Donmar Warehouse Announces Full Schedule, Updates for 2015 Fall Season

Artistic Director Josie Rourke said: One of the things that most excites me about this season is the strong leading roles for women. It is a thrill to announce a season of work that features, in plays by living writers, women of the calibre and power of Zawe Ashton, Sinéad Cusack, Michelle Dockery, Michelle Fairley, Genevive O'Reilly and Janet McTeer, who returns to the Donmar and the London stage. This, combined with the transfer of Phyllida Lloyd's second instalment in her trilogy of all-female Shakespeares to New York shows a programme of work in deep conversation with the lives of women and their status as actors on our stage. We continue our commitment to bringing topical and searing new plays to the Donmar with the British premiere of Christopher Shinn's Teddy Ferrara. I am particularly delighted that Dominic Cooke is returning to theatre and to his long-standing collaboration with Christopher Shinn to direct this production. On a personal note, I have long wanted to direct Christopher Hampton's superb Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and the cast we have drawn together is a testament to the brilliance of his play. As well as welcoming Janet McTeer back to the Donmar, I am thrilled that Dominic West will return to our stage in this production.

We're delighted to announce that Phyllida Lloyd will be joining the Donmar as an Associate Director and playwright James Graham will join as an Associate Artist. Phyllida's trilogy of all-female Shakespeare productions, and James Graham's innovations in popular political playwriting, Privacy and The Vote have been defining moments on our stage over the past two years. We are thrilled that these major artists have agreed to join the artistic team.

Director Phyllida Lloyd said: I've been associated with the Donmar for twenty years and the place has never felt more alive. I'm thrilled to be invited by Josie and Kate to formalise my relationship and to be part of something that looks beyond just the next production to a wider and more dynamic social mission.

Writer James Graham said: I'm so honoured and excited to ?become? an Associate Artist of the Donmar. The last year working with Josie on ambitious pieces of political entertainment, from Privacy to The Vote, has been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. I can't wait to continue this process of finding new forms and new audiences for political theatre with this incredible team of people.

The opening play in the Donmar's 2015 Autumn Season will be the first major London run of Splendour by Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning writer Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady, Shame). It will be directed by Donmar Associate Director Robert Hastie, fresh from his Olivier Award-nominated production of My Night with Reg.The production will feature Zawe Ashton, Sinéad Cusack, Michelle Fairley and Genevieve O'Reilly.

Dominic Cooke will then direct his first theatre production since leaving the Royal Court in 2013, with the UK premiere of Teddy Ferrara, Christopher Shinn's story of a student tragedy sending a campus into turmoil, featuring Nancy Crane, Oliver Johnstone, Kadiff Kirwan, Ryan McParland, Matthew Marsh, Anjli Mohindra, Luke Newberry, Pamela Nomvete and Nathan Wiley.

The final production of the Donmar season will be Artistic Director Josie Rourke's production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton. The production will star Michelle Dockery, Janet McTeer and Dominic West in this stage adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' 1782 novel.

Beyond the Donmar Warehouse, the venue will reunite with St. Ann's Warehouse in New York this autumn to transfer Phyllida Lloyd's revelatory staging of Henry IV, with an all-female cast led by Harriet Walter, which will be the opening production in St. Ann's thrilling new space. After a previous transfer of Phyllida Lloyd'sJulius Caesar in 2013, Henry IV is the second production in a trilogy of Shakespeare productions set in a female prison, igniting conversations about gender, equality and who owns Shakespeare.

Executive Producer Kate Pakenham said: It is fantastically exciting to be once again working with the team at St. Ann's Warehouse to bring the second instalment of Phyllida's all-female Shakespeare trilogy,Henry IV, to New York audiences. We were overwhelmed by the response to the first instalment, Julius Caesar, which sparked important new conversations on both sides of the Atlantic and found such a warm welcome and perfect home at St. Ann's in 2013. During that visit, we were delighted to be part of the ground-breaking ceremony for the new building, so to have been invited to present the inaugural production in St. Ann's dynamic new Brooklyn space is a huge honour. We look forward to extending the important education and outreach work around the production during our residency in Brooklyn, and are hugely grateful to the partners who are making this project possible, especially J.P. Morgan and the Tow Foundation.

Donmar live in cinemas will continue with National Theatre Live Encore screenings of Coriolanus, directed by Josie Rourke and featuring an Evening Standard Award-winning performance by Tom Hiddleston. Coriolanus will be screened in cinemas around the UK from 24 September 2015, and internationally from 12 November 2015.

CURRENT SEASON

Currently at the Donmar Warehouse is Steve Waters' new play Temple, a fictionalised account of the events that took place during the 2011 Occupy demonstration outside St Paul's Cathedral. Starring Simon Russell Beale and directed by Howard Davies, Temple is set in the heart of a very British crisis - a crisis of conscience, a crisis of authority and a crisis of faith.

The Donmar will continue to offer £10 tickets through Barclays Front Row, available at 10am every Mondayfor performances two weeks later. Since the launch of the scheme in November 2012, over 34,000 Barclays Front Row tickets have been sold, with over 70% of Barclays Front Row customers being first-time visitors to the Donmar.

To post a comment, you must register and login.