Arcola Theatre, led by Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen and Executive Producer Leyla Nazli, today announce their programming into 2023. Opening the season in Studio 1 is Under the Black Rock, followed by WORTH and The Misandrist; and new shows for Studio 2 are The Unicorn and Duck.
The new season opens in Studio 1 with Under the Black Rock from Bluebird Productions, a darkly comic thriller set in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. With a cast led by Harry Potter’s Evanna Lynch and John Nayagam, the show opens 6 March, with previews from 2 March, and runs until 25 March.
This is followed by WORTH, a new collaboration from New Earth Theatre and Chester’s Storyhouse, directed by Mingyu Lin. Straddling two cultures, Joanne Lau’s new play explores immigration and family secrets. WORTH opens 12 April, with previews from 7 April, and runs until 29 April, before transferring to Storyhouse.
Lisa Carroll then returns with penetrating new comedy, The Misandrist, following prickly freelancer Rachel and smooth go-getter Sule as they meet at a club and fall into a casual relationship. Interweaving politics and pegging, The Misandrist opens at Arcola Theatre on 16 May, with previews from 10 May, and runs until 10 June.
In Studio 2, Sam Potter’s new play about compulsive sexual behaviour, The Unicorn, opens 9 June, with previews from 7 June, and runs until 24 June, starring Alice Lamb. Finally, Duck, maatin’s searing new examination of cricket, race and privilege directed by Imy Wyatt Corner, opens 29 June, with previews from 27 June, and plays until 15 July. These join the previously announced Studio 2 shows, The Mistake, Afghanistan is Not Funny and Vermin.
Mehmet Ergen, Artistic Director of Arcola Theatre, says today, “What a joy to reopen Studio 1 in 2023 with such a wide array of relevant and entertaining work, from old Arcola associates to artists we’ve wanted to work with for a long time. In addition, we’ll be continuing to programme engaging and dynamic work in Studio 2, our new writing powerhouse, throughout the year. Being able to share such important stories at our theatre is a privilege we don’t take for granted, and we are constantly inspired by the emerging and established companies that we work alongside.”
General on-sale Tuesday 24 January 2023.
STUDIO 1:
Produced by Sam Edmunds
Presented by Bluebird Productions
UNDER THE BLACK ROCK
Written by TIM EDGE
2 – 25 March 2023
Press night: 6 March at 7pm
Cast: Evanna Lynch (Niamh), John Nayagam (Cashel) and Flora Montgomery (Sandra/Bridget)
Director: Ben Kavanagh
“Yes, they haunt me, but not for one moment did I agonise over what I did or ordered. It was all in a day's work, and it was necessary.”
A twisting and darkly comic thriller set in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles, with a cast led by Evanna Lynch. Lynch plays Niamh Ryan, drawn into the conflict as part of a divided family, in a community where no one is quite who they seem to be.
Evanna Lynch plays Niamh. She is best known for portraying Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter film series. Her theatre credits include The Omission of the Family Coleman (Ustinov Studio), Games for Lovers (VAULT Festival), Disco Pigs (Trafalgar Studios/Irish Reperatory Theatre, New York) and Houdini (UK tour). Her further film credits include GBF, My Name is Emily and Madness in the Method.
John Nayagam plays Cashel. He is best known for playing series regular Hari Prasad in Emmerdale. His theatre credits include Trading Faces, Work, The Usual Suspects (Courtyard Theatre), Taisteal and The Usual Suspects (international tours).
Flora Montgomery plays Sandra/Bridget. Her theatre credits include Never Not Once (Park Theatre), Gaslight (Mirvish Theatre Toronto), Bash, The Shape of Things, The Bear (Gate Theatre Dublin), Dinner (Wyndham’s Theatre), Arcadia (UK tour), The Taming of the Shrew (Bristol Old Vic), Robin Hood (RSC), Uncle Vanya (Birmingham Rep), In the Next Room (St. James Theatre) and The Good Soldier (Theatre Royal Bath). Her television credits include The Crown (as series regular Norma Major), Murder in Provence, Endeavour, A Very English Scandal and Life. Montgomery won the Irish Times Best Actress Award for her role as the lead in Strindberg’s Miss Julie and was a Shooting Star at the Berlin Film Festival, as well as winning a Best Actress award at the Monte Carlo film festival, Las Palmas Film Festival and Dallas Film Festival.
Tim Edge is a writer and producer. He worked and travelled extensively in Ireland during the Troubles. Under the Black Rock is his first play.
Ben Kavanagh is an actor, director, playwright and educator. He is a successful playwright and dramaturg who has been nominated for Offie Awards and whose latest play, The Convert, is being programmed for a West End run. Ben has also enjoyed a successful career as a stage and is a prodigious director of successful plays on the London Fringe.
New Earth Theatre and Storyhouse in association with Arcola Theatre present
WORTH
Written by JOANNE LAU
7 April – 29 April 2023
Press night: 12 April at 7pm
Cast to be announced
Director: Mingyu Lin; Designer: Moi Tran; Sound Designer and Composer: Nicola T Chang;
Movement Director: Iskandar إسكندر Ramzi bin Sharazuddin
Hours before their mother’s funeral, the Yeung siblings gather in the family home for the first time in years, only to discover their inheritance is missing. With seemingly only £44 cash to her name and the house due to be repossessed, where has all the money gone? Tensions escalate as they race to find it, uncovering ugly truths and shocking family secrets along the way.
Inspired by true events, WORTH takes a darkly comic look at family loss and sibling rivalry. Straddling two cultures, this biting new comedy asks the question – where do you put your worth?
Joanne Lau is a Chinese Canadian writer based in the UK, and an alumnus of the BBC Writersroom Comedy Room and BBC New Talent Hotlist 2017. She’s been a finalist for the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum (TV Drama), Royal Court Theatre/Kudos Writing Fellowship, Cinequest Teleplay 60, and Funny Women Awards. She has several original projects in development and her produced credits span television, theatre, radio, and film, and include: Silverpoint (CBBC), Theodosia (HBO Max), Ted’s Top Ten (CTIV), Big Tree City (Netflix), The Kentucky Meat Shower (Sphinx 30/New Earth Theatre), Love by Numbers (Routledge Anthology of Short Plays with Great Roles for Women), Drop the Dead Panda (BBC Radio 4), Sketchtopia (BBC Radio 4), and Misguided Meditations (BBC Radio 4).
Mingyu Lin is a director for stage and screen. She is a Resident Artist with York Theatre Royal and a Reader for Traverse Theatre and the Bruntwood Prize. She was a recipient of Living Pictures’ Directors’ bursary 2021, Creative Associate at Headlong, an alumna of the Royal Court Writers’ Programme and a founding member of BESEA advocacy group BEATS. Her theatre credits include Does My Bomb Look Big in This? (Soho Theatre), Overheard (York Theatre Royal/Nottingham Lakeside) and No Bond So Strong (Midlands Arts Centre). She also works as a screen director and audio director.
Presented by Simon Paris, Oliver Seymour and George Warren for Metal Rabbit Productions
THE MISANDRIST
Written by Lisa Carroll
10 May – 10 June 2023
Press night: Tuesday 16 May at 7pm
Lisa Carroll returns with a penetrating new comedy about the search for sexual knowledge, true love, and top-notch Tupperware.
Two second-generation immigrants, prickly freelancer Rachel and smooth go-getter Sule, meet at a sticky-floored bar in Piccadilly and share an Uber home. A few late nights, “what u doin'’ messages later and they’ve fallen into a casual relationship.
Adrift, isolated, and insecure, they scramble around for new ways to connect. Can some playful, passionate pegging provide a pathway through the pitfalls of modern relationships and present the possibility of personal fulfilment?
Lisa Carroll is an Irish playwright, screenwriter and comedian based in London. She has undertaken writing programmes at the Lyric Hammersmith, the Royal Court Theatre and Headlong, and has recently been Writer on Attachment at the National Theatre and RSC. Cuckoo was Carroll’s debut full length play, and was shortlisted for the Papatango Prize and Verity Bargate award. Her other theatre credits include Three Cities (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Róisín (Old Red Lion) and Snapdragon (Abbey Theatre).
STUDIO 2:
Nina Productions presents
THE UNICORN
Written by SAM POTTER
7 – 24 June 2023
Press night: 9 June at 8pm
Cast: Alice Lamb
Director: Tom Brennan; Lighting Designer: Hayden Camidge; Sound Designer: Jack Drewry
‘I walked inside, and rather than everyone looking at me like I was some sort of weirdo, they just pulled me in.’
Shortly after Andrea is fired from her job, she finds herself overwhelmed by feelings of frustration and depression. She attempts to combat her loneliness through casual sex, but what starts as a distraction, soon threatens to take over her life.
An unmissable new play from award-winning writer Sam Potter.
Alice Lamb is an actor and theatre maker from Bristol. Her theatre credits include Belle and Sebastien (Bristol Old Vic), Home Alonely, Drac and Jill (The Wardrobe Theatre), Vixen, Autobiographer (UK tours), Sherlock in Homes, Murder at the Games, Murder on Ice, Murder at the Circus (Sharp Teeth), Wild Swimming (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Bristol Old Vic) and Goldilock Stock and the Three Smoking Bears (The Wardrobe Theatre/Theatre Royal Plymouth). She is also a long running cast member of Closer Each Day: The Improvised Soap Opera.
Sam Potter is an award-winning writer and director with work at Trafalgar Studios, Hampstead Theatre, RSC, National Theatre and Glyndebourne. Her debut play Mucky Kid was nominated for an Off West End Award in 2013, leading to a place on the Channel 4 Playwright’s Scheme. She was previously Creative Associate at Headlong Theatre, Literary Manager at Out of Joint, and Papatango’s Resident Playwright, supported by BBC Performing Arts. In 2016, she was one of five writers invited to take part in the Kiln Theatre’s inaugural New Writers’ Programme, NW6. In January 2018 her play Hanna opened at the Arcola before embarking on a UK tour, produced by Papatango. Her play Charlie Charlie was shortlisted for the Bruntwood Award in 2017 and was longlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2020. Her play Whilst Life Exists was longlisted for the Bruntwood Award in 2022. Her other plays include The Ripple Effect, Metcalfe and Sons, Daniel, The Same Old, Same Old, Same and Someone, Somewhere. For screen, she has previously been commissioned by Bryncoed Productions. She was shortlisted for the BBC Screenplay First Award and is currently developing a television adaptation of her stage play Whilst Life Exists.
Tom Brennan directs. His theatre credits include Robin Hood: The Legend of the Forgotten Forest (Bristol Old Vic), The Sugar House (Finborough Theatre), The Great Gatsby, Eloise and the Curse of the Golden Whisk, 1972: The Future of Sex, RIOT, The Rocky Shock (UK tours), The Last of the Pelican Daughters (Royal and Derngate), Drac and Jill (Wardrobe Theatre), South Western (Tobacco Factory) and Education, Education, Education (Trafalgar Studios/UK tour). He is a Creative Associate of The North Wall Arts Centre and The Geoffrey Garton Creative Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.
Please note, this show contains discussion of sex parties and group sex. Age recommendation 16+
The REcreate Agency presents
DUCK
Written by maatin
27 June – 15 July 2023
Press night: 29 June at 8pm
Director: Imy Wyatt Corner
Life is good for “Smiley” – Ismail, the star and captain of his posh English school’s cricket team.
He’s got his sights set on being the youngest member of the First XI and having his name
immortalised in Wisden.
But at the start of the season, new coach Mr. Eagles takes a particular dislike to him, for reasons he can’t quite put his finger on. No one seems to get it; his friends, his teammates, his parents. Soon, Ismail finds that cricket might not be the gentlemanly game he once thought it was…
maatin is a playwright, screenwriter, and dramaturg based in London. His work has been selected for the Mono Box’s PLAYSTART 2019, longlisted for BBC Comedy Room 2020, and nominated for the Edinburgh TV Festival’s New Voice Awards 2021. He was selected for the Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE Programme 2020/21 and has worked with the Royal Court.
Imy Wyatt Corner is a director and producer based in London. Her directing credits include Humane (Pleasance), Chef (Wardrobe Theatre), Gaslight (Playground Theatre), Baby, What Blessings; Walk Swiftly and With Purpose (UK tours), Flux (Plymouth Fringe) and Happy Yet? (international tour). She recently produced Everywoman and Other Confessions as part of the closing takeover season at Bunker Theatre. She is also co-director of new writing company Swings and Roundabouts and has recently taken part in the Roundhouse Future Producers Programme, Kiln Theatre’s New Artist Development Programme and JMK mentorship scheme.
ARCOLA THEATRE
24 Ashwin Street, London, E8 3DL
Box Office: 020 7503 1646 (10am – 6pm Monday to Friday)
Box Office email: boxoffice@arcolatheatre.com
www.arcolatheatre.com
Tickets available from £10
STUDIO ONE:
UNDER THE BLACK ROCK
2 – 25 March 2023
Press night: 6 March at 7pm
Monday – Saturday at 7:30pm
Saturday matinees at 2:30pm
WORTH
7 April – 29 April 2023
Press night: 12 April at 7pm
Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm
Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
Touch Tour before 19 April performance
Relaxed performance 25th April 7.30pm
BSL interpreted performance 26th April 7.30pm
THE MISANDRIST
10 May – 10 June 2023
Press night: Tuesday 16 May at 7pm
Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm
Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
STUDIO TWO:
THE MISTAKE
31 January - 4 February 2023
Press night: Tuesday 31 January at 8pm
Tuesday – Saturday at 8pm
Saturday matinee at 4pm
AFGHANISTAN IS NOT FUNNY
21 February – 11 March 2023
Press night: Thursday 23 February at 8pm
Tuesday – Saturday at 8pm
Saturday 11 March matinee at 4pm
VERMIN
14 March – 1 April 2023
Press night: Thursday 16 March at 8pm
Monday – Saturday at 8pm
Saturday 1 April matinee at 4pm
THE UNICORN
7 – 24 June 2023
Press night: 9 June at 8pm
Monday – Saturday at 8pm
DUCK
27 June – 15 July 2023
Press night: 29 June at 8pm
Monday – Saturday at 8pm
