Finborough Theatre Presents Vibrant: A Festival of Playwrights, Begins May 25

The Finborough Theatre presents VIBRANT - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights. 30 NEW PLAYS TO CELEBRATE, 30 YEARS IN JUST UNDER 30 DAYS from 25 May - 19 June 2010

To celebrate its 30th anniversary year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre presents an anniversary festival of thirty new works for the stage by thirty UK and international playwrights, discovered, developed or championed by the Finborough Theatre, featuring many premieres of brand new plays by some of the famous playwrights who began their careers at the Finborough Theatre.

Directors include
Zena Birch. Ellie Browning. Daniel Burgess. Claire Dowie. Helen Eastman. Clive Judd. John Kachoyan. Stephen Keyworth. Ben Kidd. Adam Lenson. Clare Lizzimore. Michael Longhurst. Chris Loveless. Tim Luscombe. Alex Marker. Jo McInnes. Blanche McIntyre. Rae Mcken. Caitlin McLeod. Wilson Milam. Nick Philippou. Eleanor Rhode. Alexander Summers. Kate Wasserberg. Colin Watkeys. Phil Willmott. Robert Wolstenholme.

Curated by Finborough Theatre Artistic Director Neil McPherson

Produced by Dara Gilroy, Lucy Jackson, Rachel Lambert and Sarah Loader.

Vibrant - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights
30 NEW PLAYS TO CELEBRATE
30 YEARS OF THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE IN JUST UNDER
30 DAYS

Artistic Director Neil McPherson says: "Instead of celebrating our birthday by just reviving all our old successes, and following the great success of Vibrant A Festival of Finborough Playwrights in October 2009, we decided to celebrate by presenting another festival, but this time featuring staged readings of brand new plays by some of the well-known names who began their careers at the Finborough Theatre over the last thirty years including Mike Bartlett, Claire Dowie, David Eldridge, James Graham, Nicholas de Jongh, Peter Oswald, Nick Payne, Mark Ravenhill, Laura Wade, Naomi Wallace, Phil Willmott and Alexandra Wood, alongside some of the new writers we have discovered, developed or championed in recent years."

"We hope that our anniversary festival will be a broad celebration of both the past and the future of our work with a fascinating and idiosyncratic selection of new plays, ranging from the startlingly contemporary to drama in blank verse, from hard hitting political work to two new pieces of British musical theatre, from intimate monologues to ambitious epics. The writers' ages vary from their early 20s to their 60s (building on our commitment to nurture new writers over 30 who continue to be neglected by other new writing organisations) and they come from a wide variety of backgrounds including playwrights from all over England (including a brand new British Asian playwright and debuts from writers from the North East and the East Midlands), Scotland (including an English language world premiere by Scotland's leading contemporary Scots Gaelic writer, and a new play in the Scots language itself) as well as playwrights from Australia, Canada and from all over the United States (including a European premiere from one of the USA's leading Armenian-American Playwrights)."

Despite remaining completely unfunded, the Finborough Theatre has an unparalleled track record of discovering new talent who go on to become leading voices in British theatre and entertainment.

In the 1980s, the Finborough Theatre featured the first work of many comedians, writers and artists such as Clive Barker, Neil Bartlett, Jo Brand, Rory Bremner, Nica Burns, Kathy Burke, Ken Campbell, Julian Clary, Claire Dowie, Jenny Éclair, Harry Enfield, Jeremy Hardy, Ainsley Harriott, John Hegley, Wendy Houstoun of DV8, Mark Lamarr, Paul Merton, Neil Mullarkey, Mike Myers, Mark Rylance, Arthur Smith, Mark Steel, Mark Thomas and Benjamin Zephaniah. "I cannot recommend strongly enough a visit to the Finborough" Michael Coveney, Financial Times 1984.

In the 1990s, it became a "hotbed of new writing" with first plays by such well known names as David Eldridge, David Farr, Conor McPherson, Tony Marchant, Anthony Neilson, Mark Ravenhill, Naomi Wallace and Phil Willmott, and actors such as Rachel Weisz and Nicola Walker. "Over the last three years, the Finborough has seriously rivalled the Royal Court, Hampstead and the Bush as a venue for new writing" Michael Billlington, The Guardian 1994.

Since 2000 - under Artistic Director Neil McPherson - the Finborough Theatre has discovered some of the UK's most exciting new talent including playwrights Mike Bartlett, James Graham, Sarah Grochala, Nicholas de Jongh, Chris Lee, Anders Lustgarten, Nick Payne, Al Smith, Jack Thorne, Simon Vinnicombe, Laura Wade, Joy Wilkinson and Alexandra Wood. It is the only theatre without public funding to be awarded the prestigious Pearson Playwriting Award bursary (2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010) as well as twice winning Pearson's Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play written by a bursary holder. During this time, the Finborough Theatre has also expanded its repertoire to include music theatre and an unwavering commitment to the rediscovery of neglected drama from the past. "One of the most stimulating venues in London, fielding a programme that is a bold mix of trenchant, politically thought-provoking new drama and shrewdly chosen revivals of neglected works from the past." Paul Taylor, The Independent 2007.

The festival is also an opportunity to see the fruits of the work that happens behind the scenes at the Finborough Theatre as we continue to discover and develop a new generation of theatre makers through our hugely successful internship programme, our Resident Assistant Director Programme, our partnership with the National Theatre Studio - the Leverhulme Bursary for Emerging Directors, and our Literary Department.

Working closely with the Artistic Director, the Finborough Theatre's Literary Department - Literary Manager Van Badham, Senior Reader Laura Jessop and Literary Assistant Daniel Burgess - discovers and nurtures new playwrights, both in the UK and internationally, and is evolving a new model for "literary management". "It says a great deal about the systems and structures of new writing in UK theatres that [Sarah] Grochala's nugget of a play has been lying around for two years unproduced. At its best it reminds us of Pinter and Bond." Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 2009.

Working in the text-based tradition, the unique energy of the Finborough Theatre is the paradox sustained by staging ambitious and epic work within the confines of a boutique space. We seek to develop new work that is:

Thematically expansive: In the words of our Artistic Director, the Finborough Theatre is interested in "plays that matter on subjects that matter, regardless of fashion". We are interested in playwrights and plays that present unique challenges to ideological assumptions about community, nation and world.

Ideologically Brave: The Finborough Theatre has developed an enviable reputation as an intellectual hot-house of ideas and confrontation. We are a theatre that programmes plays to challenge the vanities, hypocrisies and oppressions of our times. We actively bring fresh voices into social debates and the world into a 50-seat space in Earl's Court.

Artistically Ambitious: We actively seek playwrights who have moving and unusual insights into the nature of our social world, and whose theatrical voice and vision are unique.

We do hope that you will come and help us celebrate our 30th birthday...

The festival includes - and is centred around - a month long run of award-winning Finborough Theatre Playwright-in-Residence James Graham's new play, The Man...

Tuesday, 25 May - Saturday, 19 June 2010
Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 7.30pm. Saturday Matinees at 3.00pm (from 5 June 2010). Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm.
World Premiere
The Man
by James Graham. Directed by Kate Wasserberg. Lighting by Tom White.

Award-winning Playwright-in-Residence James Graham reunites with former Finborough Theatre Associate Director Kate Wasserberg to present a blackly comic and uniquely interactive storytelling event - a different actor, telling a story in a different order, selected at random, every single night. The Man was first performed in last year's Vibrant A Festival of Finborough Playwrights by the playwright himself.

Tax is really, really taxing for Ben Edwards. Self Employed. And afraid... And now he must face his dreaded self assessment form, with every receipt evoking the good times and the bad. With each receipt drawn out at random, Ben begins to stitch together the patchwork quilt that was the Tax Year 2009/2010 - a year that was both hilarious and tragic, all mixed up in one shoe box of receipts.

Full casting for The Man will be announced shortly, but some of the actors will include Samuel Barnett (The History Boys, Desperate Romantics, The Whisky Taster, winner of a Drama Desk Award on Broadway and a WhatsOnStage Theatregoers Choice Awards, and a nominee for an Olivier Award, a Tony Award and an Evening Standard Award); Leander Deeny (The Representative, Shakespeare's Globe, Atonement) and the playwright himself.
Performance length: 65 minutes with no interval.

Playwright James Graham is a Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre. In 2003, James sent an unsolicited script to the Finborough Theatre which went on to present his Pearson Award-winning Albert's Boy (2005), Eden's Empire (2006), winner of the Pearson Award's Catherine Johnson Best Play Award 2007, Little Madam (2007) on the life of Margaret Thatcher, and Sons of York (2008), named Time Out Critics' Choice. He was also the Finborough Theatre's nominee for the BBC's and Royal Court's ‘The 50' programme (of the 50 most exciting new writers in the UK) in 2006. Since being discovered by the Finborough Theatre, he has gone on to write for the Soho Theatre (Tory Boyz), Clywd Theatr Cymru (A History of Falling Things), BBC Radio 4, ITV1 (Caught in a Trap starring Connie Fisher), and the Bush Theatre (Sudden Loss of Dignity and The Whisky Taster - Five Stars, The Independent and The Telegraph), as well as the forthcoming Huck (National Tour and Southwark Playhouse).

Director Kate Wasserberg was previously Associate Director at the Finborough Theatre where she directed Sons of York and Little Madam, both by James Graham, and The Representative, I Wish to Die Singing and The New Morality. She was previously the Finborough Theatre's first Resident Assistant Director. She is now New Plays Director at Clwyd Theatr Cymru where she has directed The Glass Menagerie (also National Tour), James Graham's A History of Falling Things (also Sherman Cymru) and Pieces by Hywel John.

The festival then continues with staged readings of...

Vibrant - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights
WEEK ONE - 26 May-30 May 2010

Wednesday, 26 May 2010 at 9.00pm
World Premiere
Bull
by Mike Bartlett. Directed by Clare Lizzimore.

"It's not the losing that matters, - it's the taking part". Faced with recession and cutbacks, the company has decided to lose someone from Thomas's team. He is determined it won't be him, but his two colleagues have other ideas. Written in the form of a bull-fight, with graphic language and imagery, Bull depicts ritual competition and bullying in the modern work place.
Performance length: 50 minutes.

Playwright Mike Bartlett's first professional theatre job was as an Assistant Director on Soldiers at the Finborough Theatre in 2004. He subsequently co-directed Lark Rise to Candleford with John Terry of Shapeshifter, and wrote three plays for the Finborough Theatre - Fearing, Leaving and Falling in 2005. His plays include My Child, Contractions,
Cock (Royal Court Theatre) and Artefacts (Bush Theatre, Nabokov and Off Broadway). His radio plays include Not Talking, The Steps (Radio 3), Love Contract, The Family Man, Liam (Radio 4). He has also directed Honest (Royal and DernGate Theatres, Northampton), Class (Tristan Bates Theatre) and co-directed King Arthur with John Terry (Arcola Theatre). Mike's play c*ckwon the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre in 2010. He won the Old Vic New Voices award for Artefacts, the Writer's Guild Tinniswood and Imison prizes for Not Talking, and was the Pearson Playwright in Residence at The Royal Court Theatre in 2007. His new play Earthquakes in London will be produced this August at the National Theatre.

Director Clare Lizzimore is an award winning theatre director. Her credits include Faces in the Crowd by Leo Butler (Royal Court Theatre), War and Peace, Fear and Misery by Mark Ravenhill (Royal Court Theatre and Latitude Festival), On the Rocks by Amy Rosenthal (Hampstead Theatre), Jonah and Otto by Robert Holman (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Tom Fool by Franz Xaver Kroetz (Glasgow Citizens Theatre and Bush Theatre - Nominated for four CATS Awards), The Most Humane Way to Kill A Lobster by Duncan Macmillan (Theatre 503) and, as Co-Director with Max Stafford Clark, The Mother by Mark Ravenhill (Royal Court Theatre). Her awards include the Channel 4 Theatre Directors Award 2005/06 and the Arts Foundation Theatre Directing Fellowship 2009. Clare has also directed new plays from Russia, Nigeria, Portugal and Romania, and travelled extensively for The Royal Court Theatre's International Programme, developing new plays with artists in Africa and The Middle East.

Thursday, 27 May 2010 at 9.00pm
European Premiere
Seven Pages Unsigned
by Michael Louis Wells. Directed by Wilson Milam.

It's the evening of the Winter Solstice, ‘The Darkest of the Year'. College friends, gathered for an engagement party in NYC's Hell's Kitchen, escape to the rooftop for fresh air. Still reeling from the suicide of one of their number, they dodge and confront the difficult choices that face them...
Performance length: Approximately 90 minutes.

Playwright Michael Louis Wells' District of Columbia was given a staged reading at the Finborough Theatre in 2007 following its premiere off-Broadway at New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre (where he is a company member), Boston's Huntington Theatre Company and Washington DC's Arena Stage. Michael made his professional debut in New York with Real Real Gone, published by Smith and Kraus. Other plays include Taken by Faeries (Verity Bargate finalist, Soho Theatre), The "I" Word: Interns, produced in New York and published by Faber & Faber, and Detail, winner of the
London New Play Festival and recently produced in a new version in New York. His short piece, Two From The Line, was a Heideman Award finalist at The Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humanafest and was selected for publication by Smith and Kraus for their Best Ten Minute Plays 2008. Seven Pages Unsigned was a 2008 New Voices West honoree and received a workshop production at the Magic Theatre, San Francisco, under Artistic Director Chris Smith. It has also had readings in New York at The Dramatists Guild, and in Los Angeles for Rogue Machine Theatre Company and The Road Theatre Company.

Director Wilson Milam 's UK and Ireland theatre includes Harvest, Flesh Wound, Fresh Kills (Royal Court Theatre), Lay Me Down Softly, Defender of the Faith, On Such As We (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Othello (Shakespeare's Globe), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Barbican Theatre and Garrick Theatre), the twice Olivier Award nominated Hurlyburly (The Peter Hall Company at The Old Vic and Queen's Theatre), True West (Bristol Old Vic), A Lie of the Mind (Donmar Warehouse), The Wexford Trilogy (Tricycle Theatre), Chimps (Liverpool Playhouse), Bug (Gate Theatre), Killer Joe (Bush Theatre, Vaudeville Theatre and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh). US theatre includes Glengarry GLen Ross, The Seafarer (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Poor Beast In The Rain (Matrix Theatre Company), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Atlantic Theatre Company and Lyceum Theatre, Broadway), Closer (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Bug (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Washington DC), Killer Joe (29th St. Rep, Illinois, and Soho Playhouse, New York), Pot Mom (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago) andThe Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (A Red Orchid Theatre, Chicago). Television includes Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka (BBC). Awards include The Scotsman Fringe First Award for Killer Joe, and a Tony Award Nomination for Best Director of a Play (The Lieutenant of Inishmore).

Friday, 28 May 2010 at 3.00pm
World Premiere
Some Stories
by Alistair McDowall. Directed by Clive Judd.

A woman alone with answering machines. A man trapped in a body that disagrees with him. A woman talking with an empty chair. A girl with a head full of stories. Four stories of love, loss and childhood.
Performance length: Approximately 1 hour 5 minutes.

Playwright Alistair McDowall is from the North East of England and submitted Some Stories to the Finborough Theatre's Literary Department in 2010. His previous plays include eighteen stupid reasons why i love you lots and lots (winner of Best New Writing Award at Buxton Fringe Festival 2009), 5:30 (Nominated for Best New Play at the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards), Nettles (Contact Theatre, Manchester) and Daisies (part of Manchester's 24:7 Theatre Festival). He is currently developing a new play for production at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Director Clive Judd's credits include 5:30 (Library Theatre, Manchester and National Tour) and Herons (Library Theatre, Manchester, and National Student Drama Festival). Assistant Direction includes Punk Rock (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester). Clive was awarded the Director's Guild Award for Most Promising Director at the National Student Drama Festival 2009.

Friday, 28 May 2010 at 9.00pm
World Premiere
Adam Lives in Theory
by Nick Payne. Directed by Adam Lenson.

Harry's son, Adam, disappeared six months ago. A group of middle aged men now think they know exactly where he has gone. A play about faith, grief and UFOs.
Performance length: Approximately 1 hour 10 minutes.

Playwright Nick Payne workshopped his first play If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet with the Finborough Theatre Literary Department in 2007. It was subsequently premiered at the Bush Theatre in 2009, directed by Josie Rourke. Nick studiEd English Literature at the University of York. In 2009, he was awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright. He is currently the Pearson Playwright-in-Residence at the Bush Theatre.

Director Adam Lenson directed the UK premieres of Little Fish and Ordinary Days at the Finborough Theatre. Other directing includes Immaculate (Etcetera Theatre), The Rain King (Start Night at Hampstead Theatre), Hades (Theatre 503), Bifurcated (Nabakov Present Tense at Southwark Playhouse), Cell Begat Cell (Symposium at The Old Vic) and These Memories Must Go (24 Hour Plays at The Old Vic). Assistant and Resident Directing includes Six Degrees Of Separation (Old Vic), An Inspector Calls (West End and National Tour), La Cage Aux Folles (Menier Chocolate Factory and West End), Talent (Menier Chocolate Factory) and The Music Man (Chichester Festival Theatre). He studied at Cambridge University and trained on the National Theatre Studio Directors' Course.

Saturday, 29 May 2010 at 9.00pm
"Beginning at the Finborough..."
Mark Ravenhill in conversation with Van Badham

Playwright Mark Ravenhill began his career at the Finborough Theatre in the early 1990s, writing, directing and serving as Literary Manager. His worldwide hit play, Shopping and F***king, received its world premiere reading at the Finborough Theatre in 1995, and was subsequently seen at The Royal Court Theatre in an Out of Joint production, in the West End and on Broadway. His other plays include Faust Is Dead (National Tour), Handbag, Some Explicit Polaroids (New Ambassadors Theatre) and Mother Clap's Molly House (National Theatre and West End). Radio plays include Feed Me (BBC Radio 3). Other published works include Totally Over You, The Cut, Product, Citizenship, pool (no water) and Over There. His awards include an Evening Standard Award for Handbag. Mark has also been Literary Director of Paines Plough, where he organised Sleeping Around, a collaborative writing project.
Van Badham is the Literary Manager of the Finborough Theatre
Conversation length: Approximately 1 hour.

Sunday, 30 May 2010 at 7.30pm
World Premiere
Make Me A Martyr
by Simon Vinnicombe. Directed by Robert Wolstenholme.

"Have you ever thought that having cancer might be quite good?...You could be brave...Or dignified...You could be something". Zuel's just a normal kid from Mile End - desperately trying to find his place in the world. When charismatic Wasim takes him under his wing and offers him a sense of belonging, events are set in motion that can only end in tragedy...
Performance length: Approximately 1 hour 40 minutes.

Playwright Simon Vinnicombe is a Finborough Theatre Playwright-in-Residence. His first two plays Year 10 (2005) and Cradle Me (2008) both received their world premieres at the Finborough Theatre, and Wisdom was part of last year's Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights festival. Year 10 was named Time Out Critics' Choice and subsequently transferred to the BAC and the Festival Premières second edition, a festival organised by the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and Le Maillon and as part of the Brittany InterNational Theatre Festival in 2006. His other work has been produced at the Bush Theatre, Union Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, The Old Vic Theatre, the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City, and on BBC Radio 4.

Director Robert Wolstenholme trained at The University of Warwick, Drama Studio, London, and on the National Theatre Studio Directors' Programme. Recent directing includes Gilbert is Dead (Hoxton Hall Theatre), One Minute (Courtyard Theatre), The Night Before Christmas (Hen and Chickens Theatre), Here (Tristan Bates Theatre), Private Lives (Canal Café Theatre), Guerilla/Whore (Tabard Theatre), The Unattended (Edinburgh Festival), This to This (Union Theatre and Colour House Theatres), Gift, If No One Loves You, Change (King's Head Theatre) and A Snow Scene (White Bear Theatre). Robert has also directed staged readings for the Bush Theatre, Soho Theatre and for Old Vic New Voices.

Vibrant - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights
WEEK TWO - 31 May-6 June 2010

Monday, 31 May 2010 at 7.30pm
World Premiere
Lights in the Sky
by Joy Wilkinson. Directed by Helen Eastman.

"The perfect robbery. And the perfect revolution. The black-out ends. The system restarts and - bang! Back to the Stone Age. Everyone's debts disappear." Townsend fits the lights on top of skyscrapers. Durkin is a CEO who's afraid of the dark. A bad joke goes wrong, bringing them together on the top of the world, in pitch blackness, to plot the biggest bank robbery in history. A dark comedy about our current crises and the light at the end of the tunnel.
Performance length: Approximately 80 minutes.

Playwright Joy Wilkinson made her London debut at the Finborough Theatre with Fair which subsequently went on National Tour and transferred to the West End. Her other plays include Felt Effects (Theatre 503 and winner of the Verity Bargate Award) and Now Is The Time (Tricycle Theatre's The Great Game season). Forthcoming theatre includes Acting Leader, part of the Tricycle Theatre's Women, Power and Politics season in June 2010. Joy has recently completed an attachment at the National Theatre Studio and is now writing a new play for the Liverpool Everyman. She also writes for Radio and was a graduate of the BBC's inaugural Writers' Academy.

Director Helen Eastman has directed many plays for the Finborough Theatre including The Monument, Fair (transferring to Trafalgar Studios), The Gabriels, Live Canon: Committed and The Immortal Memory - The 250th Burns Night. She trained as a director at LAMDA after graduating from Oxford University. Theatre includes Circus Etc (The De La Warr Pavilion), Dido and Aeneas (English Touring Opera at the Hackney Empire and National Tour), Hansel and Gretel (Cork Opera House), The Sweet Science of Bruising (National Theatre Studio), Cloudcuckooland (National Tour - Total Theatre Award Nomination), Wild Raspberries (Glasgow Citizens Theatre), Speakout (English Touring Opera and the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch), Bug Off (OTC), The Cure at Troy (BAC, Delphi International Festival and tour) and the world premiere of JulIan Joseph's jazz opera Bridgetower (Hackney Empire and tour). She is Producer of the Onassis Programme at Oxford University, a Guest Fellow in Theatre at Westminster University and a member of the Associate Literary Panel at Soho Theatre. She is currently Associate Director on In the Night Garden Live, Director of the 40th Triennial Cambridge Greek Play, Agamemnon, and writer and associate director of Hercules for the inaugural Chester Festival.

Tuesday, 1 June 2010 at 9.00pm
English Premiere/World Premiere in English
Atman
by Iain Finlay MacLeod. Directed by Alex Marker.

A is lonely. A works in the library. One day he goes through the wrong door and ends up in a strange room filled with books, as far as the eye can see. He feels strangely drawn to one of the books, so he picks it up and begins to read. In it is his life, in minute detail. It takes thirty pages to describe the first time he ate something sweet. Fifty pages to describe his first memory. Soon, he can do nothing apart from read. B, a psychiatrist he regularly sees, suggests an experiment. To see if it will help. He suggests writing in the book and seeing what happens. Inspired by the stories of Jorge Luis Borges, Atman was first performed in Scots Gaelic by Tosg Theatre Company on a Highlands tour and now receives its English language world premiere.
Performance length: Approximately 50 minutes.

Playwright Iain Finlay MacLeod made his English debut at the Finborough Theatre in 2009 with I Was A Beautiful Day in a production which has recently transferred to the Tron Theatre, Glasgow. He is one of Scotland's most prolific contemporary Scots Gaelic writers, having written many works for theatre, radio, film and television. Writing in both English and his native Scots Gaelic, Iain has also directed numerous documentaries on Celtic folklore and arts, and was series director of the BAFTA-winning show TACSI, which won Best Arts Series in the Scottish BAFTA's and Best Entertainment Programme at the Celtic Film and Television Festival. Television includes Machair which won a Writers' Guild Award for Best Foreign Language Serial Drama. His work for theatre includes St Kilda (Gaelic Arts Agency), Broke, Homers, Alexander Salamander and Road from the Isles (Traverse Theatre), Salvage (Tosg Theatre Company) and Cliff Dancing (National Gaelic Youth Theatre). His work for BBC Radio 4 includes The Watergaw, The Gold Digger and an adaptation of Angela Carter's The Kitchen Child. Other radio includes Frozen and an adaptation of The Pearlfisher for BBC Radio Scotland. His film work includes The Inaccessible Pinnacle (Young Films). He is also the author of several novels.

Director Alex Marker has been Resident Designer of the Finborough Theatre since 2002 where his designs have included Charlie's Wake (2001), The Women's War (2003), How I Got That Story (2004), Soldiers (2004), Happy Family (2004), Trelawny of the ‘Wells' (2005), Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams (2005), Albert's Boy (2005), Lark Rise To Candleford (2005), Red Night (2005), The Representative (2006), Eden's Empire (2006), Love Child (2007), Little Madam (2007), Plague Over England (and the 2009 West End transfer to the Duchess Theatre) (2008), Hangover Square (2008), Sons of York (2008), Untitled (2009), Painting A Wall (2009), Death of Long Pig (2009), Moliere or The League of Hypocrites (2009) and Dream of the Dog (2010). He is also Director of the Questors Youth Theatre, the largest youth theatre in London. www.alexmarker.com

Wednesday, 2 June 2010 at 9.00pm
World Premiere
The Punishment Stories
by Anders Lustgarten. Directed by Zena Birch.

Big man jail, 2010. Jermaine is looking at a big lump. His co-defendant D is more concerned with chocolate biscuits and minor drug deals. But the pressure of their situation, and of coming to grips with what they did, is about to put their friendship under serious stress. Runner up for the Verity Bargate Award, The Punishment Stories is fast, funny and about something most prison dramas ignore: what it's like to be guilty.
Performance length: Approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.

Playwright Anders Lustgarten is Pearson Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre, where his first four plays were produced - The Insurgents (2007), a comic drama about Kurdish immigration and political resistance to globalisation; Enduring Freedom (2008), a powerful portrayal of the Bush years; A Torture Comedy, a satire on rendition and the War on Terror, was part of Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights (2009); and A Day at the Racists (2010), a timely examination of the rise of the BNP in London. He is taking his new play, You Cannot Escape Our Love, about Zimbabwe after Mugabe, to the Harare International Festival of Arts in April 2010. Anders is under commission to the Bolton Octagon, and from 2007-8, Anders was on attachment at the Soho Theatre. Other work includes an adaptation of Slawomir Mrozek's The Police (BAC 2007). Anders works as a political activist; he has also taught on Death Row, been arrested by the Turkish secret police, and holds a PhD in Chinese politics from the University of California.

Director Zena Birch has worked extensively with devised, collaborative and site specific performance. As a director, she has worked at the National Theatre Studio, BAC, the Tristan Bates Theatre and the White Bear Theatre. She is also a company member of Station House Opera.

Thursday, 3 June 2010 at 9.00pm
A triple bill of three short plays
London Premiere/World Premiere
Extra Ordinary and People
by Laura Wade. Directed by Alexander Summers.
and
London Premiere
Expecting
by Alexandra Wood. Directed by Alexander Summers.

In People, a businesswoman finds herself floundering after one of her employees drops a bombshell.
In Extra Ordinary, two women test the boundaries of their unconventional relationship.
In Expecting, A woman goes to an anti-war protest and emerges sure of one thing only: expectation never bears any resemblance to reality. She then embarks on a life-long project designed to save the world from the worst that she can imagine...
Total performance length of the triple bill: Approximately 1 hour.

Playwright Laura Wade was commissioned for the Finborough Theatre by Artistic Director Neil McPherson to write the world premiere of Young Emma in 2003 which marked her London debut. She has been a Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough since 2004. Her other plays include Posh and Breathing Corpses (Royal Court Theatre), and Colder Than Here and Other Hands (Soho Theatre). Her awards include the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Pearson Best Play Award and the George Devine Award. Laura Wade's plays have also been performed in the USA, Australia, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands.

Playwright Alexandra Wood was Literary Manager for the Finborough Theatre from 2006 to 2007 and is now a Playwright-in-Residence. Plays include The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs), The Lion's Mouth (part of Rough Cuts at The Royal Court Theatre), Miles to Go (Latitude Festival) and Unbroken (Gate Theatre). In 2007, she was awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright. She is currently under commission to the Young Vic. Expecting was originally commissioned by Rose Bruford College in 2009.

Director Alexander Summers was a Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre for 2007 where he assisted on seven productions including Plague Over England (and its subsequent West End transfer) and the Time Out Critics' Choice production of Ours. At the Finborough Theatre, he has directed the world premieres of The Insurgents by Anders Lustgarten, The Blessing Way by Nirjay Mahindru and Death of Long Pig by Nigel Planer. Most recently, he was Associate Director on Huck by James Graham (National Tour and Southwark Playhouse), Mother's Ruin (24 Hour Plays at The Old Vic) and The Insect Play (Theatre Royal Haymarket's Youth Company). He was Apprentice Director on Waiting for Godot (Theatre Royal Haymarket and National Tour). He has trained with Cheek by Jowl's Summer School, assisted on Uncertainty (Latitude Festival) and led the Czech theatre retrospective, A Cautious Path (Tristan Bates Theatre). Other directing includes The Man Outside (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America (Contact Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing and The Man With The Flower in his Mouth (both at The Bridewell Theatre).

Friday, 4 June 2010 at 3.00pm. 

World Premiere
The Voice of Scotland
by David Hutchison. Directed by Blanche McIntyre.

Alec Campbell used to be a famous singer of Scottish popular music. No Hogmanay was complete without him, but now he finds himself out of date and forgotten as tastes have moved on. Alec, though, is convinced that he can still make a comeback. His daughter is an aspiring Nationalist Holyrood MSP anxious to be part of post-devolution Scotland in which she sees no place for the cosy view of the nation that her father represents...
Performance length: Approximately 2 hours.

Playwright David Hutchison's The Voice of Scotland was workshopped at the Finborough Theatre in 2006 with actor Kenny Ireland, directed by David Robb. He has also had plays workshopped at the Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow. He works in higher education and has written widely on media policy and the development of theatre in Scotland.

Director Blanche McIntyre was the first recipient of the Leverhulme Directors' Bursary (a partnership between the National Theatre Studio and the Finborough Theatre) and was Director in Residence during 2009 at both the National Theatre Studio and the Finborough Theatre. She directed an acclaimed production of Bulgakov's Molière or The League of Hypocrites at the Finborough Theatre in 2009 (Four Stars in Whatsonstage and The Guardian, and Critics' Choice in The Guardian). Directing includes Bulgakov's The Master And Margarita (Greenwich Playhouse), Three Hours After Marriage (Union Theatre), Wuthering Heights (National Tour), The Revenger's Tragedy (BAC), Birds (Southwark Playhouse), Doctor Faustus, The Devil Is An Ass, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde As Told To An Inmate Of Broadmoor Asylum (White Bear Theatre), A Model for Mankind (Cock Tavern), and Lost Hearts, The Invention of Love and Cressida (Edinburgh Festival).

Friday, 4 June 2010 at 9.00pm
World Premiere
The Soft of Her Palm
by Christopher Dunkley. Directed by Tim Luscombe.

Sarah just crashed her car outside Phil's flat. Her life is unravelling and he is to blame, but for now she just wants the Harry Potters. Phil, destitute and alone, is now forced to wear second-hand socks and anyway the Harry Potters belong to him. Journeying into their shared past, a complex, troubled relationship reveals itself, impacting on everyone involved including Stan, Sarah's seven year old son.
Performance length: Approximately 1 hour 20 minutes.

Playwright Christopher Dunkley 's Mirita received its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre in 2002 where it was named Time Out Critics' Choice and went on to play at the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City, alongside his short play Lisa Says. His other plays include Almost Blue (Riverside Studios), How to Tell the Truth (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough), Lucy is a Minger (Spinney Hill Theatre, Northampton) and The Festival (Wimbledon Studio Theatre). Radio includes The All Colour Vegetarian Cookbook and The Architects (both BBC). Chris has been Writer in Residence at the Royal and DernGate Theatres, Northampton, where he is currently under commission, and a Writer on Attachment at The Royal Court Theatre. He was the 2002 winner of the International Student Playscript Competition and winner of the PMA Writers' Award in 2001.

Director Tim Luscombe directed Noël Coward's first play, The Rat Trap, at the Finborough Theatre in 2006. He has directed extensively in the West End, on Broadway and all over the world. London directing credits include No?l Coward's Easy Virtue (Garrick Theatre) and Private Lives (Aldwych Theatre), Artist Descending A Staircase (Duke of York's Theatre), The Browning Version and Harlequinade (Royalty Theatre), EuroVision (Vaudeville Theatre) and Relative Values (Savoy Theatre). Tim is also well known as a playwright whose plays include EuroVision (Vaudeville Theatre), The ONe You Love (Royal Court Theatre), The Schuman Plan (Hampstead Theatre) and The Death of Gogol and the 1969 Eurovision Contest (The Drill Hall). Tim was nominated for an Olivier Award for his direction of Easy Virtue and The Browning Version and Harlequinade. He also ran a gay theatre company in London in the early 1990s. His production of A Lie of the Mind has just opened at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and The Little Hut, starring Janie Dee, is currently on a National Tour.

Saturday, 5 June 2010 at 9.00pm
World Premiere
Jugantor
by Titas Halder. Directed by Michael Longhurst.

There are three women connected by blood and by history. Torn apart by a forgotten war, the family are forced together in the pursuit of reconciliation. As the women start to reconnect, the values and virtues of their freedom fighting heritage collide, and the spirits that haunt them break loose. Drawing from Hindu folk stories and superstition, Jugantor is a fierce comic drama about roots and redemption.
Performance length: Approximately 2 hours 15 minutes.

Playwright Titas Halder is a former Literary Associate at the Finborough Theatre, following a spell as a Resident Assistant Director, where he directed Painting A Wall. As a playwright, he trained with The Royal Court Theatre's Critical Mass Programme. Jugantor is his first play. Titas is also currently Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse and a Creative Associate at the Bush Theatre.

Director Michael Longhurst directed Maori writer Albert Belz' Awhi Tapu in last year's Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights festival. Other directing includes The Contingency Plan: On The Beach (Bush Theatre), Stovepipe (HighTide in collaboration with the National Theatre and Bush Theatre), dirty butterfly (Young Vic), 1 in 5 (Daring Pairings for Hampstead Theatre), The Death of Cool (Tristan Bates Theatre), New Voices: 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic), Gaudeamus (Arcola Theatre), Guardians (Pleasance Edinburgh, Theatre503 and Barbican Art Gallery), Cargo (Pleasance Edinburgh and Oval House Theatre), Doctor Faustus (Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham). Assistant Direction includes productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, Old Vic and Young Vic. Michael was a director attached to the 2009 International Residency at The Royal Court Theatre and will direct Midnight Your Time at the 2010 HighTide Festival. His awards include the Jerwood Directors Award, a Fringe First and a scholarship to the Central Film School where he directed his first short film Fog. His production of Stovepipe recently featured in The Sunday Times Theatre Events of the Decade list.

Sunday, 6 June 2010 at 7.30pm
World Premiere by kind permission of the Bristol Old Vic
Princess Caraboo
A Musical in Development. Written and Directed by Phil Willmott.

A sneak preview of Phil Willmott's latest musical, commissioned by Bristol Old Vic for production in 2011, based on the true story of how an ingenious maid-servant fooled 19th century high society and passed herself off as a shipwrecked princess.
Performance length: 2 hours.

Playwright and Director Phil Willmott is Artistic Director of The Steam Industry and a previous Artistic Director of the Finborough Theatre where he has staged more productions than any other director including acclaimed revivals of Pinero's Trelawny of the ‘Wells' and Country Magic, Galsworthy's Loyalties, his new adaptation of Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths (recently published by Oberon Books), Tennessee Williams' The Notebook of Trigorin, and the sell-out F**king Men which transferred to the Kings Head and Arts Theatres, breaking records as London's longest running Off West End hit. His last original musical Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi won a TMA award for Best Musical in the UK, a WhatsOnStage award nomination and broke box office records at The Playhouse in Liverpool and the Union Theatre in London. It is published by Samuel French. Other musical adaptations, published and widely produced internationally, include Around the World in Eighty Days, The Dick Barton Trilogy, Treasure Island, Uncle Ebenezer - A Christmas Carol and Jason And The Argonauts. He is the most commissioned musical theatre writer in the UK.

Vibrant - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights
WEEK THREE - 7 June-13 June 2010

Monday, 7 June 2010 at 7.30pm
World Premiere
The Martyrs of Warsaw, Part I
by Sarah Grochala. Directed by Stephen Keyworth.

"Anyone would think that the walls of this city were only built to shoot people against and the balconies to hang them from." Warsaw. 1943. In a city under occupation, divided by race and faith, three women face two choices. Anna is ready to sacrifice herself for her country. Agata is hoping to quietly wait the war out. Danuta, meanwhile, is searching for a third way. She wants to make the best she can out of a bad situation. But war has a funny way of turning both the most selfish and most selfless of intentions on their heads...
Performance length: 1 hour 30 minutes.

Playwright Sarah Grochala 's play S-27 received its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre in 2009. It also won the first Protect the Human Playwriting Competition in 2007, run by iceandfire in conjunction with Amnesty International and Soho Theatre, and has just been produced in Sydney by the prestigious Griffin Theatre. Previous plays include Waiting For Romeo (Pleasance London, RADA and the Edinburgh Festival) which was chosen by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be presented as part of the celeb