Royal Court Theatre

Four London teenagers sit, bored and trapped inside on a Saturday. They’ve been robbed of their free time, but worst of all they have been subjected to the company of their fellow troublemakers. Taking inspiration from John Hughes’s seminal 1985 film ‘The Breakfast Club’ – about a motley crew of American high school students punished with a weekend detention – Sabrina Ali sets her play in a dugsi: a term British Somalis use to describe a religious school. They turn up frustrated, brash and full of secrets: they are each reluctant to reveal the real reason why they’re here to their peers. Usually, they wouldn’t give each other the time of day but in detention, the only thing they’ve got to do is talk. As the hour ticks on and their elusive teacher still hasn’t shown his face, the girls start to bond by sharing horror stories based on Somalian fables and passing gossip round like its breaking news. At the play’s centre is a mystery. Where did the aloof, angry Hani disappear to for two years? The remaining trio – Munira, Yasmin and Salma, all have their own beliefs. Did she become a drug dealer? Get pregnant and had a baby in Year 9? The big reveal is held back until the play’s final moments which means the pacing feels off throughout. Often, it feels like we’re waiting for the script to kick into action. The structure can be forgiven though because Ali’s play seeps with realism, relatability and endless charm. This is a picture of adolescence in 2024: phones are clutched tightl

The first main house play in David Byrne’s reign at the Royal Court is one that was made earlier: following her restaging of her play ‘little scratch’ at his old gaff the New Diorama Theatre, the great Brit auteur director Katie Mitchell remounts her 2019 German adaptation of Maggie Nelson’s ‘Bluets’, an essay on grief, sadness and the colour blue. That’s not to say that this is anything other than a great piece of leftfield programming from Byrne, though: the Court has gone without a really successful Downstairs theatre show for what feels like years – Mitchell’s rep alone is enough to sell ‘Bluets’, but it’s also enough to get a very exciting cast headed by Paddington Bear himself Ben Whishaw, who’ll star alongside Emma D’Arcy and Kayla Meikle. There’s a new English language adaptation of the show by rising star playwright Margaret Perry.

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth’s absurdist sexual assault comedy has been a hit in Dublin the past two years and now transfers to the Royal Court as part of David Byrne’s debut season. Faye is struggling in the aftermath of a home invasion – so she asks her brother Naoise to help restage the invasion as a form of exposure therapy. But Naoise has his own disturbing secrets that are about to come out. Oisín Kearney directs. 

The ‘big’ show in this year’s LIFT 2024 programme is the latest from Iranian theatremaker Nassim Soleimanpour, who has become a global cult success for works in which rehearsed actors are absent and an unrehearsed performer – often a celebrity – receives mischievous instructions that usually build into a powerful socially important narrative.   Made in collaboration with leftfield director Omar Elerian, the point of Soleimanpour’s shows is that what happens in them is a surprise to everyone present – especially the performer – so the content of ‘ECHO’ is basically unknown, though we’re promised it will ‘push the boundaries of Soleimanpour’s signature unrehearsed cold reads to the next level’ and will ask us ‘to confront what it feels like to be an immigrant in time’. In any case, his previous shows – notably the sleeper enormo-hit ‘White Rabbit, Red Rabbit’ have been excellent, and you wouldn't bet against a few big names to turn up amongst the readers. 

Even though it was actually commissioned for the Bridge Theatre – which has been unable to stage it because of the blockbuster success of ‘Guys and Dolls’ – Mark Rosenblatt’s ‘Giant’ looks set to be the defining piece of programming of David Byrne’s Royal Court tenure, or certainly of the first year. There’s the director, for a start: Bridge and former National Theatre boss Nicholas Hytner seemed to be the antithesis of what the previous Court regime stood for – he’s not boring, but he’s certainly mainstream. And then there’s the subject: first-time playwright Rosenblatt’s play is about beloved children’s author Roald Dahl’s notorious antisemitism, something most of us are familiar with in the abstract while being vague about the exact details. Not only is it a potentially incendiary subject at a time when Dahl’s back catalogue is being milked on stage and screen like never before, but a play calling out antisemitism feels like a statement intent for Byrne’s time at the Court given the theatre has diced with several antisemitism scandals over the years. Intriguingly ‘Giant’ has a link back to the biggest of those scandals. It co-stars actor Elliot Levey as Dahl’s horrified Jewish agent; Levey is the son-in-law of Ken Loach, director of the scandalous drama ‘Perdition’ that Court shelved in 1987 in the face of protests that it was antisemitic; in 1999 a young Levey actually staged a scrubbed up version of ‘Perdition’ at the Gate Theatre. All very fascinating, though for most n