The previously vagrant company Cheek By Jowl will create a 400-seat space out of the considerably larger Barbican Theatre to present two shows each season for the next three years, reports Variety. Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod’s company will move in with Gilgamesh in May 2006. The following month, Cheek will warm up their Twelfth Night (performed in Russian) ahead of its visit (in February 2007) to the RSC’s Complete Works Of Shakespeare Festival. In 2008, Cheek returns to the Barbican with Cymbeline and Three Sisters.
“I’ve always had commitment problems about buildings,” Donnellan told Variety, “but I have a deep need for a home now.” The Arts Council has given him a house-warming grant of £900,000 to cover the Barbican residency and UK touring.
