15 February 2022
Newsdesk
Following a critically acclaimed, sell-out reopening season, that culminated with Zadie Smith’s The Wife of Willesden, Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham today announces further programming for the 2022 season at Kiln Theatre. Following the previously announced Black Love, with Book and Lyrics by Chinonyerem Odimba and Music by Ben and Max Ringham, are two world premières – Girl on an Altar by Marina Carr, and The Darkest Part of the Night by Zodwa Nyoni.
Marina Carr’s Girl on an Altar will be presented in a brand-new partnership with the Abbey Theatre, and directed by Annabelle Comyn. The production opens on 25 May, with previews from 19 May, and runs until 25 June.
Following the wonderful run of The Half God of Rainfall, Nancy Medina returns to Kiln Theatre to direct Zodwa Nyoni’s The Darkest Part of the Night, opening on 21 July, with previews from 14 July, and running until 13 August.
Indhu Rubasingham today said, “We are really proud to be announcing two world premières which have been commissioned and developed by Kiln Theatre. These plays have been on a wonderful journey from initial conversations to beautifully crafted and profound scripts.
The first is Girl on an Altar by Marina Carr directed by Annabelle Comyn and the second is The Darkest Part of the Night by Zodwa Nyoni directed by Nancy Medina. I am excited to see what these strong collaborations between writer and director will bring to our stage.
We are thrilled to be starting a partnership with the Abbey Theatre on Girl on an Altar and are hopeful this will be the beginning of a long-term relationship between both theatres. It has been a treat getting to know the recently appointed Artistic Director Caitríona McLaughlin, who not only do I find like-minded, but also deeply inspiring.
These productions will follow Black Love by Chinonyerem Odimba, another brilliant and important artist in a co-production with Paines Plough and tiata fahodzi.
Our relationships with these vital artists and companies are full of shared values and deep respect; we cannot wait for them to enrich Kiln Theatre with their brilliance. Bring it on!”
Kiln Theatre in partnership with the Abbey Theatre presents
GIRL ON AN ALTAR
by Marina Carr
19 May – 25 June 2022
Press night: 25 May 2022 at 7pm
Directed by Annabelle Comyn; Designer Tom Piper; Lighting Designer Amy Mae; Composer and Sound Designer Philip Stewart; Casting Director Julia Horan CDG; Voice & Dialect Coach Daniele Lydon; Assistant Director Jessica Mensah
Clytemnestra’s world is torn apart when her husband, Agamemnon, sacrifices their daughter for the sake of war. Ten years on from this unthinkable tragedy, the couple are reunited. What follows is a dangerous battle of love, grief and power.
Marina Carr’s (Blood Wedding, By the Bog of Cats) new re-telling of the infamous Greek myth brings Clytemnestra’s story to the forefront and asks is it possible to forgive the unforgiveable?
Marina Carr’s work for the stage includes iGirl, On Raftery’s Hill, Anna Karenina, 16 Possible Glimpses, MARBLE, Ariel (Abbey Theatre), Portia Coughlan (Abbey Theatre and Royal Court Theatre), Blood Wedding (Young Vic), Woman and Scarecrow (Irish Repertory Theatre), Mary Gordon (National Concert Hall), By The Bog Of Cats (Abbey Theatre & West End), Hecuba (RSC), new contemporary translation of Verdi’s opera Rigoletto (Opera Theatre Company, Irish National Tour), Phaedra Backwards (McCarter Theatre, Princeton), The Giant Blue Hand (Ark Theatre Commission), Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Quartet (Traverse Theatre), The Cordelia Dream (RSC at Wilton’s Music Hall); Woman And Scarecrow (Royal Court Theatre), On Raftery’s Hill (Town Hall Theatre Galway, Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, Kennedy Center Washington DC), The Mai (Peacock Theatre, Dublin - Winner of Best New Irish Play at Dublin Theatre Festival), Low In The Dark (Projects Arts Centre, Dublin) and Ullaloo (Dublin Theatre Festival, Abbey Theatre). Carr was awarded the 2017 Windham-Campbell Prize. Marina Carr is an Associate Playwright of the Abbey Theatre. A major revival of one of her best-known plays, Portia Coughlan, opens on the Abbey stage this evening, directed by Caroline Byrne with Denise Gough playing the title role.
Annabelle Comyn is artistic director of Hatch Theatre Company and Director in Residence at The Lir, National Academy of Dramatic Arts, Ireland. Her theatre credits include Ravens: Spassky vs. Fischer (Hampstead Theatre), Asking For It (Landmark Productions, Everyman Cork, Abbey Theatre), Look Back in Anger, The Vortex (The Gate, Dublin), Crestfall, Helen and I (Druid, The Mick Lally Theatre), The Wake, Hedda Gabler, Major Barbara, The House – Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Director, Pygmalion, A Number, Blue/Orange (Abbey Theatre), Dancing at Lughnasa (Lyric Theatre Belfast), The Sit (Dublin Theatre Festival), Whereabouts (Fishamble in a co-production with Temple Bar Cultural Trust and Good-Bye Roy and Rough Road to Survival (Royal Court Theatre). For Hatch Theatre, her work includes The Talk of the Town (Landmark Productions and Dublin Theatre Festival), Love and Money, Further Than The Furthest Thing, Cruel and Tender, Pyrenees, Blood, and The Country (in association with Project Arts Centre).
Kiln Theatre presents
THE DARKEST PART OF THE NIGHT
by Zodwa Nyoni
14 July – 13 August 2022
Press night: 21 July 2022 at 7pm
Directed by Nancy Medina; Designer Jean Chan; Lighting Designer Guy Hoare; Sound Designer Elena Peña; Casting Director Briony Barnett CDG
As Shirley and Dwight bury their mother, they remember their upbringing in 1980s Chapeltown, Leeds differently. In the height of racial discrimination, police brutality and poverty, the struggle for survival ripped through their family.
Dwight was discovering what it meant to be a young black boy with autism in a world determined never to understand him. Shirley was desperately trying to forge her own independence away from unfair expectations at school and home.
Now as adults, they need to bring together the fractured pieces of their past to move forward together.
Nancy Medina directs Zodwa Nyoni’s gripping and heartfelt drama that explores the complexities and beauty of what it really means to care for one another.
Zodwa Nyoni is a playwright and poet. She was the 2014 Writer-in-Residence at the West Yorkshire Playhouse via the Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme. She has previously been Apprentice Poet-in-Residence at Ilkely Literature Festival (2013), Leeds Kirkgate Market (2012) and Writer-in-Residence at I Love West Leeds Festival (2010). She was recently under commission as part of the Manchester Royal Exchange’s New Stages Writing Initiative. She was also part of the 2015 Creative England iWrite Regional New Voices Initiative. Her plays include Duty (National Trust and Paines Plough), Carnival Chronicles (Leeds West Indian Carnival – also director), Ode to Leeds (commissioned by West Yorkshire Playhouse), Weathered Estates (commissioned by Hull City of Culture) and Boi Boi is Dead (West Yorkshire Playhouse, tiata fahodzi and Watford Palace co-production). Her films include The Ancestors, On Belonging and Mahogany.
Nancy Medina directs. Medina is the winner of 2018 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award and the Genesis Future Director Award. Credits include Moreno (Theatre503), Trouble in Mind (National Theatre), The Half God Of Rainfall (Fuel / Birmingham Rep / Kiln Theatre) The Laramie Project (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School), Two Trains Running (Royal & Derngate / ETT / RTST), Strange Fruit (Bush Theatre), Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), When They Go Low (NT Connections / Sherman Theatre), Yellowman (Young Vic), Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It (GB Theatre), Curried Goat And Fish Fingers (Bristol Old Vic), Dogtag (Theatre West), Strawberry & Chocolate, Dutchman (Tobacco Factory Theatres) and Persistence Of Memory (Rondo Theatre). She is an acting tutor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Course Leader for a post 16 Professional Acting Diploma at Boomsatsuma.
KILN THEATRE
Kiln Theatre
269 Kilburn High Road, London, UK, NW6 7JR
Box Office: 020 7328 1000
www.KilnTheatre.com
BLACK LOVE
28 March – 23 April 2022
Press night: 1 April 2022, 7pm
Post Show Q&A 12 April 2022, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance 14 April 2022, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance 21 April 2022, 7.30pm
GIRL ON AN ALTAR
19 May – 25 June 2022
Press night: 25 May 2022, 7pm
Post Show Q&A 7 June 2022, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance 9 June 2022, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance 16 June 2022, 7.30pm
THE DARKEST PART OF THE NIGHT
14 July – 6 August 2022
Press night: 21 July 2022, 7pm
Post Show Q&A 26 July 2022, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance 1 August 2022, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance 4 August 2022, 7.30pm
Relaxed Performance 6 August 2022, 2.30pm
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