Theatre News

Lidless & Hickson’s Talent Next up for Trafalgar 2

| London's West End |

16 February 2011

Two Edinburgh Fringe transfers — Ella Hickson’s first full-length play Precious Little Talent and HighTide’s production of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig‘s Lidless — which premiered at Edinburgh in consecutive years, will follow Ordinary Days into Trafalgar Studios 2.

Directed by James Dacre Precious Little Talent is the story of two 20-somethings graduating “into a world that’s sold them down the river”. Written by Hickson on the eve of her own graduation, the play has been revised and lengthened since its premiere at the Bedlam Theatre as part of the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe.

Precious Little Talent will play a four-week run at Trafalgar Studios 2 from 8 April (previews from 5 April) to 30 April 2011.

Telling the story of a young Londoner with “a first class degree, £20,000 worth of debt and a job in a pub” who flees to New York in a bid to find comfort with her estranged father, Precious Little Talent marks Hickson’s return to Trafalgar Studios 2. Her debut play Eight having picked up a Fringe First and the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award in 2008, subsequently transferring to New York and London, playing Trafalgar Studios in July 2009.

Hickson’s other theatre pieces include Hot Mess, which premiered at this year’s Edinburgh Festival. She was the Traverse Theatre’s 2010 Emerging Playwright on Attachment and is currently the Pearson Playwright in Residence at the Lyric Hammersmith. She has recently completed the Royal Court’s Young Writers Invitation Group and is under commission to Headlong Theatre.

Artistic associate at the New Vic, James Dacre‘s production of The Mountaintop at Theatre503 and Trafalgar Studios won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play and was nominated for five further awards. His other recent directing credits include The Unconquered on UK tour and Off-Broadway and world premieres of work by Torben Betts, Suzan-Lori Parks, Lucy Thurber, Bekah Brunstetter and Dic Edwards.

Prior to Precious Little Talent, the award-winning play Lidless transfers to Trafalgar Studios 2 from 15 March (previews from 10 March) to 2 April 2011.

The play, about the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison, is written by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and won a Fringe First at Edinburgh last year as well as the Yale Drama Series Award when it premiered in 2009. The production will see the Studio 2 space configured into an in-the-round auditorium for the first time.

Directed by Steven Atkinson, the cast comprises of Nathalie Armin, Christian Bradley, Antony Bunsee, Greer Dale-Foulkes and Penny Layden.

Lidless is presented by theatre company HighTide, who make their West End debut with the play. Having been founded in 2007 HighTide have previously transferred productions including Ditch to the Old Vic Tunnels and I Caught Crabs In Walberswick to the Bush Theatre. Their promenade production Stovepipe, which was co-produced by the National Theatre and the Bush, was presented at Shepherd’s Bush shopping centre.

Currently playing at Trafalgar Studios 2, Adam Gwon‘s musical Ordinary Days starring Daniel Boys, Julie Atherton, Alexia Khadime and Lee William-Davis continues until 5 March.

In Studio 1 Tracie Bennett‘s acclaimed portrayal of Julie Garland, End of the Rainbow continues its extended run until 21 May 2011.