News: 3 new plays for Hampstead Downstairs

Hampstead Theatre has announced three new plays for its Downstairs space for Spring 2023. The world premiere of Sea Creatures by Cordelia Lynn, directed by James Macdonald will run from 24 March to 29 April. A second world premiere, Biscuits for Breakfast by Gareth Farr, directed by Tessa Walker, will run from 5 May to 10 June. And, in a production presented by Original Theatre Company, Stumped, by Shomit Dutta, directed by Guy Unsworth, receives its stage premiere at Hampstead Downstairs from 16 June – 22 July. 

Sea Creatures is Cordelia Lynn’s first play at Hampstead Theatre. Set in a cottage by the sea, four women live in a house made for five. Meals are prepared, stories are shared and the tide breaks on the shore. When only one of their two guests arrive for the summer, it isn’t quite the reunion they were all hoping for. Cordelia Lynn is an award-winning playwright whose other work includes Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar Warehouse), Three Sisters (Almeida) and One for Sorrow (Royal Court). 

Gareth Farr’s new play Biscuits for Breakfast is a tender story of dreams and survival. Joanne and Paul aren’t an obvious match – she is spikey, defensive and a survivor, while he is quiet, considered and hiding profound grief for his father. The pleasure Paul takes in cooking – and the astonishing food he prepares – creates a bond between them. When the hotel where they both work closes and they start to spiral into poverty, it throws everything up in the air – first the dreams of a cookbook and a restaurant, and, eventually, even the dreams of a future together. Gareth Farr is an award-winning writer whose play Britannia Waves the Rules (Royal Exchange Manchester) won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2011. 

A game of cricket and two of the greatest playwrights are at the heart of Stumped – a brilliantly witty new play by Shomit Dutta. Before Samuel Beckett became the playwright universally known for Waiting for Godot, he was a cricketer. He is still the only Nobel prize-winner to feature in the pages of Wisden as a first-class player. His friend and fellow Nobel prize-winner, Harold Pinter, whose best-known works include The Birthday Party and Betrayal, described cricket as ‘the greatest thing that God created on earth’. Exploring what the friendship between these two playwrights may have looked like, Stumped, was first streamed online as a digital only production in 2022. Now, Dutta has extended it into a full-length play and its stage premiere at Hampstead Theatre coincides with the Ashes test match at Lord’s, a stone’s throw from the theatre.

Full creative teams and cast for all three plays will be announced in due course. 

Priority booking opens today, 12 January, and public booking opens on 19 January. hampsteadtheatre.com. Box Office: 020 7722 9301

Sea Creatures
By Cordelia Lynn
Directed by James Macdonald
24 March – 29 April 2023
Captioned performances: 19 April, 7.45pm; 20 April, 2.45pm

‘Where’s Robin?
Where’s Robin?
Where’s Robin?’  

In a cottage by the sea, four women live in a house made for five. Meals are prepared, stories are shared and the tide breaks on the shore. When only one of their two guests arrives for the summer, it isn’t quite the reunion they were all hoping for.

Sea Creatures is Cordelia Lynn’s first play at Hampstead Theatre. She is an award-winning playwright, librettist and dramaturg. Other work includes Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar Warehouse), Three Sisters (Almeida), One for Sorrow and Lela & Co. (Royal Court). James Macdonald was an Associate and Deputy Director at the Royal Court for 14 years, where he directed Cordelia Lynn’s One for Sorrow. His work for Hampstead includes Wild by Mike Bartlett in 2016 and The Arrest of Ai Weiwei by Howard Brenton in 2013. 

Biscuits for Breakfast
By Gareth Farr
Directed by Tessa Walker
5 May – 10 June 2023
Captioned performances: 31 May, 7.45pm; 1 Jun 2.45

People always need to eat. If you can cook, really cook, if you know flavour and taste and texture, people will pay you to do it. People always need to eat. Always.

They don’t seem an obvious match. Joanne is spikey, defensive, a survivor, whilst Paul is quiet, considered – and hiding profound grief for his father. But the pleasure he takes in cooking – and the astonishing food he prepares – creates a bond between them. So, when the hotel where they both work closes and they start to spiral into poverty, it throws everything up in the air – first the dreams of a cookbook and a restaurant, and, eventually, even the dreams of a future together.

Gareth Farr is an award-winning writer for theatre and TV. His play Britannia Waves the Rules (Royal Exchange Manchester) won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2011, toured twice, and has since been produced in Australia. His play The Quiet House was performed at Birmingham Rep and Park Theatre and was directed by Tessa WalkerBiscuits for Breakfast is Tessa Walker’s second collaboration with Gareth Farr, and she returns to Hampstead Theatre following her productions of Ravenscourt, Big Big Sky and The Glad Game.

Stumped
By Shomit Dutta
Directed by Guy Unsworth
16 June – 22 July 2023
Captioned performances: 12 July, 7.45pm; 13 July, 2.45pm

For God’s sake, let us sit upon the green and tell sad stories of the fall of batsmen…

A game of cricket. Two of the greatest playwrights. And maybe even time for some tea.

Before Samuel Beckett became the playwright universally known for Waiting for Godot, he was a cricketer. He is still the only Nobel prize-winner to feature in the pages of Wisden as a first-class player. His friend and fellow Nobel prize-winner, Harold Pinter, whose best-known works include The Birthday Party and Betrayal, described cricket as ‘the greatest thing that God created on earth’.

Stumped is a brilliantly witty new play by Shomit Dutta which explores what the friendship between these two playwrights may have looked like.

Shomit Dutta is a writer, translator and teacher of Latin and Greek who also reviews books on cricket and the classics. He has been a member of Harold Pinter’s cricket team Gaieties CC for over twenty years and was captain during Pinter’s final years. 

Guy Unsworth directs. His credits include The System and Being Mr Wickham (both for Original Theatre). He was also Associate Director on Much Ado About Nothing and Love’s Labour’s Lost (RSC and West End); Spamalot (West End & UK Tour).  

Presented by Original Theatre.

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