Donmar Warehouse Artistic Director Josie Rourke today announced the theatre’s Autumn season of three plays which includes Abi Morgan’s Splendour directed by Associate Director Robert Hastie, the UK Premiere of Christopher Shinn’s Teddy Ferrara directed by Dominic Cooke and the thirty-year revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton directed by Rourke herself.
Artistic Director Josie Rourke said: One of the things that most excites me about this season is the strong leading roles for women. It is a thrill to announce a season of work that features, in plays by living writers, women of the calibre and power of Zawe Ashton, Sinéad Cusack, Michelle Dockery, Michelle Fairley, Genevive O’Reilly and Janet McTeer, who returns to the Donmar and the London stage. This, combined with the transfer of Phyllida Lloyd’s second instalment in her trilogy of all-female Shakespeares to New York shows a programme of work in deep conversation with the lives of women and their status as actors on our stage. We continue our commitment to bringing topical and searing new plays to the Donmar with the British premiere of Christopher Shinn’s Teddy Ferrara. I am particularly delighted that Dominic Cooke is returning to theatre and to his long-standing collaboration with Christopher Shinn to direct this production. On a personal note, I have long wanted to direct Christopher Hampton’s superb Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and the cast we have drawn together is a testament to the brilliance of his play. As well as welcoming Janet McTeer back to the Donmar, I am thrilled that Dominic West will return to our stage in this production.
We’re delighted to announce that Phyllida Lloyd will be joining the Donmar as an Associate Director and playwright James Graham will join as an Associate Artist. Phyllida’s trilogy of all-female Shakespeare productions, and James Graham’s innovations in popular political playwriting, Privacy and The Vote have been defining moments on our stage over the past two years. We are thrilled that these major artists have agreed to join the artistic team.
Preliminary casting for the season includes Zawe Ashton, Sinéad Cusack, Michelle Fairley and Genevieve O’Reilly in Splendour, Nancy Crane, Oliver Johnstone, Kadiff Kirwan, Ryan McParland, Matthew Marsh, Anjli Mohindra, Luke Newberry, Pamela Nomvete and Nathan Wiley in Teddy Ferrara and Michelle Dockery, Janet McTeer and Dominic West in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
The season announcement also included the notice of the appointment of new Associate Director, Phyllida Lloyd, and James Graham – joining as an Associate Artist.
Public booking for the Autumn season opens on 16 June.
