Anna Mackmin directs Di and Viv and Rose

‘If something bad or sad or good happens to one of you, it almost happens to the other’

Following a sell-out run at Hampstead Downstairs in 2011, Hampstead Theatre is delighted to announce the transfer of Di and Viv and Rose to the main stage in January 2013. Di and Viv and Rose will be the first transfer from Downstairs to the Main Stage – a model the theatre hopes to see repeated in the future.

Anna Mackmin returns to direct and Tamzin Outhwaite reprises her role as Di in Amelia Bullmore’s funny and insightful comedy. Joining Tamzin will be Gina McKee as Viv and Anna Maxwell Martin as Rose.

Aged eighteen, three women join forces at university. Life is fun. Living is intense. Together they feel unassailable. Di and Viv and Rose is a hilarious and thoughtful exploration of friendship’s impact on life, and life’s impact on friendship.

Amelia Bullmore’s debut play Mammals – also directed by Anna Mackmin - was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Bullmore is a well known actress from stage and screen and her credits include Scott and Bailey, Twenty Twelve, and Shameless. Her TV writing credits include Scott and Bailey, This Life, Attachments and Big Train and for radio Craven (BBC Radio 4) with Maxine Peake.

This will be the sixth time Amelia and Anna have worked together. Anna has directed all of Amelia’s writing for the stage to date - the award winning Mammals, a new version of Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Gate and Di and Viv and Rose Hampstead Downstairs. They’ve also worked together twice as an actress and director; in Sheffield where Amelia played Elizabeth Proctor in Anna’s production of The Crucible and at the National Theatre in Really Old Like Forty Five.

Double BAFTA award winning Anna Maxwell Martin makes her Hampstead Theatre debut. Theatre credits include Measure for Measure (Almeida), Cabaret (Lyric Theatre, West End), The Female of the Species (Vaudeville Theatre) and Dumb Show (Royal Court). Television credits include The Bletchley Circle (ITV), Bleak House (BBC), The Nightwatch (BBC), South Riding (BBC) and Poppy Shakespeare (Channel 4). 

Director Anna Mackmin’s credits include Hedda Gabler, The Real Thing, Dancing at Lughnasa (Old Vic), Mammals (Bush Theatre), The Dark (Donmar) Really Old Like Forty Five (National), Under the Blue Sky, In Celebration (Duke of York‘s), Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship (National Theatre and International tour), Me and My Girl (Crucible) Breathing Corpses, Food Chain (Royal Court), Dying for It;The Lightning Play (Almeida), In Flame (Bush and The New Ambassadors); Cloud Nine, The Crucible, Iphigenia, Teeth ‘n’ Smiles and The Arbor (Crucible, Sheffield). Her work has garnered many awards including a TMA award for best director, two Olivier nominations for best new play, a George Devine award for best new play, three critics Circle awards for best new play and two Whatsonstage awards for best new play.

Nina Raine directs William Boyd's Longing

‘All things pass – is this your philosophy? Is there no room for love in your philosophy of life?’

When Kolia is invited to visit his oldest friends on their Estate in the country he anticipates a pleasant break from Moscow life. But as the comedy of provincial life plays out around him, he finds himself adrift in a miasma of false expectations, missed opportunities and unspoken passions.

From two short stories by the Russian master Anton Chekhov, renowned and award winning novelist William Boyd (An Ice-Cream War, Brazzaville Beach, Any Human Heart, Restless, Waiting for Sunrise) spins a tale of nineteenth century Russian life both familiar and unfamiliar.

Director Nina Raine returns to Hampstead Theatre following the sell-out success of her play Tiger Country in 2010 which she also directed. As experienced a writer as a director, her directing credits include the April

de Angelis’ critically acclaimed Jumpy (Royal Court and West End), Shades by Alia Bano (Royal Court) and Unprotected (Liverpool Everyman) for which she won the TMA Best Director Award as well as her own plays Rabbit and Tiger Country. Other writing credits include Tribes (Royal Court ) and her debut play Rabbit (Old Red Lion, Trafalgar Studios, 59E59 New York) which won the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright.

Full casting information to be announced shortly.

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