Claire Foy and Matt Smith to star in socially distanced revival of Lungs, as Old Vic streams shows from empty theatre

1/10
Zoe Paskett27 May 2020

Claire Foy and Matt Smith will return to the Old Vic stage to star in a socially distanced revival of Lungs.

The play, which will be performed to an empty auditorium and live-streamed online in June, will be the first of a series of performances from the theatre to replace box office income during the lockdown.

Lungs, and a number of rehearsed script readings which will later be announced, will be available for up to 1,000 people per night – the theatre’s usual auditorium capacity.

The pair originally appeared in Matthew Warchus’s revival of Duncan Macmillan’s celebrated play in October last year, reuniting after their starring roles together The Crown.

Tickets to Lungs and the rehearsed readings will cost between £10-£65, the same price as physical seats would be. All “seats” will offer the same view of the stage, but the theatre asks audiences to give what they can to support the theatre while attendance isn’t possible.

This is the first instance of a London theatre bringing back live physical performances in the theatre, albeit to an empty room.

The theatre said: “Rekindling live performance in this irrepressible 202-year-old venue, albeit with minimal staging and accessible only via camera and live stream, is a genuine thrill for us. But this series is both an exciting creative experiment and also crucial in igniting the box office now all our usual channels of revenue have been entirely wiped out and we fight to preserve this beloved theatre for our audiences, surrounding schools and communities, staff, crew, and the myriad of writers, performers and creatives that work with us.”

The Old Vic was the first theatre to cancel its shows due to the coronavirus outbreak, cutting short its run of Samuel Beckett's Endgame.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT