A five star premeire

Making its UK premiere in 2018, Annie Baker's hit New York play John follows on from her successful Pulitzer Prize-winning staging of The Flick. An examination into human relationships, Baker's latest work premiered at the Signature Theatre in New York in 2015; John is set in a Gettysburg Bed & Breakfast, and explores the dynamic between the establishment's cheerful owner and two of its guests, a troubled young couple struggling to stay together. Clocking in at over three hours, this epic play allows its characters to develop fully and naturally over time.

The four-hander shows the slow-boiling disintegration of a romantic relationship between Jewish Elias and Asian-American Jenny. Jenny has cheated on Elias in the past, with the mysterious unseen John, and Elias' anger over her infidelity turns to cold loathing, whilst they stay in Gettysburg on route from her parents in Ohio, to Brooklyn. Elias, an obsessive Civil War history buff has demanded that they take a detour to the battlefield; Jenny is less than interested, being a "stereotypical" girl. Throw into the mix the elderly Mertis, the kind and humble proprietor who witnesses their breakdown, determined not to lose her kindness and grace.

Named by the New York Times as "one of the freshest and most talented dramatists to emerge Off Broadway in the past decade", Annie Baker won her Pulitzer for 2013's The Flick, an expertly understated comedic portrait of three philosophising cinema ushers.