THE TRAIN DRIVER et al. Set for Hampstead Theatre in '10-'11

Hampstead Theatre's new Artistic Director, Edward Hall, announces his first season at the London venue. In an opening season of provocative and potent ideas from both emerging and established artists, Hampstead plans to celebrate originality, wit, and spirit and to ask critical questions about how we live today.

Edward Hall said ‘I was bowled over to be given responsibility for Hampstead Theatre, which is unquestionably one of the finest theatres in the UK. Since January I have been privileged to meet many leading theatre makers and show them our beautiful and adaptable space, and I've been overjoyed at how many of them have responded positively and have wanted to come and make work for us. Announcing my first season as Artistic Director of Hampstead Theatre is a very special experience. With writers and directors of the calibre we have secured, I'm sure the quality of the work will speak for itself. There really is something for everyone and I look forward to the journey we are now embarking on.'

The season welcomes leading voices in theatre alongside today's rising stars, and the return of now world renowned writers whose work was first presented at Hampstead Theatre.

Edward Hall will direct the first play in the season, the UK premiere of Shelagh Stephenson's
Enlightenment, a chilling modern mystery about the lengths to which people will go to find the missing pieces of their lives.  A young man disappears on a back packing holiday to South East Asia, leaving his parents in a state of turmoil. Desperation takes them down avenues they would never have previously contemplated. Then they get a phone call claiming that he has been found. Hampstead Theatre is delighted to be working once again with Stephenson, many of whose plays, including the Olivier award-winning The Memory of Water, have premiered at the venue.  Enlightenment will run from September 30, 2010 to October 30, 2010.

This is followed by Athol Fugard's most recent play, The Train Driver, directed by Fugard, acknowledged as one of the greatest living playwrights, himself.  This play opened at the newly established Fugard Theatre in Cape Town and will be having its European premiere at Hampstead. The Train Driver is a rich emotional study of the encounter between two men, who bring together two sides of a broken society and find a common humanity.  A tormented train driver is compelled to visit a windswept graveyard in the Eastern Cape to find the unmarked grave of the woman he unintentionally killed. Inspired by a true event, The Train Driver is a haunting and deeply personal journey into the human soul.  The Train Driver will run from November 4, 2010 to December 4, 2010.

For the festive season, Hampstead welcomes one of the country's most inventive theatre makers Melly Still with an adaptation of Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy's much admired Beasts and Beauties.  The piece is adapted by Duffy and dramtised by Still and Tim Supple. Melly Still has a hugely successful reputation for producing imaginative, visual theatre for all the family with such hits as Grimm Tales, More Grimm Tales and Coram Boy at the National Theatre and Broadway.  Still recreates a funny and deliciously gruesome world, carved from eight dark and dangerous fairy tales from across Europe, adapted by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Delight in these spine-tingling tales from the vain but naked Emperor to Bluebeard's castle. Step into the shadowy woods of these beautifully realised stories, which have enchanted children and adults alike for generations. Someone usually lives happily ever after - but not everyone - and not always.  Beasts and Beauties will run from December 10, 2010 to December 31, 2010.

Nina Raine will make her debut at Hampstead directing the world premiere of her new play,
Tiger Country, a fast paced examination of the life of a busy London hospital.  This frenetic hospital is the stage on which Nina Raine explores the range of clinical and ethical issues that underlie working life on medical and surgical wards. Fighting exhaustion and a hierarchical system, the medical staff face personal and moral decisions which affect their lives and those of their patients. Raine is recognised as one of the important new voices at work today in modern theatre. Her first play Rabbit won the Charles Wintour Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright.  Tiger Country will run from January 13, 2011 to February 5, 2011.

Hampstead Theatre inaugurates a new partnership with Druid, Galway's renowned theatre company, who continue to work with one of Ireland's most innovative writers, Enda Walsh, with the London premiere of Penelope. Exhibiting Walsh's trademark wit and imagination, Penelope reunites the creative team behind the multi award-winning hit, The Walworth Farce, with this original and exhilarating interpretation of the story of Penelope and her suitors from Homer's Odyssey.  The play features four ridiculous men who play for Penelope's unwinnable love while facing their inevitable deaths. Walsh's dark comedy takes a look at just how far men will go to win a woman's heart when their ultimate salvation is at stake.  Penelope will run from February 10, 2011 to March 5, 2011.

Finally, having started his career in theatre and now one of the most awarded British film directors, Mike Leigh returns to the stage and Hampstead to re-explore one of his early works,
Ecstasy, a play which opened at the theatre in 1979. Ecstasy is a lively ribald comedy with dark overtones which combines Leigh's mastery for observation with a satirical caustic edge.  This is the first time Leigh has ever returned to one of his works and marks the continuation of a relationship with Hampstead, which began with Leigh's Abigail's Party in 1977.  Ectasy will run from March 10, 2011 to April 9, 2011

World renowned writers and directors will make work in both the main auditorium and downstairs in the Michael Frayn Space, which will be opened as a home for experiment and risk and the development of new work. At its heart will be a commitment to inspiring and training the next generation of theatre makers.

Casting and creative teams will be announced shortly.

The Hampstead Theatre is located at Eton Avenue, London, NW3 3EU  To purchase tickets, call the box office at 020 7722 9301 or visit www.hampsteadtheatre.com.  Hampstead Theatre is supported by Arts Council, England and Camden Council.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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