Theatre News

Finborough Theatre responds to Thatcher with three 1980s revivals

The Finborough Theatre will stage three revivals of plays from the 1980s this summer, in response to the recent death of Margaret Thatcher.

The season opens with the first London performance in 25 years of Doug
Lucie
‘s Hard Feelings running from 13 June to 6 July 2013.

Billed as “a devastating report from the frontline of Thatcher’s Britain”, the play contrasts the Brixton riots with the lives of a group of Oxford University graduates. It was first seen at Oxford Playhouse in 1982, before transferring to the Bush Theatre in 1983, directed by Mike Bradwell.

On Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays (16 June-
2 July) the Finborough will stage the first London production in nearly 30 years of Early
Days
in celebration of playwright David Storey‘s 80th birthday.

July sees the “first full professional production in more than 35 years”
of Pam Gems‘ breakthrough feminist work Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi (9 July-3
August); accompanied on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays by the world premiere of Chris Dunkley’s The Precariat, about a schoolboy struggling to make his way in contemporary London.

The summer season concludes with the first UK production in more than 25
years of William M. Hoffman’s “groundbreaking” As Is (6–31 August), about a young writer in New York who is diagnosed with AIDS.

And on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays Colleen Murphy’s Armstrong’s War, the tale of a 21 year-old Canadian soldier who has been wounded in Afghanistan, will receive a
“staged workshop production” prior to its official world premiere
at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver.

As previously reported, across town at Battersea’s Theatre503 a short season of work under the banner Thatcherwrite will explore the legacy of The Iron Lady from 11 to 15 June 2013.