About The Festival

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David Adkin is delighted to be producing the Old Vic New Voices festival on behalf of the Old Vic.

 

Old Vic New Voices today announces a brand new festival, celebrating the work of exceptional and emerging playwrights. The event, which is generously supported by The TS Eliot Estate and Arts Council England, will see OVNV alumni join new talent in this five week long theatrical extravaganza.

 

The festival will mark the 11th anniversary of the Old Vic New Voices initiative which was pioneered by Artistic Director, Kevin Spacey, in order to champion and nurture emerging talent.  As his tenure comes to an end, the Old Vic New Voices festival is free, in a bid to open up the theatre to all. Tickets are available via a ticket lottery and programming includes the showcase of a brand new musical, work from developing American and British playwrights, as well as a dynamic schools tour. 

 

Produced, directed and performed by the most exciting budding and established talent that the industry has to offer, they will be staged in front of an invited industry audience as well as members of the public.

 

Cast includes Game of Thrones star, Richard Madden; Pippa Haywood (Mr. Selfridge); Georgina Lamb (Whitechapel, Hollyoaks); Carly Bawden (My Fair Lady at The Sheffield Crucible with Dominc West); Marc Elliot (EastEnders); Rebecca Scroggs (EastEnders) and Michael Fenton Stevens (Mrs. Biggs, Benidorm, My Family) - many of whom are OVNV alumni.

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The Plays
 

Green Living by Lucinda Burnett 
Directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward 
Producer: Jessica Campbell

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GREEN LIVING is about climate change and middle age. Anna is an acclaimed scientist and proud mother to teenage Sophie. When one of Anna’s work emails – which contains evidence contradicting her own climate-change theories – is leaked to the press, she finds herself out of a job and facing a crisis of identity. She travels to London and ends up having an unwitting affair with her daughter’s housemate. The play forces us to confront how the identity of a mother can define the character of a daughter.

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Jess & Joe Forever by Zoe Cooper 
Directed by Derek Bond
Producer: Sarah Wilson

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JESS AND JOE FOREVER spans the length of Jess and Joe’s childhood, jumping through seven summers and a burgeoning romance between the unlikely pair. We soon realise that this isn’t a usual adolescent romance, and that Joe is hiding something that threatens to change everything. Exploring belonging, gender and being different in a rural community, Jess and Joe Forever is a layered and thoughtful play about finding your place in the world.

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Sucker by Nessah Muthy
Directed by Debbie Hannon
Producer: Sarah Wilson

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SUCKER is a dark and blistering play set in the not too distant future, where a secret Government funded scheme has been launched to stop Mothers categorised as ‘Suckers’ having any more children. Following the journey of scheme trainee Michelle, we see her grapple to balance the ethics of her job and her desperation to get herself and her autistic son off the housing estate. Confronting working class stereotypes, responsibility and exploring the power of choice, Sucker is fast paced, comic and not for the faint hearted.

 

Four Play by Jake Brunger 
Directed by Jack Sain
Producer: Jessica Campbell 

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FOUR PLAY explores what it is to be a gay man in the 21st Century. Rafe and Pete, a young good looking couple, have been happily together for seven years but are curious to have a few more sexual encounters before they commit to a life together. They approach Michael, an attractive older man, to ask if he will sleep with each of them once, as a no-strings-attached arrangement. However what seems like a simple solution quickly reveals the underlying desires of each of the three men, and their respective relationships begin to unravel.

The Natives Book by Cat Jones
Music by Cat Jones & Matthew Booth
Directed by Jamie Jackson
Producer: Tara Finney

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After a night on the town, tear-away Ste goes to find his estranged friend Jez whose help he enlists with a task – saving the last remaining swan on the local river. Ste thinks the area’s Polish community have been killing them for food. So when Ste and Jez encounter Polish immigrant Conrad on the river, it’s bound to end badly. The Natives fuses music of different genres, from beat boxing to music hall, and uses a unique movement language to tell its tale.

 

Serious Heroes by Jon Barton 
Directed by Richard Fitch 
Producer: Kaya Stanley-Money

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SERIOUS HEROES is a new comedy that explores the fault line between race and revolt. In a garage in Hackney Wick, Leon brings his mates together to form a vigilante group. A series of brutal attacks has sparked disturbance on the East London streets. Now they’re taking the fight to the roads, in helmets bought off a car boot.

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White Hot & Weak by Daniel Andersen
Directed by Jessica Edwards
Producer: Kaya Stanley-Money

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Following the news that a presenter in their charge has committed a terrible crime, three executives of a national broadcaster meet in secret to discuss a vital question: Which one of them should take the blame?

Comment is Free by James Fritz
Directed by Kate Hewitt
Producer: Martha Rose Wilson

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Everybody hates Hilary Cooper, and they’re not afraid of saying it. When a controversial MP becomes the epicentre of a shocking incident, the whole country competes to be the quickest to comment. Meanwhile, away from the noise, those closest to her attempt to take a breath and confront the repercussions of what has happened. Comment is Free is a savagely funny satire by Olivier-nominated writer James Fritz, directed by JMK 2014 Award Winner Kate Hewitt. 

 

Sirius by Steven Hevey, 
Directed by Jessica Swale
Producer: Martha Rose Wilson

After a science experiment at a secondary school is deliberately tampered with and a child left badly injured as a result, a witch-hunt for the pupil responsible quickly ensues. But all is not as it seems in this classroom, and the roles of student and teacher become increasingly blurred in a fraught search for the truth. An explosive, brutally honest new play from Off West End’s Adopt a Playwright 2014 winner, Steven Hevey, 

 

The Misanthropes by Thomas Bradshaw
Directed by Caroline Byrne
Producer: Chris Foxon 

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Olsen is a Black Country music star, carving a path in a white industry through his talent and passion. His blossoming career is de-railed by a sex addiction which is turned by his fans and the media alike into a symptom of his race, and he finds himself fighting not just for his music, but for his very soul.

 

15, 16, 17 by Emily Schwend
Directed by Alice Hamilton
Producer: Chris Foxon 

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Texas, now. The desert is vast, the horizon is limitless, and dreams are impossible. Five teenagers kick around a backyard in their small town, where the odds are stacked against them and they don’t even know it. Can they find a way to break the cycle? 

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The End of Something by Chad Beckim
Directed by Melanie Spencer
Producer: Chris Foxon 

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Maddie and Jack, Samantha and Donovan – two New York couples on the up, looking forward to parenthood. But Maddie and Donovan have a secret past which can no longer be ignored. As everything comes under threat, they must confront long-buried emotions and decide whether they have a life together or if their future is elsewhere, in a fast-moving, daring play.