Double bill of plays exploring the climate crisis to feature in new Donmar Warehouse season

Take two: This is Michael Longhurst's second season as Donmar Warehouse artistic director
Helen Maybanks
Zoe Paskett21 January 2020

A double bill of plays about the climate crisis and a UK premiere by Puliter-winner Suzan-Lori Parks will lead the Donmar Warehouse’s new season.

Steve Waters’ The Continency Plan, which debuted at the Bush Theatre in 2009, has been updated to reflect the changes over the past decade. The two plays, On the Beach and Resilience, will be directed by Caroline Steinbeis and Chelsea Walker and open in June.

The first sees a glaciologist return to the UK from Antarctica with news of a huge flood, while the second has an expert fighting to be heard in the face of catastrophe. The double bill is a co-production with Theatr Clwyd, and will be created in an environmentally sustainable way at both theatres.

In response to The Contingency Plan, the Donmar’s newly formed local company will explore a climate positive future in Assembly, created by writer Nina Segal and director Joseph Hancock.

Opening the season in April, Gate Theatre artistic director Ellen McDougall will direct the UK’s first major production of In the Blood by Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks. The play is inspired by classic novel The Scarlet Letter and tells the story of a mother trying to improve life for her five children.

The new stage adaptation of Ruben Östlund’s film Force Majeure will close Michael Longhurst’s second season as artistic director of the Donmar. Longhurst himself will helm the production, written by Tim Price, which explores the fallout of a family’s response to an avalanche on a skiing holiday.

Teenage Dick is currently running at the theatre, with Caryl Churchill’s Far Away closing Longhurst’s first season in February and March.

London theatre to look forward to in 2020

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