Theatre by the Lake’s latest summer season promises the usual much-praised programme of six contrasting plays ranging from pure entertainment to intense tragedy.
The two opening plays set the style: a madcap wartime farce in the main house and an intimate and gentle modern drama in the studio.
Philip King’s classic farce See How They Run! is true to the genre, and includes plenty of running, spectacular falls and more than one instance of trouser-dropping. However, director Abigail Anderson is keen to stress that the play is family-friendly.
The first play in the studio could not be further from a genre famed for silliness. Vincent in Brixton is an intimate drama by Nicholas Wright, which was written in 2002 and won the Olivier Award for Best New Play the same year.
It begins with the little-known fact that Vincent van Gogh lodged at a house in London for three years in his early 20s.
It imagines the story of van Gogh’s stay and his decision to leave. With a cast of only five, this play should be perfectly suited to the 100-seat Studio.
Both are joined by J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls and Jacobean tragedy ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore in June, and the final two plays in this season of six—18th century comedy She Stoops to Conquer and modern drama The Shape of Things—open in July and August respectively.
From August, the six plays are performed on alternate days; so audiences can see all six in just one week.