The Donmar Warehouse today announces its next season of work.
Current Trainee Associate Director Robert Hastie will direct the 20th anniversary production of Kevin Elyot’s Olivier and Evening Standard award-winning play My Night With Reg. The comedy is set in London’s gay community in the summer of 1985 against the back drop of the mounting AIDS crisis. Hastie’s production will star Julian Ovenden as John. He will be joined in the cast by Matt Bardock as Benny, Jonathan Broadbent as Guy, Richard Cant as Bernie, Lewis Reeves as Eric and Geoffrey Streatfeild as Daniel.
The Donmar has for many years run one of the most successful training schemes for young directors in its Resident Assistant Director role. Previous incumbents include current Artistic Director Josie Rourke, Rupert Goold, Sasha Wares and Charlotte Westenra. In recognition of the move into the company’s new base at Dryden Street, in which rehearsal room, office and education space can be under one roof for the first time, the Donmar have inaugurated a second training position, the Trainee Artistic Director. The role has been created to train the Artistic Directors of tomorrow, offering exceptional insight into the programing, funding and running of a theatre building and company. Applications for the post will open this summer.
Alongside this development the Donmar Warehouse today also announces the appointment of two resident artists for Donmar Dryden Street. Nick Payne, whose The Same Deep Water As Me at the Donmar was nominated for Best New Comedy at the 2014 Olivier Awards, will become Writer in Residence. Michael Bruce will continue in his role as Composer in Residence. Bruce’s work at the Donmar includes current production, Privacy, as well asCoriolanus, The Machine (Manchester International Festival/Park Avenue Armory, New York), Trelawny of the Wells and Berenice.
Donmar Dryden Street will also allow the Donmar to extend its Education programme with a goal to double the number of people taking part over the next three years. The Tomorrow Project, the theatre’s new programme for local schools, will run for the second year in 2014-15, alongside an increased programme of work accompanying Donmar productions for schools and young people. This season will see over 1,000 young people seeing a Donmar production for £5 or less, and over 300 performing on the Donmar stage as part of our Education programmes.
The Donmar Warehouse is delighted to confirm that Barclays will continue to support the ground-breaking scheme Barclays Front Row, which offers front row tickets for each performance at the Donmar for just £10. Each Monday morning at 10am over 300 tickets are released for sale in the front row of both stalls and circle for a week’s worth of performances two weeks later. Since it began, we have sold over 21,000 Barclays Front Row tickets with almost 50% of ticket buyers being first time visitors to the Donmar.
‘What’s a night between friends?’
On its premiere, Kevin Elyot’s Olivier and Evening Standard award-winning comedy, My Night With Reg, defined a moment in the lives of gay men and became an instant classic. For its 20th anniversary, rising star Robert Hastie directs the first major revival.
At Guy’s London flat, old friends and new gather to party through the night. This is the summer of 1985, and for Guy and his circle the world is about to change forever. Deliciously funny and bittersweet, Kevin Elyot’s comedy captures the fragility of friendship, happiness and life itself.
Robert Hastie (Director) most recently directed Carthage, a new play by Chris Thompson, in January 2014 at the Finborough Theatre, where he also directed the acclaimed first production in over forty years of John McGrath'sEvents While Guarding the Bofors Gun in 2012. Hastie directed the UK premiere of Sunburst by Tennessee Williams in 2012, as part of The Hotel Plays for Defibrillator at the Holborn Grange Hotel. As Associate Director forSixty-Six Books, which opened the new Bush Theatre, Hastie directed the world premieres of In the Land Of Uz,The Middle Man, David and Goliath, Snow in Sheffield and A Lost Expression. Hastie is Trainee Associate Director at the Donmar Warehouse and was Associate Director on Privacy and Coriolanus. In 2011, he was Associate Director on Much Ado About Nothing starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate (Wyndham's). He has assisted Peter Gill and Laurie Sansom, and was an Associate Artist of the National Youth Theatre. He originally trained as an actor at RADA, and has performed with the National Theatre, RSC, Cheek By Jowl, Frantic Assembly, Headlong and in the West End.
Matt Bardock (playing Benny) makes his third appearance at the Donmar having previously appeared in The Darkand Josie Rourke’s production of Frame 312. Bardock also appeared in Rourke’s production of Kick for Touch(Sheffield Crucible). Other theatre credits include Mojo and Peaches (both Royal Court) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth (both Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre). Bardock has worked regularly in television includingCasualty, New Tricks, No Angels and Judge John Deed and his film credits include Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing and Topsy-Turvy.
Jonathan Broadbent (playing Guy) makes his Donmar debut in My Night with Reg. Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith), Hamlet (Rose Theatre), Ghost Stories (Duke Of York’s Theatre),Chekhov in Hell (Soho Theatre, The Drum Theatre Plymouth) and Three Sisters (Lyric Hammersmith). Broadbent has also appeared in feature films As You Like It and The Magic Flute.
Richard Cant (playing Bernie) makes his Donmar debut in My Night with Reg. Cant’s theatre credits include War Horse (New London), Salome (Hampstead Theatre / Tour), Cymbeline (Barbican /World Tour) and Hamlet, Cymbeline and Much Ado About Nothing (all RSC). Television credits include Vexed, Above Suspicion: Red Dahlia,Bleak House and Doctors.
Julian Ovenden (playing John) returns to the Donmar, having previously appeared in Grand Hotel and Merrily We Roll Along. Recent theatre credits include Sunday in the Park with George (Théâtre du Châtelet), Finding Neverland (Leicester Curve), Death Takes a Holiday (Roundabout, New York) and Marguerite (Theatre Royal Haymarket). Extensive television work includes Downton Abbey, Smash, Any Human Heart, Midsomer Murdersand Charmed.
Lewis Reeves (playing Eric) makes his Donmar debut in My Night With Reg. Recent theatre credits include Our Boys (Duchess Theatre) and Muscle (Shock N Awe). He has appeared in well-known television productions including Our World War, Misfits, Inspector George Gently and Law and Order.
Geoffrey Streatfeild (playing Daniel) makes his Donmar debut in My Night With Reg. He has appeared on stage in productions including Macbeth, Copenhagen (both Sheffield Crucible), Children of the Sun, Earthquakes in London(both NT) and frequently with the RSC (Henry V, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Richard III). Extensive television work includes The Thick of It, Spooks, Ashes to Ashes and The Other Boleyn Girl.
