Southwark premieres Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts as August: Osage County hits the big screen
August: Osage County, which had an acclaimed, WhatsOnStage Award-nominated London run at the National in 2008, hits the big screen in the new year, with a UK cinema release on 17 January 2014. And, just a few weeks later, another new play by its Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Tracy Letts, Superior Donuts, will receive its UK premiere at London’s Southwark Playhouse, where it runs from 14 February to 8 March 2014 (previews from 11 February).
Like August: Osage County, Superior Donuts started life at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, where Letts has been a member of the ensemble since 2002. Superior Donuts premiered in Chicago in 2008 before transferring to Broadway the next year.
As Starbucks and organic food stores pop up all around it in uptown Chicago, Arthur Przybyszewski continues to run the small rundown donut shop set up by his Polish immigrant father. The shop has survived thanks to its loyal neighbourhood customers, but then Arthur hires the excitable Franco Wicks, who is bent on making modern improvements.
The UK premiere production is directed by Ned Bennett and presented by The Trick and Sarah Stribley Productions. Cast has not yet been announced.
Meanwhile, the stellar cast for the film of August: Osage County sees Britons Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch starring alongside Hollywood’s Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts as well as Sam Shepard, Juliette Lewis, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin and Dermot Mulroney. The film, which opens in the US this Christmas, is directed by John Wells and produced by Harvey Weinstein, George Clooney and Grant Heslov.
August: Osage County, which won five Tony Awards as well as the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for drama, exposes the dark side of the middle American family. When the Westons unexpectedly reunite after dad disappears, their Oklahoman homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets, all overseen by the pill-popping and scathingly acidic Violet (Streep).
Letts’ other playwriting credits include Bug and Killer Joe. Also an actor, he won last year’s best actor Tony for his performance in the 2012 Broadway revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and currently plays Senator Andrew Lockhart in television series Homeland.
