Faith, Hope and Charity

Description

In a run-down community hall on the edge of town, a woman has been cooking lunch for those in need. A choir is starting up, run by a volunteer who's looking for a new beginning. A mother is seeking help in her fight to keep her young daughter from being taken into care. An older man sits silently in the corner, the first to arrive, the last to leave. Outside the rain is falling. Alexander Zeldin's new play is the culmination of a trilogy that began with Beyond Caring - 'Unforgettable' (The Times) - and followed by LOVE - 'the National's play of the year, and then some' (Evening Standard). Described as an uncompromising theatrical experience that goes to the heart of our uncertain times it offers a dose of social realism that taps into the humans behind the headlines. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the National Theatre in September 2019.

Alexander Zeldin is a writer and director for theatre and film. Alexander made work in Russia, South Korea and the Middle East as well as at the Naples Festival, before, between 2011-2014, developing a number of his own works as a teacher at East 15 Acting School, where he met several of the actors and creative team that collaborate with him today. At this time, he also worked as an assistant director to Peter Brook and Marie-Helene Estienne. His critically acclaimed play, Beyond Caring, which told the story of several temporary workers meeting on a night shift in a meat factory, had its World Premiere at the Yard Theatre in Hackney in 2014, before transferring to the Temporary Theatre at the National Theatre in 2015. In 2015 Alexander was the recipient of the Quercus Trust Award and was appointed as Associate Director at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Beyond Caring toured the UK and a new US production, re-developed for the US by Alexander and produced by Lookingglass Theater in conjunction with David Schwimmer's company Dark Harbour Stories, opened in Chicago in April 2017. Alexander's most recent play LOVE opened at the National Theatre in December 2016, before transferring to Birmingham Rep. A European tour is planned for 2018 and LOVE has also been made into a film by the BBC and Cuba Pictures. In 2017, he was named Artist in Residence at the National Theatre and in 2018, was the winner of the Arts Foundation twenty-fifth anniversary Fellowship for Literature.

This is the National's play of the year - and then some. * Evening Standard on LOVE * This desolate, quietly intense devised drama gets under your skin and into your bones... unforgettable * The Times on Beyond Caring * Gripping, amusing, uncomfortable, desperately moving. Zeldin shows us friction...but also kindness and dignity and lots of love without turning sugary * The Times on LOVE *