Gate Theatre Sets New Season

Artistic Director Christopher Haydon today announces the Gate Theatre's new season Nuclear: A Season about the Family. The season opens with the world première of Nina Segal's In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises), followed by the world première of The Iphigenia Quartet which includes Agamemnon by Caroline Bird, Iphigenia by Suhayla El-Bushra, Clytemnestra by Lulu Raczka and Chorus by Chris Thorpe.

Haydon also today announces the full cast for their upcoming production of Medea by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks. Medea is part of the Gate's current season Icons and Idols and is presented in association with Belvoir, Sydney. Medea will be played by Emma Beattie with the role of Leon alternated by Keir Edkins-O'Brien and Bili Keogh and Jasper alternated by Samuel Menhinick and Bobby Smalldridge. Medea opens on 9 November, with previews from 2 November, and runs until 28 November.

Artistic Director Christopher Haydon said today, "The family can be a place of security but it can also be the epicentre of catastrophe. In Nuclear - A Season about the Family we will take a look at how domestic detonations in this fundamental unit can have profound effects on our society as a whole.

Nina Segal's In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises), directed by Ben Kidd, is a hallucinatory look at one couple's experience of having their first baby. Over the course of one night, mum and dad try to calm their screaming infant - but as the hours grow longer, the world becomes elastic around them and the horrors that scar our planet crash in to the baby's room. Should they ever have brought this child into such a wounded world?

We follow this with the Gate's most ambitious commissioning project to date: The Iphigenia Quartet. We invited four of the UK's most exciting and radical playwrights - Caroline Bird, Suhayla El-Bushra, Lulu Raczka, and Chris Thorpe - to write short, explosive responses to the classical tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis. In Euripides' original play, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, in order that the gods will raise the winds to get his fleet of ships to Troy - for the war that will rescue Helen. But his deceit of his wife Clytemnestra and the killing of his child, end up tearing him and everything around him to pieces. Each writer has reimagined this story from the differing perspectives of the key characters in the play: Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia and the Chorus, performed in a pair of double bills across consecutive nights."

Gate Theatre presents

World Première

In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises)

By Nina Segal

Directed by: Ben Kidd

4 February - 27 February

Press night: 8 February at 7pm

A baby cries. A bottle breaks. A window smashes.

Over the course of one night, mum and dad try to still their screaming infant - but as the hours grow longer, the world becomes elastic around them, and the horrors that scar our planet crash in to the baby's room. Should they ever have brought this child into such a wounded world?

The world première of Nina Segal's In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises) takes a hallucinatory look at one couple's experience of having their first baby.

Nina Segal plays include Big Guns and Fin (shortlisted for the Adrian Pagan Award, 2015). Other works include Escape Velocity (BYE BYE BYE); Hundred Year Space Trip and T.B.A.

Ben Kidd directs. His credits include Chekhov's First Play (Dead Centre / Dublin Theatre Festival), Spring Awakening (Headlong), LIPPY (Dead Centre / Traverse / Young Vic), The Collision of Things (Pleasance), The Shawl (Young Vic), Souvenir (Dead Centre / Dublin Fringe), Anne and Zef (Company of Angels / Salisbury Playhouse) and Richard III (Riverside Studios). He is co-founder and joint Artistic Director of Dead Centre, based between Dublin and London. He is also an associate artist with Company of Angels, and was winner of their Young Angels award. He was the inaugural winner of the Genesis Future Director Award at the Young Vic in 2012.

Gate Theatre presents

World Première

The Iphigenia Quartet

Agamemnon by Caroline Bird

Iphigenia by Suhayla El-Bushra

Clytemnestra by Lulu Raczka

Chorus by Chris Thorpe

23 April - 21 May

Press night: 3 May at 7pm

Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter, Clytemnestra must try to stop him, Iphigenia must accept her fate, the Chorus must watch.

Ships lie dormant in harbours, and thousands of troops sit on the shore, growing restless and unruly. Helen is gone, and pursuit of her has been stalled by windless seas. To raise the winds to send his fleet to Troy, Agamemnon is commanded by the gods to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia. But his deceit of his wife, Clytemnestra and the killing of his child, will end up tearing him and everything around him to pieces.

Euripides' story of a father moved to murder his daughter, Iphigenia at Aulis, is one that has been reinvented and retold anew throughout history. The Iphigenia Quartet sees four of the UK's most exciting and radical playwrights - Caroline Bird, Suhayla El-Bushra, Lulu Raczka, and Chris Thorpe - create explosive responses to this classical tragedy. Each play is a reimagining this story of familial catastrophe from the differing perspectives of the key characters in the play: Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia and the Chorus.

Caroline Bird is currently writing the new stage version of The Wizard of Oz which will be Northern Stage's Christmas production. She is currently under commission to the Old Vic, writing the book and lyrics for a musical version of Dennis the Menace. Her previous work for the Gate includes an adaptation of The Trojan Women. Her other credits include Sixty-Six Books, and Chamber Piece. Bird was one of ten finalists for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2014. She was shortlisted for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards in 2013 and for the Shell Woman of the Future Awards in 2011. She is also an award-winning poet.

Suhayla El-Bushra is a screenwriter and playwright. Her previous plays include Pigeons, Cuckoo at The Unicorn, The Kilburn Passion and Fingertips. Her adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide will be staged at the National Theatre in spring 2016. She is currently writer in residence at the NT Studio and is under commission from Out Of Joint. El Bushra was a core writer on TV soap Hollyoaks and has various film and television projects in development.

Lulu Raczka is an award-winning playwright. She is a Company Director of Barrel Organ Theatre. Her writing credits include NOTHING, Some People Talk about Violence. She is currently working on a piece for the Shakespeare in Shoreditch Festival.

Chris Thorpe is an Associate at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. His writing credits include There Has Possibly Been An Incident, Confirmation, The Oh Fuck Moment and I Wish I Was Lonely, Am I Dead Yet?, Your Best Guess. He is writing a new version of Beowulf for the Unicorn Theatre, and a new piece, Victory Condition for the Royal Court. He is also working on Truck for the Royal Exchange.

Artistic Director Christopher Haydon leads the team of directors. His work for the Gate includes The Christians (also Edinburgh Festival), The Edge of Our Bodies, Grounded (also Edinburgh Festival, Washington DC, Sweden and on UK tour), Purple Heart, The Trojan Women, The Prophet and Wittenberg. He was formerly an Associate Director at the Bush Theatre and with On Theatre. He studied at Cambridge University and trained at Central and the NT Studio. In 2007 he received both the inaugural Chichester Festival Theatre Heller Fellowship and the Channel Four Theatre Director's Bursary at the Salisbury Playhouse. Other credits include Twelve Angry Men (Birmingham Rep, West End and UK tour), Sixty Six Books, In The Beginning (Bush Theatre/ Westminster Abbey), A Safe Harbour for Elizabeth Bishop (Southbank Centre), Grace, Pressure Drop - starring Billy Bragg (On Theatre), Deep Cut (Sherman Cymru/National Tour), Monsters, Notes from Underground (Arcola Theatre), A Number (Salisbury Playhouse), The Stone (RWCMD). He recently directed a short film for the Guardian/Royal Court called Devil In The Detail. He has co-edited three books; Conversations on Religion, Conversations on Truth and Identity and Identification. Haydon has written for The Guardian, The Scotsman, The New Statesman, The FT, The Independent and Prospect Magazine.

Gate Theatre presents, in association with Belvoir, Sydney

UK Première

Medea

by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks

after Euripides

original concept by Anne-Louise Sarks

2 - 28 November

Press night: 9 November at 7pm

Director: Anne-Louise Sark; Assistant Director: Bella Loudon;

Lighting Designer: Joshua Pharo; Sound Designer: Adrienne Quartly

Two boys are playing a game.

They fight, they laugh, they jump up and down, they play dead.

Downstairs, their parents - Medea and Jason - are arguing. As the shouting gets louder, their bedroom will no longer be able to protect them from the violence of the outside world. Their iconic fate, at the hands of their mother, will ensure that they enter mythology as two of the most tragic siblings of all time.

The UK premiere of Medea is presented in association with Belvoir, Sydney and directed by Anne Louise-Sarks whose original production of the play was highly critically acclaimed. The production turns Euripides' classic tale on its head - presenting the tragedy from the children's perspective.

Medea was awarded five 2013 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction, Best Mainstage Production and Best New Australian Work. It was also awarded a prestigious Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Stage Play and nominated for four 2013 Helpmann Awards including Best Direction, Best New Australian Work and Best Play.

Emma Beattie plays Medea. He theatre credits include The Distance, The Ruffian on the Stair (Orange Tree Theatre), The Odyssey (Derby Playhouse), The Last of the Haussmans (National Theatre), Death of a Cyclist (Hotbed Festival - Soho Theatre), Four for Jericho (Pleasance Courtyard), Great Expectations (Watermill Theatre), The Song of Deborah (Lowry Theatre), The Potting Shed (Finborough Theatre), Ivanov (Donmar West End), John Gabriel Borkman, The Cut (Donmar Warehouse), and Hysteria (UK Tour). Her television credits includes Catastrophe, The Wives Did it and Mr Selfridge. Her film credits include Legacy.

Samuel Menhinick plays Jasper. His credits include Priscilla Queen of the Desert (UK Tour).

Bobby Smalldridge plays Jasper. His theatre credits include Oresteia (Almeida Theatre), God Bless The Child (Royal Court), Billy Elliot The Musical (Victoria Palace Theatre). For television his credits include Crossing Lines, Cockroaches, Harry and Paul's Story Of The Two's, Robbie Williams - One Night At The London Palladium, Topsy And Tim, Deadbeats and What Shall We Do Today?. His film credits include The Lost City Of Z, What We Did On Our Holiday and Foster.

Keir Edkins-O'Brien plays Leon. His theatre credits include Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), and Waiting for Godot (Barbican). For film his credits include Abduct.

Bili Keogh plays Leon. His film credits include The Lady in the Van.

Kate Mulvany is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her most recent play, Masquerade, a reimagining of the much-loved children's book by Kit Williams, was performed at the 2015 Sydney Festival and will be seen later this year at the State Theatre Company of South Australia as well as Melbourne Festival. Her autobiographical play The Seed, commissioned by Belvoir Street Theatre, won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production. With Mulvany performing in the play, it received great critical success and toured nationally and is currently being developed into a feature film. She also recently adapted Jasper Jones from Craig Silvey's novel, which premièred for Barking Gecko Theatre Company in 2014. In 2013 her play The Rasputin Affair was shortlisted for the Griffin New Play Award and for The Patrick White Award. Other plays and musicals include; The Danger Age (Deckchair Theatre and La Boîte), Blood and Bone (The Stables/Naked Theatre Company), The Web(Hothouse and Black Swan Theatre Company), Somewhere (co-written with Tim Minchin for the Joan Sutherland PAC) and Storytime (The Old Fitzroy Theatre) which won her the 2004 Philip Parsons Award.

Anne-Louise Sarks directs. She is the Resident Director at Belvoir in Sydney, Australia. In 2011, Sarks held the positions of Associate Artist for Belvoir, Director in Residence at the Malthouse Theatre Company in Melbourne and from 2010-2013 Artistic Director of The Hayloft Project. For Belvoir, Sarks co-wrote and directed Elektra/Orestes, A Christmas Carol andNora, as well as Medea. Sarks also directed Stories I Want To Tell You In Person. Sarks assistant directed on Belvoir productions The Wild Duck and Thyestes. Her other theatre credits include The Seed (Melbourne Theatre Company), The Nest and By Their Own Hand (The Hayloft Project).

Belvoir Sydney Since 1984 Belvoir's position as one of Australia's most innovative and acclaimed theatre companies has been determined by such landmark productions as The Glass Menagerie, Angels in America, The Wild Duck, The Diary of a Madman, The Blind Giant is Dancing, The Book of Everything , Cloudstreet, Keating!, Parramatta Girls, Exit the King, The Alchemist, Hamlet, Waiting for Godot, The Sapphires, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Stuff Happens and Medea. Belvoir engages Australia's most prominent and promising playwrights, directors, actors and designers to realise an annual season of work that is dynamic, challenging and visionary. As well as performing at home, Belvoir regularly takes to the road, touring both nationally and internationally, including 2014's production of Wild Duck (Barbican). Belvoir receives government support for its activities from the Federal Government through the Major Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council and the state government through Arts NSW.

Supporters

The Gate Theatre is supported by:

Jerwood Young Designers

Since 2001 Jerwood Young Designers has given outstanding individuals the opportunity to lead on the design of productions at the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill.

The support that the Jerwood Young Designers scheme provides in both nurturing talent and offering the opportunity of practical experience has been instrumental in launching the careers of some of the country's most exciting theatrical designers. By the end of the 2015/16 programme, Jerwood will have supported 76 placements on the Young Designers programme over the course of 14 years.

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