HighTide and Arcola Theatre present
THE SUGAR-COATED BULLETS OF THE BOURGEOISIE
by Anders Lustgarten
Directed by Steven Atkinson
- HighTide & ARCOLA THEATRE PRESENT WORLD PREMIERE OF NEW PLAY BY AWARD-WINNING ANDERS LUSTGARTEN
- THE SUGAR-COATED BULLETS OF THE BOURGEOISIE WILL RUN AT THE ARCOLA 7 – 30 APRIL BEFORE OPENING HIGHTIDE FESTIVAL IN SEPTEMBER
- HighTide CELEBRATES A DECADE OF NEW WRITING BY ANNOUNCING ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL ON 15 MARCH
Ahead of revealing its full tenth anniversary programme on 15 March, HighTide has announced today that, alongside the Arcola Theatre, they will present a brand new play by Anders Lustgarten. The play will run at the Arcola from 7th April before opening HighTide Festival in September.
The Sugar-Coated Bullets of The Bourgeoisie will reunite Lustgarten, who won the inaugural Harold Pinter Prize for If You Don’t Let Us Dream We Won’t Let You Sleep (Royal Court), with HighTide Artistic Director, Steven Atkinson whose recent credits include Forget Me Not,peddling and Bottleneck. The pair’s previous collaboration was the acclaimed production of Lustgarten’s powerful play about the refugee crisis, Lampedusa, (HighTide/Soho Theatre). Based on almost a decade of study, The Sugar-Coated Bullets of The Bourgeoisie is an urgent and timely new play that explores the lives of the Chinese people in two eras, during the rise of Maoist China, and in 2016, an increasingly diverse, volatile, $11 Trillion economy on the precipice of change.
The production’s 8 strong cast of British East Asian actors includes Andrew Leung (Chimerica,You For Me For You) and Anna Leong Brophy (P’yongyang).
Revolution has stirred, China has stood up and Communism reaches Rotten Peach Village. Over the next sixty years, the villagers are battered by the waves of New China, lurching from the extremes of Maoism to the extremes of capitalism. Yet amid all the change and turmoil, one thing does not alter: their willingness to fight.
HighTide, one of the UK’s leading new writing organisations focused on developing emerging playwrights, will celebrate its tenth anniversary in September 2016. The annual festival in Suffolk has showcased some of the UK’s most well-respected new writers of the last decade including Luke Barnes, Vickie Donoghue, Ella Hickson, Nick Payne, Beth Steel and Jack Thorne. The full 2016 programme will be announced on 15 March.
Anders Lustgarten has completed a BA, MA and PHD in Chinese language and politics. The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie is a take on his PHD topic. His play Lampedusa, about refugees and migration, was produced by HighTide last year and is being performed in seven countries in 2016. His play Shrapnel: 34 Fragments of a Massacre premiered at Arcola in March 2015, directed by Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen. He recently adapted David Peace’s novel The Damned United for Red Ladder and the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and his play The Seven Acts of Mercy, about Caravaggio and violent compassion, will be produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre later this year.
Steven Atkinson is co-founder and the Artistic Director of HighTide Festival. His directing credits for HighTide include Forget Me Not (Bush Theatre); So Here We Are (Royal Exchange Theatre); Lampedusa (Soho Theatre); peddling (Arcola Theatre/ Off-Broadway); Pussy Riot: Hunger Strike (Bush Theatre/ Southbank Centre); Neighbors (Nuffield Theatre); Bottleneck (Soho Theatre/ UK tour); Clockwork ; Bethany; Incoming; Dusk Rings A Bell (Watford Palace Theatre); Lidless (Trafalgar Studios); Muhmah (HighTide Festival) and The Pitch (Latitude). His other productions include Chicken (Paines Plough Roundabout) and The Afghan and the Penquin (Radio 4).