Hampstead Theatre announces four world premieres for autumn 2022 by Richard Eyre, Rona Munro, Georgina Burns and Joe White.
The Snail House, written and directed by Richard Eyre, will run from 7 September until 15 October. Former Artistic Director of the National Theatre and, writer and regular adaptor of other people’s work for the stage, The Snail House is Eyre’s first completely original play.
Sir Neil Marriot, familiar from TV as a government medical advisor, is hosting his own lavish birthday party. But, amidst the oak panelling and the champagne his family are at one another’s throats – and there’s something deeply unsettling about one of the caterers …
Mary, a new political thriller by Rona Munro, directed by Hampstead Theatre’s Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert, will run from 22 October until 26 November. Mary is a standalone play, but also the fourth play of The James Plays cycle, winner of the Evening Standard and Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards in 2014.
- James Melville, a brilliant diplomat, is one of the most loyal servants of Mary, troubled Queen of Scots. Amidst the political turmoil of the times, the crimes he has witnessed have shaken him. Change is clearly coming, but at what price?
Mary is a T.S. Eliot Foundation commission.
In the theatre’s Downstairs space, Ravenscourt by Georgina Burns, directed by Hampstead Theatre’s Associate Director, Tessa Walker, will run from 23 September until 29 October. Georgina Burns is an alumnus of Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE course for emerging playwrights and Ravenscourt is her first produced full-length play.
Lydia is a mental-health professional determined to make a difference. But as she settles into her new job at Ravenscourt she starts to realise how high the odds are stacked against real change. Maybe the cynics are right: the system is broken and nobody cares…
Blackout Songs by Joe White, directed by Guy Jones, will also run Downstairs, from 4 November until 10 December. Joe White is a former Channel 4 Playwriting Award-winner whose play Mayfly (Orange Tree) won Most Promising New Playwright at the OffWestEnd Awards in 2019.
A chance encounter at an AA meeting results in a crazy passionate bond… But later, once they’re drinking again, they both have this feeling that they might have been here before, together… They should really get sober and figure it out. Maybe after one last quick drink…
Blackout Songs is a T.S. Eliot Foundation commission.
The full cast and creative team of all plays will be announced in due course.
Priority Booking opens Wednesday 6 July at 10.30am. Public Booking opens on Tuesday 12 July at 10.30am. Further details are available via hampsteadtheatre.com.
