Hampstead Theatre sets 2023-24 season

The Off-West End theatre's season includes eight productions: six world premieres, one U.K. premiere, and one revival of an acclaimed play by Tom Stoppard.

Hampstead Theatre has announced its full 2023-24 season, with eight new productions premiering between September and March. Four will go up on Hampstead's Main Stage, and four will premiere on the Hampstead Downstairs stage, a smaller space used for presentations of new works.

The mainstage season begins with anthropology, written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Anna Ledwich. The play follows Merril, a software developer who creates a digital version of her sister, Angie, after she mysteriously vanishes. The virtual Angie offers comfort — until it reveals clues about the real Angie's disappearance. Performances run from 7 September to 14 October, with opening night on 18 September.

Next is Richard Bean's To Have and To Hold, directed by Richard Wilson. Performances run from 20 October to 25 November, and opening is 26 October. The show follows a retired married couple who have turned bickering into an art, but who are getting on fine — if only their adult children will let them live out their days in peace.

Both those plays are world premieres, and they're followed by a revival of Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll, directed by Nina Raine. The play follows the lives of postgrad student and his professor Max, which are intertwined with the rise of rock and roll and the Czech Communist police state. The play runs from 6 December to 27 January, with opening on 12 December.

The final mainstage show is the world premiere of Double Feature, written by John Logan and directed by Jonathan Kent. The play juxtaposes the conflicts happening in a Suffolk cottage, between a young director and his aging star, and on a Hollywood set made to look like a Suffolk cottage, where Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren have a confrontation while making Marnie. Performances run from 8 February to 16 March, with opening night on 19 February.

An additional four premieres will go up in Hampstead Downstairs. The first is Octopolis, about a grieving, world-renowned octupus researcher whose world turns upside down when an anthropologist enters her lab with a shocking new theory to test. Performances run from 15 September to 28 October; opening night is 25 September.

Magdalena Miecznicka's Nineteen Gardens, directed by Alice Hamilton, is next, with performances from 3 November to 9 December and opening on 9 November. Her play follows two people who meet long after their affair ended and discover their spark is still there — but rekindling it might lead to dark results.

The third Downstairs production is This Much I Know, written by Jonathan Spector and directed by Chelsea Walker. The show follows a professor whose wife suddenly leaves to go on an epic journey to uncover a newly revealed family mystery, which is deeply rooted in Soviet history. Opening is 19 December, and performances run from 13 December to 27 January.

The final production in Hampstead's season is Neil D’Souza's Out of Season, also directed by Hamilton. Old band members reunite after 30 years at the Ibiza hotel where their careers began, but their trip down memory lane quickly goes awry. Performances run from 16 February to 23 March, and opening night is 23 February.

Casting and additional creative team members for all these productions have yet to be announced.

Photo credit: Hampstead Theatre. (Photo courtesy of Hampstead Theatre)