Claire Foy and Matt Smith, who starred as the Queen and Prince Philip in the first two series of Netflix’s The Crown, are to be reunited on stage in a strikingly different setting: Ikea.
On Tuesday, the Old Vic announced a new production of Duncan Macmillan’s two-hander Lungs, which starts with a man catching his partner off guard in the Ikea queue by suggesting they have a baby.
The casting is particularly eye-catching given how far the international profiles of Foy and Smith, a former Doctor Who, have grown because of The Crown.
The play’s precise dates have yet to be announced and Matthew Warchus, the artistic director of the Old Vic, said it would be “an extremely limited run”.
He called Macmillan’s play a “dazzlingly vibrant and profound two-hander … which sees a conflicted couple wrestle with huge contemporary dilemmas surrounding the possibility of bringing new life into an increasingly precarious world.”
It comes “hot on the heels of the Extinction Rebellion consciousness-raising demonstrations”, added Warchus, who will direct the play.
Lungs was announced as part of Warchus’s fifth season at the Old Vic.
Other star names include Daniel Radcliffe and Alan Cumming, brought together for a Samuel Beckett double bill of Endgame and the rarely performed Rough for Theatre II.
The season begins with the world premiere of A Very Expensive Poison, Lucy Prebble’s adaptation of the book by the Guardian journalist Luke Harding exposing the jaw-dropping events behind the death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Other productions include a musical adaptation of Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film Local Hero, with a book by Forsyth and David Greig; and music and lyrics by Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler. It is a co-production with the Royal Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh.
The Old Vic also announced productions further down the line that will include a new adaptation of Oedipus Rex by Ella Hickson; a new play by Paul Unwin chronicling the birth of the NHS, to be directed by Sarah Frankcom; and a new adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People by Simon Stephens.
Kate Prince’s suffragette show Sylvia, which had a “work-in-progress” run at the theatre last year, is still in development “for a planned future life”, the theatre said.
Warchus said: “These shows continue our social mission to present productions which entwine empathy, politics and entertainment for as wide an audience as possible. If you’ve never visited the Old Vic before, or if you haven’t been back for a while, come along and check out what we’re up to … you’ll be surprised how much we’ve changed.”
The theatre also announced a new £5 a month online loyalty scheme, with “discounts, insights, invites and surprises”; and a Matinee Idols initiative for people over 60.
