Swiss filmmaker and director Milo Rau is bringing his documentary-style approach to a high-profile production detailing the trial of the men accused of drugging and raping Gisèle Pelicot. Developed alongside Servane Dècle, this four-hour project has toured globally and is scheduled for a staging by the Young Vic at London’s County Hall on 30 November. While the live tickets sold out quickly, the production will be available via livestream. The show features a cast including Adjoa Andoh, Rosie Jones, and Olivia Williams. Discussing the emotional weight of the piece, Young Vic artistic director Nadia Fall noted, “It was the act of witnessing that really got me. It isn’t scenes and costumes in a set like a traditional piece of theatre. It is the facts. It just floors you.” Swiss director Milo Rau’s ripped-from-the-headlines approach to theatre has included shows about wars in Iraq and Congo and the exploitation of migrant workers. The production swiftly sold out but will be livestreamed in full.
Internationaal Theater Amsterdam continues its reputation as a leading European stage company following its recent successes with The Years and Oedipus. The theatre group has now expanded its creative footprint by launching its own record label. This platform aims to release the “most requested” music from their recent productions, starting with a compilation featuring tracks by composer Thijs van Vuure, known for his work on the adaptation of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. These recordings are now accessible via Spotify. An avant garde hit factory that stormed the West End with The Years and Oedipus, it’s already one of Europe’s coolest theatre companies.
On the digital stage, choreographer Damien Jalet showcases his work through the film DuEls, created with Erna Ómarsdóttir. Currently streaming on the Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage, the hour-long performance features dancers moving among the statues of the Vigeland Museum in Oslo. The film, which includes a trio previously seen in the horror film Suspiria, highlights the interplay between live movement and static sculpture. Not least in how the movement changes your appreciation of figures frozen in time: a choreographer illuminating sculptors, endlessly intriguing.
Director Carrie Cracknell brings a revival of Tom Stoppard’s intellectual and emotional epic, Arcadia, to the Old Vic. Although Cracknell once admitted feeling intimidated by Stoppard’s complex dialogue, her production successfully navigates the play’s temporal shifts and thematic exploration of the universe. The show, starring the Olivier-nominated Isis Hainsworth, is scheduled for release on NT at Home starting 26 November.
Finally, the performance artist Selina Thompson’s acclaimed work, which earned multiple awards at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe, is now available to view on BBC iPlayer. The piece documents her investigation of the transatlantic slave triangle through a unique ritual involving salt rock, capturing her journey from the UK to Ghana and Jamaica. The digital film preserves the intimacy of her stage performance while adding personal reflections on its creation. In 2017, the performance artist Selina Thompson arrived at the Edinburgh fringe with a mallet, protective goggles and blocks of salt rock that she duly hammered in a one-woman show whose audience members each took home a.
