London's St. James Theatre to stage Alexander McQueen play this spring

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Feb 13, 2015

This May will see the premiere of MCQUEEN, a new play about designer Alexander McQueen written by James Phillips and directed by John Caird, an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. MCQUEEN will be staged at the St. James Theatre, located in central London close to the beautiful Green Park.

McQueen once said: "I’ve got a 600-year-old elm tree in my garden. I made up a story: a girl lives in it and comes out of the darkness to meet a prince and becomes a queen." This quote has inspired the play, which revolves around a girl who spies on the designer and breaks into his house to steal a dress. The designer catches her and they embark together on a journey through London.

St. James Theatre says the play is "more than a bio-play. It is stepping into the fairy story landscape of McQueen's mind, the landscape seen in his immortal shows, where with a dress an urchin can become an Amazon, where beauty might just help us survive the night."

It has been five years since Lee Alexander McQueen died, aged 40. This year also sees the London premiere of the exhibition "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the release of the book "Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin."

"MCQUEEN" opens at St. James Theatre on May 12.