A 10th anniversary revival of Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Clybourne Park and a specially adapted anime play lead the Park Theatre’s upcoming season.
As well as a Pulitzer, Bruce Norris’s satire about the politics of race and real estate also picked up Tony and Olivier awards for best play, making it one of only two plays to win all three awards. The production will be directed by Oliver Kaderbhai.
The Garden of Words will also run in the Park’s 200-seater main theatre, based on Makoto Shinkai’s 2013 anime film. The play, which has been created together with anime stage production specialists, tells a story exploring loneliness, disability and friendship.
In another new adaptation, Simon Callow will translate La Cage aux Folles from Jean Poiret’s original script. The French play, which spawned four films and a Tony Award-winning musical, sees a nightclub owner and his drag-performing partner attempt to conceal their true selves from their son’s conservative soon-to-be in-laws.
The main theatre’s season is completed by a transfer of the Hope Mill Theatre’s Rags The Musical, by the Wicked songwriters (Stephen Schwartz and Charles Strouse) and Fiddler on the Roof’s book-writer (Joseph Stein), charting the arrival of Jewish immigrants in America.
A number of works exploring identity, tradition and coming of age will be performed in the 90-seater theatre, including a UK premiere of Never Not Once, which sees a student go in search of her biological father against the wishes of her mothers. Burkas and Bacon Butties sees Shamia Chalabi draw on her own experiences of a Muslim family navigating life in Wigan, while Sally Rogers’ The Still Room follows a bored, young hotel worker as her plans change with the arrival of a new waitress.
The Park Theatre’s new season opens on January 9 with Rags The Musical, parktheatre.co.uk
