Closer

CLOSER Written by Patrick Marber Directed by Clare Lizzimore

A Lyric Hammersmith Production

Welcome

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CLOSER Written by Patrick Marber

Cast Jack Farthing Ella Hunt Nina Toussaint-White Sam Troughton

A big, warm welcome to the Lyric and to this new revival of Patrick Marber’s iconic play by Clare Lizzimore, a director who I have long admired.

Closer was programmed after a conversation on Zoom with the Lyric artistic associates. We were in the middle of lockdown where physical intimacy was restricted for so many, which made the prospect of reviving this play in 2022 all the more exciting, and exploratory.

Chorus Kane Feagan Georgia-Rose Oliver Sam Purkis Wilf Walsworth

Closer looks at how humans damage each other; and how the risk of damage is perhaps inherent in intimacy itself. Set in the anarchic 90s, it was described in the 1997 premiere by The Sunday Times “as one of the best plays of sexual politics.”

It is – and it feels important to see, 25 years later, how that has changed. And if we are different now, in ourselves – or not.

Musicians Radhika Aggarwal Arun Ghosh Creative and Production Team Director Clare Lizzimore Set and Costume Designer Soutra Gilmour Lighting Designer Richard Howell Composer, Arranger and Musical Director Arun Ghosh Sound Designer Christopher Shutt Movement Director Malik Nashad Sharpe

This 25th anniversary production of a modern classic features four trainees from our groundbreaking Springboard programme who have worked alongside Clare and the professional company throughout the process. We look back, and we look forward.

RACHEL O’RIORDAN Artistic Director & CEO Image by Jim Stephenson

Casting Director Lotte Hines CDG Assistant Director Kwame Owusu Voice Coach Tess Dignan Company Stage Manager Claire Bryan Deputy Stage Manager Helen King Assistant Stage Manager Beth Dixon Lighting Programmer Elliot Smith Lighting Operators Matt Turnbull / Dan Miller Sound No. 1 Jake Hanks Sound No. 2 Daniel Ronayne / Lorna Munden Fly person Sam Palmer / Elizabeth Dickson Dresser Chloe Johnson Set Build Lyric Workshop / Visualscene Ltd

Cloth printing & Drapery Rutters UK Audio Description Ruth James Alison Clarke Open Captioning Miranda Yates With special thanks to Neil Manttan, Marcus Williamson, Jennifer McCord and Patrick Gunning for their consultancy sessions.

Content Warning Contains sexually explicit language, adult themes, and scenes of a sexual nature.

Closer Artwork Photography Jennifer McCord Closer Artwork design Greg Bunbury Rehearsal and production photography Marc Brenner Additional rehearsal photography Keerthana Kunnath Programme design Hannah Yates

We support the Theatre Green Book as a common standard for more sustainable working.

This production of Closer was first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre on 14 July 2022.

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CLOSER Then and Now

by Daniel Rosenthal One of Closer’s most resonant London settings is Postman’s Park, a late-Victorian monument to people who sacrificed their lives saving others. It takes Patrick Marber a couple of minutes to walk to Postman’s Park from his office, where I first interviewed him about Closer in 2005. It’s a large, airy space that doubles as his archive: boxes containing scripts, correspondence and other material from nearly 30 years of stage and screen projects as writer, director and, occasionally, actor.

In 1995, he directed his award-winning debut, Dealer’s Choice, about a poker game at a London restaurant, at the National Theatre’s Cottesloe (now Dorfman) – also the venue for Closer. Patrick’s dazzling production opened in May 1997, won the Olivier Award for Best New Play and transferred to the West End and Broadway. By 2003, Closer had enjoyed more than 150 international revivals and in 2004–05 the feature film adaptation, directed by Mike Nichols from Patrick’s screenplay, took $115m at cinemas worldwide. All of which meant that several million people had got to know Closer’s characters: Anna, Larry, Dan and Alice. Such popularity astonished Patrick, who originally thought of Closer as “a little studio piece about sex that would upset people and probably not be very good for my career.”

It began life as a Studio piece: in September 1996 Patrick arrived at the National Theatre Studio, beside the Old Vic, to develop his embryonic script with

Anna Chancellor (Anna), Douglas Hodge (Larry), Jason Isaacs (Dan) and Claire Skinner (Alice).

At a writers’ retreat in Ireland he completed a first full draft, revised during a two-week Studio workshop in December 1996, with Sally Dexter (Anna), Stephen Dillane (Dan), Mark Strong (Larry) and Kate Beckinsale (Alice). Their rehearsed reading at the end of that fortnight convinced the National Theatre’s then Director, Richard Eyre, to invite Patrick to direct Closer in the Cottesloe, where Dexter was joined by Clive Owen (Dan), Ciarán Hinds (Larry) and Liza Walker (Alice).

Eyre admired how Closer was “extraordinarily specific about the minutiae of sex and the geometry of relationships”. IIt had been shaped by Patrick’s most recent credits. Adapting Strindberg’s Miss Julie (1888) for BBC2 as After Miss Julie (1995) had given him “the territory for a play about contemporary sexual romantic relationships. In February 1996, at the Almeida, he had directed the premiere of Craig Raine’s ‘1953’, whose tone and structure informed Closer: both scripts explore the selfishness of desire.

At times, Closer evokes David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974) and another American tale of two men and two women: Steven Soderbergh’s film sex, lies, and videotape (1989). “Closer can be looked at as Sexual Perversity in Chicago or sex, lies, and videotape rewritten,” Patrick observed in 2005. “They’re all the same play, really. Each successive generation needs to go: ‘No, no, this is where love is at the moment.’”

When Closer opened, he was 32; now he’s 57, and the eldest of his three sons is 20 – only four years younger than Alice in Closer’s opening scene. When I asked Patrick which dramatists or film-makers have recently pinned down “where love is at the moment”, he replied: “I’m too old to have any idea.”

This revival’s director, Clare Lizzimore, has wanted to stage Closer since she first encountered it, on the page, in 2007: “It was rude, and dirty, and completely without shame. It felt like being told the shocking, unpalatable truth. It was unlike anything else I’d ever read.

“For this production, I had to find a way of preserving Closer’s late 1990s setting, but acknowledge that we’re viewing it in a very different time. I wanted it to be rendered exactly as written, but also protect it from being judged through our mind-set in a pejorative way. I immediately thought of Brecht, and how creating a distance between the production and the play allows for politics. So I hope this production allows us to see that what we are watching is constructed. But it is truthful in the moment-bymoment intensity of the drama.”

Daniel Rosenthal wrote the Commentary for the Methuen Student Edition of Closer. His books include The National Theatre Story (Oberon, 2014), which won the Theatre Book Prize.

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Company DAN Jack Farthing Theatre includes: Wild (Hampstead Theatre); Carmen Disruption (Almeida); Bang, Bang, Bang (Royal Court / Out of Joint); Mary Broome (Orange Tree Theatre); Charley’s Aunt, Comedy of Errors (Royal Exchange); Love’s Labours Lost (Shakespeare’s Globe / US Tour); Helen, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Odyssey (National Theatre). Television includes: Chloe (BBC / Amazon); The ABC Murders (Mammoth Screen); Poldark, Blandings (Mammoth Screen/ BBC); Cilla (ITV); Poirot: The Big Four (Mammoth Screen / ITV); Da Vinci’s Demons (Starz / BBC Worldwide); Shakespeare Uncovered: Hamlet (Blakeway Productions / BBC). Film includes: Spencer (Shoebox Films); The Lost Daughter (Endeavour Content); Love Wedding Repeat (Notorious Pictures / Tempo Productions Limited); Official Secrets (Raindog Films / Mark Gordon Company / eOne); Burn Burn Burn (Rather Good Films Ltd); The Riot Club (Blueprint Pictures).

ALICE Ella Hunt Television includes: Dickinson (Apple TV+); Lore (Amazon Studios); Endeavour (Mammoth Screen / ITV1); Cold Feet (Big Talk ITV); Film includes: Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Netflix); Master (Amazon Studios); Kat and the Band (101 Films); The More You Ignore Me (Genesius Pictures); Anna and the Apocalypse (Blazing Griffin / MGM’s Orion Pictures); Robot Overlords (Pinewood Studios / Embankment

Film); Les Misérables (Universal Pictures); Intruders (Universal Pictures International).

ANNA Nina Toussaint-White Theatre includes: The View From Nowhere (Park Theatre); The Libertine (Theatre Royal, Bath and Haymarket); The Etienne Sisters (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Race (Hampstead Theatre); Cloud Nine (Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe). Television includes: Mammals (Dignity Productions); Witness Number Three (Channel 5); The Sister (ITV / Euston Films); The Feed (Amazon Studios); Bodyguard, Doctor Who, Doctors, Holby City, Eastenders (BBC); Gameface (E4 / Objective Productions); Midsommer Murders (ITV / Bently Productions); Emmerdale, Switch, Primeval, The Bill (ITV). Film includes: Kandahar (Thunder Road Films and Capstone). Radio includes: A Thing Inside A Thing Inside A Thing, Take Me To Victoria Park (BBC Radio).

LARRY Sam Troughton Theatre includes: Beginning (National Theatre / West End); Rutherford & Son, Stories, King Lear, The Coast of Utopia, Buried Child, Tartuffe (National Theatre); Bull (Young Vic / E59E Theatre New York); La Musica, Three Sisters (Young Vic); Mint, Death Tax, Love, Love, Love (Royal Court); A Streetcar Named Desire (Liverpool Playhouse); Morte D’Arthur, Romeo & Juliet, The Grain Store, Julius Caes ar, The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, Henry VI (RSC); As You Like It (Sheffield),

Hamlet (Orange Tree Theatre). Television includes: Chernobyl (Sky Atlantic / HBO); Ragdoll (AMC & Alibi); Litvinenko, Stephen (ITV); The Outlaws, The Trial of Christine Keeler, Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses, Dancing on the Edge, Robin Hood, Gunpowder, Treason & Plot (BBC). Film includes: Napoleon (Apple); Mank (Netflix); Peterloo, Vera Drake (Thin Man Films); The Ritual (Imaginarium / eOne); Alien vs Predator (20th Century Fox); Sylvia (Ariel Productions).

Diorama); F OFF (Criterion); On Bower Hill (Arts Theatre); Crime and Punishment (Periplum Theatre Tour); Summer Fest (The Bunker Theatre); Richard II (RADA GBS Theatre). Film includes: Journeyman (Jonny Massahi); Acronymity (Team Angelica); Negative (Lyric and Roundhouse Film). Writing includes: Shortflix Sky Arts Development Finalist and seven published works in the FIERCE and COMMON books by Team Angelica Publishing.

CHORUS Kane Feagan Kane Feagan is a SPRINGBOARD trainee. She is also the recipient of the 2022 Bill Cashmore Award for her original play Wasted, which will headline the Lyric’s seventh annual Evolution Festival in Spring 2023.

Other theatre credits include: Aladdin; The MOB Reformers; Eclipse; Passin’ Thru and The Intervention (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre). Kane recently performed The Maladies as part of the Almeida Young Company at the Yard and is currently working on a show with the Bush Young Company.

CHORUS Wilf Walsworth Wilf Walsworth is a SPRINGBOARD trainee. Wilf performed on the Lyric stage in Heart of Hammersmith last year and has previously trained with the Actors Class and National Youth Theatre. He recently played the roles of Caliban and Ferdinand in Shakespeare in the Squares’ production of The Tempest. Other stage credits include: Buried (New York Musical Theatre Festival); My Mate Dave Died (Edinburgh Fringe). While studying at Sheffield University, he took on numerous roles including Benjamin in The Graduate, Hannay in The 39 Steps, and Melchior in Spring Awakening.

CHORUS Georgia-Rose Oliver Georgia-Rose Oliver is a SPRINGBOARD trainee.

Previously, Georgia-Rose trained on the Playing Up Course with the National Youth Theatre, where she also performed in Summer Fest. Other credits include: Eulogies, a radio play in response to Sian Carter’s family drama Running With Lions (Lyric Hammersmith Theatre) and also participated in the Lyric’s annual Evolution Festival, a platform highlighting innovative stage and screen work from young artists.

CHORUS Sam Purkis Sam Purkis is a SPRINGBOARD trainee. Theatre includes: King Lear (Chichester Festival Theatre / Duke of York’s Theatre); Sweet Bird of Youth (Chichester Festival Theatre); Coming Out as a Gay Basher (Bush Theatre / Hackney Showroom / Old

MUSICIAN Radhika Aggarwal Radhika plays drums, and brass with her band Extradition Order and newly formed Orchestrated Discontent. Theatre includes: Dead Good (Vamos / UK Tour); The Lovely Bones (Birmingham Rep / UK Tour); Satyagraha (Improbable / LA Opera ENO); An Arrangement of Shoes (one-woman show) written by Abhishek Majumdar (Tara Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, Vancouver Fringe winning ‘Pick of the fringe’). Select screen credits include: The Split, Casualty, New Tricks (BBC); The Children Act (BBC Films / Studio Canal); Four Weddings and a Funeral (Universal / Hulu); Second Generation (Channel 4). Her voice can be heard on video games, radio plays, and she loves spending time in her home studio.

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Arun Ghosh

Kwame Owusu

Ella Hunt and Jack Farthing

Ella Hunt and Sam Troughton

Jack Farthing and Nina Toussaint-White

Jack Farthing

Ella Hunt

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TIMELINE

OF THE PLAY

May 1997 World premiere at the National Theatre, directed by Patrick Marber, starring Clive Owen, Liza Walker, Sally Dexter and Ciarán Hinds.

WRITER Patrick Marber Patrick Marber was born in London in 1964. He is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director. His work has won Evening Standard, Olivier, Time Out, New York and London Critics’ Circle and Writers’ Guild Awards and received BAFTA, British Comedy and Royal Television Society Awards. His screenplays have been nominated for Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Awards. He received the British Independent Film Award for Notes on a Scandal.

His second play, Closer, has been an international success and has been performed in more than 200 cities across the world. Most recently, he directed Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (Wyndhams Theatre), which won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2020 and is due to open on Broadway in 2022.

His other plays include: Dealer’s Choice, Howard Katz, The Red Lion, Three Days in the Country, The Musicians, The School Film (National Theatre); After Miss Julie, Don Juan in Soho (Donmar). Stage adaptations include versions of Hedda Gabler, Exit The King and The Beaux’ Stratagem (National Theatre); and Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (Donmar).

Screenplays include: Closer (Columbia Pictures); Notes on a Scandal (Fox Searchlight Pictures); Old Street (Film4 / Box Films); Love You More (Film4).

Patrick is the co-creator (with Peter Curran) of Bunk Bed (BBC Radio 4).

DIRECTOR Clare Lizzimore Directing work includes: Mrs Delgado; An

February 1998 Wins Olivier Award for Best New Play.

March 1999 Opens on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre running for 172 performances. Wins a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and is nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play.

Intervention (both Old Fire Station, Oxford); Snowflake (Old Fire Station, Oxford and Kiln Theatre); Bull (Young Vic / Sheffield Theatres / 59E59 New York - Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in An Affiliate Theatre); One Day When We Were Young (Paines Plough / Sheffield / Shoreditch Town Hall); Lay Down Your Cross, On The Rocks (Hampstead); Pieces of Vincent (Arcola); Faces In The Crowd, The Mother (Royal Court); Fear and Misery, War and Peace (Royal Court / Latitude); The Most Humane Way To Kill a Lobster (Theatre503); Tom Fool (Glasgow Citizens / Bush). Clare has also won a Channel 4 Theatre Directors Award (formerly the RTYDS Award) and Arts Foundation Theatre Directing Fellowship for innovation. She was previously resident director at Citizens Theatre, Glasgow and staff director at the National Theatre. Clare has also directed numerous international plays and travelled extensively for the Royal Court’s International Programme, developing new plays with artists in Africa and The Middle East.

As a playwright Clare has also written plays for the Royal Court and The Studio Theatre Washington DC. SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER Soutra Gilmour For the Lyric: Running With Lions; Out West. Theatre includes: Macbeth (Almeida), Romeo and Juliet (Lyttelton Films for the NT); & Juliet (Shaftesbury Theatre); Pinter at the Pinter (Harold Pinter Theatre); Evita (Regent’s Park); Timon of Athens (RSC / TFANA Brooklyn); Guys and Dolls (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Knives in Hens, Inadmissible

December 2004 Feature film adaptation opens in the US directed by Mick Nichols and stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman who were both nominated for an Oscar.

February 2007 Methuen Drama publishes Student Edition.

Evidence, Piaf (Donmar); Apologia, Richard III, The Maids, The Homecoming (Trafalgar Studios); The Guards at the Taj (Bush Theatre); My Brilliant Friend (Rose Kingston); Pitchfork Disney, Killer (Shoreditch Town Hall); Twelfth Night, Les Blancs, Antigone (National Theatre); I See You, The Pride (Royal Court); Assassins, Merrily We Roll Along (Menier); Bull (Young Vic); Reasons to be Happy (Hampstead); Urinetown (St James, West End); The Crucible, The who’s a (Old Vic); Reasons to be Pretty (Almeida); The Caretaker (Sheffield Crucible / Tricycle); The Commitments, From Here to Eternity, The Lover and The Collection (West End).

LIGHTING DESIGNER Richard Howell Theatre includes: All’s Well That Ends Well, Tartuffe, Coriolanus (RSC); The House of Shades, The Writer (Almeida); Aristocrats, Privacy (Donmar); I See You (Royal Court); All My Sons, Jekyll and Hyde (Old Vic, London); Pinter 5&6, Glengarry Glen Ross, Bad Jews, Killer Joe, The Homecoming, East is East (West End); Rock (Crucible Theatre); NW Trilogy (Kiln); Habeas Corpus, The Watsons (Menier); Breaking the Code, A Doll’s House, Little Shop of Horrors, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Manchester Royal Exchange); Labyrinth (Hampstead Theatre); The Country Wife (Chichester, Minerva); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); Faustus, The Glass Menagerie (Headlong, UK Tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Wizard of Oz, Playing for Time (Sheffield Crucible); Semmelweis, The Grinning Man, The Crucible, The Life and Times of

February 2015 Revived at the Donmar Warehouse directed by David Leaveaux starring Rachel Redford, Oliver Chris, Rufus Sewell and Nancy Carroll.

July 2022 25th anniversary revival at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.

Fanny Hill (Bristol Old Vic); The Madness of George III (Nottingham Playhouse); Project Polunin (Sadlers Wells); Cabaret (Gothenburg Opera); Breaking The Waves, Flight (Scottish Opera). Opera includes: Il Trittico, Madame Butterfly, La Fanciulla (Opera Holland Park); Madame Buttterfly (Danish National Opera) COMPOSER, ARRANGER AND MUSICAL DIRECTOR Arun Ghosh Arun Ghosh is a British-Asian clarinettist, multiinstrumentalist and composer. Twice awarded Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, he is a renowned innovator of modern IndoJazz. A leading light on UK and international jazz scenes, Arun has released five albums on camoci records; his latest, Seclused in Light was released in March 2022 to critical acclaim, accompanied by a national tour. Another current work, currently touring sacred spaces, is Arun’s setting of St Francis of Assisi’s The Canticle of the Sun, for voices and Spiritual Jazz ensemble.

Arun Ghosh is a Creative Associate at Watford Palace Theatre, and an Associate Artist of Z-arts, Manchester. For the Lyric: A Doll’s House. Recent theatre compositions include: Nothello (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); The Bone Sparrow (Pilot / York Theatre Royal); The Secret Garden (Wizard); Hobson’s Choice (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Noughts & Crosses (Pilot / Derby Theatre); Approaching Empty (Tamasha / Kiln); Lions and Tigers (Shakespeare’s Globe).

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SOUND DESIGNER Christopher Shutt Theatre includes: Corn Is Green, Paradise, Hansard, Peter Gynt, Top Girls, Antony and Cleopatra, Julie, John, War Horse (Tony Award); Twelfth Night, Man and Superman, The James Plays (I & II), From Morning to Midnight, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Coram Boy, Machinal (National Theatre); Four Quartets, Frozen, The Entertainer, Winter’s Tale, The Father, The Twilight Zone (West End); Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, ear for eye, Escaped Alone, Love and Information, Serious Money, Road (Royal Court Theatre); Timon of Athens, Macbeth, Hamlet, Oppenheimer, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Wendy and Peter Pan, The Tempest, King Lear (RSC); Far Away, St Nicholas, Aristocrats, Knives in Hens, Faith Healer, Privacy, Philadelphia Here I Come! (Donmar); A Disappearing Number, Elephant Vanishes, Mnemonic, Noise of Time, Street of Crocodiles, Caucasian Chalk Circle (Complicité); Timon of Athens, War Horse, A Human Being Died That Night, Macbeth, All My Sons, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Happy Days, Not About Nightingales, Mnemonic (Broadway / NY); Hamlet, Julius Caesar (Barbican).

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR Malik Nashad Sharpe For the Lyric: Scandaltown. Malik Nashad Sharpe is an artist working with choreography, creating primarily underneath the alias Marikiscrycrycry.

As a movement director and dramaturg, credits include: Fairview (Young Vic); The Glow (Royal Court); Two-Character Play (Hampstead Theatre); Effigies of Wickedness (Gate Theatre / English National Opera). He has recently shown work at Institute of Contemporary Art, and Battersea Arts Centre, and has been awarded artistic residencies at Sadler’s Wells and Barbican. Working in fashion, he has performed and modelled at London Fashion

Week and at Paris Fashion Week 21 / 22. He was named a Rising Star in Dance by Attitude Magazine, and was listed on the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Art and Culture in Europe. He is currently an Associate Artist at The Place. He lives and works from London, U.K. CASTING DIRECTOR Lotte Hines Lotte Hines previously worked in the Royal Court Casting Department from 2008 to 2014. Theatre includes: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child (Sonia Friedman Productions); Bull, Pride & Prejudice (Sheffield Crucible); The Forest (Hampstead Theatre); A Doll’s House, The Mountaintop, Glee & Me (Royal Exchange Manchester); The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Ivan and the Dogs, Things of Dry Hours, La Musica, Dirty Butterfly, The Island (Young Vic); Meek, Junkyard, Boys Will Be Boys, The Glass Menagerie, The Absence of War, Medea (Headlong); Hole (Royal Court); Pests (Clean Break / Royal Court); As You Like It, To Kill A Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Open Air); The Dark (UK Tour, Oval House); The Barbership Chronicles (US Tour, National Theatre / Fuel / West Yorkshire Playhouse). Film includes: Data (Sonia Friedman Productions / Financial Times); CLA’AM (Winner of Best UK Short at Raindance Film Festival); Above (Ameenah Ayub Allen, Winner of Best Short Film at National Film Awards).

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Kwame Owusu For the Lyric: Scandaltown, Britannicus and Running With Lions. Theatre includes: (As Director) Pomona (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); The Wolf from the Door (John Thaw Studio Theatre) and Rota (Antwerp Mansion). (As Assistant Director) The Big Knife, DNA (ArtsEd) and Utopolis (Manchester International Festival). Film includes: (As Director) Whiskey Wednesdays (Kickitdown Productions).

(As Assistant Director) Bee (Old Vic).

Nina Toussaint-White

Jack Farthing

Clare Lizzimore

Ella Hunt and Sam Troughton

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D R A O B G N I R P S Radhika Aggarwal

Kane Feagan and Georgia-Rose Oliver

Wilf Walsworth

SPRINGBOARD is our free two-year training programme that aims to shape, champion and sustain the next generation of performers from underrepresented backgrounds. This major new performance pathway into employment is a vital new addition to Young Lyric, which is our home for pioneering initiatives for young people.

This production of Closer features four SPRINGBOARD trainees who auditioned for their role in the Chorus, working side by side professionally with our cast and creative team. Their training to date at the Lyric has included extensive masterclasses with industryleading practitioners, professional rehearsal room observations and multiple performances at our annual Evolution festival.

My advice to young people thinking about joining Springboard would be to be bold, brave and willing. Buy a large notebook because you’ll have plenty of notes to take and be on time.

KANE FEAGAN, 2022 SPRINGBOARD TRAINE

‘SPRINGBOARD is a bold new initiative at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. It speaks to our profound commitment to equality of opportunity, and builds on our long and influential history of talent development.

We couldn’t be more proud to nurture the exceptional talent from all of our trainees and we wish Kane, Georgia-Rose, Sam and Wilf all the best in this professional production’

Wilf Walsworth and Sam Purkis

RACHEL O’RIORDAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Want to be part of SPRINGBOARD 2023?

Applications open in Autumn 2022 SPRINGBOARD is kindly supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation.

Wilf Walsworth, Georgia-Rose Oliver, Ella Hunt, Arun Ghosh, Radhika Aggarwal and Sam Purkis

Kane Feagan, Ella Hunt, Georgia-Rose Oliver

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. . . t x e Up N 'This is perfect theatre' The Guardian

'Blisteringly powerful' The Stage

'Sensational' Evening Standard

'Will stay with you for days' What's On Stage

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Stumbling down the street drunk at 11.30am Effie is the kind of girl you avoid making eye contact with. You think you know her, but maybe you don’t know half of it.

Effie’s life is a mess of drink, drugs and drama every night, and a hangover worse than death the next day – till one night gives her the chance to be something more.

Q&A with Director and Artistic Director, Rachel O’Riordan about our next show.

Iphigenia in Splott is an unusual title, what does it mean?

Rachel O’Riordan The word ‘Splott’ is probably not one that everybody recognizes. It’s an area of Cardiff that is traditionally working class and open to immigration. It is also where the writer has lived and is an area he draws on for some of his plays.

Iphigenia or ‘Effie’ as she is called in the play speaks to the Greek myth of Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who is sacrificed to allow her father’s ships to sail to Troy.

Gary’s adaptation is a very contemporary play, set in today’s world. Effie is extraordinarily bright.

She is clever and driven but she has no opportunity.

Essentially, she is part of an underclass, and what this play does, is glorify her and make her a hero.

Described by critics as “the start of a revolution” why do you think this play remains as relevant now as it did when it first premiered in Wales in 2015?

RO’R In essence, this is a play that I wish wasn’t as relevant as it is right now. It delves into austerity and cuts; are we colluding as a society where some people get to live and others get to survive? A very strong theme in this play is austerity and the NHS, and what’s happening to it. Whilst that sounds like

a very hard-hitting night, it is also full of humour. I think we can all recognise truth when we see it and this play hits you right in the heart and in your gut; it will leave you thinking about Effie, and our world, long after you’ve met her.

What are we doing to keep our doors open for everyone?

RO’R We believe that theatre is for everybody and that everybody has the right to be able to come to see it. We’re also aware that any cost for a ticket is too much for some people. And that the cost of living crisis is making that absolutely prohibitive and impossible for many. I think that we all need places to go together to be part of a communal experience where we share thoughts, we share ideas, we have a cathartic experience amongst strangers. We are doing everything we can, as a producing theatre, to make attendance here possible.

We have 3,000 tickets priced at £15 or less in some of the best seats in our auditorium for the entire run of Iphigenia in Splott. There’s no eligibility, no strings attached. We also have £5 tickets available for anybody under 25 in West London. And we’ve got 550 completely free tickets for anybody who lives or works in Hammersmith and Fulham as part of our ‘Free First Night’ programme.

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p u g n i Com Plenty of winter fun, good cheer, and panto preparation are underway here at the Lyric.

c i r y L g Youn 19 November – 7 January

Get a head-start on planning your festive season and explore our upcoming shows for Winter 2022.

“The Lyric Hammersmith panto has a reputation as the coolest Christmas show in town” (WOS) and this brand new panto promises to be no exception.

Tickets on sale now at lyric.co.uk or call Box Office on 020 8741 6850.

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THE STORIES WE TELL

BECOME A YOUNG LYRIC MEMBER

The Stories We Tell is a new theatre cultural exchange residency that will bring together a collective of young queer participants from the UK, Kenya and South Africa to create a new piece of theatre exploring gender and sexuality.

Do you live in West London,* are aged 25 or under and enjoy theatre? Join our free Young Lyric membership and enjoy £5 tickets to our main house shows. As a member you’ll also have exclusive access to dozens of classes, auditions, holiday projects and professional training opportunities.

Led by local West London Theatre Director Ameera Conrad, the residency will respond to our production of Closer. Interrogated through an intersectional lens, The Stories We Tell will explore how gender and sexuality play a part in who we let in and how the world reacts asking ‘why do we love who we love and how does it change us?

Participants from West London will be accompanied by our Director of Young Lyric and Producer of Emerging Talent. Follow their journey on socials this August.

23 November – 31 December

19 January – 11 February

15 April – 13 May

Join Santa as he awakes from a dream of sun, sea and sand only to find it is the busiest day of the year: Christmas Eve.

Frantic Assembly presents its award-winning and electrifying take on Shakespeare’s tragedy of paranoia, sex and murder.

In its 80th anniversary, Brecht’s popular play is brought bang up to date in a new version by Nina Segal, directed by Anthony Lau (Anna Karenina).

Studio Sessions, Young Lyric Autumn Classes 2021. Image by Chris Payne

To become a member scan the QR below and fill in the membership form online or at the Young Lyric Kiosk in the Reuben Foundation Wing. * Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond upon Thames, Wandsworth and Westminster.

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t r a T r e Outsid

r a B c i r The Ly

Our café, which is on the ground floor and opens out onto Lyric Square, is run by Outsider Tart.

The breakfast, munch, and pre-theatre dinner spot has partially covered outdoor seating area which can be reserved. Walk-ins are welcome and takeaways are available. The daily menu is based on Outsider Tart’s famed combination of signature pancakes, salads, sandwiches, desserts, drinks and shakes with a soup of the day and pie of the month.

SPECIAL OFFER Show this coupon to the team at Outsider Tart for one free coffee or tea with a cinnamon puff on your next visit.

Offer available until 13 August 2022.

Roof Garden. Image by C. Levy

Selected as one of the top rooftop bars in London

by Time Out, our Roof Garden and The Lyric Bar is the place to be this Summer! Serving delicious food, cocktails, moreish snacks and drinks, The Lyric bar is open throughout the day, perfect for pre and post-show drinks, or even lunch when you find yourself in Hammersmith.

To make a reservation scan this QR code

Whilst bookings are not essential, reservations for pretheatre dining is recommended to secure your table.

OFFER

The Lyric Bar is open from 12.00 noon Monday to Saturday with food served from Tuesday – Saturday.

Show your programme at the Lyric Bar and enjoy 10% of your drinks bill.

Available for one single use. Offer ends 13 August 2022.

Image by Outsider Tart

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s t n e v E SPACES AVAILABLE TO HIRE

If you’re looking for the perfect place to entertain clients, have drinks with friends or hold a family celebration, we have a space for you.

Roof Garden

We have a range of flexible accessible spaces that can accommodate anywhere between 5 – 550 people. With our expert in-house team covering hospitality, catering and technical aspects, you are guaranteed a unique, first-class experience in our historic venue.

Reuben Foundation Wing. Image by Jim Stephenson

Main House Auditorium Studio Theatre Dance Studio Film & TV Studio

From conferences to film shoots, rehearsals and screenings, the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is a unique multi-use venue available to hire for both private and commercial use; either on a one off or long term basis.

Cinema

Film & TV Studio.

Image by Jim Stephenson

Recording Studio.

Image by Jim Stephenson

Cinema. Image by Jim Stephenson

Rehearsal rooms

For more information about our spaces or to talk to a member of our team email hires@lyric.co.uk or call 020 8741 6850.

Conference rooms The Lyric Bar

2019 Light Up The Light Gala Dinner. Image by Ali Wright

e r i H e u Ven

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s U t r o Supp The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is a charity.

Our mission is to make theatre accessible and affordable for everyone in our beautiful building. This costs about £6m a year.

We are grateful for support from the Arts Council and London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham but in addition to this we need to fundraise £800,000 from individuals, trusts and foundations and corporates.

There are so many ways to play your part in the future of the Lyric: sign up as a Supporter; sponsor a show; hold a fundraiser; make a donation; name a seat; get your business involved. Each show has new opportunities for businesses to sponsor from £1,000, such as free community tickets, and in return we lavish fun and exclusive benefits for their team and clients.

At the moment we are looking for a Panto 2022 Sponsor. Please get in touch if you are a business who would like to be right at the centre of the Jack & The Beanstalk Christmas madness.

If you would like to know more about supporting the Lyric please get in touch: development@lyric.co.uk 020 8741 6822 ext 404 lyric.co.uk THANK YOU Elliot Cowan and Anjana Vasan in A Doll’s House. Image by Helen Maybanks

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INDIVIDUALS Sasha Bates & contributors to the Bill Cashmore Award Swati & Harshad Barve Lisa Burger Sheila Clarke & Charles Gurassa Julia Cove-Smith & Stuart Quickenden Chris & Amanda Curry Liz Elston Mayhew & Luke Mayhew Tracy Essayan Susannah Fancelli Jane & David Fletcher Roger de Freitas Katherine Heath Lorraine Heggessey Susannah Herbert & Jonathan Ford Lesley Hill & Russ Shaw Joanna Kennedy Amelia Knott & Joe Tinston Georgina Lewis Britta & Jeremy Lloyd Emma Lowry David & Carol Kosse Kate & Kevin McGrath Julie Molloy Sandy & Caroline Orr Raj & Kim Parkash Colin Phillips Caroline Posnansky Peter Raymond Richard Reed Liz Rigden Deirdre Shaw Helen Thornton Ann & Jonathan Tross Philip Ward

TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS The Charlotte Bonham-Carter Charitable Trust The Childhood Trust The Daisy Trust The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Golsoncott Foundation The Ironmongers’ Company Jack Petchey Foundation John Lyon’s Charity John Thaw Foundation The Leche Trust The London Community Foundation McGrath Charitable Trust Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation The Portal Trust Reuben Foundation Theatres Trust BUSINESSES Bloomberg Hammersmith BID Hunters Sipsmith

Supporting us m akes all this possible e ach year ‘Exciting, accessible, and engaging theatre’ Audience feedback 2022

300,000

200,000

visitors to the building

audience see our shows

350

500 young people in

25% of all tickets under £15

4,500 FREE

freelancers work with us

education projects

local & schools tickets

600+

200+ events for charities & businesses

performances

35,000

spaces available at our after school and holiday classess

‘I think I can achieve things I never thought I could achieve.’

REWIND participant

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m a e T r u O Executive Team Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan Executive Director Amy Belson Executive Assistant Patrick Hughes Artistic Associates Tinuke Craig Good Teeth Tanika Gupta Phillip McMahon Nina Steiger Artistic Team Associate Director Nicholai La Barrie Literary Associate Liz Daramola Resident Assistant Director 2021 – 22 Birkbeck Placement Kwame Owusu Producing Team Senior Producer Iain Goosey Producer Kate Baiden Young Lyric Team Director of Young Lyric Rob Lehmann Producer (Inclusion & Outreach) Adrian Gardner Producer (Education) Jessica Drader

Producer (Emerging Talent) Charlie Bindels Outreach Officer Alessandra Zavagno Young Lyric Coordinator Jernade Miah PHD Researcher Kristina Nilles Young Lyric Hosts Samuel Adebayo Hannah Desai Priyanka Patel Sam Thompson Young Lyric Associates Ömer Cem Coltu Madeline Charlemagne Elle Davies Connor Guffogg Harri-Rose Hudson Ra’eesah Kai Mo Korede Amy Rushent Jo Strafford Louise Valente Development Team Director of Development Nathalie Bristow Development Assistant Georgia Evans Communication & Sales Team Director of Communications and Sales Niharika Jain

Marketing Manager Sophie Blacklaw Marketing Officer Louisa Heads McCann Box Office Supervisor Will Warnock Press Kate Morley PR Press and Marketing Assistant Burte Tsogbadrakh Box Office Assistants (part-time) Leonie Haynes-Moses Samara Gannon Box Office Assistants (casual) Samuel Adebayo Ellie Bibby Eibe Brown Sophia Capasso James Douglas-Quarcoopome Charlotte Keily Talia Kracauer Aaron Kelly Farshid Rokey Zoe Watson Finance & Resources Team Director of Finance & Resources Ivan Rockey Head of Finance Lesley Williams Head of Building & Facilities Brian Elvins HR Business Partner Beverley Dash Administration Manager Meghana Shah Finance Officer Kunle Sanni Security Supervisor Jean-Baptiste Maizeroi

Production Team Head of Production Seamus Benson Company Stage Manager Claire Bryan Head of Stage Elizabeth Dickson Head of Lighting Daniel Miller Head of Sound & Video Lorna Munden Head of Costume Ellen Gifford

Studio & Events Technical Manager George Ogilvie Stage Deputy Sam Palmer Lighting Deputy Matt Turnbull

Sound Deputy Daniel Ronayne Costume Deputy Harry Whitham Commercial Team Commercial Director Paul Gallagher Events & Hires Manager Beki Farrow Hires & Bookings Assistant Ashley Quagraine-McVay Visitor Services Manager Luke Vogel Senior Duty Manager Stephanie Dawes Duty Manager Sophia Capasso Duty Managers Millie Beazley, George Boulton Head Ushers James Douglas-Quarcoopome Emma Price Zoe Watson

Visitor Services Assistants Aisling Lally Beth Calvert Lee Camille Allan Chante Faucher Charlotte Medhurst Clementine Scott Ellie Bibby Emer Halton-O’Mahoney Emma Price George Boulton Izzy Dunn James Douglas-Quarcoopome James Evans Jones Jamie Musora Justice Ezi Leo Ziermann Lewis Francis Lizzie O’Reilly Luke Kebell Madeline Charlemagne Mara Simao Marcus Omoro Mark Yeates Marky Noble Matthew Cowan Nadine Gray Prime Isaac

Priyanka Patel Sarah Pearcey Tolu Fagbayi Tom Fotheringham Wesley Bozonga Bar & Catering Head of Bars & Catering Duncan Townsend Assistant Bar & Catering Manager Chantal-Carine Neckles Head Chef Satyajit Welaratne Chef de Partie Vicente Dmello Chef de Partie Abdul Raziq Razaq Bar Supervisors Viktor Velkovski Nia Braidford Antonio Barbosa Abbie Rai Bar Staff Team Emily Grace Camille Allan Joe Grundi

Anthony Underwood Georgia Brown Nathaniel Christian Marieta Marinova Choolwe Muntanga Caitlyn Allen Annie Howlett Ema Rossi Frances Eva Kyra Haslam Romain Mas Board Of Trustees Lorraine Heggessey (Chair) David Sharkey (Vice Chair) Rondette Amoy Smith Lameya Chaudhury Liz Elston Mayhew David Greig Farah Karim-Cooper Cllr Bora Kwon Kamran Mallick Julie Molloy Derek Richards.

Work with us The Lyric is the civic and creative heart of Hammersmith, West London. We believe that everyone deserves to experience the life changing impact of theatre. In our big, beautiful theatre, we tell stories that matter and work with exceptional talent to make ambitious, entertaining, inspiring shows for our audience in West London and beyond. We often have exciting opportunities to join our team. With great employee benefits on offer, check out our job vacancies at lyric.co.uk/our-home/about-us Costume Deputy Harry Whitham creating a costume for our 2021 pantomime, Aladdin. Image by Helen Maybanks

Lyric Hammersmith Enterprises Board of Directors Julie Molloy (Chair) David Sharkey Sarah Woods Chair’s Circle Sir William Atkinson Janet Ellis MBE Ashley Herman Kevin McGrath OBE Development Committee Cathy Comerford Lynn Cosgrave Janet Ellis MBE Liz Elston Mayhew Misty Gale Allison Gaynor Juliet Herd Joanna Kennedy Georgina Lewis Emma Lowry Kate McGrath Liz Rigden Sali Lewis Jane Fletcher

‘What do you want?’

‘To be loved.’

‘That simple?’

‘It’s a big want.’

Dan & Alice, Closer, Act 1 Scene 1

Take a selfie with your programme onsite today #LyricCloser @Lyrichammersmith

@Lyrichammer

PLEASE SUPPORT US Text LYRIC 3 to 70085 to donate £3 Texts cost £3 plus one standard rate message and you’ll be opting in to hear more about our work and fundraising via telephone and SMS. If you’d like to give £3 but do not wish to receive marketing communications, text LYRICNOINFO 3 to 70085.

We’re trying something new with our programmes, and would love to hear what you think.

Please email us with your thoughts marketing@lyric.co.uk