The Donmar Warehouse's world premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Human Body officially opens at the London venue February 27 following previews that began February 19.
In his final production as artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, Michael Longhurst co-directs with Ann Yee, with whom he previously collaborated on Next to Normal and Caroline, or Change.
The cast features Keeley Hawes as Iris and Jack
Davenport as George with Tom Goodman-Hill as Julian Elcock, Flora
Jacoby Richardson as Laura Elcock, Audrey Kattan as Laura Elcock, Pearl
Mackie as Sylvia Samuels, and Siobhán Redmond as Helen Mackeson MP with
additional characters played by members of the company.
The new play is set in 1948 Shropshire, and Iris Elcock, GP, Socialist and Labour party councillor, is working to implement Nye Bevan’s National Health Service Act and its promise of free health care. She is married to an ex-Navy man scarred by the war, but a chance meeting with George Blythe, a local man who has made it to Hollywood, turns her world upside down.
The Human Body also has design by Fly Davis, lighting design by Joshua Pharo, sound design and music by composers Ben and Max Ringham, video design by Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom, fight direction by Kate Waters, casting by Anna Cooper, assistant set and costume design by Rimu Kwok, assistant lighting design by Cheng Keng, and assistant sound design by José Guillermo Puello.
Performances continue through April 13.
