A selection of plays from England, Scotland and Wales — as well as the festival's first musical offering — are on the bill for the festival that runs through June 29. Brits Off-Broadway is presented by 59E59 Theaters' Elysabeth Kleinhans and Peter Tear.
The 2008 line-up includes:
Guy Hollands directs the import from Glasgow's TAG Citizens Theatre, described as "a fast-paced modern Bonnie and Clyde tale of two teenagers on the run in the Highlands of Scotland." April 23-May 18.
Directed by Muriel Romanes, from Edinburgh's Stellar Quines Theatre Company, the drama centers on "a fiercely intelligent young girl and her relentless refusal of the establishment. When a people's revolution breaks out and a mercenary soldier intrudes the family home, the conflict between the regime and the unconquered girl is revealed." May 1-18.
Philip Howard stages the work from Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre. Damascus stars Ewen Bremner "as an English language textbook salesman on assignment to the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth." May 7-June 1.
James Grieve directs the production from London's nabokov and the Bush Theatre about "16-year-old Kelly [who] is having a normal Saturday when her unknown father, who is Iraqi, turns up out of the blue. He's smuggled a priceless antique from the Baghdad Museum and wants Kelly to look after it." May 20-June 8.
From the F.A.B. Theatre in Cardiff, Steve Fisher directs the drama inspired by a real-life report about the systematic abuse of children at a Welsh language school. May 21-June 8.
The festival's first-ever musical production. Daniel Buckroyd directs the work from Nottingham's New Perspectives Theatre Company, which "tells the timeless, moving story of a young married couple and their struggle to carve a living from the land, just as the rhythms of English country life are being interrupted by the gathering storm of war in Europe." June 5-29.
From TFP in association with London's Old Vic New Voices comes this new work "about a woman visited by a teenager who has some connection with the death of her son." Steve Marmion directs. June 10-29.
Toby Frow stages the comedy from London's Trafalgar Studios —starring Lucy Briers — that concerns "Rachel, a small-time hack and seeker of minor adventure, [who] sets off down the Thames Path to Greenwich to interview British pop legend Lulu for her tabloid's glossy supplement. But between London Bridge and Lulu's mirrored hallway lies a series of unpredicted and comic events." June 10-29. Single tickets for Brits Off-Broadway range $27.50-$50. Four-show passes are also available for $125. For tickets and further information phone (212) 279-4200 or visit www.britsoffbroadway.com.
