Darkling: Actors Touring Company’s New National Tour Opens at Bush Theatre

Linnea Berthelsen (centre) with Artistic Director Actors Touring Company Matthew Xia (left) and Writer Titas Halder (right)
Photo credit: Chege Shots

Titas Halder’s story of a life ravaged by ecological disaster, directed by Matthew Xia and starring Linnea Berthelsen in her UK stage debut

Actors Touring Company, the national touring company behind acclaimed work like Tambo & Bones and Small Island, brings a new play to London this September. Darkling, written by Titas Halder and directed by ATC’s Olivier Award-winning Artistic Director Matthew Xia, receives its World Premiere at Bush Theatre, before touring to Birmingham Rep, Oxford and Manchester.

The production marks the UK stage debut of Linnea Berthelsen, best known for her role as Kali in Stranger Things.

The play follows a woman growing up in Bhopal, India, as her city changes around her, building towards the night of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak, still considered the worst industrial disaster in history. Forty tonnes of toxic gas escaped from a pesticide factory in the early hours of 3 December that year, killing thousands and injuring hundreds of thousands more. Decades on, the site’s chemical waste is still contaminating groundwater, and the legal settlement remains a point of ongoing dispute over corporate accountability.

It is exactly the kind of story that deserves space on British stages, and this pairing of companies makes sense of that. ATC’s mission is built around amplifying international voices “often overlooked in British theatre,” while Bush has spent over fifty years doing something similar closer to home, as a stage for underrepresented voices and a driving force in evolving the British theatre canon. As a co-production, Darkling sits squarely at the meeting point of those two missions.

Recent Bush success stories like Red Pitch and Shifters, both of which went on to the West End and internationally, are a reminder that a Bush premiere is often just the start of a play’s journey, and catching Darkling now means seeing it as that journey begins.

HOW TO SAVE ON TICKETS TO DARKLING

Bush Theatre has done away with dynamic pricing, so standard tickets stay fixed between £15 and £45 throughout the run.
Concessions: £5 off tickets over £20 for students, senior citizens, disabled patrons and the unemployed.
Under 30s and Locals: Free membership for anyone under 30, or who lives or works within two miles of the theatre, unlocks further savings.
Previews: Performances from 5 to 14 September, ahead of press night, start from £10.

Tickets are on sale now at www.bushtheatre.co.uk.