That Face, Lynn Redgrave's Nightingale Join MTC Season

Manhattan Theatre Club has announced two additions to its 2009-2010 off-Broadway season. Nightingale, written by and starring Lynn Redgrave, and Polly Stenham’s That Face will receive New York premieres at New York City Center Stage I.

Nightingale will begin performances on February 11, 2010, and open on February 24, directed by Joseph Hardy. The play was inspired by Redgrave’s need to discover memories of her grandmother, a woman she barely knew. She creates the events that likely transformed Mildred from an eager, naive girl into an embittered woman and explores Mildred’s troubled relationships with her husband, her children and her life.

That Face will begin performances on April 29, 2010, and open on May 18. Described as a shattering and darkly funny new drama about a family at the breaking point, the play centers on Mia and Henry, who have long been dealing with their mother’s addictions. After a prank goes wrong at Mia’s boarding school, their situation goes from comically bad to utterly ridiculous. When their estranged father arrives to sort things out, they must face the reality that their well-to-do family may have combusted beyond repair.

The play comes to MTC after critically acclaimed sell-out runs at the Royal Court Theatre and in London’s West End. Casting, director and creative team members for the off-Broadway production will be announced at a later date.

Nightingale and That Face join the previously announced New York premiere of Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still at City Center Stage I and a Broadway season at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre that will include a revival of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s The Royal Family and the Broadway premiere of Margulies’ Collected Stories, starring Linda Lavin. One more Broadway production will be announced in the coming weeks to run at the Friedman Theatre.