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Bacchae

Bacchae

Time Out30-04-2025

This is a bold opener for Indhu Rubasingham's first season in charge at the National Theatre: first time playwright (though he's got decent pedigree as an actor) Nima Taleghani offers up what sounds like a racously modern – and probably quite foul-mouthed – adaptation of Euripides's shockingly violent Ancient Greek tragedy. Rubasingham herself will direct the show, which has a cast including James McArdle, Clare Perkins and Ukweli Roach.
Following its NT run a version of the show – probably without the famous people in it – will tour to secondary schools.

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Ncuti Gatwa regenerates into Olly Alexander as the NT's ‘Importance of Being Earnest' transfers to London's West End
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Time Out

time4 days ago

  • Time Out

Ncuti Gatwa regenerates into Olly Alexander as the NT's ‘Importance of Being Earnest' transfers to London's West End

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Olly Alexander lands West End role in The Importance of Being Earnest

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But I'll still make music in the future."Reflecting on his first decade as a pop star, Alexander told the BBC: "With music, there's an intensity to the way I've been working and putting albums out, promoting and touring. I definitely want to take the foot off the gas in terms of that intensity." He still occasionally works on music, but has "not been putting pressure on myself... I just do what feels good and feel very lucky that I have this other strand of acting that I'm able to explore".Alexander said he felt he had "learned so much" over the last decade about the way he likes to work. "But for me," he continued, "a lot of the reason I think the [music] industry has changed so much is that it's set on this model which is very antiquated now, and it's not kept pace with the times. "Lots of artists have this direct link with their audience via social media. They want their music out quickly. 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The farcical comedy unfolds with mistaken identities and makes generous use of clever wordplay."In a nutshell, it's a comedy about two quite ridiculous young men and the double lives they lead," Alexander explained. "They do that to avoid their social obligations, and they both invent these aliases called Ernest, while they try and woo and marry these two young women. "But really, it's a comedy that skewers society's expectations, makes fun of class and what society expects of us, and what roles we're expected to perform." 'Delightful mischief' The previous production of the show, starring Gatwa, received a positive reception from critics. "There is an elegance to the nudge-wink references and it is a production with just the right amount of delightful mischief," wrote the Guardian's Arifa Akbar in a four-star Daily Mail's Patrick Marmion awarded five stars, describing the "sparkling new production" as a "witty reboot"."Yes, liberties are taken," he said. 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