The Mystae, Hampstead Downstairs

The Hampstead Downstairs stands shoulder-to-shoulder with The Gate and The Bush as one the hottest venues for new writing in London. This Spring its curtain opens on Nick Whitby’s The Mystae, which follows in the footsteps of the Hampstead Theatre’s 2012 staging of Whitby’s The Complaint, and promises nothing less in the way of surreal charm.

The Mystae is a coming-of-age story about three Cornish school-leavers in the summer before university, each fearing for their place in the world on the brink of this life-changing juncture. Ina is half Greek, with a family background that saw her educated in dozens of different countries and today wracks her with feelings of rootlessness. She and Holman are in a relationship, seemingly joined at the hip but both privately wondering whether the other still feels the same. And Tre, Holman's best friend, thinks of himself as a spare part; he's about to start in a job in their hometown in Cornwall, left to watch his friends move away across the country.

Set in a sea-cave, where Ina leads them to practice the ancient Greek coming-of-change ritual of the Eleusinian Mysteries, mystical darkness and the isolating incoming tide bring secrets to surface that will change their lives forever.

This is a surprisingly naturalistic work, given Whitby’s Kafkaesque previous form – notably in The Complaint. Behind the scenes it also offers a fascinating fusion of classical and cutting edge. It’s directed by Tim Carroll, erstwhile associate director at the Globe and famous collaborator of the BAFTA, Tony- and Olivier award winning actor Mark Rylance, and stars a bold cast of some of the freshest young names on the London stages. We’re particularly excited to see the Hampstead debut of Beatrice Scirocchi as Ina, who is co-founder of the critically acclaimed Engineer Theatre Collective company.