BOOKING TO OPEN FOR THE
WORLD PREMIERE
OF
STRANGER THINGS:
THE FIRST SHADOW
A NEW STORY LIVE ON STAGE
FINAL CHANCE TO SIGN UP AND RECEIVE PRIORITY BOOKING
PRIORITY BOOKING OPENS ON 28 MARCH
GENERAL TICKETS RELEASED 30 MARCH
PERFORMANCES BEGIN NOVEMBER 2023
AT PHOENIX THEATRE, LONDON
TICKETS CAN BE BOOKED FROM JUST £20, WITH OVER 500 SEATS EACH WEEK AT £20 OR UNDER
Based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry, STRANGER THINGS: THE FIRST SHADOW, a new play written by Kate Trefry, will receive its world premiere at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End, directed by Stephen Daldry with co-direction by Justin Martin. The production previews from 17 November, with an official opening night on 14 December 2023.
Priority booking for the production opens on 28 March from 12pm GMT (7am Eastern Time) with access given to those who have signed up via the mailing list at strangerthingsonstage.com – it is still possible to sign up to the mailing list until 26 March. Public booking then opens on 30 March at 12pm GMT (7am Eastern Time), but signing up for priority access is highly recommended.
Tickets can be booked from just £20, with over 500 seats each week at £20 or under.
A weekly lottery for late-release tickets will be announced closer to first performance.
Further information on how to access these tickets will be announced later this year.
Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.
Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story – and may hold the key to the end.
This new play by Kate Trefry, a writer and co-executive producer for the TV series of Stranger Things, will be rooted in the mythology and world of the Netflix global phenomenon. Produced by Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions,the Duffer Brothers act as creative producers, with 21 Laps as associate producer.
Created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things debuted on Netflix on 15 July 2016. Its fourth season (released in 2022) tops the Netflix Most Popular English TV list at #1 with 1.35 billion hours viewed; the third season released in 2019 still holds at #6 with 582.1 million hours viewed. The series has garnered over 70 awards worldwide including Emmys and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, and has been nominated for over 230 awards. Recently Stranger Things completed its record-breaking fourth season to huge acclaim, becoming the biggest premiere weekend ever for an English-language TV show on Netflix.
STRANGER THINGS: THE FIRST SHADOW will be directed by Stephen Daldry with co-director Justin Martin, set design by Miriam Buether, costume design by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting design by Jon Clark, sound design by Paul Arditti, illusions design & visual effects by Jamie Harrison & Chris Fisher, video design & visual effects by 59 Productions, movement direction by Coral Messam, wigs, hair and make-up design by Campbell Young Associates, casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG, international casting consultancy by Jim Carnahan, Gary Beestone for Gary Beestone Associates is Technical Director, with further creative team members to be announced.
Further ticket information, on-sale details, performance schedule, full creative team and casting to be announced at a later date.
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Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions present
STRANGER THINGS:
THE FIRST SHADOW
By Kate Trefry
Original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne & Kate Trefry
Based on the Netflix Series, Stranger Things, created by the Duffer Brothers
Director: Stephen Daldry; Creative Producers: The Duffer Brothers; Co-Director: Justin Martin;
Set designer: Miriam Buether; Costume designer: Brigitte Reiffenstuel; Lighting designer: Jon Clark; Sound designer: Paul Arditti; illusions design & visual effects by Jamie Harrison & Chris Fisher;
video design & visual effects by 59 Productions; Movement director: Coral Messam;
Wigs, Hair and Make-Up designer: Campbell Young Associates; Casting director: Charlotte Sutton CDG; International casting consultant: Jim Carnahan; Associate Producers: Shawn Levy & Dan Cohen for 21 Laps.
The Duffer Brothers broke out onto the scene in late 2011 when, fresh out of college, they had multiple movie studios vying for their horror-thriller spec script Hidden, which landed at Warner Bros. The Duffers directed the film, which starred Alexander Skarsgård and Andrea Riseborough and was released in 2015. Shortly afterwards, they wrote and were executive producers on M. Night Shyamalan’s hit television show Wayward Pines. The Duffer Brothers then created the worldwide phenomenon Stranger Things for Netflix in 2016 starring Winona Ryder and David Harbour. The fourth season of the series, which they wrote, directed, and executive produced, became the most viewed season of English-language TV in a single week on Netflix with 335.01 million hours viewed in its first seven days. In 2022, The Duffer Brothers announced the launch of their production company Upside Down Pictures. The company has multiple projects in development including an all-new live-action television adaptation of the renowned Japanese manga and anime series Death Note; an original series from creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews; a series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub‘s The Talisman alongside Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television; and a live-action Stranger Things spin-off series based on an original idea.
Kate Trefry is a writer and Co-Executive Producer on Stranger Things. She has had two Black List scripts: Pure O, currently being adapted as a series for Netflix, and Revolver, with Maya and Ethan Hawke attached to star and Andrew Stanton directing. She also wrote the final installment of Fear Street: 1666 for the R.L. Stine trilogy. Her directorial debut short How To Be Alone starred Maika Monroe and Joe Keery and premiered at SXSW.
Jack Thorne’s plays include After Life (National Theatre), A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic/ Broadway/The Old Vic: In Camera), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End/Broadway /international), Sunday (Atlantic Theatre), The End of History, Hope (Royal Court Theatre), King Kong (Broadway), Woyzeck (The Old Vic), Mydidae (Soho/West End), Stacy (Tron/Arcola/West End), Let the Right One In (West End/Dundee Rep/Royal Court Theatre), Junkyard (UK tour), The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae/National Theatre/UK tour), Bunny (Nabokov/UK tour/New York), and Stuart: A Life Backwards (Sheffield Crucible/UK tour). His television includes Help, Then Barbara Met Alan, CripTales, The Eddy, The Accident, His Dark Materials, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, Kiri, National Treasure, The Last Panthers, Don’t Take My Baby, This Is England, The Fades, Glue, Cast Offs. Film includes: The Swimmers, Enola Holmes, The Secret Garden, The Aeronauts, Dirt Music, Radioactive, Wonder, War Book, A Long Way Down, and The Scouting Book for Boys. His work for television has won him five BAFTAs and an RTS Television Award. In 2022 Jack was the recipient of both the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing, and the Royal Television Society’s award for Outstanding Contribution to British Television. He is a patron of Graeae Theatre Company, an associate artist of the Old Vic Theatre, and launched the pressure group Underlying Health Condition to champion disabled representation in the TV industry.
Stephen Daldry started his career at the Sheffield Crucible and directed extensively in Britain’s regional theatres. In London, he was Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre where he headed a £26 million redevelopment. He has also directed at the National Theatre, the Public Theatre in New York, and transferred many productions both to Broadway and the West End. His award-winning 1992 National Theatre production of An Inspector Calls is currently touring the UK. Billy Elliot the Musical has previously played in the West End, on Broadway, Australia (Sydney and Melbourne), North America, Toronto, The Netherlands, UK & Ireland Tours, Hamburg, Tokyo, and Seoul. In 2009, the production won 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical, more than any other British show in Broadway history. Stephen directed productions of The Audience and Skylight, both of which were highly acclaimed and went on to win major theatre awards, completing sell-out runs in London and on Broadway. In 2017, Stephen directed The Jungle at the Young Vic, an intimate immersive theatrical experience about the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe. The Jungle transferred to the West End in June 2018 and has since completed well-received productions in San Francisco & New York. It returns to New York’s St. Ann’s Warehouse in early 2023. In 2018, Stephen directed The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s epic two-part play, which followed its sold out run at the Young Vic by transferring to the West End. Stephen won the 2019 Best Director Olivier Award for The Inheritance. The production moved to Broadway in 2019 and Stephen won a Tony for Best Direction of a Play in 2021. His first four films Billy Elliot, The Hours, The Reader and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close collectively received 19 Academy Award® nominations and two wins. His most recent film, Together, for the BBC and set during the Covid-19 Pandemic, won Best Single Drama at the 2022 TV BAFTAs. He has previously directed for BBC Radio and Television and is Director and Executive Producer on the Netflix series The Crown, winner of 21 Primetime Emmy Awards,written by Peter Morgan. The sixth and final season is currently in production with Stephen returning to direct the final episode. He is an Artistic Director of the Pier 55 performance park Little Island in New York, as well as sitting on the Board for the new Perlman Arts Center. He was Creative Executive Producer for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He is Chairman of a refugee arts charity Good Chance, producers of The Jungle. His latest production with Good Chance, The Walk, saw a 10ft tall puppet of a Syrian refugee girl, Little Amal, walk from Turkey to Glasgow in 2021.
Justin Martin is a multi-award-winning director working in theatre, film and television. Most recently he directed Jodie Comer in her West End stage debut in Prima Facie by Suzie Miller. The sold-out award-winning production received rave reviews. The subsequent NT Live/Empire Street broadcast of the play broke box office records to become the highest earning event cinema release of all time. His production is heading to Broadway in Spring 2023. In 2021 he co-directed the critically acclaimed and BAFTA Award-winning film Together with Stephen Daldry for Sonia Friedman Productions, BBC Films, and Shoebox Films (starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan). His award-winning production of The Jungle (A Young Vic/National Theatre co-production also co-directed with Daldry) most recently played in San Francisco (2019), following sellout seasons at St Ann’s Warehouse in New York (2018), in the West End (2018) and at The Young Vic (2017). The show garnered awards including an Obie, a Southbank Sky Arts Award and a Broadway World Award for Best Direction. The Jungle is currently playing at St Ann’s Warehouse ahead of a tour to Washington DC. His critically acclaimed production of Low Level Panic sold out twice at the Galway Theatre Festival before touring throughout Ireland and to a sell-out season in Australia. Other theatre credits include: Last Chance: A Plea For the Unaccompanied Children of Calais (Young Vic), The Nether (Seymour Centre, Sydney), Far Away (fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne), Fifty Two (Leicester Square Theatre), Good Chance/No Chance (as part of the Southbank Centre’s Festival of Love), Harvey and Frieda (Arcola Theatre), Street (Mick Laly Theatre – Galway Theatre Festival), The Kitchen (HM Theatre, Victoria) and Skintight (fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne). He has a long collaboration with director Stephen Daldry. Most recently, he was the associate director for Daldry’s award-winning production of The Inheritance (Young Vic/West End/Broadway) for which Daldry gave him the Olivier Award for Best Direction. He was the associate director for both Skylight and The Audience in the West End and on Broadway. He also worked with John Tiffany and Steven Hoggett on the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Let The Right One In (Dundee Rep/Royal Court/West End/St Ann’s, NY/US Tour). He was an associate director on Billy Elliot the Musical working on Broadway, throughout North America, Korea, Amsterdam and Australia. His other screen credits include The Lovers for Sky Atlantic, Sundance and AMC, the first two seasons of the award-winning Netflix series The Crown, the upcoming Netflix film The Beautiful Game, and hugely successful NT Live performances of Prima Facie, Skylight and The Audience. He is an associate artist with Good Chance Theatre – a company dedicated to making work with and about refugees. He has directed a number of works for them, including most recently working on a number of promos for The Walk – a theatre festival spanning 8000km from the Syrian border to Manchester. He was the inaugural recipient of the Roger Leach Award for Theatre.