The House of Shades

★★★★
The Telegraph, Independent, The i, WhatsOnStage, The Stage

The Webster House.
1965. 1979. 1985. 1996. 2019.
Death silences no one, least of all the dead.

Blanche McIntyre (Hymn) directs the world premiere of Beth Steel’s “epic, bold and compassionate” (Financial Times) new play which spans five decades of the lives, and deaths, of the Webster family.

Inside their home, set against the ever-changing industrial landscape of working-class Britain, some chase dreams of a brighter future and others are haunted by the nightmares of the past.

BAFTA and Olivier Award-nominated actor Anne-Marie Duff (His Dark Materials, Sex Education) is “on spectacular form as the family matriarch” (Independent) and gives a “tour de force” (The Guardian) performance.

Beth Steel won Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Both The House of Shades and Wonderland were shortlisted for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

“A riveting watch from an incredibly exciting playwright – an explosive family portrait of secrets, grief, despair and division”
The Stage