Lucas Hnath’s ‘Dana H.’ to transfer to the Royal Court

Deirdre O’Connell will reprise her Tony Award-winning role in early 2024. The Royal Court also announces new productions to August 2023 including Cuckoo.

Lucas Hnath’s Tony Award-winning play, Dana H., will play in London in 2024. The Royal Court also announces new productions, with performances scheduled through August 2023.

“We are absolutely thrilled to be announcing this varied and beautiful season of work. All the writers and projects are questioning in very different ways our need for community, a need to belong and be understood, a place which holds us. We hope that people will enjoy engaging with us in all these different ways, looking both into our past and being immersed in stories which are fiercely about the now,” said Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre.

Deirdre O’Connell will reprise the role of Dana in Dana H. The play, told in Dana's own words, and reconstructed by her son Lucas Hnath, follows the title character — a psych ward chaplain held captive by a patient in Florida motels for five months.

In a five-star New York Theatre Guide review, “Dana H. [proves] there are no absolutes in theatre, particularly when the story is horrifically affecting and spectacularly executed as this show is. This should be required viewing for legal scholars, law enforcement officers, and aspirants across the country, if only to remind them that depravity reigns when they fail to do the right thing.”

Dana H. begins previews on 16 January, with an opening night on 22 January, and performances to 9 Mar. 2024.

Following performances at Vault Festival, Tatenda Shamiso’s No I.D. plays from 18 April to 6 May. Shamiso’s play follows his life as a Black transgender immigrant in the UK, and the intersection between bureaucracy and gender transitions. Sean Ting-Hsuan Wang directs.

Tom Fowler’s Hope has a Happy Meal then runs from 3 June to 8 July, with an opening night on 9 June. Set in the people’s republic of Koka Kola, the play follows Hope as she rescues her life in a world of growing corruption. Lucy Morrison directs.

Vicky Featherstone directs Michael Wynne’s Cuckoo. Cuckoo explores how “home” can be a safe place, and what it means to find comfort in an uncertain world. Cuckoo begins previews on 6 July, with an opening night on 12 July, and performances to 19 August.

Rabiah Hussain’s Word-Play now runs from 20 July to 26 August. Nimmo Ismail directs a political play following the Prime Minister whose adlibs catch up to them.

Photo credit: Dana H. on Broadway (Photo courtesy of production)