“It was always the dramatic that appealed to me, as it did to Ida”

Actor, dancer and influencer from her teens, an acclaimed Cleopatra, impresario – and a Jewish star… This is an apt description of both the eponymous heroine of Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act, and Naomi Sorkin, the multi-talented performer who takes on the title role in this biographical drama. Rubinstein worked with the likes of Diaghilev, Nijinsky and Debussy, and commissioned Ravel’s Bolero! Famed to this day in Russia and her native Ukraine, she is all but forgotten in the West. But all that is about to change now that Sorkin is championing her in this multimedia show, combining text, movement, music, projections and film to evoke the shock of the new in early 20th-century performance arts.

In the auditorium of The Playground Theatre – one of London’s newest and the only theatre in White City, which she runs with her husband, fellow actor, director and impresario Peter Tate – Sorkin speaks to JR's Arts Editor Judi Herman about her own career, as well as the life and loves of Ida Rubinstein.

Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act runs until Saturday 16 October*. 7.30pm, 3pm (9 Oct only). £10-£22. The Playground Theatre, W10 6RQ. https://theplaygroundtheatre.london

*This show has been rescheduled from 2020.

Read our review of Ida Rubinstein: The Final Act on the JR blog.