Nick Hern Books Will Publish NICE FISH Alongside Mark Rylance-Starring UK Premiere

Leading theatre publisher Nick Hern Books (NHB) has acquired the rights to publish Nice Fish, the new play by multi-award-winning actor Mark Rylance and acclaimed prose poet Louis Jenkins, alongside its UK premiere in November.

Mark Rylance is one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. On stage he has played many of the great Shakespearean roles, both for the Royal Shakespeare Company and as actor-manager of Shakespeare's Globe, and has won numerous awards for roles in London and on Broadway - most famously in Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem, also published by NHB, in which he created the role of Johnny 'Rooster' Byron. In 2016 alone he won the BAFTA Award for Leading Actor for his portrayal of Thomas Cromwell in the BBC series Wolf Hall, and a BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies.

In Nice Fish, Mark Rylance draws on his own teenage years in the American Midwest, in a unique collaboration with critically acclaimed Minnesotan contemporary prose poet Louis Jenkins and the whole company. It transfers from a sell-out run in New York to the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by Claire van Kampen and starring Rylance and Jim Lichtscheidl.

Nice Fish marks the second play by Mark Rylance to be published by NHB, following the publication of his comedy I Am Shakespeare, a witty exploration of the Shakespeare authorship debate, in 2012. NHB has acquired publication rights in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand from Grove Atlantic, Inc., who will publish elsewhere in 2017.

The producers of Nice Fish have previously announced that audience members who come to the Harold Pinter Theatre dressed as a fish or fisherman will be given complimentary tickets to the show, on a first-come-first-served basis. The publishers would like to point out that unfortunately, turning up to a bookshop similarly attired will not necessarily guarantee you a free copy of the playscript. Readers are, however, very welcome to try.