The Finborough Theatre’s summer season features two world premieres from female playwrights – a new play written and directed by the first woman ever to direct at the National Theatre, and a debut play from a brand new American dramatist – alongside another classic Finborough rediscovery from one of the greatest theatrical figures of the 19th century, unseen in London for over 120 years.
Vibrant 2019 – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights returns for its the eleventh consecutive year, playing on Sunday and Monday evenings and Thursday matinees between 16 June-4 July 2019. This year’s Vibrant includes the winner of this year’s ETPEP Award in association with the Finborough Theatre which has awarded £8000 to a new playwright who works in another job in theatre, alongside stunning new plays from many Finborough Theatre favourites.
The season opens with the world premiere of playwright and director Julia Pascal’s award-winning Blueprint Medea, a gripping new drama loosely inspired by Euripides’ Medea, which connects the classical to the contemporary to explore eternal questions of passion, war, cultural identity, women’s freedom, sex, family and love. Blueprint Medea plays 21 May-8 June 2019.
In its first London production in over 120 years, the season continues with After Dark; or, A Drama of London Life by Dion Boucicault, based on Les Oiseaux de Proie by Eugène Grangé and Adolphe d’Ennery. Written in 1868, the year that the Finborough Theatre’s building was constructed, After Dark; or, A Drama of London Life is a classic Victorian melodrama, but is also startlingly contemporary with a thrilling climax on the London Underground, and its sympathetic portrayal of London’s homeless community. It plays 12 June-6 July 2019.
Rounding off the summer season is another world premiere, Lunatic 19’s – A Deportational Road Trip, by a new American playwright, Tegan McLeod, playing 9 July-3 August 2019. With coruscating humour and caustic observation, Lunatic 19’s captures the human stories at the heart of the current debate about migration and refugees.
Finborough Theatre Artistic Director Neil McPherson says: “Our new season features two world premieres alongside another of my rediscoveries from Victorian drama – with a play written in 1868, the very year that the Finborough Theatre building was constructed. And Vibrant 2019 – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, our annual festival of new writing, returns for its eleventh consecutive year.
The Finborough Arms, our pub home, was taken over by an entirely new management and extensively refurbished at the end of last year, and now offers a wide menu of traditional pub favourites, all cooked on the premises. We both look forward to welcoming you.”
