Lyric Hammersmith Theatre announces 2022 season
Photo credit: Chris Payne
The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre has announced its programme for the 2022 season. The programme will feature a brand-new festival celebrating Black excellence and culture, a debut play, a major London revival and a radical retelling of Hedda Gabler.
Launching the 2022 season will be For the Culture: Celebrations of Blackness, which will honour Blackness through art, performance, conversation, love and joy; led and curated by Dr Peggy Brunache. It will be held over the course of 3 days in January 2022.
A co-production with Talawa Theatre Company will run from 10 February-12 March entitled Running with Lions. Directed by Talawa’s Michael Buffong, it follows a British-Caribbean family in their struggle to come to terms with grief.
A world premiere of Mike Bartlett’s comedy Scandaltown will be staged from 7 April-14 May 2022 and is a troublesome comedy full of illicit sex, political hypocrisy and the machinations of the fame-hungry elite; directed by Raachel O’Riordan.
Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country’s Good) has translated and adapted Jean Racine’s Britannicus and will join forces with director Atri Banerjee to bring it to the Lyric from 26 May-25 June 2022. Britannicus is a tragedy that delves into the past with the Roman Empire.
Disability inclusive and Young Lyric partner Amici Dance Theatre Company will celebrate their 40th anniversary from 29 June-2 July 2022, and will bring together an 80-strong cast in One World: Wealth of the Common People.
Receiving a major London revival in July 2022 will be Patrick Maber’s Olivier Award-winning Closer, directed by Clare Lizzimore.
Ola Ince will direct Heather, a new play by Roy Williams as an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler from 29 September-29 October 2022.
Artistic Director of Lyric Hammersmith Theatre Rachel O’Riordan said: “We are so proud and excited to be able to share this season with our audience. This past 18 months has been tough for our industry; theatre has felt vulnerable, as has our society. We are in a period of change and of shift; and at times like this, theatre is vital. The season we shared with you in 2019, my first season as Artistic Director of the Lyric, demonstrated our ambition and our passion. This current season builds on that and also responds to where we are now. The writers and directors whose work will be shared with you in our beautiful auditorium are bold, thrilling, artists. We look forward to welcoming the wider creative teams, actors and audiences to the Lyric, at the heart of West London. It is good to be back.”
Tickets are on sale now here.