London Calling: Seven British Plays Will Hit New York City in Brits Off Broadway Festival
© Richard Davenport
The British are coming! Lucky for us, they are bringing seven plays from across the pond that have never been produced in New York. 59E59 Theaters has announced the slate for the ninth annual Brits Off Broadway Festival, which will run from March 27-June 30.
The festival will kick off by celebrating Scotland Week with two critically acclaimed plays by Scottish playwrights. Good With People by David Harrower (A Slow Air) will open the festival. The haunting play, which centers around the meeting of two people linked by a single past event, will star Blythe Duff (Beautiful Burnout) and Andrew Scott-Ramsay (Yellow Moon). Next up, magician Rob Drummond will star in Bullet Catch, a play that he penned about a modern day illusionist named William Wonder.
The festival will also feature Cornelius, a long forgotten play by British dramatist J.B. Priestley (Lost Holiday). Alan Cox (Translations) will star as the title character, an optimistic partner at an import firm who is struggling to keep his creditors happy as bankruptcy looms.
Dirty Great Love Story by Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna will close the festival. Marsh and Bonna will star in the play, which follows the adventures of two hapless romantics as they deal with the consequences of a one-night stand.
The full 2013 Brits Off Broadway lineup is as follows:
Good With People
Written by: David Harrower
Directed by: George Perrin
Running: March 27 – April 21
Produced by: The Traverse Theatre Company and Datum Point in association with Paines Plough
Featuring: Blythe Duff and Andrew Scott-Ramsay
This haunting two-hander from one of Scotland’s greatest writers, starring Blythe Duff (Beautiful Burnout) and Andrew Scott-Ramsay (Yellow Moon at Brits 2008), traces the path of personal and political destruction in Helensburgh, Scotland. Evan (Scott-Ramsay) returns to Helensburgh, home to Britain’s nuclear defense program and once a thriving holiday resort. It’s a place he’s been trying to avoid. Haunted by his past and afraid of his future, he finds Helen working at the Seaview Hotel. Linked by a single event from their past, will their meeting trigger an explosion?
Bullet Catch
Written by: Rob Drummond
Directed by: David Overend
Running: April 6-April 21
Produced by: The Arches
Featuring: Rob Drummond
The sold out hit of the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe celebrates Scotland Week with its U.S. premiere at Brits Off Broadway. “Bullet Catch” is a high-risk illusion where a magician appears to catch a bullet that is fired directly at him or her; It has claimed many lives since its conception in 1613. Performer (and magician) Rob Drummond plays modern-day marvel William Wonder in this gripping, edge-of-your-seat production.
The Girl I Left Behind Me
Written by: Neil Bartlett and Jessica Walker
Directed by: Neil Bartlett
Running: April 30-May 19
Produced by: Jess Walker Music Theatre
Featuring: Jessica Walker and Joe Atkins
This tribute to the artistry and glamour of the often-outrageous, cross-dressing women of the British music hall and American variety stages, takes a provocatively contemporary look at what it means when a woman wears the trousers on stage.
Botallack O’Clock
Written and directed by: Eddie Elks
Running: May 21-June 9
Produced by: Third Man Theatre
Featuring: Danny Frost and Rhys KingA dark comedy based on the life and death of the artist Roger Hilton CBE, a pioneer of abstract art in post-war Britain. This funny but startling portrait was called “the best kind of buried treasure” in Time Out London when it premiered at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Cornelius
Written by: J.B. Priestley
Directed by: Sam Yates
Running: June 4 – June 30
Produced by: Jagged Fence, Handsome Dog, and 31 Productions
Featuring: Emily Barber, Alex Bartram, Robin Browne, Pandora Colin, Alan Cox, David Ellis, Andrew Fallaize, Col Farrell, Beverley Klein, Jamie Newall, Xanthe Patterson, and Simon RhodesAs bankruptcy looms, the ever-optimistic Jim Cornelius, a partner at the import firm Briggs and Murrison, fights to keep his creditors happy and his spirits up. Tensions rise with the arrival of Judy, a beautiful and young typist who shows Cornelius the life he could have led.
The Boat Factory
Written by: Dan Gordon
Directed by: Philip Crawford
Running: June 4 – June 30
Produced by: Happenstance Theatre Company
Featuring: Dan Gordon and Michael CondronA host of colorful characters from the glory days of Belfast’s shipbuilding era construct a poignant, funny, and moving picture of boat-building, male friendship, hardship, humor and heroism.
Dirty Great Love Story
Written by: Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna
Directed by: Pia Furtado
Running: June 11 – June 30
Produced by: Polly Ingham Productions and Tim Johanson Productions in association with the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds
Featuring: Richard Marsh and Katie BonnaDirty Great Love Story is a comedy about two hopeful, hapless romantics who get drunk, get it on, and then get the hell away from each other. Kind of. In her eyes, he’s a mistake. A mistake who keeps turning up at parties. In his eyes, she’s perfect.
Bull
Written by: Mike Bartlett
Directed by: Clare Lizzimore
Running: April 25 – June 2
Produced by: Sheffield Theatres
Two jobs. Three candidates. This would be a really bad time to have a stain on your shirt. Written as a companion piece to last season’s Off Broadway hit Cock, Bull is a razor sharp play about office politics, or playground bullying – depending which side you’re on.
