Bush Premieres New Plays by LaBute & Campbell

It kicks off from 13 February to 28 March (previews from 10 February) with the premiere of American Neil LaBute‘s new one-man play Wrecks, directed by Josie Rourke. Billed as a “fiercely passionate and unflinching monologue about the nature of life and death, and what society will accept in the name of love”, it stars Robert Glenister (BBC’s Hustle) as Edwin Carr, an ordinary man whose life is torn apart by the death of his beloved wife.

Neil LaBute‘s previous plays for the Bush include The War on Terror and Helter Skelter/Land of the Dead. His other plays include The Shape of Things, The Mercy Seat, Fat Pig (which enjoyed a West End run last year) and In a Dark Dark House, recently seen at the Almeida. His latest play, Reasons to be Pretty opens on Broadway later this year.

Wrecks is followed, from 7 May to 6 June (previews from 22 April), by The Contingency Plan, a double-bill of plays from Steve Waters (Fast Labour, After the Gods) on the subject of climate change.

Then, from 22 June to 18 July (previews from 17 June), Alexi Kaye Campbell, who made his playwrighting debut at the Royal Court last year with The Pride, presents his second play Apologia. Directed by Josie Rourke, it looks at a successful career woman, Kristin Weybridge, and what happens when her neglected son decides to deliver his own twist on her memoirs.

Rounding off the season, from 3 to 15 August (previews from 29 July), is suddenlossofdignity.com, for which the Bush has commissioned five new playwrights – Zawe Ashton, James Graham, Joel Horwood, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Michelle Terry – to create a new piece based around real-life stories of embarrassment submitted by members of the public.

Alongside its in-house productions, the Bush is also collaborating with HighTide and the National Theatre to present Adam Brace’s Stovepipe, a promenade performance at the West 12 shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush. It’s based on the experiences of writer Brace, a former journalist, during a tour of the Middle East, and runs from 9 March to 26 April (previews from 3 March).

– By Theo Bosanquet