Ellen McDougall Announces Inaugural Season as Artistic Director of Gate Theatre

Ellen McDougall announces her inaugural season as Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, running from June 2017 to June 2018, comprising five full productions, and a one-day takeover of local Notting Hill festival InTRANSIT.

McDougall will direct the first and final productions of the season, opening with The Unknown Island, an adaptation of Portuguese Nobel Prize winner José Saramago's short story; and concluding with a ground-breaking collaboration for the Gate Theatre with English National Opera - a cabaret show entitled Effigies of Wickedness, featuring a huge range of shockingly prophetic, satirical songs exactly 80 years after they were banned by the Nazis.

Alongside McDougall's productions, the Gate presents celebratEd French-Senegalese director Jean-Pierre Baro with the UK première of Magali Mougel's play Suzy Storck; a timely revival of Anna Deavere Smith's verbatim play Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 about the LA riots; and Falk Richter's Trust, directed by Jude Christian, which sees her returning to the Gate following her production of I'd Rather Goya Robbed Me of My Sleep Than Some Other Arsehole in 2014.

This summer, the Gate takes over a day at InTRANSIT Festival in Notting Hill on 17 June with free workshops, performances and Cameroonian food, and then on 18 June the theatre throws open its doors to the public in collaboration with Fun Palaces.

Ellen McDougall said today, "I am hugely excited be introducing my first season at the Gate - it features an eclectic and vital range of stories, surprising ideas of how to tell them in our constantly changing space, and most importantly, brilliant, adventurous artists."

"The season signals a renewed international focus for the Gate: recognising the importance of looking beyond our borders for collaborative relationships and brilliant international work. I am particularly proud of the diverse range of artists making work in this season. At the Gate, we know from experience that diverse teams make for better conversation, better insight and better work."

"Theatre is always local before it is anything else - it's about a group of people, coming together and being given space to think, to question, to imagine. For this reason, it is appropriate that our season begins with our Gate Takeover at InTRANSIT Festival, which embodies the three key principles on which I've programmed the whole season - a tangible connection with our local community, working with the most exciting artists, and a truly ambitious international spirit."

"I will direct our first show in the autumn, The Unknown Island, adapted from Nobel Laureate José Saramago's short story. It is the story of a journey; of the epic distances we can feel between ourselves and each other, and of a need to re-imagine the world. It is an intimate, romantic, hopeful story that will give us the opportunity to use our space in a completely new way."

I'm absolutely delighted that we are co-producing with two very different companies: the first is Extime Company with whom we are presenting French-Senegalese director Jean-Pierre Baro's UK debut with new play Suzy Storck. Jean-Pierre's work has inspired me for nearly ten years and I can't wait to introduce him to an audience in London.

Suzy Storck is followed by Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Anna Deavere Smith's astounding verbatim play about the LA riots. Its depiction of humanity is extraordinarily full and it feels startlingly timely following recent horrific race related violence across the world.

Jude Christian's production of Falk Richter's Trust will present a cast of pan-European actors alongside Jude herself. It is a text I have loved for a long time - it seamlessly marries the personal and the political in witty, acerbic piece of writing, and feels more pertinent now than ever.

Finally, our second co-production of the season is with English National Opera, whose Artistic Director Daniel Kramer previously directed groundbreaking productions of Hair and Woyzeck for the Gate. Working together provides another challenge for us to reinvent our space - we will be presenting a cabaret style show of songs from the Weimar Republic's subversive underground scene, with a live band of musicians drawn from ENO's Orchestra in our 75-seat theatre! The season will end with a defiant musical celebration of difference, diversity, and freedom of expression."

World Première

THE UNKNOWN ISLAND

By Ellen McDougall and Clare Slater

After José Saramago

Directed by Ellen McDougall

11 September - 7 October 2017

Press night: 18 September 7pm

We want to tell you a story

We want to take you on a journey

We want everything to be different

This is an adaptation of José Saramago's inventive and beautiful short story, The Tale of The Unknown Island. It's a story about getting stuck, about trying to escape, about shooting for the moon, about going further than the furthest thing. It's a story about finding something you didn't think you needed.

José Saramago is a writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998. His plays include The Night, What Shall I do with this book? and The Second Life of Francis of Assisi. Other writing includes Blindness (turned into a film in 2008 starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo), Possible Poems, Probably Joy, From this World and the Other, The Traveller's Baggage, The Year of 1993, Risen from the Ground, Quasi Object, Baltazar and Blimunda, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, The Stone Raft, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, In Nomine Dei, and All the Names. He has also translated works by authors including Colette, Pär Lagerkvist, Jean Cassou, Maupassant, André Bonnard, Tolstoi, Baudelaire, Étienne Balibar, Nikos Poulantzas, Henri Focillon, Jacques Roumain, Hegel and Raymond Bayer.

Ellen McDougall is Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre. She previously directed Idomeneus for the company in 2014. Her credits include a critically acclaimed production of Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe earlier this year, the Lyric's annual pantomime - Aladdin by Joel Horwood (2016) and Cinderella by Tom Wells (2015), The Rolling Stone (Orange Tree Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange), The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), The Glass Menagerie (Headlong), Anna Karenina (Manchester Royal Exchange), Henry the Fifth, Not Now Bernard, The Nutcracker, Antigone and Philoctetes (Unicorn Theatre), Glitterland (Secret Theatre/Lyric Hammersmith) and Ivan and the Dogs (Actors Touring Company/Soho Theatre - nominated for an Olivier Award). McDougall was formerly part of the Secret Theatre Company at the Lyric Hammersmith, Associate Director at the Gate, and an Associate Artist at ATC. She trained as an assistant to Katie Mitchell and Marianne Elliott. She was awarded an International Artists' Development Award (ACE/British Council) in 2012.

Clare Slater is the Literary and Editorial Manager at the Donmar Warehouse and former Executive Director at the Gate where she worked as dramaturg on Ellen McDougall's production of Idomeneus and wrote a radio play Here's How It All Began. At the Donmar, she dramaturgically supports all of the plays, with recent productions including Limehouse by Steve Waters and The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht in a new adaptation by Bruce Norris. As a freelance adaptor and dramaturg, her recent credits include The Last Mermaid, Man To Man (Wales Millennium Centre), Lotty's War (UK tour) and We Have Fallen (Theatre 503/Underbelly). She previously worked as the Assistant Literary Manager at the National Theatre and in television and film development with Rare Day.

Gate Theatre and Extime Company present

The UK première of

SUZY STORCK

By Magali Mougel,

Translated by Chris Campbell

Directed by Jean-Pierre Baro

26 October - 18 November 2017

Press night: 30 October 7pm

This is how the story starts. It starts here. Something happened here.

It's 8:54pm. Suzy Storck sits by the window on this hot and airless night, waiting for her husband to come home. Upstairs she can hear her children, yelling and clamouring at their bedroom door. She's locked them in.

Suzy realises for the first time that she never chose any of this. She wonders how she ended up here. She imagines what escaping it might feel like.

After tonight, there might never be a way out.

The Gate Theatre presents the UK debut of director Jean-Pierre Baro - one of the most exciting new artists in French theatre, and the UK première of Magali Mougel's haunting play.

Magali Mougel's plays include, Erwin Motor, devotion, La Dernière Battue, Léda, le sourire en bannière, Penthy Sûr La Bande, Je Ne Peux Plus, Guérillères Ordinaires, Elle Pas Princesse Lui Pas Héros, Poudre Noire, Anticorps and La Nuit Où Le Jour S'est Levé, co-written with Sylvain Levey and Catherine Verlaguet. Later this year, her play The Lulu Projekt will run at Editions Espaces 34 and it has been selected for Le Prix Godot 2017 Des Lycéens.

Chris Campbell was Deputy Literary Manager of the National Theatre for six years and is currently Literary Manager of the Royal Court. He has translated plays by Philippe Minyana, David Lescot, Rémi de Vos, Adeline Picault, Magali Mougel, Launcelot Hamelin, Frédéric Blanchette, Catherine-Anne Toupin and Fabrice Roger-Lacan for the National Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Traverse Theatre, Birmingham Rep and Young Vic Theatre among others. His translation of Right Now was co-produced in 2016 by the Traverse, Bush and Ustinov theatres and in 2017, Oberon Books published a collection of his contemporary French translations. In 2014 Chris was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. As an actor, Chris has previously worked at the Gate as well as theatres including National Theatre and The Royal Court Theatre. He most recently appeared alongside Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady.

Jean-Pierre Baro is an actor and director. Most recently he has directed an adaptation of the John Maxwell Coetzee novel Disgrâce (CDN Orléans, Théâtre National de la Colline) and the touring production La Ville Ouverte. Other directing credits include La Mort de Danton (Centre Dramatique National d'Aubervillier). Since 2004, he has led Extime theatre company for which his credits include, Woyzeck (CDN Orléans-Loiret-Centre, Sylvia-Monfort), Léonce et Léna/Chantier (Odéon-Ateliers Berthier) and L'Humiliante Histoire de Lucien Petit (Odéon-Ateliers Berthier, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers) which he also wrote.

TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992

By Anna Deavere Smith

11 January - 3 February 2018

Press night: 15 January 7pm

This is a city at war

with its own children

When the policemen accused of killing Rodney King were acquitted, deadly riots broke out across LA.

Obie Award-winning writer Anna Deavere Smith interviewed hundreds of people from police commissioners to Rodney King's family about those devastating few days in the summer of 1992.

These are their words.

The fact of the matter is

whether we like it or not

riot

is the voice of the unheard.

Anna Deavere Smith's plays include Fires in the Mirror, House Arrest, Let Me Down Easy and The Arizona Project. Her playwriting process involves interviews with scores of individuals, usually on a topic of civic and political interest. She is perhaps best known for acting work particularly playing Nancy McNally in The West Wing and Gloria Akalitus in Nurse Jackie. Smith is the recipient of numerous awards, among them the National Humanities Medal, presented to her by President Obama in 2013. She has been the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Award, The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, two Obie Awards and two Tony Award nominations. She was runner up for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Fires In the Mirror. Honorary degrees include those from Yale University, Juilliard, Barnard, the University of Pennsylvania, Radcliffe, Wesleyan, Williams College, Northwestern University as well as many others.

TRUST

By Falk Richter

Translated by Maja Zade

Directed by Jude Christian

22 February - 17 March 2018

Press night: 26 February 7pm

It's about me

It's not about you

Vodka. Cee Lo Green. Pyjamas. Classic break-up.

Jude Christian returns to the Gate Theatre with this anarchic celebration of broken relationships, complex negotiations, and the tyranny of capitalism. Come and join the party.

Falk Richter is one of the most important German playwrights and directors of his generation. His plays have been translated into more than 25 languages and are produced all over the world. His plays include For the Disconnected Child, Rausch (written with Anouk van Dijk), Play Loud, My Secret Garden (written with Stanislas Nordey), Damaged Youth, State of Emergency, The Disturbance, Seven Seconds (In God We Trust), God Is A DJ. Apart from writing and directing his own plays, Richter has directed Shakespeare, Chekov, Schiller, Brecht, contemporary writers including Caryl Churchill, Harold Pinter, Martin Crimp, Sarah Kane and operas by Tchaikovsky, Strauss and Weber.

Maja Zade is a dramaturg at the Schaubühne Berlin, where she has worked with directors including Thomas Ostermeier, Ivo Van Hove, Luk Perceval, Benedict Andrews and Marius von Mayenburg. Her translations into German include works by Lars von Trier, Arnold Wesker and Caryl Churchill, and she has translated into English works by Marius von Mayenburg, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Lars Norén and Falk Richter.

Jude Christian is a director, writer & performer. She previously directed I'd Rather Goya Robbed Me of My Sleep Than Some Other Arsehole for the Gate Theatre in 2014. She is Associate Artist at The Yard Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. Her directing credits also include The Darkest Corners (Transform), The Path (HighTide Theatre), Lela & Co (Royal Court Theatre). As an Associate Director, her work includes Aladdin and Shopping and f-ing (Lyric Hammersmith) and Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre). As well as directing she was Co-Artistic Director of Concert Theatre (2012 - 2016) and in 2016 she wrote and performed in Nanjing (Now '16 Festival, The Yard Theatre).

Gate Theatre and English National Opera present

The World Première of

EFFIGIES OF WICKEDNESS

Directed by Ellen McDougall

3 May - 2 June 2018

Press night: 14 May 7pm

Goes on sale on 21 September 2017

Welcome to the cabaret of degenerate music!

Where you can be just who you want to be!

In a ground-breaking collaboration between the Gate Theatre and ENO, we are thrilled to present a cabaret of riotous, witty, and shockingly prophetic songs, banned by the Nazis in the 1930s.

As the Nazis identified difference as something to be afraid of, the Weimar cabaret scene danced on with songs that celebrated it. With artists from Brecht and Weill to Schoenberg, this subversive underground scene was bursting at the seams with brilliant, visionary voices.

No surprise then, that they were censored, exiled, and incarcerated shortly after as 'degenerates'. And their songs have been all but lost since. Until now.

'complete spiritual insipidness' - Hans Severus Ziegler, advisor to Adolf Hitler

English National Opera is founded on the belief that opera of the highest quality should be accessible to everyone. ENO is a national company of international standard, forging ground-breaking collaborations across art forms, with world-class productions that inspire, surprise, and captivate. ENO's work is made accessible by offering a large proportion of tickets at affordable prices, and by distributing it widely on screen and via digital media. ENO nurtures talent across its entire company, whether on-stage, backstage, or in the pit, and provides a platform for young singers to develop global careers. ENO's autumn and spring seasons of opera productions at their home, the London Coliseum, are supported by a summer season of outside work. During the summer months, the company collaborates with other artistic organisations and venues around London, working in partnership to bring their work to new and wider audiences and presenting opportunities to develop artists, present opera in fresh and interesting ways and work with venues which may not regularly produce opera.

INTRANSIT FESTIVAL: GATE TAKEOVER

17 June, 12-9pm 2017

As part of this year's InTRANSIT festival, the Gate is taking over the Portobello Pavilion in Powis Square for a day featuring free participatory workshops, food and performance.

InTRANSIT festival is an annual showcase of newly commissioned, site-specific, participatory arts and performance, taking place throughout the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

12-1pm: Future Kitchen - Workshop*

The Gate Theatre's Young Associates have been writing recipes for a more positive future for our communities.

Twist the top of the bandstand to release the flavour of the music. Encourage those who have not yet found their tune to enter the bandstand and soak up the music.

In this interactive workshop, participants are invited to help cook up new ways to imagine the world.

1.30-4.30pm: Island Life - Workshop*

Participants are invited to write a poem together entitled Island Life. The workshop will be led by a Gate Theatre special guest.

*Spaces for the workshop sessions are limited and to guarantee a place advance booking is advised, however there are also walk up activities on the day if you fancy coming along last minute.

5-6pm: Future Kitchen - Performance

The Gate Theatre's Young Associates share their recipes for a more positive future. It's going to be a feast.

7-9pm: Omeros, by Derek Walcott - Performance and evening meal**

Traditional Cameroonian food, cooked by Notting Hill local Sissi le French, accompanied by a performance of extracts from Walcott's epic poem.

**Please note: capacity at the evening meal is limited and not available to book. Places will be on a first come, first served basis.

THE GATE IS OPEN

18 June, 12-6pm 2017

The Gate is Open is a collaboration with Fun Palaces: welcoming our local community to our theatre for free tea and cake and a chat. Fun Palaces supports local communities across the UK to create their own hands-on arts and science events: putting community at the heart of culture. The Gate is Open is an opportunity for anyone to come and talk to the Gate staff about what they might like to do in the theatre as part of Fun Palaces in the Autumn.

The InTRANSIT festival takeover and The Gate Is Open are part of the Gate's involvement with The Great Together, a UK wide initiative, taking place from 16-18 June, run by the Jo Cox Foundation to commemorate the anniversary of her death.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

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