Britten, Brandstrup, Bostridge in Bath, and much more besides in Deborah Warner's new season at the Theatre Royal's Ustinov Studio

Phaedra/Minotaur double bill at Ustinov Studio in 2022 (Photo Claire Egan)

Deborah Warner has announced her second season as artistic director of the Ustinov Studio at the Theatre Royal, Bath. As with her previous season, this new one mixes theatre, opera, and dance, along with a new recital strand.

Richard Jones will direct a new production of the play Machinal by American playwright Sophie Treadwell (1885-1970), an extraordinary epic masterpiece from the 1920s, based on the true story of the committal and execution of Ruth Snyder, who with her lover Judd Gray, had murdered her husband.

Isabelle Kettle will direct Benjamin Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw with Richard Heatherington as director of music and an accompaniment of piano and chamber ensemble. Complementing this tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Julius Drake will be presenting a programme of songs by Britten.

Other recitals include mezzo-soprano Christine Rice and Julius Drake in Brahms, Haydn, Frank Bridge and Rebecca Clarke, and soprano Sophie Bevan in lieder by Schubert, Müller-Hermann and Mahler.

Warner's previous season at the Ustinov Studio featured a double bill of Britten's Phaedra and Kim Brandstrup's new dance piece, Minotaur, and the double bill will be featured at this year's Edinburgh Festival. In the new season at the Ustinov Studio, Kim Brandstup’s Minotaur returns in a dance double bill with a brand-new work by Brandstrup featuring ballet stars Matthew Ball, Alina Cojocaru, Kristen McNally and Tommy Franzen.

Alongside Warner's seasons, the Ustinov Studio continues to present programmes of world and UK premieres, alongside small-scale touring theatre, comedy, music and dance.

Full details from the Theatre Royal's website.