At the launch of the 2004 summer season, directors David Farr and Simon Reade were basking in the triumph of their first full year of productions. "Paradise Lost and Mother Courage were the best performers at the Box Office for many seasons," they said. "We feel ebullient about our work and the support we have had from the Bristol audiences. "It is a great time to be a theatre-goer in this city." Pursuit First up for summer is Beasts and Beauties - Eight Tales from Europe, a collaboration with the National Theatre of Bergen in Norway and retold by poet Carol Ann Duffy. This is a new take on the fairy tale that promises a bite for children and adults, and reunites Duffy with director Melly Still.
>> Find out more  | | | Gone to Earth: a "haunting" tale | |
In May, there is a short run of a touring production from the Shared Experience company. Gone to Earth is the story of a woman desperate to live a freer life, and is based on a Mary Webb novel. Set against the backdrop of the First World War, Hazel Woodus is obsessively pursued by two men whose chase precipitates her destruction. And then, what Simon Reade called "our favourite comedy after Orton's Loot", Sheridan's The Rivals. Rachel Kavanaugh directs at the Old Vic for the first time and is reunited with designer Peter McKintosh, following their collaboration on The Merry Wives of Windsor. Written in 1775, Reade said of The Rivals: "This is the best comedy in the English language. There was nothing like it again until Wilde." Captain Absolute is in love with Lydia Languish, who would prefer a humble soldier for her suitor. Absolute acquiesces, but Languish could lose her inheritance if she upsets her aunt, Mrs Malaprop - "the very pineapple of politeness." Heaving bodices and dashing suitors all round.
Henry IV Onto July, and the first touring production from Donmar Warehouse: Pirandello's Henry IV, in a new version by Tom Stoppard. Showing at only three venues outside London, the play is directed by Michael Grandage - winner of this year's Olivier Award for Best Director - and stars Francesca Annis and Ian McDiarmid, known, amongst other things, for his role as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in the Star Wars series.  | | | Simon Reade directs Private Peaceful in the Studio | |
It tells the story of an Italian nobleman who comes round from a fall and believes he is the medieval German Emperor, King Henry IV. The summer rounds off in the main house with a performance from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School of Dorothy Reynolds' Salad Days, and Circomedia's Dead Cat Bounce. In the Old Vic Studio, Private Peaceful kicks off in April. The story of a young man awaiting execution during the First World War, this one-man show is adapted and directed by Simon Reade. The story comes from Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo, and Private Tommo will be played by Paul Chequer, who plays Jamie in Channel 4's As If. Mayfest is back, celebrating visual and physical theatre, and a group of disabled artists - The Portway Players - also return with an adaption of Christopher Marlowe's Fautus. Specifically for the Old Vic's younger audience, Bristol's Travelling Light company presents Cloudland, adapted from the book by John Burningham; the Sherman Company presents Pinnochio, and Dragonblack Productions gives us Pippi Longstockings, the story of the strongest girl in the world.
>> Check out our full Old Vic summer listings | 
