Tricycle Theatre - Rubasingham's inaugural season
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
INDHU Rubasingham has announced her inaugural season as Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre and it includes the Tricycle’s first festive family show, The Arabian Nights, Don Evans’ One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show and the world premiere of Paper Dolls.
However, the season kicks off with another world premiere, Lolita Chakrabarti’s Red Velvet, a new play based on the true story of Ira Aldridge, which runs from October 11 to November 24, 2012.
Red Velvet will be directed by Indhu Rubasingham, with Olivier Award-winning actor Adrian Lester in the role of Ira Aldridge.
In 1833, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage whilst playing Othello. A young black American actor has been asked to take over the role. But, as the public riot in the streets, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre?
Although Adrian Lester is best known for playing Michael Stone in the hit BBC1 series Hustle, he has also appeared on screen in When Romeo Met Juliet, Merlin, Sleep with Me, Ghost Squad, Being Human, Ballet Shoes, Bonekickers, Empire’s Children and the award-winning Storm Damage (TV); Primary Colours, The Day After Tomorrow, Born Romantic, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Starting Out in the Evening, Dust, Final Curtain, Scenes of a Sexual Nature, As You Like It, Doomsday, Best and Case 39 (film).
Last seen on stage in the award-winning Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre, Lester’s other theatre credits include Hamlet for Peter Brook at the Bouffes du Nord/Young Vic; Sweeney Todd at the National Theatre (Olivier Award Nomination for Best Performance in a Supporting Role); Company at the Donmar Warehouse (Olivier Award for Best Actor); Six Degrees of Separation at the Royal Court/Comedy Theatre (Time Out Award); As You Like It at the Lyric Hammersmith/Noel Coward Theatre/National Tour; and Henry V at the National Theatre.
His forthcoming projects include the feature film All is By My Side due for release in 2013 and playing the title role in Othello at the National Theatre also in 2013.
Lolita Chakrabarti is an actress and writer, whose previous writing credits include The Goddess (Radio 4) and Last Seen – Joy (Almeida Theatre). As an actress her credits include The Great Game: Afghanistan (Tricycle Theatre), Free Outgoing (Royal Court/Traverse Theatre), John Gabriel Borkman (Donmar Warehouse), Grimm’s Tales (Young Vic) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Waiting Room (National Theatre).
On television, she has appeared in Vera, When Romeo Met Juliet, Outnumbered, Hustle, Holby City, Extras Christmas Special, Waking The Dead, Silent Witness, Bodies – the finale, The Bill (as WPC Jamilla Blake) and One Night.
In 2010, Chakrabarti co-founded Lesata Productions with Rosa Maggiora, producing Of Mary, a twenty-minute film directed by Adrian Lester. It was selected for the Raindance Film Festival, Underwire Film Festival and the London Short Film Festival and, in 2012, won the Best Short Film Award at the Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles.
Red Velvet will be designed by Tom Piper, with lighting by Oliver Fenwick, sound by Paul Arditti and assistant direction from Titas Halder.
Read about Indhu Rubasingham.