Britain’s oldest working theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, is to celebrate its 250th anniversary with plays from each of the four centuries it has been going.
The first details of what promises to be a momentous year for the theatre were announced on Wednesday, beginning the 250-day countdown to the anniversary.
Productions will include a staging of Eugene O’Neill’s 20th-century classic Long Day’s Journey into Night, directed by Richard Eyre and starring Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville.
Tom Morris, the theatre’s artistic director, said the anniversary was an important moment for British theatre, given the average lifespan of a theatre in the 18th century was 17 years.
“Since it first opened, this historic playhouse has been celebrated for its remarkable design and as a place where countless artists, from Sarah Siddons and Henry Irving, to Peter O’Toole, Daniel Day-Lewis and Miranda Richardson, have found their voices.
“Its survival is a result of extreme good fortune and its amazing capacity to inspire loyalty in its artists, staff and public. This unique anniversary will celebrate the passion of those people over the last 250 years and the visions we might bring to the next 250.”
The choice of Eyre to direct Long Day’s Journey into Night is particularly poignant because the Bristol Old Vic was the place which inspired him, as a teenager, to work in theatre.
He was in the audience in 1957 when O’Toole played Hamlet but has never directed at the theatre.
Eyre said: “The first play I ever saw – at the age of 15 – was at Bristol Old Vic. That evening ignited a lifetime’s attraction to theatre. To be back here over 50 years later to direct a play during the 250th anniversary is a real thrill. To direct Long Day’s Journey into Night – one of the greatest, and saddest, plays ever written – is a real privilege.”
The 21st century will be represented by the return of Pink Mist, written by the poet and novelist Owen Sheers, followed by a new co-production with the Kneehigh theatre company in June and a big, as yet unnamed, musical the following November.
The theatre’s acclaimed production of Jane Eyre, currently playing at the National Theatre, will return to Bristol as the 19th-century representative. Details of the 18th-century play will be announced at a future date.
Other productions will include a Shakespeare play to mark the 400th anniversary of his death.
The weekend of the actual birthday, on 30 May, will feature an open house, the launch of a digital heritage project and a street party.
It all comes as the theatre embarks on a £12m redevelopment and refurbishment plan, set to begin in the summer of 2016.
