Dateline 2nd September, 2001
Underground Theatre
Or, more properly, theatre in the Underground. From 21st to 29th September, Zubin Varla and David Westhead will perform French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltes' In the Solitude of Cotton Fields in the disused Aldwych Tube Station. It will be a promenade production, startin g at the Strand entrance and finishing by the Surrey Street entrance.
The station has been closed since 1994 and has been used for filming in the past, but this is the first time a live thatre performance has been given. Interestingly, the tube station occupies the same site as the old Royal Strand Theatre, which was demolished in 1905.
Putting Sheffield on the map
From 5th to 22nd September, the Sheffield Crucible plays host to Mapping the Edge, by the WILSONWILSONCOMPANY, but the audience won't be sitting in a warm theatre but will follow the promenade piece on foot, and by bus and tram. The site specific piece arose out of the company's residency at the theatre in 2000. It is a journey across Sheffield, both in real terms and in terms of the story.
Another new Mrs Robinson
Linda Grey is to be the latest actress to play Mrs Robinson in The Graduate at the Gielgud. She takes over from Anne Archer on 1st October.
Gender-bender Oz
Fruit of the Womb Theatre Company is to present their gender-bending version of The Wizard of Oz at the Rose and Crown from 21st to 23rd September.
Dorothy’s Friends reinvents Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, bringing the classic text up to date. Dorothy has left Kansas and is now a lonely teenage Essex boy who is miraculously transported through cyber space to the fantastic city of London aka Oz. He arrives in the Munchkin City, which has undergone drastic redevelopment, to become the Soho scene only to discover that he is now a she and she certainly ain't in Essex anymore. The show tells the story of Dorothy and his friends as they travel to the city in a desperate search to find his way home.
Messiah to tour
Steven Berkoff's Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion, a Fringe First winner from the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe, is to tour. It opens at the Oxford Playhouse on 12th September before going on to the Riverside, Poole, Bristol, Glasgow, Westcliffe on Sea and Warwick.
A West End transfer was expected after the Edinburgh run finished last year, but it did not materialise.
Joan Collins returns
Veteran actress Joan Collins returns to the West End for the first tme in over then years next month when Ken Ludwig's new comedy Moon over Buffalo transfers to the Old Vic on 15th October (previews from 9th), after dates in Guildford and Bath. A co-production between the Yvonne Arnaud and Ray Cooney, it opens at the Guildford venue on 18th September.
Song closes
The musical Song of Singapore (Mayfair) will close on 9th September, after a ten week run.