The new play by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams will be set to be the first production to open at the National Theatre.

The National Theatre has announced plans to reopen its doors for the first time since lockdown in late October with a new play by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams.

Titled Death of England: Delroy, the new solo play is set to star Giles Terera (Hamilton, Rosmersholm) and is a follow up to Dyer and Williams’ play Death of England, which ran earlier this year in the venue’s Dorfman space and was performed by Rafe Spall.

While running dates and ticket details have yet to be announced, it was commissioned by the National Theatre’s new work department at the start of lockdown. Death of England: Delroy follows the story of a Black working-class man arrested on his way to hospital.

Dyer and Williams said: “There’s a moment in Death of England at his father’s funeral where Michael tells Delroy, ‘you may act like us and talk like us, but you will never be one of us’. In telling Delroy’s story, we hope to take audiences on an illuminating journey into the Black British psyche and realities of a ‘tolerant’ England in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.”

The play will have set and costume design by Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey and ULTZ, with lighting design by Jackie Shemesh and sound design by Pete Malkin and Ben Grant.

Talking about the news, Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre said: “This week Death of England: Delroy will have its first workshop as we finally, carefully open the doors of the theatre to artists and put in place plans to start live performance again this autumn. Clint Dyer and Roy Williams have delivered another explosive piece of work; set during lockdown and charting its own fearless and provocative course through the same subjects as its prequel, and a very English reflection of the Black Lives Matter movement.”

Safety measures for audiences attending a performance have yet to be announced.