Donmar Warehouse Announces 2017 Spring Season
By: BWW News Desk Nov. 16, 2016
Limehouse is a new play, imagining what happened when, in 1981, the 'Gang of Four' met to break from Labour and form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Playwright Steve Waters returns to the Donmar after his acclaimed play Temple, teaming up with Olivier-winning director Polly Findlay.
Lenny Henry will make his Donmar Warehouse debut in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. This satirical masterpiece about the rise of a demagogue will be given a new translation by Pulitzer-, Olivier- and Tony-Prize winning American playwright, and author of Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris. Simon Evans will direct.
Actor Hadley Fraser, Donmar Artistic Director Josie Rourke and composer Tom Deering have teamed up to create a new musical, edited from the transcript of a House of Commons Select Committee evidence session on Whitehall's Relationship with Kids Company. The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall's Relationship with Kids Company. It will be directed by newly-appointed Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse, Adam Penford.
Following his triumphant return to the London stage with One Night in Miami..., Rourke and Pakenham are delighted to announce that Kwame Kwei-Armah will join the Donmar as an Associate Director.
The Donmar will be offering YOUNG+FREE tickets for every night of performances across the Power Season. These free tickets for 25 year olds and under have proven transformative for the Donmar's Shakespeare Trilogy. YOUNG+FREE will continue to be funded through the generosity of audiences with the Donmar's PAY IT FORWARD scheme. Whilst sponsorship for the Front Row scheme has now come to its end, affordable ticket access for everyone remains central to the Donmar. As such, £10 tickets will continue, as will Monday morning ticket releases, alongside day tickets.
Today, alongside its season announcement, the Donmar is delighted to announce that the Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy, and its work in prisons alongside Clean Break theatre company and York St John's University's Prison Partnership Project, is the recipient of the 2016 Longford Prize. The Longford Prize recognises the contribution of an individual, group or organisation working in the area of penal or social reform in showing outstanding qualities in the following areas: humanity, courage, persistence and originality.
Artistic Director Josie Rourke said:
Kate Pakenham and I want the Donmar to step up to what's happening, and so we have worked with a seriously great group of artists to create the Power Season. Here is a new musical and two plays that concern themselves with truth and accountability; democracy and demagoguery; passion, despair and the rebirth of hope. Throughout this season, characters fight for, rise to and exercise their power. In creating the Power Season, we're trusting that theatre will deploy its power to speak with swift and urgent clarity into the present.
Launching the Power Season is Limehouse, a new play from our political history that speaks to our political present. Steve Waters returns to the Donmar with another thrilling drama that imagines what happened behind closed doors during a pivotal moment in history - the formation of the SDP, which split the Labour party in 1981. I'm delighted to welcome Polly Findlay to the Donmar to direct Limehouse.
As the second play in the Power Season, Lenny Henry will then make his Donmar debut in Bertolt Brecht's satirical masterpiece, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. The play is a timely comic parable about the rise of a demagogue, and will be given a new translation by Pulitzer-, Olivier- and Tony-award winning American playwright, Bruce Norris. The stellar Simon Evans will direct, with some Chicago Jazz Age flair along the way.
Finally in the Power Season, I have teamed up with Hadley Fraser, an actor I have had the immense pleasure of directing in several shows at the Donmar, including my current production of Saint Joan, along with the dazzling young composer Tom Deering. These two young artists are part of musical theatre's future. Together, we are creating a new musical based on a House of Commons Select Committee evidence session about Whitehall's Relationship with Kids Company. Directed by the brilliant Adam Penford, newly-appointed Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse, The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall's Relationship with Kids Company examines how civil society holds itself to account.
The return of Kwame Kwei-Armah to London theatre with One Night in Miami... brought joy and meaning to our stage. We are honoured that he will be joining the Donmar as an Associate Director, and look forward to him being a continuing part of our theatre, our culture and our lives.
The Donmar Warehouse announces today its new 2017 Spring Season. Playwright Steve Waters returns to the Donmar, following his acclaimed play Temple last year, with a searing new drama Limehouse. Set in 1981, the play imagines what happened when the 'Gang of Four' met to break from the Labour party and form the SDP. The production is directed by Olivier-award-winning Polly Findlay, who makes her Donmar debut. [Limehouse is a fictionalised account of real events. It is not endorsed by the individuals portrayed.]
Following this, Lenny Henry will also make his Donmar debut as Arturo Ui, in Bertolt Brecht's satirical masterpiece The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, given a new translation by Bruce Norris and directed by Simon Evans.
The season will then close with The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall's Relationship with Kids Company, a new musical with book and lyrics edited from the transcript of a House of Commons Select Committee evidence session by Hadley Fraser and Donmar Artistic Director Josie Rourke. Music by composer Tom Deering with direction by Adam Penford. [This production has not been authorised by any participant or Parliament. It is based on the Parliamentary transcript of the oral evidence session on 15 October 2015 and the words spoken by those participating in the Inquiry.]
The Donmar will continue its YOUNG+FREE ticket scheme into 2017, after a successful launch during the Donmar's Shakespeare Trilogy at King's Cross this autumn. The scheme will offer free tickets to those 25 and under, every night across the spring season. YOUNG+FREE is made possible by the generosity of the public through PAY IT FORWARD. In addition, to ensure constant affordable access to the Donmar for everyone, tickets from £10 will be released every Monday at 10am during each production's run.
Today, the Donmar Warehouse, Clean Break theatre company and York St John's University's Prison Partnership Project receive The Longford Prize for work carried out over the last 4 years in women's prisons and the Donmar's all-female Shakespeare Trilogy. The Longford Prize recognises the contribution of an individual, group or organisation working in the area of penal or social reform in showing outstanding qualities in the following areas: humanity, courage, persistence and originality.
It is awarded annually by a prize committee on behalf of the trustees and patrons of the Longford Trust. From 2016, the prize winner will receive £5,000, thanks to sponsorship from The McGrath Charitable Trust, founded by Kevin and Kate McGrath. The awards' ceremony takes place as part of the annual Longford Lecture on Wednesday 16 November. The Longford Prize is organised in association with The Prison Reform Trust, for more information visit www.longfordtrust.org.
Executive Producer Kate Pakenham said:
We are excited to be bringing together great artists to present three productions which we hope will provoke valuable conversations and inspire our audiences. Ensuring that young people can access this work is critical to our mission, so we are pleased to be making YOUNG+FREE tickets generally available across this season, as well as making all schools' tickets free as part of the scheme. The initiative is a gift to young theatre-goers and a celebration of the ability of theatre to empower and inspire. YOUNG+FREE is made possible by the generosity of the public through PAY IT FORWARD. We have been delighted by the support for PAY IT FORWARD from our audiences and are excited to be working with them to prioritise young people's access to the arts. We are also grateful to the significant support we receive from corporate partners, individual philanthropists and the Arts Council which makes the Donmar's work, both on our stage and beyond, possible.
CURRENT SEASON
This autumn, the Donmar Warehouse continues to stage productions in three locations - its home in Covent Garden, Donmar at King's Cross, and in New York.
Currently on the mainstage at the Donmar Warehouse is Kwame Kwei-Armah's new production of Kemp Powers' compelling play One Night in Miami... A fictional account of a real night in 1964, the play imagines a 22-year-old Cassius Clay, fresh from his world heavyweight boxing title win, choosing to celebrate with his three closest friends. The production runs until 3 December.
Following this, Artistic Director Josie Rourke revives Bernard Shaw's seminal play Saint Joan. Gemma Arterton will play Shaw's central character. The production will run from 9 December 2016 - 18 February 2017, and will be broadcast live, in partnership with National Theatre Live, to cinemas around the world, directly from the Donmar Warehouse on Thursday 16 February 2017.
The Donmar at King's Cross season continues with the Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd and starring Harriet Walter in an all-female company. Revivals of the sell-out Julius Caesar and Henry IV join a new production of The Tempest playing in repertory until 17 December 2016, all set in a women's prison. On special Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy days, all three plays will be performed back to back. The Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy opens on Tuesday 22 November.
The Donmar New York Season continues this autumn with Artistic Director Josie Rourke's Broadway transfer of Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber at The Booth Theatre. The Tempest, starring Harriet Walter and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, transfers to New York's St. Ann's Warehouse in January 2017.
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