Film Stars Headline Donmar's New US Season

The Donmar Warehouse's New Writing season opens later this month with a trio of new American plays and a fresh influx of film stars - Elizabeth McGovern and Colin Firth - to the London stage. All three stories are set in New York city, probing the more surreal realms of life in the Big Apple. The season runs 16 February to 13 March.

Kia Corthron's Splash Hatch on the E Going Down opens the season. An upbeat view of urban black life, Splash Hatch on the E Going Down tells the story of a young girl struggling to fit her studies around a pregnancy. The production is directed by Roxana Silbert, until recently an associate director at the Royal Court, and the cast includes Brian Bovell, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tameka Empson, Naomi Wirther and Shauna Sim, making her professional debut.

It is joined in repertory by Katherine Burger's Morphic Resonance, which has its world professional premiere at the Donmar. Burger's piece looks at four thirtysomethings who are trying to decide whether the pain of love is worth the risk. Morphic Resonance is directed by James Kerr, and the cast includes Michael Culkin, Anastasia Hille, Nigel Lindsay, Lloyd Owen and Joanna Roth.

Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain opens 1 March. The play was critically lauded when it premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1998. Two children are left a mysterious legacy by their father, the secret to which can only be unravelled by a trip back to 1960 and those critical three days of rain. The production is directed by Robin Lefevre.

Three Days of Rain is headed by Hollywood film star, now resident in the UK, Elizabeth McGovern who is joined by British film star Colin Firth and David Morrissey. McGovern's film credits include The Wings of a Dove, The Handmaid's Tale, Racing with the Moon, Once Upon a Time in America and Ragtime. She appeared most recently on stage in the 1997 Peter Hall production of Hurlyburly at the Old Vic. Firth makes his first return to the stage in five years in Three Days of Rain. He's well known for his TV and film roles in Pride and Prejudice, Fever Pitch and Shakespeare in Love, just released in the UK. His last stage role was in Chatsky at the Almeida Theatre in 1994. Morrissey is well known to British television audiences for his roles in Our Mutual Friend and Holding On. He stars in the current feature film Hilary and Jackie.

The entire New Writing season is designed by Tom Piper, with lighting by David Plater and sound by Rob Tory.

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