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Ayckbourn hits revived at Old Vic

Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent
15.05.08

The Old Vic is to be transformed into a theatre in the round to stage Alan Ayckbourn's comic trilogy, The Norman Conquests.

It will be the first time the plays have been seen in London since they were performed here 34 years ago by a cast that included Michael Gambon, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Tom Courtenay as the eponymous Norman.

They subsequently became a TV success, with some of the same cast.

The Old Vic cast will include Spaced and Son Of Rambow star Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson) and Stephen Mangan from Green Wing. Table Manners, Living Together and Round And Round The Garden are structured to be seen as a trilogy or independently.

They follow six characters one weekend as Norman pursues his often disastrous mission in life to make women happy by showering them in love.

Kevin Spacey, the theatre's artistic director, fell in love with The Norman Conquests when he saw them performed in Los Angeles when he was 14. He said: "I remember it was such a unique thing, certainly as a young person, to have three plays which had the same characters and it was all taking place simultaneously."

Spacey and Matthew Warchus, the director, went to Scarborough, where Ayckbourn is based at the Stephen Jospeh theatre, to persuade the playwright to let them have the rights.

It was Warchus's idea to stage the plays in the round and the staging will be stored afterwards for re-use. The transformation of the Old Vic will enable the plays to be shown as originally conceived. It is being funded by CQS, the global alternative asset management group, and the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation.

CQS is headed by Australian Michael Hintze, who, with his wife Dorothy, is a cultural philanthropist to projects such as a gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

• The Norman Conquests will run from 11 September to 20 December.

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