Donmar’s award-winning production Anna Christie, as part of Grandage’s final season as Artistic Director.

 

Director Michael Grandage

Set and Costume Designer Christopher Oram

Lighting Designer Paule Constable