With their production of Labour of Love about to complete its run, the Michael Grandage Company (MGC) today announces two new productions for 2018 – Red by John Logan, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh, both directed by the company’s Artistic Director Michael Grandage.
Red runs at the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre from 4 May to 28 July 2018, with a press night on 15 May, followed by The Lieutenant of Inishmore running from 23 June to 18 September 2018, with a press night on 4 July, around the corner at the Noël Coward Theatre, currently home to Labour of Love.
The two plays have over 40,000 seats at just £10 – 25% of the total capacity, continuing the company’s unique access policy and its commitment to developing new audiences.
Based on the original Donmar Warehouse production, this new production of Red by John Logan is the first-ever UK revival since Grandage originated the premiere at the Donmar in 2009. The production went on to win six Tony Awards including Best Play.
Award-winning stage and screen actor Alfred Molina reprises his critically acclaimed performance as the American abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. He is joined by rising star Alfred Enoch of US television drama series How To Get Away With Murder.
The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh receives a rare revival in the West End. It follows Michael Grandage’s award-winning production of McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan at the same address in 2013, which later transferred to Broadway. Aidan Turner stars as Mad Padraic, a terrorist deemed too violent to be a member of the IRA. The play, which premiered at the RSC in 2001, is a brilliant satire on terrorism, an acute observation of violence in contemporary culture and a hilarious farce.
Since Michael Grandage formed MGC in 2012, it has produced ten plays including several new plays directly into the West End. The company continues their commitment to offer over 40,000 tickets at £10 (including booking fee and restoration levy), which is 25% of the tickets for both productions, across all levels of the auditorium. In addition, they will stage both captioned and audio described performances.
Michael Grandage commented:
“This announcement continues our commitment to producing great plays in the West End with accessible pricing at the core of everything we do. I am looking forward to working with these exciting actors on two brilliant plays in two of the most beautiful playhouses in London.”
Bios
John Logan is a playwright and screenwriter. His numerous plays include Peter and Alice, Never the Sinner, Hauptmann, Speaking in Tongues, Scorched Earth and Riverview. His adaptation of The Master Builder was in the West End in 2003. For television, his work includes Penny Dreadful. As a three-time Academy Award nominated screenwriter, his work includes Alien Covenant, Spectre, Genius, Noah, Lincoln, Skyfall, Hugo, Rango, Coriolanus, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Golden Globe Award), The Aviator, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, Any Given Sunday and RKO 281 (WGA Award).
Alfred Enoch plays Ken. For theatre his work includes King Lear (Royal Exchange Manchester), Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse), Timon of Athens, Antigone (National Theatre). For television, his credits include Troy, How To Get Away with Murder, Sherlock and Broadchurch; and for film, Enoch played Dean Thomas across seven of the eight Harry Potter films.
Alfred Molina plays Mark Rothko. His most recent theatre work includes Long Day’s Journey into Night (Geffen Playhouse) and No More Shall We Part (Williamstown Theatre Festival). He first starred in Red at the Donmar Warehouse in 2009, which later transferred to Broadway and for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play. His other theatre work includes Fiddler on The Roof (Minskoff Theatre – Tony Award nomination), Art (Royale Theatre – Tony Award nomination), Molly Sweeney (Roundabout Theater – Outer Circle Critics’ Award for Most Outstanding Debut Performance), The Cherry Orchard (Mark Taper Forum), The Night of Iguana, Speed the Plow (National Theatre), Serious Money (Royal Court Theatre), Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! (Criterion Theatre), Oklahoma! (Palace Theatre) and The Taming of the Shrew (RSC). For television, his work includes I’m Dying Up Here, Angie Tribeca, Bette and Joan (Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor), Close to the Enemy, Sister Cities, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, The Normal Heart (Emmy nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor), Show Me a Hero, Monday Mornings, Roger and Val Have Just Got In, Law and Order: LA and The Life and Times of Tim; and for film, Love is Strange, The Pink Panther 2, An Education, The Lodger, Spider-Man 2, The Da Vinci Code, Silk, Frida, Chocolat, Magnolia, As You Like It, The Hoax, Anna Karenina, Boogie Nights, Species, Maverick, The Perez Family, Hideaway and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Martin McDonagh is an award-winning writer and director. His plays are The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Pillowman, A Behanding in Spokane, Hangmen and the upcoming A Very Very Very Dark Matter. As a writer and director for film his credits are Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges, Six Shooter as well as Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which won Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival, the Grolsch People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival and was the closing film at this year’s BFI London Film Festival.
Aidan Turner plays Padraic. His theatre work includes The Plough and The Stars, Romeo and Juliet and A Cry from Heaven (Abbey Theatre Dublin), Cyrano and Titus Andronicus (Project Arts Centre). For television, his work includes The Clinic, Being Human, Desperate Romantics, Hattie and as the title role in Poldark, now in its 4th series; and for film, The Hobbit trilogy of films, The Mortal Instruments, The Secret Scripture, Loving Vincent and the forthcoming Look Away and The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot. He was named GQ Actor of the Year for 2016 and Radio Times’s Most Popular UK Actor in 2015 and 2016.
