Pulitzer Prize for Drama awarded to Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced

The 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama has been awarded to actor/writer Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced, which receives its UK premiere at the Bush Theatre next month.

The play, which premiered in January last year at Chicago’s American Theater Company, centres on a dinner party hosted by an affluent Pakistani-American lawyer that spirals into a heated debate over identity and religion.

Akhtar’s first work for the stage, it will be directed by Nadia Fall at the Bush, where it runs from 17 May to 22 June 2013 starring Hari Dhillon, Kirsty Bushell, Danny Ashok, Sara Powell and Nigel Whitmey.

The playwright, who is in London for the beginning of rehearsals, said today: “What an honour and privilege it is to receive this award. I’m humbled, and I’m also so eager to be here in London on the eve of rehearsals beginning for the new production at the Bush Theatre in May. I think I might be dreaming.”

Bush artistic director Madani Younis added: “We are all thrilled for Ayad – this is a richly deserved honour. When I read the play I was deeply to drawn to it – it speaks of urgent global concerns… I’m delighted that this is the opening show of our new season.”