New Alan Bennett play Allelujah! to premiere at Bridge Theatre

Alan Bennett's new play Allelujah! will open at the Bridge Theatre this July.

The show, a comedy set in a West Yorkshire geriatric ward, will be directed by the Bridge's artistic director Nicholas Hytner. The show will reunite the pair for the first time since Hytner directed Bennett's play The Habit of Art in 2009, back when he was artistic director at the National Theatre. Previous collaborations between the pair include the Olivier and Tony Award-winning play The History Boys, with Hytner going on to direct the film adaptation of the piece. Bennett's last full-length play was People, which debuted at the National Theatre in 2012.

Bennett's piece will run before the previously announced new play by writer Martin McDonagh A Very Very Very Dark Matter, which will star Jim Broadbent and opens in October 2018. The cast for Allelujah! is to be announced.

The show will have design by Bob Crowley, lighting by Natasha Chivers and music by George Fenton.

Last month, it was announced that the Bridge Theatre would premiere the stage adaptation of Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel My Name is Lucy Barton in June, with star Laura Linney making her London stage debut in the production.

Allelujah! runs at the Bridge Theatre from 18 July to 28 September with previews from 11 July.