Hampstead Theatre has announced the next productions for the Main Stage and Hampstead Downstairs.
THE HUMANS
By Stephen Karam Directed by Joe Mantello
30 August - 13 October
Press Night Thursday 6 September 7pm 'The Best Play of The Year. The Humans. The Humans. The Humans.' --The New York Times
Hampstead Theatre is proud to present the Broadway production of The Humans by Stephen Karam, the winner of four 2016 Tony Awards including Best Play, Best Featured Actor in a Play, Best Featured Actress in a Play and Best Scenic Design in a Play. This highly anticipated UK premiere follows the play's extraordinary Broadway success and includes the complete award-winning New York cast.
Stephen Karam's blisteringly funny and deeply chilling drama is a stunning portrayal of the human condition; a family at its best and worst navigating the challenges of everyday life.
Three generations of the Blake family have assembled for Thanksgiving in Brigid and Richard's ramshackle pre-war apartment in Lower Manhattan. Whilst the event may have a slightly improvised air, the family is determined to make the best of its time together. As they attempt to focus on the traditional festivities, fears of the past and pressures of the future seep into the reunion and the precariousness of their position becomes increasingly evident.
Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell reprise their Tony Award winning performances alongside the full Broadway cast, which includes Cassie Beck, Lauren Klein, Arian Moayed and Sarah Steele.
The Company are appearing with the permission of UK Equity, incorporating the Variety Artistes' Federation, pursuant to an exchange program between American Equity and UK Equity.
I AND YOU By Lauren Gunderson Directed by Edward Hall
18 October - 24 November Press Night Thursday 25 October 7pm
'Did my mother set this up? She would totally do this - make something up just to make me feel involved. I have a life, ok: I text. A lot.'
Hampstead Theatre presents the UK premiere of Lauren Gunderson's I and You, which was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams will make her stage debut as Caroline and be directed by Artistic Director Edward Hall in this play about friendship, adolescent innocence and living life to the full.
Housebound because of illness, Caroline hasn't been to school in months. Confined to her room, she has only Instagram and Facebook for company. That is until classmate Anthony bursts in - uninvited and armed with waffle fries, a scruffy copy of Walt Whitman's poetry and a school project due in the next day... Caroline is unimpressed all round.
But an unlikely friendship develops and a seemingly mundane piece of homework starts to reveal the pair's hopes and dreams - as well as a deep and mysterious bond that connects them even further.
Hampstead Downstairs / Celia Atkin present
EVERY DAY I MAKE GREATNESS HAPPEN
By Richard Molloy Directed by Alice Hamilton 13 September - 20 October
Press Night 26 September 7.45pm
'For the next six weeks, we meet here, in this room. Unless you are hospitalised, or deceased, or suffering some kind of catastrophic physical or emotional trauma, you need to be here'
Hampstead Theatre presents Richard Molloy's Every Day I Make Greatness Happen, winner of the Nick Darke Award 2017. Directed by Alice Hamilton, this play is a searingly witty exploration of a struggling system and the people inside it, on both sides of the desk, trying to make things work.
It's back to school with a bang for Alisha, Iman and Kareem - they all failed GCSE English and there are only six weeks until their resits. This is their last chance to continue Sixth Form, failure is not an option. It's down to Miss Murphy to see the trio through. But collectively, the students are unruly, she's already snowed under with her other classes and the school is literally falling apart. Can she deliver when there's just as much drama in the staffroom as there is in the classroom?
Richard Molloy's Every Day I Make Greatness Happen won the Nick Darke Award 2017. His playwriting credits include The Separation (Project Arts Centre in Dublin/ Theatre503 - nominated for an Off West End Theatre Award for 'Best New Play') and O Do Not Love Too Long (Irish Theatre of Chicago at their New Irish Voices festival - winner of the New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest 2017 and shortlisted for the Liverpool Hope Playwriting Prize 2015 and the Kings Cross Award 2016). The opening scenes Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart, were performed at Flux Theatre's Emerge 2 showcase at the Tristan Bates Theatre in the West End July 2017.
Alice Hamilton is the co- Artistic Director with writer Barney Norris of Up In Arms Theatre Company. Her directing credits for the company include The March On Russia (Orange Tree Theatre); German Skerries (Orange Tree Theatre); Visitors (Arcola/ Bush / UK Tour); Eventide (Arcola / UK Tour); and While We're Here (Bush Theatre). Other theatre includes Echo's End (Salisbury Playhouse); Thirty Christmases (Supporting Wall); Anything That Flies (Jermyn Street); Orca and Orson's Shadow (both Southwark Playhouse). She has been a staff director at the National Theatre, and has led development and dramaturgical projects at the Royal Court, the National Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse and High Tide.
Hampstead Downstairs / Celia Atkin present
THE HOES By Ifeyinwa Frederick
26 October - 1 December
Press Night 8 November 7.45pm
'Once you're a woman doing as she pleases with her body, in someone's eyes you qualify for hoe status'
Hampstead Theatre presents the world premiere of Ifeyinwa Frederick's debut play The Hoes, a riotous celebration of sisterhood, showing that while life may throw up unexpected turbulence, friendships will last the course.
Bim, Alex and J have been best friends since school. Loud, funny, inseparable - they are the epitome of girls who just want to have fun. But now they're 25, life is starting to get in the way. Careers, relationships, expectations...What better way to escape than a trip to Ibiza for a week of sun, sea and selfies?
But there's trouble in paradise when reality catches up with them, threatening to derail their holiday as they are forced to accept no amount of partying will let them escape themselves...
The Hoes is Ifeyinwa Frederick's first full-length play and was long listed for the 2017 Verity Bargate Award and shortlisted for The Tony Craze Award and Character 7 Award. Ifeyinwa is a writer and entrepreneur, writing alongside her full-time job as co-founder of the world's first Nigerian tapas restaurant. Ifeyinwa began writing in 2016, joining Soho Theatre Writers' Lab.
Hampstead Downstairs / Celia Atkin present
PARADISE
By Dusty Hughes 7 December - 19 January
Press Night 7 January 7.45pm
'Live every day like your last, and garden as if you're going to live forever'
Hampstead Theatre presents the world premiere of Dusty Hughes' new comedy Paradise, which looks at the cost of growing old and the joys of ageing disgracefully.
Elite Homes: offering the Platinum Package in luxury retirement living. Old friends Roddy Meakin and Amanda Goose are enjoying their twilight years on their own terms - outrageous pranks and clandestine gins in the garden, adult magazines at the dinner table and a healthy disregard for the other residents. All is idyllic - until, that is, new management is brought in to restore order...
Dusty Hughes returns to Hampstead Theatre following Bad Language in 1983. He was Theatre Editor of Time Out and helped to establish that magazine's theatre coverage as an alternative voice. He then joined the Bush Theatre as Artistic Director. In 1980 his first play "Commitments" won him the London Theatre Critics Most Promising Playwright Award. His subsequent plays have been seen at the National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and London, The Royal Court, Hampstead Theatre, The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, The Bush, the Donmar and in the West End as well as in Europe and America. He has worked extensively in television. He was joint winner of the Writer's Guild Award for Best Drama Series for Between The Lines and created The Brief for ITV as well as adapting Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent for BBC1. He has also written for many other series including Silent Witness and Lewis and most recently the BBC's The Musketeers (2015).
Priority Booking is now open for Hampstead Friends and Patrons. Public Booking opens Friday 6 July 10.30am.
Under 30? Join The Downstairs Club, our free membership scheme which allows under 30s to access all Hampstead Priority Booking periods for free, allowing young people the change to purchase the more cost effective seats. Email thedownstairsclub@hampsteadtheatre.com with your full name and date of birth to register.
Further casting to be announced in due course.
Videos