The production will play at the theatre from the 11th September.

Arcola Theatre, Atticist and Ellie Keel Productions have announced that the UK premiere of award-winning writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D’Amour’s play will take place at the Arcola Theatre in September.

The production is set to be directed by Jessica Lazar, whose theatre credits include Life According to Saki (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Fourth Street Theater, New York – winner of Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award 2016), Dangerous Giant Animals (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Park Theatre, London – winner of the SIT-Up Award 2018), East, For Reasons that Remain Unclear and Outlying Islands (King’s Head Theatre).

Precocious child Annabella lives in a deserted trailer park. Schooled by her eccentric mother Irene, she learns to co-exist with the vampires, werewolves and monsters which lurk in the world outside.

Desperate to ward off the new highway which threatens the demolition of their home, Annabella steps outside to build a girl out of mud. The girl comes to life. The girl is Anna Bella Eema.

Part ghost story, part fairytale, part coming-of-age fantasy, Anna Bella Eema is a dazzling burst of storytelling from the dark heart of American Gothic.

Lisa D’Amour is an award-winning US playwright. Her theatre credits include Detroit (National Theatre – which won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, was a finalist for both the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), and Airline Highway (Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago/Samuel J. Friedman Theater – receiving a 2015 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Play.)

Talking about the UK premiere she said: “I’m so thrilled to be returning to London to work with Atticist and the Arcola for work on my play Anna Bella Emma.  It’s quite a gift to have the chance to revisit an early work – in this case, the play that launched my professional career.  I am so moved by the open-hearted enthusiasm Atticist has for the original work, and grateful for the opportunity to look deeper into the play make some adjustments. I’m very interested in flow, change and evolution, in life and work. It’s wonderful to meet a company who shares these values.”

Anna Bella Eema will play at the Arcola Theatre from the 11th September until the 12th October.