Next month, a new season of plays looking at family opens at London's Gate Theatre.
The season is comprised of the world première of five works: Nina Segal’s In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises), four new plays responding to Iphigenia at Aulis and the UK première of Medea by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks after Euripides.
In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises) looks at the experience of new parents caring for their baby over the course of one night. Nina Segal's other work includes Big Guns and Fin, which was shortlisted for the Adrian Pagan Award last year, Escape Velocity, Hundred Year Space Trip and T.B.A.
The Iphigenia Quartet is a group of four newly commissioned works, each the response of a writer to Euripides' classic tragedy seen from a different character's perspective that will be performed in a pair of double bills across consecutive nights.
The Iphigenia Quartet is made of up of:
- Agamemnon is by Caroline Bird whose recent work includes a new version of The Wizard of Oz, Northern Stage’s recently closed Christmas production.
- Iphigenia by Suhayla El-Bushra. El Bushra is currently writer in residence at the NT Studio and her adaptation of Nikolai Erdman’s The Suicide will be staged at the National Theatre later this year.
- Chorus by Chris Thorpe. An Associate at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Thorpe is currently working on a new version of Beowulf for the Unicorn Theatre and a new play for the Royal Court.
In November, Gate Theatre presents the UK première of Medea by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks after Euripides, in association with Belvoir, Sydney.
The plays looks at the action through the eyes of the children; on opening it won five Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction and Best New Australian Work. It also won an Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Stage Play.
Director and writer, Sarks' other credits include Elektra/Orestes, A Christmas Carol, Nora and Medea.
Co–writer Kate Mulvany is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her autobiographical play The Seed won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production and is being developed into a feature film.
- In the Night Time (Before the Sun Rises): 4 February to 27 February
- The Iphigenia Quartet: 23 April to 21 May
- Agamemnon
- Iphigenia
- Clytemnestra
- Chorus
- Medea: 2 to 28 November