THE BIG MEAL, A STEADY RAIN and More Set for Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath's 2014 'American Season'

Following two previous much-acclaimed seasons of American drama, the Ustinov presents The American Season 2014: three UK premieres, Dan LeFranc's The Big Meal, directed by Michael Boyd; Keith Huff's gritty two-hander, A Steady Rain, directed by David Grindley; and Lynn Nottage's multi award-winning Intimate Apparel, directed by Laurence Boswell. Casting will be announced in early 2014.

THE BIG MEAL (UK premiere) by Dan LeFranc

Thursday 6th March - Saturday 5th April

Directed by Michael Boyd; Designed by Tom Piper

Presented in association with HighTide Festival Theatre

Somewhere in America, in a typical suburban restaurant on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet. Sparks fly. And so begins an exhilarating story that takes five generations of a modern family on a rollercoaster ride through life, from first kiss to final goodbye. A stunning, big-hearted play that whizzes through nearly eighty years, this is the extraordinary story of an ordinary family.

Deeply comic and genuinely touching, Dan LeFranc's acclaimed drama is about love, marriage, raising children and the general onslaught of life, in which you turn around and find that youth has vanished and taken with it a lot of your dearest held assumptions about the way things would turn out.

Dan LeFranc received the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award for Sixty Miles to Silver Lake. The Big Meal received its world premiere in Chicago, where it was declared the 'Number One Play of 2011' by Time Out Chicago, garnering numerous award nominations followed by another raft of nominations Off-Broadway, including for Outstanding Play.

Michael Boyd was the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2002 - 2012. This will be the first play he has directed since leaving the RSC. His credits include the RSC's eight play History Cycle as the centrepiece of a year-long Complete Works of Shakespeare Festival and he developed the RSC's record breaking Matilda The Musical for Stratford, London and New York. He was knighted in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Venue: Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET

Dates: Thursday 6th March - Saturday 5th April

Times: Monday - Saturday, 7.45pm

Thursday and Saturday matinees: 2.30pm (not 6th March)

Press night: Wednesday 12th March, 7pm

Post Show Talk: Thursday 13th March after evening performance

Tickets: £19.50 / £14.50 discounts (Previews: 6th - 11th March and Mondays, all seats £10)

Box Office: 01225 448844/ www.theatreroyal.org.uk/ustinov

A STEADY RAIN (UK premiere) by Keith Huff

Wednesday 9th April - Saturday 10th May

Directed by David Grindley

A Steady Rain chronicles love and rage on the streets of Chicago when one ordinary day a deadly error of judgement sends the lives of two cops spinning out of control. A dark two-hander, filled with sharp storytelling and biting repartee, A Steady Rain opened on Broadway in 2009 starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig.

Joey and Denny, best friends since childhood, are practically family: Joey helps out with Denny's wife and kids; Denny keeps Joey away from the bottle. But when a routine domestic disturbance turns into something terrifying and tragic, it is clear someone must bear responsibility. As the need to serve and protect both consumes the two cops, and rips them apart, trust and loyalty struggle for survival against a backdrop of pimps, prostitutes, and criminal lowlife.

Keith Huff won a Writer's Guild Award for Mad Men, wrote for the first season of House of Cards and has also written the film adaptation of A Steady Rain for Barbara Brocolli's EON Films.

Director David Grindley's numerous credits include, recently, Daytona, Journey's End in the West End and The Philanthropist on Broadway. He also directed the hugely-acclaimed production of The American Plan in the Ustinov Studio's American Season 2013.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Venue: Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET

Dates: Wednesday 9th April - Saturday 10th May

Times: Monday - Saturday, 7.45pm

Thursday and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm (not 10th April)

Press night: Tuesday 15th April, 7pm

Post Show Talk: Thursday 17th April after evening performance

Tickets: £19.50 / £14.50 discounts (Previews: 9th - 14th April and Mondays, all seats £10)

Box Office: 01225 448844/ www.theatreroyal.org.uk/ustinov

INTIMATE APPAREL (UK premiere) by Lynn Nottage

Directed by Laurence Boswell

Thursday 29th May - Saturday 28th June 2014

Winner of the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play, John Gassner Award for Best Play, American Theater Critics Association's Francesca Primus Award and the Steinberg New Play Award.

This multi award-winning play, brimming with wonderful characters, is set in 1905 in New York City where Esther, a black seamstress, sews exquisite lingerie for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. She has saved enough to allow her to dream of one day opening a beauty salon for black women, and at 35 years old, longs for a husband and a future. When she begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man who is working on the Panama Canal, it looks like life may be about to take a different course.

The Ustinov is delighted to be presenting the British premiere of this major American drama. Intimate Apparel is arguably the greatest play of one of America's leading and most honoured playwrights. Lynn Nottage won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for her play Ruined and in 2010, she was awarded the Distinguished Playwright Award.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Venue: Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET

Dates: Thursday 29th May - Saturday 28th June 2014

Times: Monday - Saturday, 7.45pm

Thursday and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm (not 29th May)

Press night: Wednesday 4th June, 7pm

Post Show Talk: Thursday 12th June after evening performance

Tickets: £19.50 / £14.50 discounts (Previews: 29th May - 3rd June and Mondays, all seats £10)

Box Office: 01225 448844/ www.theatreroyal.org.uk/ustinov

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