The program for this year's Edinburgh International Festival, running August 5-29, will include Cherry Jones reprising her Tony Award-nominated Broadway performance as Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie. It will run August 7-20 at the King's Theatre.
No further casting has yet been announced for John Tiffany's production that prior to transferring to Broadway in 2013 premiered at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA. The original Broadway company also included Celia Keenan-Bolger, Zachary Quinto and Brian J. Smith.
Other attractions at this year's Festival include the return of Scottish native but now long-time New York resident Alan Cumming, who will present a residency of his show Alan Cumming Sings Happy Songs! for twenty performances at the Hub, offering very personal reinterpretations of the songs he loves to sing.
Barry Humphries, best known for his alter ego comic character Dame Edna Everage, will appear as himself August 8-9 in Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret, an evening of music from the time of the Weimar Republic, joined by cabaret star Meow Meow and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
The 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare is celebrated with events across the program and international re-imaginings of three key plays. Thomas Ostermeier returns to the International Festival with a reworking of Richard III, imported from Berlin's Schaubühne Theatre; Cheek by Jowl, led by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, unites with Moscow’s Pushkin Theatre for their International Festival debuts with Measure for Measure in a production that draws parallels with modern Russia; and British-born director Dan Jemmett and his French-based company Eat a Crocodile bring Shake, a five-piece re-imagining of Twelfth Night to Edinburgh.
New work to be showcased includes a world premiere from National Theatre of Scotland and New York's The TEAM with Anything That Gives Off Light, and a new commission The Toad Knew from creator and performer James Thierrée and Compagnie du Hanneton. The International Festival also continues to showcase successful Scottish work for an International audience, with two special Festival revivals from theatre company Vanishing Point, which re-mounts Interiors and The Destroyed Room.
In a press statement, Fergus Linehan, artistic director of the festival, has commented, "The International Festival is an invitation from the people of Scotland to people from all over the world to join us in an unparalleled celebration of creativity, virtuosity and originality. The calibre, ambition and passion of the artists and ensembles in this year's programme combined with Edinburgh's electric Festival atmosphere, will make for an unforgettable experience for newcomers and International Festival veterans alike.”
For further details, visit eif.co.uk
