Rebecca Frecknall | |
---|---|
Born | 1986 (age 37–38) |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Theatre director |
Years active | 2016–present |
Notable work | Cabaret, Summer and Smoke |
Rebecca Frecknall is a British theatre director best known for directing the 2021 West End revival of Cabaret starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley. [1] The show received the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Musical, and Frecknall was named Best Director, taking home both the Olivier Award and Critics' Circle Award. She is also associate director at the Almeida Theatre [2] where she directed Summer & Smoke , Three Sisters, The Duchess of Malfi, A Streetcar Named Desire and Romeo and Juliet . [3] Her direction of Summer & Smoke first brought her critical acclaim and showcased her ability to re-invent old works in new ways. [4] The production won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play in 2019, with Frecknall also nominated for the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director. [5] In 2023 she was listed by The Stage as the 13th most influential person in the theatre. [6]
In 2018, Frecknall directed a revival of the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke at the Almeida Theatre, her first in a major London theatre. The revival received rave reviews and secured a transfer to the West End, at the Duke of York's Theatre. [7] Holly Williams, writing for The Independent , remarked that the staging "announces Frecknall as a director of real vision". [8] Veteran critic Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian that Frecknall's production "restores Williams’s wrongly neglected play to a central place in the canon." [9] Susannah Clapp at The Observer , asserted, "Summer and Smoke must make Rebecca Frecknall’s name as a director." [10] The production received 5 nominations [11] at the 2019 Laurence Olivier Awards and was awarded Best Revival and Best Actress for Patsy Ferran. [12]
In 2019, she directed revivals of The Duchess of Malfi and Three Sisters, both at the Almeida Theatre . [13] [14]
In 2019, Eddie Redmayne saw Frecknall's production of Summer and Smoke on the final night of its West End run at the Duke of York's, and was inspired to ask her to consider directing a revival of Cabaret that he was attached to, in the role of the Emcee. [15] [16] The production, titled Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, converted the Playhouse Theatre from a proscenium-arch theatre into an in-the-round cabaret space, with prologue performers putting on routines on all levels of the theatre before the start of the show. [15] [16] It opened in 2021 to rapturous reviews, [17] and was described in the New York Times as "a nerve-shredding revival". [18] Dominic Cavendish at The Telegraph called it "the kill-for-a-ticket theatrical triumph of 2021". [19] Renowned critic John Lahr, writing for Air Mail, stated that Frecknall was "the complete dazzling directorial package: a fine critical mind wedded to a confident sense of fun", and "succeeded in making John Kander and Fred Ebb’s 56-year-old fun machine feel like a brand-new musical event". [20] The revival received 11 nominations, and led with seven wins at the 2022 Olivier Awards, including Best Musical Revival and Best Director for Frecknall, setting a record for being the most award-winning revival in Olivier history, as well for being the first production to obtain awards in all 4 eligible acting categories, with awards for Redmayne, Jessie Buckley, Liza Sadovy and Elliot Levey. The production has enjoyed widespread audience acclaim, and is slated to continue at the converted Playhouse Theatre till September 2024.
In 2023, she directed a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Patsy Ferran, Paul Mescal and Anjana Vasan, which opened at the Almeida and then transferred to the West End, at the Phoenix Theatre. [21] The revival was met with rave reviews, and received 6 nominations at the 2023 Laurence Olivier Awards, winning 3, including Best Revival, Best Actor for Mescal and Best Supporting Actress for Vasan. [22] David Benedict, writing for Variety, stated that Frecknall "proves once again that she is a theatrical force to be reckoned with." [23]
Her 2023 production of Romeo and Juliet , at the Almeida Theatre, starring Toheeb Jimoh and Isis Hainsworth, was met with glowing reviews. Arifa Akbar at the Guardian remarked that Frecknall "is fast becoming the director with a consummate gift for turning old into new", [24] a sentiment echoed in the New York Times by Matt Wolf, who wrote that Frecknall "treats the often overly familiar play as if it were entirely fresh, and the result is astonishing." [25]
Frecknall grew up in Cambridgeshire, the middle of three sisters. [26] She read Drama and Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London, before participating in the director's course at LAMDA. [27] Her love of theatre was inspired by her late father, to whom she dedicated her 2022 Laurence Olivier Award. [28]
Year | Title | Venue | Role |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | Cabaret | The Kit Kat Club ( August Wilson Theatre ) | Director |
Julie | Internationaal Theater Amsterdam | ||
2023 | The House of Bernarda Alba | National Theatre, Lyttelton | |
Romeo and Juliet | Almeida Theatre | ||
A Streetcar Named Desire | Almeida Theatre (later, Phoenix Theatre, London) | ||
2021 | Cabaret | The Kit Kat Club (Playhouse Theatre) | |
2020 | Sanctuary City | New York Theatre Workshop | |
2019 | The Duchess of Malfi | Almeida Theatre | |
Three Sisters | Almeida Theatre | ||
2018 | Summer and Smoke | Almeida Theatre (later, Duke of York's Theatre) |
Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2024 | WhatsOnStage Awards [29] | Best Director | A Streetcar Named Desire | Nominated |
2023 | Evening Standard Theatre Awards [30] | Best Director | A Streetcar Named Desire | Nominated |
2023 | Laurence Olivier Awards [31] | Best Director | A Streetcar Named Desire | Nominated |
2022 | Laurence Olivier Awards [32] | Best Director | Cabaret | Won |
Critics' Circle Theatre Award [33] | Best Director | Cabaret | Won | |
WhatsOnStage Awards [34] | Best Director | Cabaret | Nominated | |
Drama Desk Awards [35] | Best Director | Sanctuary City | Won | |
2019 | Laurence Olivier Awards [5] | Best Director | Summer and Smoke | Nominated |
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her once-prosperous situation to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans rented by her younger sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley.
Summer and Smoke is a two-part, thirteen-scene play by Tennessee Williams, completed in 1948. He began working on the play in 1945 as Chart of Anatomy, derived from his short stories "Oriflamme" and the then-work-in-progress "Yellow Bird." The phrase "summer and smoke" probably comes from the Hart Crane poem "Emblems of Conduct" in the 1926 collection White Buildings. After a disappointing Broadway run in 1948, the play was a hit Off-Broadway in 1952. Williams continued to revise Summer and Smoke in the 1950s, and in 1964 he rewrote the play as The Eccentricities of a Nightingale.
Cabaret is a musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Joe Masteroff. It is based on the 1951 play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten, which in turn was based on the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.
Dame Sheila Cameron Hancock is an English actress, singer, and author. She has performed in theatre - plays and musicals in London, and her Broadway debut in Entertaining Mr Sloane (1966) earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in Play.
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325-seat producing house with an international reputation, which takes its name from the street on which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama. Successful plays are often transferred to West End theatres.
Andrew Scott is an Irish actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Television Award and two Laurence Olivier Awards, along with nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Sharon Delores Clarke is an English actress and singer. She is a three-time Olivier Award winner, and is best known to television audiences for her role as Lola Griffin in the medical drama Holby City, and as Grace O'Brien in Doctor Who. Clarke has also played lead roles in many West End musicals, and originated the roles of the Killer Queen in We Will Rock You and Oda Mae Brown in Ghost the Musical.
Kathleen Marshall is an American director, choreographer, and creative consultant.
Edward John David "Eddie" Redmayne is an English actor. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Olivier Awards.
The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply TheOlivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of West End Theatre Awards, but they were renamed in honour of the British actor of the same name in 1984.
The Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.
The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.
The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.
Jessie Buckley is an Irish actress and singer. The recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and three BAFTA Awards, she was listed at number 38 on The Irish Times' list of Ireland's greatest film actors of all time, in 2020. In 2019, she was recognised by Forbes in its annual 30 Under 30 list.
The WhatsOnStage Awards, formerly known as the Theatregoers' Choice Awards, are organised by the theatre website WhatsOnStage.com. The awards recognise performers and productions of British theatre with an emphasis on London's West End theatre.
Denise Gough is an Irish actress. She has received a number of accolades, including two Laurence Olivier Awards as well as a nominations for a Tony Award and a British Academy Television Award.
Patricia Ferran is a Spanish-British actress. She has received a number of accolades for her work in theatre, including a Laurence Olivier Award.
Anjana Vasan is a Singaporean actress and singer-songwriter based in London of Tamil origin. She is known for her stage work, winning a Laurence Olivier Award, and her role in the Channel 4 sitcom We Are Lady Parts, for which she was nominated a British Academy Television Award. She starred in the Black Mirror episode "Demon 79" in 2023.
Paul Colm Michael Mescal is an Irish actor. Born in Maynooth, he studied acting at The Lir Academy and subsequently performed in plays in Dublin theatres. Mescal rose to fame with his role in the miniseries Normal People (2020), earning a BAFTA TV Award and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.