THE AMERICAN PLAN, 4000 MILES and FIFTY WORDS Headline Ustinov Studio at Theatre Royal Bath's 2013 Season

For Spring 2013 the Ustinov Studio presents an American Season, its anticipated fourth season of new commissions and UK premieres, running from Thursday 7th March – Saturday 15th June 2013. Previous seasons have been critically acclaimed, with In the Next Room winning Best New Play at the Theatre Awards UK 2012 and the adventurous policy of the Ustinov, for its serious and innovative undertaking of producing new plays by important writers, recognised by a nomination for the 2012 Empty Space…Peter Brook Award.

The season opens with Richard Greenberg's The American Plan, a tangle of ravaged dreams, broken souls, twisted motives and deceit, taking place against the backdrop of the Catskill Mountains during a 1960s summer. The second play, 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog, won The 2012 Obie Award for Best New Play and depicts the quirky relationship between a grandmother and her grandson. Michael Weller's Fifty Words concludes the season with a bang, depicting a turbulent turn of events for one husband and wife, directed by the Ustinov's Artistic Director Laurence Boswell.

The American Plan by Richard Greenberg (2009)
Thursday 7th March – Saturday 6th April
Directed by David Grindley

Lili Adler, the beautiful, fragile daughter of a wealthy German-Jewish refugee, meets Nick Lockridge, a handsome young stranger, and falls in love. But when her overbearing mother learns of their relationship, she proceeds to poison the young man's affection and Lili's one chance to escape her mother's control looks like being lost forever.

This will be the UK Premiere of this brutally funny, heart-rending tale of love and loss which premiered in the States in 1990 and was revived on Broadway in 2009, also directed by David Grindley.

Richard Greenberg is an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He is perhaps best known for his 2003 Tony Award winning play, Take Me Out and for Three Days of Rain, which enjoyed an acclaimed West End run in 2009.

Director David Grindley's numerous other credits include Journey's End and Our Boys in the West End and The Philanthropist, starring Matthew Broderick on Broadway.

Design by Jonathan Fensom, Lighting Design by Jason Taylor; Sound Design by Gregory Clarke

Press Night: Thursday 14 March, 7pm

4000 Miles by Amy Herzog (2009)
Thursday 11th April – Saturday 11th May
Directed by James Dacre
WINNER of The 2012 Obie Award for Best New Play

It's the middle of the night when 21 year-old Leo arrives on the doorstep of the West Village apartment where his feisty 91 year-old grandmother Vera lives. She's an old communist who lives alone, he's a belated hippie, recently returned from a cross-country bike trip which ended traumatically. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately connect. When Leo's old girlfriend shows up and he begins to reveal the mysterious events of his journey, Leo and Vera discover the narrow line between growing up and growing old.

Peopled with nuanced, beautifully-drawn characters, Amy Herzog's award-winning play has established her as a remarkable new talent.

4000 Miles was the recipient of two 2012 OBIE Awards, including Best New American Play. It had its 2011 world premiere at New York's Lincoln Center Theater, playing to sold-out houses and receiving staggering accolades from critics. This will be its UK Premiere.

Amy Herzog's work includes After the Revolution, named one of the ten best plays of 2010-2011 in the Annual Best Plays Theater Yearbook, and Belleville. Her new work, The Great God Pan, has just opened off-Broadway.

Design by Simon Kenny, Lighting Design by Richard Howell

Press Night: Thursday 18 April, 7pm

Fifty Words by Michael Weller (2008)
Thursday 16th May – Saturday 15th June
Directed by Laurence Boswell

Adam is a successful New York architect. His wife, Jan is preparing to start an online company. Their nine year-old son is away at a sleepover. This will be the first evening they've had alone in years. But what starts as a chance for seduction, triggers a savage rollercoaster of revelations and recriminations.

Acrimony, passion and humour combine in this exploration of a marriage during the course of one pivotal night, as it teeters on the verge of either breakup or deepening love and understanding.

Academy Award-nominee Michael Weller is an acclaimed writer for both stage and screen whose work includes Moonchildren, Spoils of War, Loose Ends and Beast on stage and the films Hair and Ragtime (for Milos Forman) and Lost Angels (for Hugh Hudson). With resonances of Long Day's Journey Into Night and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this bruising deconstruction of an unravelling 21st century marriage is brutal, graphic and compelling.

Fifty Words originally opened off Broadway in 2008 and was nominated for several Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play. The show later transferred to the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Broadway where it had a sell out run. Contains scenes of an adult nature.

Design by Simon Kenny; Lighting Design by Richard Howell

Press Night: Thursday 23rd May, 7pm

Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath is located in Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET. Tickets are £19.50 / £14.50. Discounts; Preview Performances and Mondays: All seats £10. Box Office: 01225 448844/www.theatreroyal.org.uk/ustinov.

Post Show Discussions

The American Plan Thursday 21st March (After evening performance)
4000 Miles Thursday 25th April (After evening performance)
Fifty Words Thursday 30th May (After evening performance)

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