Finborough Theatre Announces New Season

Artistic Director Neil McPherson has announced March-July season at the Finborough Theatre.

Neil McPherson says:

"Our new season continues our recent international focus with a play from Ukraine, a rediscovery from Canada, and two stunning new American plays. Online, #FinboroughFrontier continues its #VoicesFromUkraine series of free-to-view digital releases. Closer to home, we are especially excited to have discovered a new first-time British playwright with a script-in-hand performance of Saana Sze's ETPEP Award winning play. And even closer to home, our new interactive An Earl's Court Walking Tour will be available to download in May, accompanied by the re-release of our online film An Earl's Court Miscellanyfor one month.

Following our being named as London Pub Theatre of the Year 2022, we were honoured with five nominations and two awards at the 2023 OffWestEnd Awards. Both our wins were for last year's production of Bacon - Best Director (Plays) for Matthew Iliffe, and Best Lead Performance in a Play to both cast members - William Robinson and Corey Montague-Sholay.

Our new season opens with the return by popular demand of Pussycat In Memory Of Darkness by Neda Nezhdana, direct from its run in Kyiv where it became the first play to be performed in Ukraine by a foreign company since the Russian invasion. Its original production at the Finborough Theatre in August 2022 as part of Two Ukrainian Plays received huge press acclaim, and nominations for Best Lead Performance in A Play and Best New Play (one of three selected finalists) in the OffWestEnd Awards. Polly Creed directs.

On Saturday, 15 April, we present a script-in-hand performance of Belly of the Beast, the winner of the ETPEP Award 2022, by first time playwright Saana Sze. Black, non-binary and queer, YoungMartha and NowMartha are set against rigid systems which insist they conform. Belly of the Beast examines school politics, from the standpoint of both student and a teacher, as it asks "What are schools for?"

It is followed by the long-overdue European premiere of The Retreat by Jason Sherman, one of Canada's most acclaimed contemporary dramatists, who returns to the Finborough Theatre following his UK debut here with the critically acclaimed sell-out production of Patience in 2005. A fast-paced acerbic take on art, craft, money and power, it plays 25 April-13 May.

On 15 May, we will be launching An Earl's Court Walking Tour, an interactive guided walk around Earl's Court in music and verse, based on last year's film An Earl's Court Miscellany. The walking tour will be accompanied by a re-release of An Earl's Court Miscellany, devised and directed by Catherine Harvey with poetry performance group Rhyme & Reason and Roguegunners Productions, featuring poetry, prose and music celebrating the vivid history and personalities of our local area, all filmed around Earl's Court. An Earl's Court Walking Tour will be available indefinitely, and An Earl's Court Miscellany will be available free-to-to-view on our YouTube channel from 15 May-15 June 2023.

The season continues with the world premiere of A Brief List Of Everyone Who Died, playing 16 May-10 June, and reuniting the team behind the critically acclaimed 2019 production of Chemistry at the Finborough Theatre - playwright Jacob Marx Rice, and director Alex Howarth. Wickedly funny and deeply humane, A Brief List of Everyone Who Died tells the story of all the deaths that make up a life.

From 13 June-8 July, our season culminates with the world premiere of The Return of Benjamin Lay, a unique collaboration between playwright Naomi Wallace and historian Marcus Rediker, directed by Royal Shakespeare Company Honorary Associate Director Ron Daniels, and starring acclaimed American actor Mark Povinelli. Sweeping across centuries, it is a hallucinatory exploration of the true story of Benjamin Lay: shepherd, sailor, prophet, abolitionist, and dwarf.

Photo Credit: Charles Flint

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