Diana Quick to star in Donmar’s first online premiere

London’s Donmar Warehouse is to premiere a new online production of Adam Brace’s play Midnight Your Time starring Diana Quick.

Diana Quick

Originally staged in 2011, it follows a retired lawyer, Judy, stuck at home in London trying to contact her daughter who is in Palestine. It is described as a wryly comic and ultimately heart-breaking exploration of what it really means to communicate remotely.

The new recording will be premiered on the Donmar Warehouse’s YouTube Channel for free at 7.30pm on 13 May. It will then be available to watch for seven days.

Quick starred in the original stage production which was commissioned by HighTide Theatre and performed at HighTide Festival and Assembly George Square for Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2011. It was directed by Michael Longhurst, now artistic director at the Donmar. He is returning to direct the online revival which is being recorded via webcam at Quick’s home.

It is the first online premiere for the Donmar which closed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Longhurst said: “I am thrilled to be able to share this remotely rehearsed and filmed version of Adam’s exquisitely crafted portrait of a distanced mother-daughter relationship.

“I had the great joy of directing Diana Quick a decade ago in this role, written especially for her, and wanted to revive this play as soon as lockdown began.

“Adam’s prescient presentation of a then-burgeoning method of digital communication is so entirely a part of our lives under lockdown, and its commentary on ageing and isolation resonate even more profoundly at this time.

“It has been a privilege to revisit the role of Judy with Diana – a formidable and funny retired European lawyer, struggling to understand why her refrain of ‘drop us a line and stay safe’ is falling on deaf ears – and a delight to capture her performance in this new medium and in the intimacy of her own home.

“I am determined that the Donmar continue to tell important stories that offer us connection in this moment when we cannot gather together in our theatre.”

After the Prime Minister’s statement advising the public to avoid non-essential social contact including theatres, the Donmar cancelled the remaining performances of its revival of Caryl Churchill’s Far Away and postponed upcoming productions including Suzan-Lori Parks’s In the Blood, originally scheduled 17 April to 6 June, and Steve Waters’s double bill, The Contingency Plan, scheduled 10 June to 1 August.

Find the Donmar’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/donmarwarehouse