The thrill of solving an in-the-round conundrum; a small world for the workforce at Moscow's Garazh

Alice Jones' Arts Diary

Daria Dasha Zhukova (Getty Images)

Transferring a show from the regions to the West End is tricky enough, but how to go about it when the original production is in-the-round and the London theatre isn’t?

You could always stick the audience on the stage. When The Thrill of Love, a new play about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, transfers from the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme to St James’ Theatre next month, there will be 12 seats on each side of the stage. “It will give the play a court-room feel”, I’m told.

The in-yer-face seats will cost £15, rather than the standard £20-£40. Which is still more than the New Vic’s cheap seats (£12-£21). The play is directed by award-winner James Dacre (The Mountaintop) and is the New Vic’s first transfer.

Dasha’s army

Dasha Zhukova is building quite a team for the reopening of Garazh in Moscow next year. Hans Ulrich Obrist is on board as international programme adviser. This week she hired Kate Fowle as chief curator.

Fowle has worked at Eastbourne’s Towner Art Gallery and since 2009 has been director of Independent Curators International, a New York organisation which last year gave Zhukova a Leo Award for innovative work. Small world.

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