Actor Ruth Negga is set to star in the world premiere of Quiet Songs by Finn Beames at the Barbican, the Standard can exclusively reveal. It’s her first stage show in London for more than a decade.
The Oscar-nominated performer will be the only actor in the show, which is a piece of music theatre featuring a string quartet and “an armoury of swords”.
Finn Beames and Company are the winners of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, which supports the work of artists making experimental new theatre. The prize is a two-week run in the Barbican Centre’s The Pit venue, as part of the centre’s 2024 autumn programme.
Written and composed by Beames, the production is described as an “unflinching, semi-autobiographical portrait of adolescence”. Told through words, live music and staging, it tells the story of a young gay person trying to establish their identity in a cruel and hostile world.
Negga will be playing the role of a teenage character known as Boy, in her first London theatre performance since her 2011 appearance in the Old Vic production of Playboy of the Western World.
In this production, the string instruments (which will be played with swords) take on the role of storytellers – something for which Beames collaborated with the Royal Ballet and Opera’s Head Armourer, Zoe Phillips.
“It’s so hard to make work without funding,” Negga said. “This is not news. The support and encouragement from initiatives like the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award is needed and necessary. Especially for work that is original in all aspects of the word.
“Nurture, care and attention… the time and space to be brave… the opportunity to bet on one’s own originality… to risk authenticity. That all seems so in tune with what so much of Beckett and his work means to me”.
Across her career, Negga has appeared opposite Helen Mirren in Phèdre (for which she won the Ian Charleson rising star award), won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth in Broadway, and was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the 2017 film Loving. Most recently she starred opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the Apple TV+ show Presumed Innocent
The production will run from October 22 to November 2 2024, with tickets on sale now.
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