Birdland, Royal Court

Everything can be quantified. All worth can be quantified. Artistic worth. Human worth. Material worth. Everything 

Money, fame, empathy: Birdland, a new work from playwright Simon Stephens will open at the Royal Court in April 2014.

They haven’t given too much away. All we’re told so far is that Birdland is a play about a rock star reaching the final leg of an international tour: hedonism and home juxtapose as the end of the road looms.

What we know for sure is that Stephens is a provocative writer, and a very good one. Responsible for the sizzlingly well-reviewed Punk Rock (Lyric Hammersmith, 2009), this year’s Portat the National (a rare exercise in tolerable social realism), as well as multi award-winning adaptation of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Seven Oliviers and counting).

What's more, at the helm of this production is hotshot director Carrie Cracknell. She may be young, but she has a wealth of experience under her belt: Associate Director at the Royal Court, she is fresh from her first opera (Wozzeck at the ENO) and a West End transfer of A Doll’s House (for which she was nominated Best Director in the Evening Standard Awards). Cracknell is simultaneously a provocative risk-taker and a pair of hands in which any production would feel safe: an ideal match for Stephens’ writing.

We are particularly excited by the fact that Birdland reunites Stephens with actor Andrew Scott (recognised by most as Jim Moriarty from BBC’s Sherlock). The pair previously worked together on Sea Wall, a short one-man play written by Stephens in 2008 which transferred to the Shed at the National Theatre earlier this year; Scott’s performance in Sea Wall, branded ‘pitch-perfect’ by the Telegraph, can only bode well for a second foray into a one-man Simon Stephens show. And Scott is no stranger to the Royal Court, having starred opposite Ben Whishaw in Mike Bartlett's Olivier award-winning play Cock (2009).

With the clout of these heavy hitters, Birdland promises that lethal theatrical combination of experienced talent and innovative exuberance that has become characteristic of the Royal Court’s bold and brilliant new writing.

Ticket Price: £10 (Mondays)-£32

Age guidance: 14+