Bush Theatre unveils 2018 season
© Bronwen Sharp
London's Bush Theatre has announced its 2018 season, with eight plays running throughout the new year.
Arinzé Kene (Girl from the North Country) will debut his new play Misty at the venue from 15 March to 21 April. A lyrical journey through inner-city London, the show will be directed by Omar Elerian (NASSIM).
Monica Dolan will present her Edinburgh Fringe hit The B*easts in February, after the show won a Stage Edinburgh Award this summer. Performed by BAFTA-winner Dolan herself, the show discusses the sexualisation of children. It will run from 12 February to 3 March.
January will see Javaad Alipoor present his award-winning The Believers Are But Brothers, after bagging a Fringe First Award earlier this year. The show dissects the nature of modern radicalisation and the ways in which the internet contributes to this. The show runs from 24 January to 10 February. The WhatsOnStage review of the show described it as ' fascinating, eye-opening and very unsettling'.
French writer Estelle Savasta crosses the channel with the British translation of her second play Going Through (originally Traversée), adapted by Kirsten Hazel Smith. The show runs from 3 October to 5 November. Also directed by Elerian, Going Through mixes English with BSL to explore ideas of adolescence across borders.
In May, artistic director Madani Younis will direct Winsome Pinnock's Leave Taking, which debuted over 20 years ago at the Liverpool Playhouse. Pinnock, who became the first black British woman to have a show produced at the National Theatre, opened the theatre with a new short play when it was refurbished this year. The show runs from 24 May to 30 June.
Younis said: "I am so proud to be announcing yet another season of bold new plays for our newly revitalised home, with the new initiative of 'Passing the Baton' at its heart. ‘Passing the Baton’ is a yearly commitment by the Bush Theatre to celebrate and put centre-stage one play a year from the extraordinary body of work of British writers of colour from the 20th century."
Vinay Patel will premiere new play An Adventure in September, an international love story spanning decades and travelling across nations. The show, running from 6 September to 20 October, will be co-directed by Younis and Elerian.
Ben Weatherill will premiere new play Jellyfish in June. Directed by Tim Hoare, the show is a coming-of-age tale in modern Britain. It runs from 26 June to 21 July.
Associate theatre company Antler will present new show Lands from 13 November to 8 December. Devised by the company, the show will be an absurdly tragicomic analysis of a relationship on the brink of collapse.
