There was no avoiding it, the incoming boss of the Donmar Warehouse said, his first play in charge will be one called Europe.
Michael Longhurst, who succeeds Josie Rourke as artistic director of the small but powerful theatre in London, announced details of a new season of plays which he said asked “searing questions” about the world in which we live in and challenged the status quo.
“I want the Donmar to look outwards and forwards,” he said. “To share its privilege and become an indispensable hub of creativity and talent development to our industry.”
The first production opening in June – “impossible for me to imagine starting my season with anything else”, according to Longhurst – will be a revival of David Greig’s Europe.
It was written in 1994, as a response to the Balkan civil wars, but has a relevance and resonance to issues around Europe today, said Longhurst.
“When I read it, it sort of blew my mind it was written 25 years ago. You don’t need to change a word of the play and it speaks entirely to our times.”
The play explores what happens to a postindustrial town when the borders move. “I think it presents an interrogation of Europe in 1993, and an interrogation of Europe that we’re heading towards,” said Longhurst.
He will direct a cast that includes Billy Howle, Kevork Malikyan, Faye Marsay, Stephen Wight and Shane Zaza.
Other productions are UK premieres of two American plays. Monica Dolan will star in Appropriate, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ family-fighting drama set on a former slave plantation.
The Australian actor Daniel Monks will be the lead in Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick, a high-school take on Richard III described as “a dark and funny story about the rise of a teenage despot”.
Other productions in the season include [Blank], a new play by Alice Birch. It is a co-production with the Clean Break theatre company, which was set up 40 years ago by two female prisoners. Women who have “lived experience of the criminal justice system” will be part of the all-female cast.
In early 2020 the director Lyndsey Turner will revive Caryl Churchill’s play Far Away, about a world sliding into chaos.
Longhurst follows Rourke, Michael Grandage and Sam Mendes as artistic director of a boutique theatre that has always punched bigger than its size.
Containing only 251 seats, the Donmar faces a challenge to remain accessible. With that in mind the new executive producer, Henny Finch, announced details of a simpler way for young people to get tickets. A minimum of 40 tickets will be made available under the “Daily Donmar release” for performances taking place one week later.
