Theatre News

Laurence Fishburne’s Riff Raff Comes to Arcola

8 March 2010

Hollywood actor Laurence Fishburne’s debut play Riff Raff will receive its UK premiere at the Arcola Theatre next month (6-24 April 2010).

The play, which will be directed by Bill Buckhurst, is set in New York’s ciminal underworld. It’s Halloween, and half-brothers Mike “20-20” and Billy “Torch” are holed up in an abandoned crack den on the Lower East Side. They’ve got three kilos of smack, blood on their hands and New York’s biggest drug lord on their tail.

With nowhere to turn, Mike calls his old friend from Brooklyn to get them out of their mess. When the man arrives and the night draws in, stories are swapped, loyalties are tested and the bleakness of their criminal lives threatens to envelop them forever.

Fishburne, who starred in the original production back in 1995, is best known as an actor in films including The Matrix trilogy. Prior to that, he won a Tony in 1992 for his work on Broadway as Sterling Johnson in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running. He was also nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor in 1993 for his portrayal of Ike Turner in the film What’s Love Got to Do with It.

Riff Raff is designed by Simon Kenny and produced by Christopher Stafford for Alarum. Casting will be announced soon.