Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse Josie Rourke has today announced details of the theatre’s 2016 Spring season.
The season will include three plays by Anthony Weigh, Nick Payne and Brian Friel, all of which will run at the Donmar Warehouse between February and August 2016. Public booking for the new season will open on the 11th December.
Josie Rourke said of the new season: “The Donmar Spring Season features two world premieres by leading writers, and the third play in my tenure as Artistic Director by dramatist Brian Friel, ‘Faith Healer’, directed by Lyndsey Turner. Alongside Lyndsey, I’m thrilled to welcome another of the UK’s leading directors – Blanche McIntyre, who is making her Donmar debut.”
This new season will open with a new version of Jean Anouilh’s 1937 play Le Voyageur Sans Bagage, written by Anthony Weigh. Welcome Home, Captain Fox! is set in the summer of 1959, while the Cold War rages. Captain Jack Fox is believed missing but is about to be reunited with his family – is it really him?
The production will be directed by Blanche McIntyre, who is making her Donmar debut with this production. Running at the theatre from the 18th February to the 16th April 2016, the cast will include: Francesca Annis, Michelle Asante, Barnaby Kay, Rory Keenan, Katherine Kingsley, Trevor Laird and Fenella Woolgar.
Meanwhile, the Donmar Warehouse will be presenting the world premiere of a brand new play by Nick Payne at the theatre from the 21st April until the 18th June. Elegy asks what would happen if every act of human behaviour could be wholly understood and catalogued? Told through the lives of three women who have made the choice between love and survival, the play explores a world in which the brain isn’t a mystery to us.
The play will be directed by Josie Rourke and will feature designs by Tom Scutt.
The final play to be announced today is a revival of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer. Running at the theatre from 23rd June to the 20th August, the play tells the story of Frank Hardy, who offers the promise of redemption to the sick and suffering. But this is an unreliable gift that brings him into conflict with his wife Grace and manager Teddy as they attempt to understand his power.
This production will mark a return to the Donmar Theatre for director Lyndsey Turner (Philadelphia, Here I Come! and Fathers and Sons) and will star Stephen Dillane and Gina McKee.
The Autumn season at the theatre continues with Dominic Cooke’s production of Teddy Ferrara until the 5th December. While Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses directed by Josie Rourke, starring Elaine Cassidy, Janet McTeer and Dominic West starts previews on 11 December. The production will be broadcast live in cinemas, in partnership with National Theatre Live, on 28 January 2016.