“They kind of lend themselves to the stage.”
Acclaimed writer and director Armando Iannucci has opened up about the possibility of mounting stage spin-offs of his hit series The Thick of It and Veep.
Iannucci has co-written, alongside Sean Foley, a new stage version of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece satire Dr. Strangelove – which will have a run at Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in February of next year.
In an interview with JOE about the show, we asked the writer – also known for creating such modern comedy classics as The Day Today and I’m Alan Partridge – if there were any characters he has previously brought to the screens that he would also like to bring to the stage in the future.
We suggested The Thick of It’s Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) and Veep’s Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
In response, Iannucci said:
“Well yes, we talked about that. I think in Veep, Jonah [Timothy Simons] and Richard Splett [Sam Richardson] we’re a good double act and Dan [Reid Scott] and Amy [Anna Chlumsky] were a good double act. So, I kind of always try and imagine what they might do.
“And each one of those shows – The Thick of It – they were all kind of farces really. So, they kind of lend themselves to the stage.
“Actually last year, I went to Copenhagen to see a Danish stage version of The Death of Stalin. And it worked really well. I didn’t know any Danish. But I knew the script and they’d done it like a farce. Because that’s what it fundamentally was in the movie. That got me thinking about what else could we put on.
“But it’s not that I’d necessarily want to go back and exhume some of these old projects and try and revivify them and put them on stage. It’s just trying to work out what would make a good show, what would be involving and engaging and exciting and funny and entertaining and have a lot of pace and interest.”
For more on JOE’s interview with Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley for Dr. Strangelove, click here or check out the video below:
Dr. Strangelove is coming to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from Wednesday, 5 February until Saturday, 22 February 2025. Tickets are on sale now.
Visit the theatre’s website here for more details.
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