Olivier Award winner Howard Davies will direct the world premiere of a new play written by actor Rory Kinnear as part of the Bush theatre’s new season.
Other highlights in the season include the world premiere of Josephine And I, a play by another of the UK’s talented young actors Cush Jumbo, Nadia Fall’s production of Ayad Akhtar’s acclaimed play Disgraced and the return of HighTide Festival Theatre.
Directed by emerging director Fall, Disgraced will kick off the season from 17 May (press night 22 May) to 15 June. Set in modern day New York, Akhtar’s play, which is already a stateside hit, tells the story of a corporate lawyer whose content life is thrown into turmoil when he hosts an intimate dinner party with his wife at their Upper East Side apartment.
Following Fall’s Bush directorial debut, Josephine And I will play from 12 July (press night 17 July) to 10 August. Written by Jumbo, who is currently starring in Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female production of Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse, Josephine And I interweaves the tale of a girl striving to find her place in the world with that of American-born actress and international icon Josephine Baker, from the Ragtime rhythms of St Louis to a quiet day in modern day London.
From 13 September (press night 18 September) to 12 October, Davies will direct Kinnear’s debut play The Herd, which centres on a young man’s 21st birthday and takes a heartfelt look at a family falling apart and pulling together when life doesn’t quite turn out the way they had imagined.
Associate Director of the National Theatre, Davies last worked with Kinnear when the actor appeared in his production of The Last Of The Haussmans at the Southbank venue last year starring alongside Julie Walters and Helen McCrory. The Skyfall actor, who has now turned his hand to writing, will see his play performed at the Bush theatre following his performance as Iago in the National Theatre’s forthcoming production of Shakespeare’s Othello.
HighTide Festival Theatre will return to the Shepherd’s Bush venue from 29 May (press night 30 May) to 8 June with the European premiere of Australian playwright Declan Greene’s Moth, which will play in the theatre’s Attic space in keeping with the company’s aim to explore the potential of the new building.
Directed by writer, actor and director Prasanna Puwanarajah, whose debut play Nightwatchman was staged at the National Theatre in 2011, Moth tells the story of a comic-obsessed high school kid who, after falling out with his only friend, wakes up with a moth in a jar beside his bed and a calling to save the souls of humanity.
As part of the Bush theatre’s new season, Artistic Director Madani Younis has also announced Omar El-Khairy as the venue’s new Leverhulme Associate Playwright, the return of the RADAR festival, the launch of a new scheme for students and under 26-year-olds Bush Connect, a second year of collaboration with Kudos and the creation of a formal partnership with IdeasTap, a company working with creative young people at the start of their careers.
The new season will open at the Bush theatre following Unlimited Theatre co-production Money The Game Show, which opens tonight, and Janice Okoh’s award-winning drama Three Birds from 22 March to 20 April.