New plays by Katie Mitchell & Nicholas Wright - Hampstead

The Hampstead Theatre, in north London, has announced two new productions for their 80-seat studio space Downstairs.

Say It With Flowers, material by Gertrude Stein, directed by Katie Mitchell, from 5 April to 4 May 2013. Mitchell brings 'her relentlessly innovative approach' to Say It With Flowers and takes the audience on a surreal and unexpected journey through a selection of celebrated American modernist Gertrude Stein's writing. (This is a promenade performance, which may require the audience to stand and possibly move locations.) It has lighting by Jack Knowles and design by Alex Eales.

A Human Being Died That Night , by Nicholas Wright, directed by Jonathan Munby, designed by Paul Wills, from 10 May to 15 June 2013. 1997, Pretoria Central Prison, South Africa. Psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela prepares to sit opposite the apartheid regime's most notorious assassin. A member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she is interviewing Eugene de Kock while he serves 212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud. How did he become one of the most reviled figures in apartheid history? Is she able to overcome her disgust and hate for this monster and find the human within? And will he even be prepared to open up and tell an educated black woman the truth?

- by Darren Dalglish