Radio's Spoonface Comes to West End Stage

Lee Hall's acclaimed radio play, Spoonface Steinberg, is coming to the West End stage in the new year. The production will run in January at the New Ambassadors for a strictly limited season of 25 performances. It opens 5 January 2000, following previews from 4 January, and continues until 22 January.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1997, Spoonface Steinberg deals with faith, love, loss and the meaning of life in a monologue by the eponymous Steinberg, a highly gifted and autistic child.

Kathryn Hunter, who takes on the title role, recently appeared in Howard Barker's Scenes from an Execution at the Barbican Pit. She has worked extensively with Theatre de Complicite and the National Theatre. She won a Laurence Olivier award for her performance in The Visit.

Lee Hall's theatre credits include last year's highly successful adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Mr Puntila and His Man Matti, co-produced by the Right Size and the Almeida and directed by Hunter. Hall takes on Brecht again with Mother Courage and Her Children, also starring Hunter and presented by Shared Experience at the Ambassadors in March 2000. Meanwhile, his adaptation of Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters, co-produced by the RSC and the Young Vic, opens next month in Stratford before transferring to London in January 2000. His own original play, Cookin' with Elvis, a hit at this year's Edinburgh Fringe, is also expected in the capital early next year.

This stage version of Spoonface Steinberg was initiated and inspired by workshops held at the Royal National Studio in collaboration between Kathryn Hunter, Anne Castledine and Marcello Magni. The production is directed by Magni with Castledine co-directing and designed by Liz Cooke with lighting design by Tina McHugh.

Spoonface Steinberg is co-produced by the Royal National Theatre Studio and Sheffield Theatres. It will appear in Sheffield prior to its West End transfer.

Related Content