21 February – 6 April
Samuel Barnett and Victoria Yeates will make their Royal Shakespeare Company debuts to play, respectively, Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst in the Company’s forthcoming production of Ben and Imo, written by Mark Ravenhill and directed by Erica Whyman.
Running in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Ben and Imo tells the story of the creative relationship between composer Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst, daughter of Gustav Holst, and an accomplished musician in her own right.
Set in 1953 in the lead up to Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, Britten has just nine months to write a new opera, Gloriana, about her predecessor, Elizabeth I. Into the world of the disheartened composer enters the exuberant and passionate Imogen Holst. Her candid and can-do attitude proves to be the perfect foil for the capricious and often maddening Britten, and what begins as an arrangement of practical support turns into a bond that not only sees Gloriana to its premiere but endures throughout the rest of their lives.
Talking about the play Erica Whyman said: “Ben and Imo is a rare treat; a play that captures the delicious and also tormenting struggle of a new artistic endeavour, the mischievous wit of two brilliant individuals, and the cruelty that often accompanies the assumption of genius. It is a play about love, about music, and, importantly, about power; and Mark, of course, does not shy away from the disturbing choices that face a talented woman who has dedicated herself to a man’s success. Samuel and Victoria are performers at the top of their game, and they will bring these fascinating characters to life with playful vulnerability, fierce intelligence and unflinching courage.”
Mark Ravenhill added: “I first wrote about Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst for BBC Radio 3 in 2013, to mark the centenary of Britten’s birth. One artist who has been celebrated and commemorated, one whose life and work have been largely forgotten. During the pandemic, I returned to my research and rebuilt the Ben and Imo material from the ground up to make a new play for the theatre. I found these two complex and passionate characters – and their commitment to their art – to be a great solace during my lockdown isolation. Their story, I think, still poses urgent questions about how we make art today.”
Swan Theatre
Stratford Upon Avon
Photo credit: Ellie Kurrtz
