Mudlarks, a new play by Vickie Donoghue, will transfer to the Bush theatre this September following successful runs at the HighTide Festival and Theatre 503.
Set on the muddy banks of the River Thames, the Essex-born playwright’s powerful debut exposes the culture she grew up in with brutal honesty and runs at the Shepherd’s Bush venue from 18 September to 20 October.
Following a night of recklessness, three boys hide from the police on the River Thames, downstream from the bright lights of London. Over the course of the freezing night, their fears, secrets and dreams emerge, collide and combust revealing the desperate frustration of lives barely led but already ravaged.
Donoghue’s first full length play premiered at the annual HighTide Festival this May, with The Guardian describing the production as: “snappy and lucid”, adding it “offers some beautifully hazed lighting that illuminates young lives blighted and hurtling towards catastrophe”.
Director Will Wrightson returns to bring Mudlarks to the Bush theatre alongside original cast members Scott Hazell, James Marchant and Mike Noble.
The production marks the third time the national theatre company HighTide Festival Theatre, who run the annual festival of new writing in Suffolk, have collaborated with the Bush, following successful shows Stovepipe and I Caught Crabs In Walberswick.