The plays will be directed, respectively, by former RSC artistic director Michael Boyd, David Grindley and Laurence Boswell.
The Big Meal will begin performances March 6, 2014, prior to an official opening March 12, for a run through April 5. Originally premiered in Chicago in 2011 and subsequently seen in New York at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons in 2012, its author won the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award for Sixty Miles to Silver Lake. This production is presented in association with HighTide Festival Theatre.
According to press materials, the play is "about love, marriage, raising children and the general onslaught of life, in which you turn around and find that youth has vanished and taken with it a lot of your dearest held assumptions about the way things would turn out. Somewhere in America, in a typical suburban restaurant on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet. Sparks fly. And so begins an exhilarating story that takes five generations of a modern family on a rollercoaster ride through life, from first kiss to final goodbye, across nearly eighty years."
Director Michael Boyd directs his first play since leaving the RSC after a decade as its artistic director from 2002-2012, during which time he directed the RSC's eight-play History cycle.
A Steady Rain will begin performances April 9 prior to an official opening April 15, for a run through May 10. Previously seen on Broadway in 2009 with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, the play chronicles love and rage on the streets of Chicago when one ordinary day a deadly error of judgement sends the lives of two cops spinning out of control. Joey and Denny, best friends since childhood, are practically family: Joey helps out with Denny’s wife and kids; Denny keeps Joey away from the bottle. But when a routine domestic disturbance turns into something terrifying and tragic, it is clear someone must bear responsibility. As the need to serve and protect both consumes the two cops, and rips them apart, trust and loyalty struggle for survival against a backdrop of pimps, prostitutes, and criminal lowlife.
Huff's other credits include "Mad Men," the first series of "House of Cards" and a film adaptation of "A Steady Rain" for Barbara Brocolli’s EON Films.
Intimate Apparel will begin performances May 29 prior to an official opening June 4, for a run through June 28. Originally premiered at Baltimore's Center Stage in 2003, and subsequently seen at Costa Mesa's South Coast Repertory, who co-produced and co-commissioned it, the play received its New York premiere under the auspices of the Roundabout Theatre Company in 2004.
Set in 1905 in New York City, the play revolves around Esther, a black seamstress, who sews exquisite lingerie for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. She has saved enough to allow her to dream of one day opening a beauty salon for black women, and at 35 years old, longs for a husband and a future. When she begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man who is working on the Panama Canal, it looks like life may be about to take a different course.
To book tickets, contact the box office on 01225 448844 or visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk/ustinov for more details.
