Time to Imagine a Better World

Bristol Old Vic today announced a bold season for Autumn–Winter 2021/22. The programme includes new productions from brilliant talent, long-awaited new dates for world premieres and new ways to share those stories live and online.

This season is inspired by our Engagement and Talent Development departments and the creativity and resilience of the communities and artists they work with – all fuelled by a successful year of experiments in digital theatre and live broadcasting.

A full announcement of Autumn Engagement activities and the reopening of The Weston Studio – the home of Bristol Old Vic’s Talent Development – will be made in September.

Meanwhile, here are the shows.. 

• Giles Terera's The Meaning of Zong (co-produced for BBC Sounds in March) receives its long-awaited theatrical world premiere.
• Emma Rice’s latest new production Wuthering Heights will be co-produced with the National Theatre, Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal.
• After the enormous successes of Sally Cookson’s Peter Pan and Lee Lyford’s A Christmas Carol, Bristol’s talent hot-house, The Wardrobe Ensemble, present their brand-new work for families this Christmas – Robin Hood: Legend of the Forgotten Forest. Co-produced with Bristol Old Vic.  
• Mark Rylance makes his Bristol Old Vic debut in the world premiere of Dr Semmelweis – a Bristol Old Vic production in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, the National Theatre and Shakespeare Road.
• Sally Cookson directs Wonder Boy – the first play written by award-winning playwright Ross Willis.
• Autumn productions will be live broadcast whenever possible, as part of Bristol Old Vic’s new digital commitment.

Digital Theatre - Change for the future
Bristol Old Vic also outlined its ambitions for continuing its digital theatre promise: to live broadcast as many productions as possible to its flourishing global community.

The theatre’s most recent digital experimentation took place with Touching the Void – using multi-camera capture and surround sound technology to push the digital theatre model further than ever before. The show simultaneously played to a unified in-theatre and global audience and was seen on every continent, reaching from Bristol Old Vic to Canada, Korea and even as far as Antarctica. This digital opportunity allows audiences who may feel unable to attend in person to share in the theatre experience, while also reaching new audiences wherever they may live. 

Bristol Old Vic will build on this throughout the Autumn with a schedule of digital broadcasts to be announced later this month.