Hampstead Theatre's 50th Anniversary Season

Hampstead Theatre's 50th Anniversary Season

The Hampstead Theatre, the popular north London fringe venue, has announced its programme for the first half of its 50th anniversary year.

Anthony Clark, the Artistic Director says, "I am extremely proud to present the programme for the first half of our 50th anniversary year. It gives us the opportunity to celebrate past achievements and look to the future. Looking back, the diversity of style and content at Hampstead Theatre has been quite astonishing. Our programme for 2009 pays homage to that diversity by reviving a successful play from each decade, complemented by two rehearsed readings of plays which premiered at Hampstead in the same decade. Between each revival we will present a new play, maintaining our dedication to new writing and leading us boldly into the next 50 years."

The Five Productions are....

22 Jan to 28 Feb 2009
PRIVATE LIVES , by Noel Coward, directed by Lucy Bailey, starring Jasper Britton, Claire Price. Amanda and Elyot can't live together and they can't live apart. When they discover they are honeymooning in the same hotel with their new spouses, they not only fall in love all over again, they learn to hate each other all over again.

5 Mar to 4 Apr 2009
THE BERLIN HANOVER EXPRESS, by Ian Kennedy Martin, directed by Michael Rudman. Set in the Irish consulate in Berlin in the autumn of 1942, The Berlin Hanover Express explores the implications of a country remaining neutral in a time of war.

16 Apr to 16 May 2009
ALPHABETICAL ORDER, by Michael Frayn , directed by Christopher Luscombe. Set in a provincial newspaper office in the 1970s, the lives and routines of a group of befuddled, stuck-in-their-ways journalists are systematically filed and ordered by new girl, Leslie.

21 May to 13 Jun 2009
AMONGST FRIENDS , by April De Angelis, directed by Anthony Clark. Darkly comic social satire, poking fun at modern day fears and double standards. A successful couple, having recently moved to a fashionable 'gated community', invite their old neighbours to dinner. When the security system fails, an uninvited guest descends and the dinner party takes quite a different turn.

18 Jun to 18 Jul 2009
OBSERVE THE SONS OF ULSTER MARCHING TOWARDS THE SOMME , by Frank McGuinness, directed by John Dove. Eight men volunteer to serve in the 36th (Ulster) Division at the beginning of the First World War. Following their experiences, the play reaches a climax at the start of the battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 - also the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne 1690, one of the most infamous battles in British and Irish History. With heavy casualties from the Ulster Division, the Somme, like the Boyne, holds a significant place in the history of the Irish Protestant movement.