For the second year the Donmar Warehouse is to stage a season of plays
directed by recent graduates of their Resident Assistant Director (RAD)
programme at the Trafalgar Studios. The second Donmar Trafalgar season
will run for twelve weeks from 10th November, 2011, to 28th January,
2012, and will again feature three directors and three plays: Hamish
Pirie, Abbey Wright and Paul Hart will direct the world première
of Salt, Root and Roe, and revivals of Dublin Carol and
Huis Clos respectively.
Michael Grandage, Artistic Director of the Donmar, said, "Encouraging
and nurturing directors of the future has been an important part of
the Donmar's work since the Resident Assistant Director's scheme started
over fifteen years ago. It has produced many important directors including
my successor, Josie Rourke, who takes over as Artistic Director next
year. I am delighted to announce today the second residency at Trafalgar
studios following the success of last year's Olivier-nominated inaugural
season. This three year commitment will see nine emerging directors
create work with young designers and offer audiences the opportunity
to engage with challenging and exciting work outside our Covent Garden
home."
Salt, Root and Roe, a new play by Tim Price, directed
by Hamish Pirie with design by Chloe Lamford and lighting by Anna
Watson, runs from 14th November (previews from 10th) to 3rd December.
Twins Iola and Anest remain devoted to each other. Ageing fast, and
with the time they have together more fragile by the day, they arrive
at a desperate decision. Word of this reaches Anest’s daughter
Menna, who rushes to her long abandoned childhood home where her own
ideas of love and compromise are tested to the limit.
Hamish Pirie was Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar in 2006,
where he worked on The Cut
(dir Michael Grandage), Phaedra
(dir Tom Cairns), A Voyage
Round My Father (dir Thea Sharrock), Frost/Nixon
(dir Michael Grandage), The
Cryptogram (dir Josie Rourke) and Don
Juan in Soho (dir Michael Grandage).
Dublin Carol by Conor McPherson is directed by Abbey
Wright, designer Helen Goddard and Llghting designer Emma Chapman.
It runs from 12th December (previews from 8th) to 31st.
John, a man whose life and family have been destroyed by drink, now
holds down a steady job at a Dublin undertaker’s office. When
his estranged daughter appears on Christmas Eve with disturbing news,
it sparks a series of confessions that ultimately offer John a chance
to escape the burdens of his past.
Abbey Wright was the Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar from
2008-9 when she worked on The
Man Who Had All the Luck (dir Sean Holmes), Small
Change (dir Peter Gill), The
Chalk Garden (dir Michael Grandage), Piaf
(dir Jamie Lloyd), Creditors
(dir Alan Rickman), The
Family Reunion (dir Jeremy Herrin) and Be
Near Me (dir John Tiffany).
Huis Clos by Jean Paul Sartre, translated by Stuart
Gilbert (director: Paul Hart; Designer: Lucy Osborne; Composer &
Sound Designer: Tom Mills) runs from 9th January, 2012 (previews from
5th) to 28th.
One room, no windows, and a locked door. There’s no way out
for three people left alone to share their memories together. Fear
of what lies beyond the door turns talk of their earthly transgressions
into a meditation on the afterlife and a realisation that they are
torturing each other in a living hell.
Paul Hart was Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar in 2009 where
he worked on Dimetos
(dir Douglas Hodge), A
Doll’s House (dir Kfir Yefet), A
Streetcar Named Desire (dir Rob Ashford), Life
is a Dream (dir Jonathan Mumby) and Red
(dir Michael Grandage).
