Award-winning actor and writer David Haig is working on a brand new play for Nicholas Hytner at the Bridge Theatre.
Titled Magic, the play is a new commission for the Bridge Theatre in London, and is about the relationship between Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Bridge Theatre is currently playing long-running, smash-hit immersive revival Guys and Dolls, starring Owain Arthur, Andrew Richardson, Celinde Schoenmaker, Marisha Wallace and Cedric Neal, and is booking to 24 February 2024.
Guys and Dolls started at the Bridge in March 2023 and has proven a five-star hit. No other programming has been announced for the Bridge since Guys and Dolls, and there is much speculation as to how long Guys and Dolls will run for, and whether it will transfer to another theatre to make way for a new Bridge Theatre season.
Hytner and business partner Nick Starr also run the Lightroom in King’s Cross through their London Theatre Company alongside 59 Productions. This flexible space that was originally slated to be a theatre, and the venue currently hosts immersive art exhibition David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), booking to 3 December 2023.
Lightroom isn’t a candidate for a Guys and Dolls transfer as it was announced last week that new Tom Hanks-narrated project The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks will play in the space from 6 December 2023 to 21 April 2024.
David Haig is an Olivier award-winning actor and FIPA award-winning writer. It was announced today that his new stage adaptation of the Philip K Dick novella The Minority Report is coming to the Lyric Hammersmith next year as part of their new 2024 season.
Minority Report will play the Lyric from 19 April 2024, and is directed by Olivier Award winner Max Webster (Life of Pi). The story was turned into a blockbuster movie by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Hanks.
Haig told the Telegraph in 2021 that “Magic was my idea, the other one was a suggestion: I was asked to write a [stage] adaptation of [Philip K Dick’s] The Minority Report. That immediately felt like anathema to me. But then I thought anathema can be quite interesting. So I immediately accepted it.”
David Haig also wrote My Boy Jack, which opened at Hampstead Theatre in 1997 and toured in 2004. It was adapted by Haig into an ITV min-series, starring David Haig, Daniel Radcliffe, Carey Mulligan and Kim Cattrall.
Other writing includesThe Good Samaritan (Hampstead Theatre, 2000) and Pressure, a co-production by Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and Chichester Festival Theatre, which was nominated for Best New Play at the 2014 UK Theatre Awards. The play was revived in 2018, touring the UK and playing the Park Theatre before transferring to the West End for a sold-out run at the Ambassador’s Theatre.
Pressure had its its North American premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto in 2023, and Haig is working on a film version for Working Title and Studio Canal.
There’s no current information on when Haig’s new play Magic will play the Bridge Theatre.
More About Magic Play
- Playwright: David Haigh
- Based on historical figures, Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Commissioned by Bridge Theatre, London
- Premiere date: TBC
- Tickets: See Magic Ticket Hub for details
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