Theatre company Headlong has announced its new season for 2024, including shows going to Chichester Festival Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith – both of which announced their new seasons today.
Headlong’s 50th anniversary season kicks off with a co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre of new play The House Party by Laura Lomas (Metamorphoses, The Blue Woman, Chaos).
The play reimagines and updates August Strindberg’s play Miss Julie, and will be directed by Headlong’s Artistic Director Holly Race Roughan (A View from the Bridge, Henry V, Hedda Tesman).
The House Party is in association with Frantic Assembly, and will play Chichester’s Minerva Theatre from 3 May to 1 June 2024.
The cast includes Rachelle Diedericks (Our Generation, A View from the Bridge) as Christine and Nadia Parkes (Kidnapped, The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself) as Julie.
Next up for Headlong is a revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play A Raisin in the Sun.
Directed by Tinuke Craig (Trouble in Butetown, Jitney, Crave, The Color Purple), the production will tour from 13 September 2024, including Leeds Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre (8 October to 2 November 2024), Nottingham Playhouse and Oxford Playhouse.
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun broke barriers as the first play by a Black woman on Broadway, and remains relevant and powerful in a world still divided by inequality.
Also in the season, Holly Race Roughan will direct the Royal Shakespeare Company’s world premiere of acclaimed playwright David Edgar’s new political play The New Real.
In a year of epoch-changing elections, this new play by David Edgar (Nicholas Nickleby, Pentecost, Maydays) promises to be an epic, panoramic play about how the political fault-line was redrawn.
The New Real will play The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon in October and November 2024.
Now in its fourth year, the Headlong Origins scheme continues the company’s ambitions of nurturing talent within the heart of the organisation. Origins aims to celebrate and develop early career theatre directors from across the UK, outside of London.
The new Origins 2024 cohort will include Helena Ascough, Jen Malarkey, Sonny Nwachukwu, Lexie Ward and Corey Weekes. Mingyu Lin and Jude Christian will be this year’s Project Leads.
Headlong celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and continues to build upon its long-standing ambition and reputation of championing early-career artists, presenting innovative new work and bringing timely reimaginings of classics to the fore.
Book tickets to A Raisin in the Sun at the Lyric Hammersmith London
More about the new Lyric Hammersmith 2024 – 2025 season
More about the Chichester Festival Theatre’s new 2024 season
More about the RSC’s new 2024 – 2025 season
More about tickets to The New Real
What They Said
Holly Race Roughan, Artistic Director of Headlong said in a statement: “People say you know yourself at 50 – we’re finding this true at Headlong. We stand firm on a programme of classics that we approach like new plays, and new plays that we believe to be tomorrow’s classics. Our mission is to make the political and social questions of our time engrossing – I’m proud to say it’s in our DNA. It’s a privilege to lead a company at 50 that consistently punches above their weight, and exists to distribute high quality drama across the nation. Headlong is only as vivid as the formidable imaginations of the freelancers we work with. This season, Tinuke Craig returns to direct an American classic and playwrights Laura Lomas and David Edgar stretch our muscles with two new political dramas. Being 50 means nothing without knowing where you’re headed. I’m also thrilled to introduce another cohort of Origins – our artist development scheme that extends our passionate commitment to supporting the next generation of theatre-makers.”
The House Party writer Laura Lomas said; “Headlong is a company that continues to challenge and inspire with their bold and radical work. It’s a delight and honour to be part of their 50th anniversary season.”
A Raisin in the Sun director Tinuke Craig said: “It is a privilege to once again work alongside the creative powerhouse that is Headlong in their 50th year after collaborating on Jitney in 2021 whilst continuing my ongoing Artistic Associate role with Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Now, the time is right to bring Lorraine Hansberry’s classic A Raisin in the Sun back to the stage in a relevant, fresh new production for today.”
The New Real writer David Edgar said: “2024 sees probably the biggest-ever battle between mainstream politics and populist insurgents, around the world. I’m delighted that the RSC are presenting my new play about the origins of this titanic struggle, in the most tumultuous of times. And that Headlong’s brilliant Holly Race Roughan – whose View from the Bridge was a highlight of my 2023 theatre-going – is directing it.”
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