The Beaux’ Stratagem - National Theatre (Olivier)
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
SIMON Godwin will direct Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem, a Travelex £15 Tickets production, which opens in the Olivier Theatre on May 26, 2015, following preview performances from May 19.
The ‘Beaux’ are Mr Aimwell and Mr Archer, two charming, dissolute young men who have blown their fortunes in giddy London. Shamed and debt-ridden, they flee to provincial Lichfield. Their ‘Stratagem’: to marry for money.
Lodged at the local inn, posing as master and servant, they encounter a teeming variety of human obstacles: a crooked landlord, a fearsome highwayman, a fervent French Count, a maid on the make, a drunken husband, a furious butler, a natural healer and a strange, turbulent priest.
But their greatest obstacle is love. When the Beaux meet their match in Dorinda and Mrs Sullen they are most at risk, for in love they might be truly discovered.
Simon Godwin’s National Theatre credits include Strange Interlude and the forthcoming Man and Superman, starring Ralph Fiennes.
Godwin is an Associate Director of the Royal Court, where his productions include Routes, NSFW, The Witness, Goodbye to All That, The Acid Test, and Wanderlust. His work elsewhere includes Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC), Regeneration (Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton/UK tour) and The Winter’s Tale (Headlong/Nuffield Theatres).
For Bristol Old Vic, where he is an Associate Artist, his credits include The Little Mermaid, Krapp’s Last Tape/A Kind Of Alaska, The Faith Healer and Far Away.
The Beaux’ Stratagem will be designed by Lizzie Clachan, with lighting by Jon Clark, movement by Jonathan Goddard, music by Michael Bruce and sound by Christopher Shutt. Casting has not yet been announced.