Nice Fish by Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins Set for Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater

Nice Fish, written by two-time Tony winner Mark Rylance and poet Louis Jenkins, will premiere at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as part of the theater's 2012-13 season. The new play, based on the poetry of Jenkins, will be directed by Rylance and Claire van Kampen. At both the 2008 and 2011 and Tony Awards, Rylance recited poems by Jenkins in lieu of an acceptance speech. Nice Fish begins its run April 6, 2013 and runs through May 18 at the McGuire Proscenium Stage. No casting has been announced.

Nice Fish is the story of two men who are ice fishing on the last day of the season—the ice is melting and the DNR is watching. Both men are hoping for something essential, immortal, something down there that is pure need, when a construction worker roars across the ice on his snowmobile with a spear, dynamite and fancy dress in hand. The last blizzard of the season is about to begin.

Rylance served as the first artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe in London, from 1996 to 2006. He won Tony Awards for Jerusalem and Boeing-Boeing, and has also appeared on Broadway in La Bête. Rylance won Olivier Awards for Much Ado About Nothing and Jerusalem in London.

In addition to Nice Fish, the Guthrie Theater's 2012-13 season will include productions of current Broadway shows Other Desert Cities (February 9 to March 24) and Clybourne Park (June 1 to August 4).

Click below to hear Rylance's reading of Jenkins’ poem “Walking Through a Wall” from the 2011 Tony Awards.