Finborough Theatre announces its Winter Season

The Finborough Theatre, a fringe venue in Earl's Court, west London, has announced its winter season...

A Life, by Hugh Leonard. 2 to 27 Oct 2012. Directed by Eleanor Rhode, produced by Snapdragon Productions. It's reckoning time for Desmond Drumm, a scathingly witty and high-principled civil servant, living in small-town Ireland. With six months to live, Drumm looks back on the triumphs and tragedies of his life as he desperately tries to put his emotional accounts in order. The past and the present meet as Drumm, his simple and loving wife, and the one true love of his life, who rejected him for a lovable ne'er do well, trace the evolution of his life. Isolated from the world by his 'high principles,' Drumm comes to realise that perhaps he has never given his life, or the people in it, a chance...

Khadija is 18, by Shamser Sinha. 30 Oct to 24 Nov 2012. (A World Premiere) Directed by Tim Stark, produced by Esther Nissard for B29 Productions. A story from the frontline of multicultural Britain, and explores the lives of two teenage refugee girls in London's East End. Liza needs Khadija and Khadija needs Liza. When Khadija links up with Ade, things begin to unravel. Does Khadija care about Liza anymore? And what is Ade doin' having sex with a ref girl? All the while the immigration clock is ticking down.

Pack, by Louise Monaghan. 27 Nov to 22 Dec 2012. (A World Premiere) One of the winners of the Papatango New Writing Festival. As a BNP rally gathers momentum on the streets outside, four women meet to play bridge. Struggling to find common ground, they talk about the men they married, their gifted and delinquent children and what their own heritage means. But beliefs and loyalties are tested to the limit when Stephie's fourteen year old son, Jack, is implicated in a brutal racist attack that leaves an eleven year old Pakistani boy close to death. A raw, uncompromising drama about bigotry and racism that explores the insidious rise of the British National Party.

Everyday Maps for Everyday Use, by Tom Morton-Smith. Early evenings 6 to 22 Dec 2012. (A World Premiere) One of the winners of the Papatango New Writing Festival. A play about fantasy and sexuality, and about the blurry and indistinct lines between reality and desire.. Maggie has found a warm patch of ground on Horsell Common. She believes something is buried in the dirt. This is the site of the Martian invasion in H G Wells' The War of the Worlds and she sneaks out of the house in the dead of night and dances on the warm spot. Here she meets Behrooz, an amateur astronomer who spends his nights mapping the surface of Mars. Cartographer John is remapping the streets of Woking. He's about to become a father and is terrified by the thought. He finds an ally in Corinne, Maggie's mother - a woman struggling to keep her sex life separate and secret from her daughter. Kiph, who everyone thinks is gay, its madly in love with Maggie, his best-friend. He attends a book signing to meet his hero, Richard Bleakman - star of cult 80s sci-fi show John Carter of Mars. Richard has problems of his own.