Christopher Shinn and Lynn Nottage are among a stellar collective of writers assembled for Headlong theatre’s exploration of the legacy of 9/11, Decade, which plays from 1 September in St Katherine Docks.
They will be writing for a cast that includes Tobias Menzies, Lia Williams and Charlotte Randle.
American writers Shinn – whose play Now Or Later ran at the Royal Court in 2008 – and Nottage, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ruined, staged last year at the Almeida theatre, are joined by their compatriot John Logan (Red at the Donmar Warehouse) and British playwrights Samuel Adamson (Southwark Fair at the National Theatre), Mike Bartlett (Earthquakes In London for Headlong, Cock at the Royal Court) and Alecky Blythe, the author of hit documentary-musical London Road at the National Theatre.
BAFTA-winning writer Abi Morgan, whose series The Hour begins on BBC television tonight, joins the writing line-up along with celebrated Columbia University historian Simon Schama, whose historical work Rough Crossings was adapted by Headlong for the stage in 2007.
More writers are yet to be announced for director Rupert Goold’s production, which aims to examine our responses to the day, 10 years ago, when the Twin Towers fell, sending shockwaves around the world. Set in a disused building in St Katherine Docks, once home to London’s World Trade Centre, Decade is an immersive theatrical experience which takes audiences from the River Thames to the bright blue skies of Manhattan and beyond.
Tasked with enacting the writing of this collective are Menzies, the star of TV series Rome and recent drama The Shadow Line, who played the title role in Goold’s Hamlet in 2005; RSC and National Theatre actress Williams (Absurd Person Singular, The Hothouse, As You Like It); and Randle, whose stage credits include All About My Mother at the Old Vic and Goold’s 2009 production of King Lear at the Young Vic.
The cast is completed by Jonathan Bonnici, Leila Crerar, Kevin Harvey, Tom Hodgkins, Samuel James, Arinze Kene, Amy Lennox, Claire Prempeh and Cat Simmons.
Decade opens to the press on 8 September and runs until 15 October.
CB