Four new shows from four playwrights new to the National Theatre are to take to a transformed Cottesloe theatre this summer.
New pieces by Sam Holcroft, Tom Basden, DC Moore and Prasanna Puwanarajah will be performed as two double bills from 8 July until 30 August.
Holcroft’s Edgar And Annabel features freedom fighters, a police state in crisis and a young married couple, while Moore’s The Swan follows a family preparing for a wake in a South London pub. Puwanarajah’s Nightwatchman challenges ideas of politics, sport and national pride through the tale of a female cricketer preparing to make her England debut, and Basden’s black comedy There Is A War is a tale set in a land ravaged by an ever-raging civil war.
The quartet of National Theatre newcomers have a range of experience behind them. Moore has already found success at the Royal Court theatre, where his plays Alaska and The Empire have been staged, the latter receiving an Olivier Award nomination. Holcroft has written pieces that have featured as part of the Charged season at Soho theatre and the Women, Power And Politics season at the Tricycle theatre. Comedian Basden’s Joseph K was staged at the Gate theatre, while Puwanarajah is best known as an actor, having appeared in the National Theatre productions of Hamlet, London Assurance and the upcoming Emperor And Galilean.
The four pieces are directed by Polly Findlay, who recently directed Twisted Tales at the Lyric Hammersmith, and Lyndsey Turner, the Associate Director at both Sheffield Theatres and the Gate theatre.
Double Feature, which boasts a cast including Pippa Bennett-Warner, Karina Fernandez, Trystan Gravelle, Nitin Kundra and Stephanie Street, follows current Cottesloe productions The Holy Rosenbergs and London Road.
MA