Wise Children, Old Vic Theatre

After an inaugural season of riotous cabaret, costumes and music, Emma Rice was ousted as Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe for being too bold and too reliant upon modern sound and lighting.

Happily for those who thoroughly enjoyed this shake-up, Rice and her theatre company Wise Children are have collaborated with The Old Vic for a season of two shows. It's the launchpad for the new creative team, who have won Arts Council Funding, a permanent base in the South West and a series of residences across the country.

The first of the shows – a revival of Rice's celebrated production of Brief Encounter – recently impressed at the Empire Cinema. And the second, will open at The Old Vic in September.

'I named my new company Wise Children after Angela Carter's seminal novel, which is set in South London and is a love letter to theatre,' Rice says. She describes how it 'makes total narrative and thrilling sense to start the Wise Children journey at The Old Vic! This iconic, independent and proudly innovative theatre has hosted Shakespeare and Variety, music and dance alike for almost 200 years and it is the perfect first home for my company and for our first production.'

The debut show, also named Wise Children, brings the twin chorus girls and theatrical eccentricity of Carter's 1991 novel to the stage. On 23rd of April, Shakespeare's birthday, twin dancers Nora and Dora are celebrating their 70th birthday and their father Melchior Hazard and his twin turn 100.

With a Shakespearean twist of mistaken identities, bawdy comedy and meta-theatre, it offers rich material for the energetic ensemble performances for which Rice is renowned.