The Nest, Young Vic

With a long list of hit plays, including The Weir (Royal Court, 1999), Shining City (Royal Court 2004) and The Seafarer (National Theatre 2006), plus an impressive array of accolades and awards, Conor McPherson is hailed one of our best living writers.

Now for the Young Vic 2016 winter season, the Irish playwright will rework a German classic by Franz Xaver Kroetz. The Nest (Das Nest), which got its UK airing at the Bush Theatre in the 1980s, is a short muscular two-hander about a couple's attempts to boost their income ahead of becoming parents. Then the expectant father is offered a money-making opportunity that has severe repercussions.

The German original is written in a hyper-naturalistic style and uses the domestic scenario as a lens through which to examine the rise of consumerism and the social context that led to the Holocaust. Described as a 'fable about the moral and environmental cost of our materialistic nesting instincts', McPherson's version of The Nest is to be a hard-hitting. Ian Rickson (Jerusalem, Royal Court; Hamlet, Young Vic) returns to the Young Vic to direct. And Mercury Prize-winning musician PJ Harvey will pen an original score to accompany the play.

Expect a sharp, uneasy watch that draws out the contemporary relevance and makes this classic German play feel fresh and sharply close to home.

The show will come to the Young Vic's smaller performance space, The Maria, after premiering at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.