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Burke & Kosher Grosso Open Court Upstairs Spring

The Royal Court tonight launches the spring 2002 season - featuring new plays by Nick Grosso, Christopher Shinn and Helen Edmundson headlined by the likes of Kathy Burke, Richard Wilson, Adam Garcia, Daniel Evans and Susannah Wise - for its more intimate Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

Grosso's Kosher Harry opens the schedule, running from 23 April to 11 May (previews from 18 April). Set in a north London kosher bar, it features an abrasive cabbie, a wheelchair-bound old woman, the world's worst waitress and a man with no name. The cast are Mark Benton, Claudie Blakley, Martin Freeman and June Watson.

Kosher Harry is Grosso's fourth play for the Royal Court - following Peaches, Sweetheart and Real Classy Affair which starred Joseph Fiennes. It's directed by awar-winning actress and comedienne Kathy Burke, whose stage directing credits include Boom Bang-a-Bang, Out in the Open and her own Mr Thomas. She will also be directing the one-woman show, Betty, in the West End this summer.

Kosher Harry is followed in the schedule by Christopher Shinn's Where Do We Live, directed by veteran actor Richard Wilson and running from 21 May to 8 June (previews from 17 May). Taking place before and after 11 September, the play follows a Manhattan-based writer named Stephen who watches his friends and neighbours from his window. It follows Shinn's early plays for the Royal Court, Four and Other Play.

The cast of Where Do We Live features Olivier Award winner Daniel Evans (2001 Best Actor in a Musical for Merrily We Roll Along and now appearing on tour in Ghosts), Susannah Wise (just seen in the West End in Life After George) and Australian stage and film heartthrob Adam Garcia (Saturday Night Fever). They're joined by Nicholas Aaron, Noel Anthony Clarke, Toby Dantzic, Cyril Nri, Ray Pantharki and Jemima Rooper.

The Upstairs schedule concludes with Helen Edmundson's Mother Teresa Is Dead, which finds Londoner Mark trying to track down his wife in a dusty Indian village near Madras. Edmundson's other credits include acclaimed adaptations of Mill on the Floss and Anna Karenina as well as her award-winning The Clearing, currently being revived by Shared Experience. Mother Teresa Is Dead is directed by Simon Usher and runs from 25 June to 13 July (previews from 20 June). Casting has not yet been announced.

- by Terri Paddock

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