Two new plays exploring questions of responsibility and endeavour in society and an opportunity to see works-in-progress will be features of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s month-long The Other Place Spring Mischief Festival.
Led by deputy artistic director Erica Whyman, the festival will include new plays The Earthworks by Tom Morton-Smith, directed by Whyman, and Myth by Matt Hartley and Kirsty Housley, who also directs.
Erica Whyman said, “although The Other Place is only a year old, it’s already established itself as a central and much loved part of RSC life.
“The two plays at the centre of the festival feel both urgent and profound but their seductive charm lies in the seeming simplicity of their settings: a hotel bar late at night, dinner with friends in a new flat. Below their surfaces lie dark, fascinating and sometimes furious questions about how to be alive.
“It’s a real treat to be directing Tom Morton-Smith's wonderful writing. Matt Hartley and Kirsty Housley are terrific collaborators and embody perfectly the spirit of radical mischief, of experiment, enquiry and playfulness which are at the heart of The Other Place.”
The two plays have a shared cast including Fehinti Balogun, Rebecca Humphries, Lena Kaur and Thomas Magnussen. They will be presented as a double bill in the Studio at The Other Place from Wednesday 24 May until Saturday 17 June.
The work-in-progress features Busking It, a one-woman show written and performed by Danusia Samal who shares a busker's experiences of nearly ten years’ singing on the London underground (Friday 2 June), and #WeAreArrested by journalist Can Dündar, an “enthralling” account of his arrest and subsequent exile from Turkey after his newspaper’s decision to publish photographic evidence of covert arms dealing to Islamic fundamentalists in Syria (Saturday 16 June). Both will be staged in the Michel Saint-Denis rehearsal space at The Other Place.
The RSC has also announced that the show for the Autumn Mischief Festival will be Kingdom Come, created by Gemma Brockis and Wendy Hubbard. The festival will run from 7 until 30 September.