Simon Stephens UK premiere at 53two in Manchester

Maria, by acclaimed and multi-award-winning Stockport-born writer Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), will have its English premiere at Manchester city centre venue 53Two (September 2-11).

Set in the north, in a once-thriving port town now surviving on the scraps of yesterday’s industry, the play follows a pregnant 18 year old searching for connection and trust in the digital 21st Century. The show was first seen in Hamburg in 2019 - Stephens is one of the most-performed playwrights in Germany.

He said: “It means a great deal to me that Maria will have a life in Manchester. This will be its first life in English.

"It’s a play about the possibility of salvation and redemption in a post-industrial dockland city. It’s about birth and love and death and about how love can survive the isolation of technology. It’s kind of also about a virgin birth.

"It’s a play that needs the kind of honesty and humanness I have always found in 53two.”

Bringing together one of the North-West's most celebrated writers and an emerging directing talent, in charge of the UK premiere of Maria will be director by Sadie Mears, recently resident assistant director at Manchestere's Royal Exchange, where she worked on Singin’ In The Rain, Even These Things and Road, among others.

More info and tickets here