Calum Callaghan in Belongings
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Hampstead Belongings Transfers to Trafalgar

Hampstead Theatre have announced the second West End transfer of the season, with Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s first full-length play Belongings coming to Trafalgar Studios 2 for a limited season following its run at the theatre's Michael Frayn Space at Hampstead Downstairs.

The production, which opened at Hampstead on 19 May and will finish on 11 June, will then play Trafalgar Studios from 21 June (previews from 16 June) through to 9 July 2011.

Maria Aberg’s production sees a young soldier returns from Afghanistan to a home she no longer recognises or connects with. She has proved herself in combat but her hardest battle is just beginning, as she navigates family politics, old relationships, and the memory of betrayal.

From the deserts of a modern war to the battleground of a family kitchen, Belongings is billed as exploring "a woman’s quest for identity and a place she can call home".

Belongings premiered in the Hampstead's newly opened Michael Frayn studio space, downstairs at the theatre. The Hampstead hopes the space will foster work "free from the pressures of commercial interests", and does not permit the productions to be formally reviewed.

The transfer of Belongings follows the Hampstead Theatre's revival of Mike Leigh's Ecstasy which moved from the Hampstead's main stage to the West End, playing a 50-performance run at the Duchess Theatre which ended on 28 May 2011.

In a press statement the Hampstead's artistic director Edward Hall said: "We are thrilled to see what we are sure will be the first of many transfers from our Hampstead Downstairs programme to other spaces. Trafalgar Studio 2 is a perfect home for work from the programme – the space has an almost identical configuration so productions will lose nothing in the move.

"And that our first transfer should be Morgan’s first full-length play is particularly pleasing – one of our aims being to support emerging writing talent - and the performances and Maria Aberg’s pitch-perfect production have really gone from strength to strength during the play’s run here".

The cast for the production are: Ian Bailey (Rotten Perfect for Jephcott Productions), Kirsty Bushell (Danton’s Death at the National Theatre), Calum Callaghan’s (Over Garden’s Out at Riverside Studios), Joanna Horton (The God’s Weep for the RSC).

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm is a comedy writer and playwright. Her previous writing credits include being part of the team behind Dick Whittington and His Cat and Jack and The Beanstalk at the Lyric Hammersmith, Platform at the Old Vic Tunnels, and Suddenlossofdignity.com and Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover At Christmas at the Bush Theatre. She has also appeared for five years at the Edinburgh Fringe as part of the comedy group Trippplicate. Her television credits include E4's School of Comedy (E4, Series 1 and 2) and Hotel Trubble for the BBC.

Swedish director Maria Aberg's recent theatre credits include God’s Weep for the RSC at Hampstead, State of Emergency at the Gate Theatre, Strindberg’s Gustav III at the National Theatre of Sweden, Crime and Punishment at the National Theatre, Days of Significance at the RSC and Tricycle, and Alaska for the Royal Court.

Belongings has design by Naomi Dawson, with lighting by David Holmes and sound by Carolyn Downing.

The play is followed into Studio 2 by Ian Mcfarlane's musical comedy Betwixt! which opens on 28 July (previews from 26 July) for a limited run to 20 August 2011.

In Studio 1, Simon Callow’s latest one-man show Being Shakespeare plays a limited season from 22 June (previews from 15 June) to 23 July 2011.

- by Andrew Girvan

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