Park Theatre announce their first six openings for 2025, including dark comedy and drama, venue favourite companies and artists, and a show where the audience decides the outcome.
Ivo Graham will be returning to Park90 with a full run of his theatre show Carousel: A Theatre Show by Ivo Graham (14 – 25 Jan) following previews in 2024 and a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Ivo steps away from the frivolity of his stand-up and invites audiences onto his own carousel: around and around, backwards and forwards, to the places he aches to go again.
The first opening for Park200 will be a six-week run of The Gift (22 Jan – 1 Mar), a comedy that unashamedly dives into the murky waters of past transgressions and modern-day vengeance, all-the-while fully prepared to get low down and dirty in the process. When Colin receives an anonymous package, he immediately finds himself battling all-new levels of existential angst. Who would send him such a thing – and why? His instinctive response is to trawl through his entire life – turning everything over – convinced that he can channel Poirot and unmask the offending sender. But it isn’t long before Colin’s list of possible suspects has gotten way out of control and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to smoke the culprit out.
Using Sophocles’ tragedy to examine media influence on fate, Antigone [on strike] (30 Jan – 22 Feb) is inspired by the real stories of the young women who became the so called ‘ISIS Brides’. Set in an interactive media studio where audiences vote and affect the story’s direction, the play follows Antiya, who launches a hunger strike to bring her sister Esmeh home. Esmeh’s been stranded in a refugee camp after she ran away from her East London home at the age of 14 to join the Islamic State in Syria; now she’s the centre of a media frenzy. Developed through student workshops in East London, this immersive theatre piece looks at the effect of behaviour-predicting technologies on freedom of choice and democracy.
One of France’s most successful and long-running plays, and a winner of four Molière Awards, Farewell Mr Haffmann (6 Mar – 12 Apr) makes its London premiere following a critically acclaimed debut at Theatre Royal Bath. Set in 1942 in Nazi-occupied Paris, Jewish jeweller Joseph Haffmann faces imminent danger as Jews are being rounded up across the city for deportation. Desperate, Joseph turns to his trusted employee Pierre Vigneau for help and makes a risky and unconventional deal, with an unexpected condition: In return for hiding him from the Nazis, Pierre requests that Joseph enter into a particular arrangement with his wife, Isabelle. Blending dark humour and suspense, against the background of unprecedented times, this play shines a light on human resilience in the face of impossible choices.
Scott Le Crass (Rose, Park Theatre and West End) directs Jab (2 – 26 Apr), which ran in 2024 at Finborough Theatre. Inspired by true events, it follows NHS worker Anne and her lazy, sexist husband Don, who have been together twenty-nine years when COVID plunges the country into lockdown, forcing them to isolate together. As the world falls apart outside, Anne and Don’s marriage slowly falls apart inside. Jab is a black comedy drama exploring power, gender, domestic violence, conspiracy theories, ignorance, and the limits of love.
Finally, How to Fight Loneliness (16 Apr – 24 May) is from the producers of Park Theatre hits Clybourne Park and The Shape of Things, a UK premiere of a new Neil LaBute play directed by Lisa Spirling. In a house in the suburbs, with a nice car, and fully stocked bar, Jodie and Brad are a couple faced with a devastating crisis, and must enlist the help of a mysterious acquaintance from Jodie’s past. The show takes an unflinching look at how we navigate our lives when time is running out.
Artistic Director Jez Bond said, “There’s something for everyone in this next season of work across our two spaces. With a slate that includes a world premiere, a UK premiere, a London premiere and a revival we continue to bring exciting works to the stage and – with the emphasis, as ever, on accessible stories well told – we expect there’s something for all palates, including the comedy fans. We look forward to welcoming audiences new and old in 2025.”
Full listings and ticket information can be found here
