Phyllida Lloyd will direct Cush Jumbo’s debut play Josephine And I, which opens at the Bush theatre this summer.
Playing from 12 July to 10 August, the tale of a girl striving to find her place in the world will reunite Lloyd, whose directing credits include hit film The Iron Lady and West End musical Mamma Mia!, with the actress-turned-playwright who starred in her all-female production of Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse earlier this year.
Not the only play in the Bush’s season to be written by one of the UK’s talented performers, Josephine And I will be followed into the venue by Rory Kinnear’s The Herd, which has announced a two-week extension to its run and will now play from 13 September to 26 October. Directed by Howard Davies, The Herd takes a witty and heartfelt look at a family falling apart and pulling together when life doesn’t go the way it should.
Also extending its run by an additional week is Nadia Fall’s production of Disgraced. Playing from 17 May to 22 June, Ayad Akhtar’s play 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.
Disgraced will kick off the Bush theatre’s new season, which also features the European premiere of Australian playwright Declan Greene’s Moth, following Janice Okoh’s award-winning drama Three Birds, which plays from 19 March to 20 April.