Olivier nominee Arinzé Kene (Death of a Salesman, Girl from the North Country) will make his U.S. stage debut at The Shed with his genre-defying work Misty. Performances will begin March 3, 2023 ahead of its March 9 opening night. The Off-Broadway run is set to continue through April 2 in The Griffin Theater.
Blending theatre, live music, and spoken word, Misty takes audiences through London under gentrification while exploring what it means to be an artist today. Kene said, “Misty at its heart is a play about gentrification—how it changes people’s lives and how it ruins people's lives. I came to Hackney in East London in the early ’90s when I moved from Nigeria. I’ve seen it change over the years. I wanted to tell that story from the point of view of the people who have grown up there and the people who have been displaced as well.”
Helming the creative team will be director Omar Elerian (NASSIM, Two Palestinians Go Dogging), joined by set and costume designer Rajha Shakiry, lighting designer Jackie Shemesh, sound designer Elena Peña, and video designer Daniel Denton. The original score, composed by Kene, Adrian MacLeod, and Shiloh Coke, is performed by a live band.
The Shed's Artistic Director Alex Poots said, “This play’s inventive discourse on city-making unravels the complexities of class experiences in London that resonate deeply with any global city.“ The Shed also currently presents another work on city-making and class experiences with Straight Line Crazy, starring Ralph Fiennes as notable New York City urban planner Robert Moses.
Commissioned by London's Bush Theatre where it originally premiered in 2018, Misty subsequently transferred to the West End. The work earned a 2019 Olivier nomination for Best New Play as well as a nomination for Kene for Best New Actor. As the playwright of Misty, Kene became the second Black British playwright to have a play produced in the West End.
